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Magnify the Lord LUKE 1:46-55
Magnify the Lord! Magnify the Lord to get ready for Christmas. According to Luke, magnify is what Mary said or sang in what we call the Magnificat, which is what we just heard. Magnificat is from the Latin meaning “an utterance of praise.” To magnify the Lord means to extol and glorify God. Mary, probably 14 years-old, was a nobody, a peasant girl living in a small village. Unmarried and pregnant, Mary was frightened. Her friends and neighbors would see her as a disgrace. She was unsure how her fiancé, Joseph, and her family would react to her news. As if having a baby was not enough for her to handle, the angel had told her that her baby that would be the Savior of the world. Mary was bewildered, confused and frightened. So Mary went for a three-month visit with her cousin Elizabeth who eventually would give birth to John the Baptizer. When Elizabeth saw Mary, she surprised her by exclaiming, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” Mary, overcome with emotion, said or sang the magnificent Magnificat. “My entire being magnifies the Lord!” She praised God for the great things God had done for her. For a moment, Mary forgot her fear of the mystifying pregnancy. For a moment, she glimpsed the transcendent. For a moment, she glimpsed God's majesty, There are moments in life when the curtain between the natural world and the spirit world is drawn back and we even today can glimpse the glory of God. We can see how life is so much more than our day to day existence. For a moment, we can magnify the Lord and we are changed. Have you experienced a moment of glory? Have you glimpsed the majesty of God? Have you had a spiritual, life-changing experience? Morton Kelsey surveyed a group of Roman Catholic lay people and found out that most of them reported having had a mystical, life-changing experience, but most of them had never told anyone about it! Most of them said, "They would have thought I was crazy." Since Kelsey’s survey, many articles verifying personal spiritual experiences have been written. These articles have encouraged sharing and the recognition of authenticity. On Wednesday at the noontime Sermon Scripture Study (and you are invited) spiritual experiences were shared, occasions to magnify the Lord. Carol was overcome when she saw her newborn granddaughter for the first time. The miracle of her daughter giving birth was a moment of glory. While on a walk with friends, Marcia was mulling over a decision she needed to make when suddenly she experienced a moment of clarity. Ellie was age thirteen when her father left and her family suddenly became mother and daughter. Within weeks an unexpected bill for Ellie filled her with dismay, distress and fear. Her mother thoughtfully suggested they pray for a solution that night. Awaking in the morning, Ellie saw her mother standing beside Ellie’s bed with the answer to her prayer. Ellie only remembers the relief and joy she felt by the solution and her eyes being drawn to the adjoining room where in the doorway stood a tall shadowed figure who she instantly recognized as Jesus. She was knew God Is Real! The experience has stayed with Ellie her entire life, together with the assurance that God lives and is guiding her. This was a personal confirmation following the vows made a month earlier when her Confirmation Class was received into church membership. In 1993 we were in the process of moving from Palo Alto to Merced when I participated in a spiritual (not physical) Walk to Emmaus weekend. Friday evening, we were encouraged to ask Jesus two questions. I was apprehensive about the move and going into a crisis where 300 people had walked out on the bishop. I knelt at the kneeling rail and overcome with emotion, wept, and an answer to my first question came to me relieving anxiety about leaving this church, but not the answer to my second question. The next morning I gave a talk. After the talk, one of the lay leaders told me that while I was speaking, she saw an aura of light around me and a voice said, “Tell Doug he will have a successful ministry in Merced”, the answer to my second question! I magnified the Lord and we did have a wonderful time in Merced. After her mother’s funeral in Pittsburgh, Pam, walking in the snow and grieving, sensed a voice saying, “Lo, I am with you always.” She was filled with warmth. Steve was assigned to make a spiritual drawing and was overcome with tears of emotion. Have you had similar experiences? Perhaps you didn’t recognize them. Perhaps you thought you were crazy or hallucinating. Perhaps you were frightened. In my reading of Mark, chapter five, on Friday, I was struck by the reaction of the crowd when Jesus healed the man who was possessed by many demons. The crowd was frightened. They didn’t know what was going on. They even asked Jesus not to come back! Are you apprehensive about the spirit world entering your world? Are you afraid of losing control? Every day is filled with moments of glory, beginning with Communion, if you are open, if you are aware. Prepare for a fabulous Christmas! Magnify the Lord. © 2022 Douglas I. Norris |