Luke 1:38

Luke 1:38

The Call of God.

It was the answer of profound and humble obedience to the greatest call ever addressed from heaven to a mortal creature. The call, sudden, undreamt of, overwhelming, interrupting in the most startling manner the daily course of an obscure human life, breaking in on its privacy, and laying on it the most awful of charges, was a call to prepare for being the instrument of the final and complete accomplishment of God's highest words and most amazing work. It is idle, it is profane, to attempt to imagine the mind and soul of a human being like ourselves at such a moment. In its sudden translation and lifting up out of all the ordinary conditions of human life, in the tides of honour and rapture, of crushing shame and consciousness of the Divine election, of possible sacrifice and certain triumph, it could be like nothing that man has ever gone through. But whatever passed through the mind of that blessed one while the angel's words were setting before her the lot to which she had been appointed, and the place she was to fill in the eternal history, her instant expression of character was that of absolute self-surrender to all that she was called to of perfect readiness for all that might be required of her. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

I. One great part of the history of the Bible is the history of calls, widely different indeed in their circumstances, but alike in this, that they were a claim from Almighty God on the will of man for a free and unconditional service. It is the history, too, of the way in which this claim was met; and it was met variously variously in the perfectness of the response made to it; variously in the struggle and discipline through which God's call at last asserted its supremacy. The calls of God are very various in their circumstances, and they are met in various ways. But wherever they meet us, and in whatever form, there is but one way of meeting them which carries with it blessing and hope, the way of humble and honest acceptance, of unfeigned self-dedication, of modest and yet resolute determination, of which the highest and purest expression is the answer to the most wonderful call ever made to man. "Be it unto me according to thy word."

II. What is involved in that answer? It is no mere passive resignation and yielding to the Divine call. It is not merely shutting our eyes and saying, "Let what He wills come upon me." It is more than that. The call comes to living souls, to human consciences, to human wills, to human purpose. It asks for more than acquiescence and submission. It asks for conscious, deliberate union with the Divine will. It asks that we should associate and identify our own real wishes and desires with what we know of our Master's; and that we should work in His cause, as all men work for a cause they have at heart. It is the response of the obedient and ready will.It is the response of the soul which is its own master, feeling itself summoned to fulfil the end of its being to be that link in the chain of God's designs, for which it was created, and for which life and spirit and reason were given it. It is the taking upon us the charge which it has pleased God to assign us, with its conditions, its responsibilities, its ventures. It is the offering up of what we are, to do our best for our Master.

R. W. Church, Human Life and Its Conditions,p. 172.

The Humility of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Humility is not a mere depression of a proud and strong will, not a mere acquiescence in the stronger will of an almighty Lord, but when carried out to perfection it is an absence of all self-will in the presence of God, a clear, colourless transparency of soul, through which the light of God's will has liberty to shine and extinguish every other radiance. You know how slight a thing will tinge the ray of sunlight, and give it a tone of colour not its own. A single vine-leaf in the sun will let the ray pass freely through, but gives it in its passage that lovely colour of golden green. On the other hand, the clear atmosphere of a sky recently drained by heavy showers lets the pure sunlight live in it alone. Then you are sensible of mere light, void of all colour; it is light in air. Of such a quality was the humility of the Virgin Mary, pure air for the light of God to live in.

I. No notice, it appears, was given to the Blessed Virgin before the announcement of the angel. And when he announced the birth of Christ and the supernatural manner of it, she answered in these simple holy words, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." She was secure in the deep composure and humility of her heart. The angel folded his golden wings before her, and the radiance of his presence filled the corners of the narrow room; but she, as if she were used to angels' visits, received him gently, admitting freely through her ears and heart the gracious message of her Lord.

II. The next event mentioned is her visit to Elisabeth. In her hymn, the Magnificat,we observe that the two first verses only speak of herself, and then as pouring out her praise to God, while the rest without exception declare the mighty works of God, a mightiness shown in His mercy towards them that humble themselves.

III. After this event there follow others, where glory and pain interchange with one another; and all of these, with scarcely an exception, are trying to her temper of humility. But the blessed mother took all that came gently, cheerfully, humbly. She could not be surprised, for her heart was awake always to follow the indications of God's will. "Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart." May we have grace to follow her example who was blessed because she believed; and whose life on earth is a splendid instance of God's eternal law, He "resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble."

C. W. Furse, Sermons at Richmond,p. 285.

References: Luke 1:38. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iv., p. 89. T. T. Carter, Sermons,p. 324.Luke 1:43. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. iv., p. 40.