blessed (mary's life) pt. 1

 We’ve just entered the season of Advent and I’d like to use these weekly reflections across the month of December to consider what the Gospels teach about Mary, the mother of Jesus. What can we learn from this godly woman about living a Christian life?

We meet Mary at a deeply special time in her life, engaged to be married. Can you imagine her excitement? But if there was a buzz around all of that, imagine what an encounter with an angel generated? 

Here is how Luke records Mary’s experience Before An Angel (Luke 1:26-38)

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to 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.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born[e] will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her." 

There are two words which open up Mary’s experience…

➡️ Surprise (Luke 1:26-33)

It’s easy to see why Mary was troubled by Gabriel’s greeting. “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you”. 

I can imagine Mary asking, “Why would an angel come to greet me? In what way am I “highly favoured” (“greatly graced”) by God? How is God with me?”

However, when we reflect on Mary’s response to this angelic visit we see how it reveals her humility and her honesty before God. She never expected to see an angel and receive special favours from heaven. 

There is a massive contrast between the attitude of Mary in this moment and the prevailing culture of this generation. We live in an age of entitlement.

This is the generation which says:

• I deserve…
• I’m entitled…
• Pay my bills…
• Take care of me…
• Don’t offend me…
• It’s really all about me!

If our generation encountered the angel, we say something like, “What took you so long?!”

But here is a teenager who displays a deep sense of humility and honesty. She’s disturbed by the experience and wonders what it all means. 

Gabriel then gave her the good news: she would become the mother of the promised Messiah whom she would name Jesus.

From Mary’s Surprise we turn to her:

➡️ Surrender (Luke 1:34-38)

Mary knew what would happen, but she didn’t know how it would happen. Her question in verse 34 was not an evidence of unbelief (verse 18); rather, it was an expression of faith. She believed the promise, but she didn’t understand the performance. As the Message captures it: “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.” 

There is a world of difference between someone who says, ‘I don’t believe this’ and the person who says, ‘I don’t understand this.’

If you’re struggling with some aspects of the Christian faith, then you are in the very best company!

Rend Collective have a great line in the song, My Lighthouse - “In the questions, your truth will hold”. The Christian faith has stood up to 2000 years of rigorous scrutiny. And its truth holds.

Mary comes to the angel with her question and the response it generated is remarkable. There is a deeper, fuller and richer understanding of the God’s ways and of God’s Son. 

First, Gabriel explains that this would be a miracle, the work of the Holy Spirit. 

Then the angel gave Mary a word of encouragement: her older relative Elizabeth was also expecting a child, proving that “nothing is impossible with God”.

Mary’s believing response was to surrender herself to God as his willing servant. She experienced the grace of God (verse 30), believed the word of God and therefore was used by the Spirit of God to accomplish the will of God. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said”. 

She belonged to the Lord body (Luke 1:38), soul (v.46) and spirit (v.47).

What an example for us to follow.

Mary teaches us through her surprise at the angel’s announcement and her surrender to God’s Word that this brings blessing from God.

Paul urges us to give ourselves to God as “living sacrifices, holy – the kind he can accept. When you think of how much he has done for you, is this too much to ask?” (Romans 12:1-2)

This Week…

Read the Bible passage again.

Reflect on what it says, means and how it applies to you.

Respond - What does Mary teach us about how we should respond to God’s call on our lives?

Song Choice - Tell Out, My Soul - Keswick, Lewis Green https://open.spotify.com/track/5dSOkhcG53BBFC3FZ2ZjZ8?si=tpZlpZzGRBGwafgJ7vD_nA

(Picture - Ben Arthur aka 'the Cobbler')

there is rhyme and reason to it!

 The beautiful late autumn mornings that we’ve had of late coupled with time spent reading the early chapters of Genesis have caused me to reflect on the majesty and mystery of the world that you and I live in.  There is to my mind three key truths in Genesis chapter 1 that enrich the lives of all who embrace them. 

It starts with…

➡️ Rhyme - “creation sings the Father’s song…” (lyric from a Keith and Kirstyn Getty song)
One of the most striking features of Genesis 1 is its pattern. The story is structured around the theme of one week of six days leading to a seventh. A regular refrain moves the story along: “there was evening and there was morning.” 

Although it’s written as prose, there is clearly a poetic dimension to the account of creation. It’s a poem of beauty and grandeur and it acts as a song of praise to the majesty of God the Creator. Genesis sings the praise of the majestic Creator of everything. 

There’s a wonderful section in “The Magician’s Nephew” (the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis) where Digory and Polly along with a London Cab driver find themselves in the land of Narnia. In that moment they are taken back to the creation of Narnia. Lewis imagines…

“In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing...It was, beyond comparison, the most beautiful they had ever heard. It was so beautiful they could hardly bear it...Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it...The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was ablaze with stars...Finally Aslan’s voices cries out, ‘Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak.’”

I love what C.S. Lewis does at this point in his story. When the cab driver hears the song of creation and when he sees the world unfolding out of that song he says,

“I’d have been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.” 

Hearing the song of creation and witnessing its effect profoundly changed that Londoner. 

Creation sings the Father's song; 

He calls the sun to wake the dawn 

And run the course of day 

'till evening falls in crimson rays.
His fingerprints in flakes of snow, 

His breath upon this spinning globe, 

He charts the eagle's flight; 

commands the newborn baby's cry. 

Hallelujah! Let all creation stand and sing, 

"Hallelujah!" Fill the earth with songs of worship; 

Tell the wonders of creation's King. 

