December 17, 2006

Sermon on Mary

John Stone, who works with RUF, preached today at church. That man is kind of crazy both in and out of the pulpit. I guess that's why they have him working with college students. But he preached a really interesting sermon. We're kind of used to seeing Mary "blessed among women" as this glowing, peaceful woman without thinking about what it really meant for her to be blessed. Basically we have a young woman who was going to have to try and explain being pregnant and a virgin in a culture where sexual sin could result in stoning. As John pointed out, Mary actually ran away from home to her cousin's house. Incidentally, this cousin was a post-menopausal pregnant woman whose husband couldn't talk. John's whole point with this is that God comes to turn our world upside down. Sometimes being blessed by God means having the stew scared out of you while God puts you through seemingly impossible situations. Why? So that we become poor and humble in spirit. To put it another way -God says that He most loves the poor and the humble. He also loves us. Therefore God keeps pushing us and bringing us to a place of poverty and lowliness. To be blessed by God is to be put in Mary's shoes. All of us want to be blessed; few of us want to really be put in Mary's position.

Over the past few months I've really struggled with the goodness of God. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by it, and other times I doubt God really wants to bless me at all. Today's sermon really helped me think about the ways God blesses us. Even now I can't say that I'm really thrilled abing to have to try and explain being pregnant and a virgin in a culture where sexual sin could result in stoning. As John pointed out, Mary actually ran away from home to her cousin's house. Incidentally, this cousin was a post-menopausal pregnant woman whose husband couldn't talk. John's whole point with this is that God comes to turn our world upside down. Sometimes being blessed by God means having the stew scared out of you while God puts you through seemingly impossible situations. Why? So that we become poor and humble in spirit. To put it anout how God "favors" me. I'd rather God favor me with a beautiful house in a wonderful community. Maybe He will. But I can't that God doesn't favor me when I walk up four flights of stairs to an itty bitty apartment. I know that God is good. I'm starting to believe that He is good to me. Hopefully there's coming a day when I can fully trust and rejoice in God's goodness. I have a feeling I'm going to have to go through some more fist-shaking before I can get there though.

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