It is so very difficult to believe that God really loves you when wealth and health and happiness and privilege and success do not come to you as you hope. These are how we see things. This is the lens of this world. To be great means to have all of these – wealth, health, happiness, privilege, and success. What else is there? What other kind of love is there than the love which seeks to give us what we want, what we feel we deserve, and what we think is only fair and right?
When Blessed Mary speaks of the greatness of the Lord, she is speaking of another greatness, love. This one is not for accolades and honors but for service and sacrifice – the promise long ago given and now fulfilled. The greatness of the Lord is not something recognizable by earthly standards but that which is manifest in the humiliation of the God who takes on the humble flesh of you and me and of the exaltation not of Him but of those for whom He has come. It is this greatness seen and acknowledged by faith. Mary sings from faith the greatness of the Lord to which she invites us to faith so that we may magnify the Lord with her.
We know the greatness of the Lord in the same way we know the greatness of our parents. They provide for us food and shelter, forgive us, guide us, and sacrifice of their own well-being for us – not in the dollar value of it all. The greatness of the Lord is in the care that His love provides for you and me. He washes us clean in baptismal water, guides us through the voice of His Word, absolves and restores us when we lose our way or fall to temptation, and feeds and nourishes us upon the only food that can give eternal life. This is the greatness of which blessed Mary sings and to which she invites us to join in her song.
I will admit that we Christians are rather idealistic. We have great expectations of God and of ourselves, of the Church and of her pastors, of our family and our friends and of life in general. Because we are idealistic, we are also prone to a certain sadness amid all the disappointments around us. As we encounter and appreciate even more the greatness of the Lord, our dissatisfaction with the world and ourselves can easily make us depressed and resentful. As we grow increasingly aware of our own faults and failings, it is easy to become sad and to despair over our sins which seem not to decrease but only increase.
The great temptation is to give up this idealism and to become pragmatic people. We do what works. We trust what we can control. We seek what feels good.
It is the same for pastors. We would rather have a full church than a holy one, a well-endowed congregation over one with needs, and a well respected parish over one that is faithful. These shortcuts to our dreams of greatness are the temptation of everyone. So we want lives that work, prayers that are answered as we want them, dreams that are fulfilled, and hearts that are happy. If we get these, the means does not matter to us. Because we get these, we can presume God is great, the Church is great, and faith is great.
Blessed Mary was poor, of low estate. Not all those in the line of David were rich or powerful. Most were nobodies. The Roman Caesar was wealthy. So was Herod. The enemies of Jesus had 30 pieces of silver to purchase a rat. But blessed Mary and Joseph had no room in Bethlehem waiting for them and no one celebrated the birth of Jesus but a few shepherds and an angel host. Blessed Mary had been shuffled off to visit her cousin Elizabeth because her pregnancy would cause talk. Still, she sings of the greatness of the Lord and invites us to magnify the Lord with her.
The greatness of the Lord will never be marked by property or power. We are in but not of the world. The greatness of the Lord is manifest in the kingdom that lives in YOU by baptism and faith. It is come not by a mighty army in battle but a Savior who is priest and offering for a people who deserve nothing. The greatness of the Lord does not live out there somewhere. It lives in YOU. You are the least who have become greatest of all those born of woman, the lost who have been found, the helpless who have received mercy, and the people living in the shadow of death who have been raised to eternal life. This is the greatness of the Lord and it is a greatness imparted to you as gift and blessing.
This is the God who welcomes you. He accepts you as you are, owns your sins as His, covers you with His righteousness, and raises you from death to life eternal. This is His greatness. He has become Your Savior. Even blessed Mary owns the Lord who from her womb is acknowledged as her redeemer too. But the fruits of this blessedness will not result in wealth and health and happiness and privilege and success wealth and health and happiness and privilege and success to make the world awe and envious. Instead they are known as blessed Mary knew the Word of the Lord – by faith. The greatness of the Lord is known by faith and lived by faith until the promise is fulfilled. This is greater than all the greatness that passes away and turns the mighty into the forgotten and treasures into rust heaps.
The greatness of the Lord you know by baptism when your new and everlasting life began in you. When that font became your womb, you were written into the Book of Life and destined for a future unimaginable here. It is kept in you by faith – faith nurtured by the Word of God and the Spirit working through that Word, rescued from sin and temptation by the power of forgiveness, guided by the voice of the Good Shepherd leading you, His sheep, and fed upon the rich food of His flesh for the life of the world and His blood that cleanses you from all sin.
Blessed Mary was not comforted by her genealogy or her comfortable life. She was comforted by the promise of God. That is your comfort as well. Greatness is not the wealth to insulate you from need but the riches that will not fade that come from God’s hand. Greatness is not health that preserves the body only to surrender it to death but Him who raises you to eternal life. Greatness is not in the fleeting whims of happiness but a heart filled with love and manifest in forgiveness. Greatness is not in privilege of earthly note but in names written in the book of life. Greatness is not in successes eclipsed by others but in the one all sufficient sacrifice that sets you forever free.
So join her song today and everyday – not because you have all that you want in this life but because you have eternal life. Join her song today and everyday – not because this life is good but because no matter how good it can be, the life Jesus gives is better. Join her song today and everyday – not because you deserve today or eternity but because His mercy continually raises up those of low degree and sets them as high as God’s own presence. Join her song today because here is the rescue of the sinner, the washing of regeneration, the voice of absolution, and the table that feeds us the food of heaven. This is the only greatness that cannot and will not disappoint you. Because of this, order your lives by this Word and direct your hearts to this purpose – living as His children now. Amen
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