If your ears are deaf to the beautiful song of creation then ask the Lord to remove that dulness so that its beauty floods your soul. 

Rhyme moves on to...

➡️ Reverence - creation speaks about the majesty and mystery of God
The poem of beauty and grandeur which forms the opening chapter of our Bibles is a hymn of praise to the majesty of God the Creator. 

Through its structured harmonies our minds and hearts are lifted to contemplate God as the source and sustainer of all that is. This chapter invites us to bow in humility before his creative Word. 

Genesis 1 also preserves and points us to the mysteries of creation. There is much about the world we live in which we don’t and can’t understand. And the writer doesn’t attempt to explain creation. There’s another time and place for those questions. However, with reverence he wants us to be caught up into its wonder. 

In the opening chapter of the Bible we are brought in touch with a faith which holds on to us when the world around us is mysterious and uncertain. In a sense, faith is what God gives us to hold us in our uncertainties. 

If your heart is cold to these realities then let the deep faith of this Genesis author lift your heart and mind again to the majesty and mystery of God. 

And rhyme and reverence conclude with..
➡️ Rhythm - creation celebrates work and rest
The beginning of Genesis 2 brings us to the final stanza in the song of creation. “And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.”
What is God’s rest? It is his delight in creation. It is God looking with joy on his world and saying, ‘This is very good’. 

Genesis chapters 1 and 2 emphasis that we are made in the image of God; called to reflect this rhythm of work and rest. Do you truly recognise this high calling on your life? The Creator calls you and I to live in such a way that reflects his character. 

If you struggle with questions of identity or worth, then know that you are made in the image of God. This is where the source of human dignity comes from. Life is God’s gift.

There is much more in creation’s song to contemplate, not least our responsibility to care for this planet. But perhaps reflection on these truths will be enough to focus our minds this week. And as we do, maybe C.S. Lewis’s cab driver will inspire us, “I’d have been a better man all my life if I’d known there were things like this.”

(picture - Greenbank Gardens, Clarkston, Glasgow)

the journey (arrival, step fifteen)

“the journey” has come to an end! 

Those who first sang the “Songs of Ascents” had been travelling, literally, the roads that led to Jerusalem. Now they had arrived and were at the temple to worship God in festival celebration. Some would have been on the road for days, some for weeks, in some instances perhaps for months. Now they were at the end of the road.

As we look back on our reflections over the previous months it's helpful to recognise that we have come a very long way from the first step we took on “the journey” of pilgrimage back in Psalm 120. Our first song was one in which we found ourselves at a crossroads. What was required of us was a radical “about turn.”

The Songs of Ascents, which started in the alien surroundings of Meshech and Kedar (Psalm 120), end fittingly on the note of serving God within his temple in Psalm 134.

The way of discipleship that began in an act of repentance concludes in a life of praise.

Each of the psalms that we have reflected on has described a part of what takes place along this pilgrim way among people who have turned to God and follow him in Christ.

For centuries Psalm 134 was sung on the road as throngs of people made the ascent to Jerusalem for festival worship. We have a sense of everyone sharing… 

a common purpose, 

   traveling a common path, 

      striving toward a common goal, 

         that path and purpose and goal being God.

And so the pilgrims sang:

“Come, bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the house of the Lord! 

Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord! 

May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!”

(Psalm 134:1-3)

When I pondered this psalm I sensed a greeting and response in its lines: the pilgrims addressing the priests and Levites in verses one and two, and receiving in reply the blessing of verse three.

Two thoughts came to my mind. Firstly,

➡️ The aspirations in the heart of God’s people for their leaders (verses 1-2)

In verses one and two the pilgrims speak to the servants of the Lord.

The pilgrims recognise the responsibilities that the priests and Levites carry in leading the worship of the temple. They are clearly one in spirit with them, encouraging them to keep going in their task and urging them in a Godward direction. 

In our day we do well to pray for those who are over us in the Lord (our ministers and elders) that they would remain faithful to him and that through their words and actions they would bless and honour the Lord.

And secondly,

➡️ The aspirations in the heart of leaders for the people of God (verse 3)

In verse three the servants of the Lord address the pilgrims. What they say reveals something of their desires for the God’s people as they will soon head back to their communities following the festivals in Jerusalem.   “May the Lord bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!”

The Priests and Levites are acknowledging that the Lord alone is the generous giver. Though they pronounced the blessing, they could not grant it. This blessing echoes the priestly blessing of Numbers 6…

“The Lord bless you
    and keep you;

the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;

the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.”

Paul informs us in Ephesians 1 that we have been wonderfully blessed in Christ. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” It would be impossible to count all the spiritual blessings which he has given us. However, they most definitely include:

Pardon (Luke 7:48)

Peace (John 14:27)

Love (John 15:9)

Eternal life (1 John 5:12)

John Calvin once said that “the blessing of God is the goodness of God in action, by which a supply of all good pours down to us from his favour…” The longings of the servants of God in Psalm 134 are centred on their desire that God’s people live in the orbit of God’s blessing.

I said at the start that the journey has come to an end for the pilgrims. However, in many ways it had only just started. As the pilgrims return to their homes and communities a new sense of expectation would accompany them about what the Lord could do through them to bless his people. And a fresh sense of motivation would fill them about all that it means to live a life that pleases the Lord.  They, and we, have all we need in Christ to “stay the course.”

(picture - All Saints Church, St Andrews)

Song Choice - 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)

"the journey" playlist - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1r5rMcrNlmUMQqHyIBfCmg?si=YtwsF-OuT9-160jOeH26gQ&pi=iHT32HMRSleMD