Sent away to live with an out-of-town family. In history, that seems to be the par-for-the-course go-to route for unwed mothers. That is what happened to Jesus’ mother, Mary. In Mary’s time, she could have easily been stoned to death for her perceived transgression. By the book she was in quite a predicament, but as it turns out Joseph listens to God and comes through for her. Given her predicament of the time, Mary still proclaims the words that we know as the Magnificat. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name; indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. This isn’t our text for today, but when I had a quiet moment after discussing the lessons with my pastor friends, I re-read the lessons. That’s what made me think of Mary and the magnificat. I read the lessons finishing with the Gospel and my first internal thought was, “Wow, like mother like son.” There is something very familiar, at least to me, between the beatitudes and the magnificat. To look at them both from a strictly worldly, human perspective we see some pretty bizarre reaching and a fundamental misunderstanding about how things “really” work. Mary, you’re pregnant. Take a look around you. You aren’t reading the room. This is bad news and it could cost you your life. If God got you into this, that’s not cool. God owes you a thunder clap and a booming voice from heaven telling everyone that you are the chosen one and that this is part of the plan. The rich get sent away empty? You need to enroll in an economics class. I don’t think you are getting the meaning of the word blessed. Mary’s son comes along and he’s not just hanging out with his cousin, he’s teaching this upside down stuff to crowds. This is nuts! Blessed: definition: consecrated; sacred; holy; sanctified: divinely or supremely favored; fortunate. In agreement with the view point down through the ages, back all the way deep into the old testament, don’t we tend to see a blessing as when things really go right for us? I won the lottery! Hashtag, So blessed. I’ve been blessed with a great job that has afforded me a great living. We won the championship! We were blessed, our defense really stepped up and we got some early points on the board. We were blessed with a great harvest this year. Carrying through the ages to the modern era we have the impression, the understanding that when things are going right that its clear cut evidence that God favors us. So, don’t we tend to also think that when things go badly that God is upset with us? If you’ve had those inklings, you are not the only one. Actually, that’s the subject matter of the whole book of Job. It hits the fan in Job’s life and his friends show up and tell him that he just needs to get right with God, that he’s sinned or done or is doing something to upset God. He needs to repent and make amends to get it to stop. Spoiler alert, one of the first things we are told in the story is that Job is a righteous guy. God’s proud of him. Bad stuff just happens. We, that is human beings, have conflated prosperity with blessedness and have made it a commodity. Something we earn and deserve. Thinking about it, all the way back to the dawn of humankind. Cain and Abel and who had the best sacrifice. Despite God’s mercy, despite God continually acting through the most unlikely of folks and situations we have perpetuated a narrative, an understanding, a belief, a faith based on the paradigm of our works, our deeds equaling God’s favor and willingness to give us great earth stuff. I don’t think we, and by we, once again I mean humanity, hear this enough, at least enough to change our perception and focus. If we want the truth, let’s go back to Micah. What is it that God wants from me? Should I bring burnt offerings of calves that I’ve cared for for a short time, or maybe even better; would God prefer thousands of rams that I’ve I’ve hunted for or maybe tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Is God expecting me to give my firstborn to make up for what I have done wrong? Micah answers, God’s tried to tell you what it is and what God wants from you. Here it is again, do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. I think our first reaction is wow, that’s it, there’s got to be more. At least that’s the way we have acted for thousands of years. But really, if it’s so easy, why hasn’t it been done. We spend a lot of time, effort and energy trying to amass the metaphorical rams and rivers of oil that we never seem to have anything left in the tank for those pursuits. That’s the “I can’t do it on my own” humility we see from Mary. We see the assurance from Jesus that God cares about and loves those who can’t even muster the calf or less because they are lost in poverty, grief or suffering. We yearn for the control and the ability to say what’s what, think because deep down we are thinking about what it takes for us to be satiated, satisfied or willing to forgive when someone has done us wrong or damaged the relationship. Then we tack on some extra extravagant punitive repayment because, well it’s God, and fixing things with God has to be more difficult because, well, it’s God. God’s love and grace and pleas for us to be loving and graceful never seemed to catch on for thousands of years so Jesus God’s example, God’s humility in Jesus’ interactions, compassion, healing, love, mercy and forgiveness even to, up to and through suffering and death on the cross that our not so just, not so kind, and not so humble hearts nailed him to. Paul further makes Micah’s point when he wrote, “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”. It sort of follows for us that when it comes down to it, our biggest problem is that deep down we don’t feel that God is any more capable of mercy and forgiveness than we are. God. God can be forgiving probably as much as us, but we act like the jury’s still out on that because God’s more powerful, therefore, by our logic, the penalties have to be steeper. Deep down we struggle with the cross. We struggle with making sense of it all. Here’s the real kicker. That struggle is forgiven. God is so merciful that its written into the plan. Martin Luther wrote in his small catechism, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with it’s gifts, and sanctified and kept me in the true faith.” We are God’s children and God’s love for us comes first and is unconditional and that sanctified word in there? Sanctified is a synonym for the word blessed. So things put right, we are justified or made right, we are sanctified, blessed or made holy all as a free gift, by God’s grace. Paul also wrote, “Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Bad news for our human logic, it’s out of our hands. The Good news though, the amazing news is that God is infinitely more forgiving and loving than we are. Can we lean into humility? Can we stop exhausting ourselves in an imaginary competition against one another for God’s love? We’ve received a wonderful gift. Can we endeavor to live in thankfulness and be propelled by it to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly and not envision competition but compassion, lifting others up not climbing over, the cross not personal glory, humility not pride, feeding, comforting, making peace, forgiving, doing justice, and serving our neighbor so that they might witness Jesus, the one who defies logic so that we might have life and have it to overflowing through us. That’s the challenge. That’s the mission with which Jesus entrusted us. Can we do it? Through Christ, of course we can…and will. Amen
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