Luke 1:39-56 page 2

Contrast these two verses in the Magnificat:

'... he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant'    
(verse 48a)

'He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.'
(verse 51)

On Tuesday I have to conduct the funeral of a jazz fan. His widow wants us to leave the crematorium chapel to the strains of Frank Sinatra singing 'My Way'. I really should have negotiated a different song: it runs counter to the whole Christian faith. It says, look at me, whatever life has thrown at me, I am a proud man and I've kept doing things my way. Take the last words of that song as an example:

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught.
To say the things he truly feels;
And not the words of one who kneels.
The record shows I took the blows - 
And did it my way!
(Paul Anka)

But God does favour the one who kneels. The one who kneels, knowing who and where they are before God. The humble in the Magnificat are those who are afflicted, and who are waiting for God's intervention to bring salvation and justice, just as the Israel of Mary's day was, under the yoke of a foreign oppressor.

Those who are proud stand in opposition to the Gospel, by their very nature. Of course we don't have a problem with pride in the Christian Church, do we? Not much ...

We have pride in our own talents and achievements, like the Methodist Local Preacher I met when visiting a particular church for the first time. When he knew I was a minister he couldn't stop blowing his own trumpet about his own importance.

I've even been to a church called St Andrew's (I won't say where, nor even the denomination) that had a home-grown children's song in its songbook that contained the words, 'Come to St A's, it's the best'.

And I'm sure you could add illustrations, too. This pride is a poison, and the prophetic message of the Magnificat is that God sets his face against the proud, even if they are among his people. In fact he promises to scatter them, to remove them.

Are we humble or proud? Will God come for us or against us?

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Copyright © David D Faulkner, 2006 except where other sources are attributed or noted as inspiration.