Special Mother's Day

It is always a bittersweet time of year for me as we celabrate Mother’s day. It’s been 22 years since my Mom passed away. She was someone who provided a secure home with love dispite the hardships that she experienced her entire life. My grandmother and my mother were abondaned when my mother was about 7 years old, and lived part of the time of the streets of Boston in the mid-nineteen twenties. Forced to quit high school to go to work in the factory, my mom was to have over 20 jobs in her lifetime. My Dad married her on Christmas day, 1946. My mom was in and out of the tuburculousis sanatarium over the next several years. My father wrote here love letters every day and sometimes twice a day during this time. Even after I was born she still had to spend a couple of years at the sanatarioum, while I was taken care of by a loving aunt. My Mom had sole responsibility for 2 boys, aged 11 and 17 when my father passed away. I was never aware even as I became an adult that any of these hardships had an effect on my mother’s attitude or actions. She always seemed truly grateful for her blessings no matter what they were. At the same time I think of the blessing of God in my life through my wife who has cared for and loved my four children through the grace of God’s Holy Spirit working in her life. My oldest age 29 is about to give birth to our first grandchild next month. Well I could go on and on about my Mom and my daughter, but I would at least like to spend some of this week looking at Luke 1:39 -45. It’s interesting that the story we are looking at in Luke revolves around a Mary who is newly expectant and Elizabeth who is about as far along as my daughter.

Luke 1:39 Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, 40 and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. 41 And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! 43 But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. 45 Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”

Our story picks up after Mary had received word from the Angel Gabriel that she would have a son and name Him Jesus and that he would be the Son of God. At the same time the angel informed her of Elizabeth also expecting a son who would become John the Baptist. If you received this incredible news you would be anxious to share it especially with someone who would understand and believe you. So Mary doesn’t just casually go and visit Elizabeth, she went “with haste”.

So what happens after Mary enters the home and greets Elizabeth? It says that the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb. Was the baby turning, did Elizabeth have gas or was the baby kicking. The interpretation is not left to chance or human explanation. Instead we see that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. That means the words she is about to speak come right from God.

Elizabeth repeats what the angel told Mary “Blessed are you amoung women”. And then she adds “Blessed is the fruit of your womb”. These are things that Elizabeth did not know about. At the same time that the baby leapt in her womb she knew it was joy, and that Mary was expecting a baby that would not become Elizabeth’s Lord, but already was her Lord.
Without prompting by Mary, Elizabeth gives her the words she wants to hear for encouragement “Blessed is she who believed for there will be fulfillment of those things which were told to her”.

I think sometimes we don’t realize that folks in the Bible had the same needs as us. They needed fellowship for encouragement to understand the promises and blessings that God has given to them. Look at this passage and see the special blessing God has granted to both Elizabeth and Mary by allowing them to share together this experience.
Next week we are going to be looking at Mary’s song of praise in response to the words of encouragement from Elizabeth. In the mean time, let me take this opportunity to remind you to love and encourage the Mother’s in your life, by reminding them of the blessings that God has given to them.

How Can this Be?

I set expectations that my blog would be updated on a Friday evening, so I was not sure if some folks might be checking it first thing Saturday morning. If you did check for a new posting yesterday, then I apologize for not being ready. I was invited to a chartered trip to Boston to see the Red Sox game on Friday, it was rain delayed and since it was a bus charter we could not leave till the game was over. I got back to my house at 4:00 AM Saturday.

After looking over last weeks blog with the Bible passages and all I went way over my planned one page blog limit so I will keep it brief and refer to the same passage as last week. It is my prayer and hope that last week my comments about Mary did not offend anyone. My desire is for you to know the truth from God’s word, and that it will truly set you free.

We are looking at Luke 1:26-38, where we read the story of Gabriel letting Mary know that she would be the mother of Jesus the Son of the Highest. First of all let me be clear this is a story of God’s grace and compassion by fulfilling His promises to us. The announcement from Gabriel is about Jesus “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end”.

But this passage has a lot of human drama. Just like we read several weeks ago, when Gabriel announced the birth of John the Baptist by telling Zacharias do not be afraid in the same way he also tells Mary to not be afraid. Then he gives her the good news. Now this is where it gets interesting, Mary responds “How can this be, when I do not know a man?” It would appear that Mary is not expressing doubt about the miracle as was Zacharias as the announcement about John, but she must be wondering about the nature of the miracle. What is she supposed to do, how is this going to happen? Gabriel is not dismayed at her question and again I would imagine he was expecting it, since he had the explanation all ready. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God”. Wow this is an incredible declaration, God will be the father by the power of the Holy Spirit, the full trinity will be involved in the conception of Jesus the Son of God.

