My Soul Magnifies The Lord

My Soul Magnifies the Lord, Luke 1:46-56

Eric A. Snyder, Minister Farwell Church of Christ

December 16, 2001

The lion was proud of his mastery of the animal kingdom. One day he decided to make sure all the other animals knew he was the king of the jungle. He was so confident that he by-passed the smaller animals and went straight to the bear. "Who is the king of the jungle?" the lion asked. The bear replied, "Why you are, of course" The lion gave a mighty roar of approval. Next he asked the tiger, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The tiger quickly responded, "Everyone knows that you are, mighty lion " Next on the list was the elephant. The lion faced the elephant and addressed his question, "Who is the king of the jungle?" The elephant immediately grabbed the lion with his trunk, whirled him around in the air five or six times and slammed him into a tree. Then he pounded him onto the ground several times, dunked him under water in a nearby lake, and finally dumped him out on the shore. The lion--beaten, bruised, and battered--struggled to his feet. He looked at the elephant through sad and bloody eyes and said, "Look, just because you don’t know the answer is no reason for to get mean about it!"

A young woman asked for an appointment with her pastor to talk with him about a besetting sin about which she was worried. When she saw him, she said, "Pastor, I have become aware of a sin in my life which I cannot control. Every time I am at church I begin to look around at the other women, and I realize that I am the prettiest one in the whole congregation. None of the others can compare with my beauty. What can I do about this sin?"

The pastor replied, "Mary, that’s not a sin, why that’s just a mistake!"

Former heavyweight boxer James Tillis was from Oklahoma and fought out of Chicago in the early 1980’s. On his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. He got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under his arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. he put his suitcases down looked up at the Tower and I said, ’I’m going to conquer Chicago.’" "When he looked down, the suitcases were gone.

Out of Humble beginnings

Mary was so overwhelmed to be a part of God’s plan that she had not choice but to worship him. I imaging that people didn’t believe her when she said that she was pregnant and hadn’t been with anyone else.

She took what could have been a very frustrating experience and glorified God for what he was doing in her life.

What do we know about Mary at this point? She was pregnant, and not married. We know she was a woman of high faith, We know that Joseph had planned to not marry her after this event until an angle told him that he should. If you think our society is harsh on unmarried mothers you should have seen this society. It the future husband desired to do so he could have had the woman killed. So what do you think life was like for Mary? Everyday walking around dealing with the stares of the people, Some people that she had considered friends would no longer speak to her. She would hear whispers behind her back. What do you think they said about Mary? “Her child is illegitimate.” The Bible does not tell us that Mary’s life was hard but given her society we can gather that, In fact I think it got so bad for Mary that she hid for a while the Bible tells us that she went to stay with her cousin, Elizabeth. Now possibly she enjoyed her company But I’ll bet that Mary needed to get out of town, Away from the cold stares of the heartless bigots. She needed a break from the condemnation of fellow sinners.

All of this suggests to me that Mary was humble but strong, and somewhere in all of this she falls in Love with God all over again, She is honored to be a part of His design.

In Luke 1:46-56 This is what Mary says

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."