Finally Mary proclaims , “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” If God has promised blessings in your life, isn’t this a great example about how we should respond. I am ready God to be your servant, I am ready to live and trust in your Word.

So leaving all tradition aside, what have we learned from this passage?

She is blessed and favored by God

• She will be the mother of Jesus the Son of God
• She was a virgin when Jesus was conceived
• She views herself as a maid servant.

Blessed Are You Among Women

The past week my wife and I saw a movie called “Whale Rider” about a young girl named Pai, that despite tradition becomes the leader of her tribe. The movie takes place in New Zealand during contemporary times where the Maori people are losing there native traditions and people are moving away including her father. I was impressed with the genuineness of the acting, especially the debut of thegirl played by Keisha Castle-Huges. She received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, making her -- at 13 years old -- the youngest actress ever to be nominated in this category.

So has does this tie in with this weeks topic for my blog?? I believe the innocence and goodness portrayed by Keisha in the Whale Rider led to her being chosen to play the part of Mary in “The Nativity Story”, a highly recommended portrayal of the events we are going to look at next in our passage of Luke.

Before we look at this passage in detail I think it’s important or clarify my approach to doctrine and scripture. This is especially critical at this point due to the many views on who Mary is and what she means to us. There are many ways that we create truth about spiritual matters that are based on our human values. They are tradition, experience, rationale and dictate.

We can assign truth to traditions that have been practiced for a long time. If over time many people believed something and practiced it, it must be true. As an example the Catholic Church has a long tradition of worshiping Mary and assigning her special spiritual position above others. This tradition includes Mary ascending to heaven and not experiencing physical death like the rest of us.

We might find some that experience a special change in their lives because they saw an image of Mary in a rock formation, tree bark or visiting a cave somewhere. This experience shared with others leads again to creating a special emphasis on Mary as a person to be worshiped and prayed to. This is truth derived from experience.

Mainstream Christianity puts an emphasis on logic and rationale approaches to thinking. The emphasis here is on my human wisdom. What seems right to us? The tendency here is to explain away the miraculous and extraordinary. This group would tend to portray Mary as just a person. Though she might be the mother of Jesus she does deserve any special recognition to the point of not even acknowledging her in the teaching of the church.

There exist many groups who receive their understanding of truth through dictate. These groups are led by strong and charismatic leaders who dictate how their followers are to believe. They may use scripture, but will twist its meaning to their own advantage. Due to the diversity of the leaders in this category there isn’t a singular view of who Mary is. There are some that do not recognize Mary at all, and some that would point to a contemporary female leader in the group as the true mother of God.

I now come to what I hope is the way best way to know the truth about spiritual matters. In this blog we recognize that God is the source of truth and He communicates that truth to us through His Word (The Bible). My prayer and hope is that we can remain faithful to this approach as we explore these passages of scripture and that your lives may be enriched from growing closer to God.

Ps 1:1 Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

So I am going to ask you to put aside preconceived ideas about Mary and to open your eyes to what God will teach us as we meditate (think about) this passage from Luke 1:26- 38

Luke 1:26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”^[c]
29 But when she saw him,^[d] she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Gabriel who we met earlier is now on another mission from God to deliver a message. The message is to a virgin named Mary. There isn’t any dispute about the meaning of the word virgin here. Since not only is it mentioned several times in the passage, but has direct bearing on Mary question “how can this be, since I do not know a man?”.

Now the key to understanding Mary is how the angel addresses her. First Mary is to rejoice, because she is highly favored, the Lord is with her and she is blessed among women. Mary is receiving undeserved blessing and favor from God. He has chosen her and His choosing has made her blessed among women. This is noteworthy not as a commentary on who Mary is, but on who God is and who he bestows his blessings on.

Mt 5:3- 10 3 “ Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Well my plan was to keep this blog brief and to the point so I guess I will have to pick up this discussion next week. In the mean time if you are able to get a hold of the movie “The Nativity Story” that would help in visualizing the events we are looking at in the first couple of chapter of Luke. Please feel free to submit comments and questions, since my hope is to have a dialog that is beneficial to all our understanding of who God is and what he means to us.