Opus 2016-337: Monday Pulpit: Cultural Attitudes

The pastor was talking about the Virgin Mary and how she was a very young girl, possibly as young as 14.  My mind went off on a tangent.  I have worked with junior high, high school and college age children ever since I myself was in high school.  Teen age pregnancy happened but it was relatively rare in my lower middle/upper lower class world.  Christmas involves teenage pregnancy.

Today if a teen aged girl gets pregnant she becomes a celebrity.  A girl at the church I used to attend ended up pregnant.  As far as we know the child was conceived in the back of a van by an unemployable young man who has departed the scene.  The church held showers and gave a lot of gifts in an attempt to be “loving”.  I am sure that the government services are giving her a check.  I am sure you have seen her compatriots pushing beautiful strollers down the street in a group and not one wedding ring in the bunch.  There is no stigma or reproach.

That is not the way it was in the world of Mary.  She faced the possibility of being stoned to death or rejected and thrown out on the street.  She knew that being pregnant would make her a pariah in her world and destroy all her dreams.  She was an unwed mother.

Yet she knew she was innocent.  She knew she had done nothing wrong.  That is why she was able to respond to the angel’s life threatening message,

(Luke 1:38 KJV)  And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Mary knew her heart and she knew her behavior.  She knew there was no way she could be pregnant.  She also knew that noone would believe her story.  She still trusted in the God of Israel.

It all worked out but not exactly the way modern fiction would portray it.  She did not go on to a life of luxury and notoriety.  She did not get a government check.  She continued as the wife of a carpenter, lived in a small town and had a normal home for that day.  She continued to be the same faithful servant she had been before the great announcement.

You may have some hard times in your life.  You may have tragedy.  It does not mean that you have done something to deserve it.  Only you and God know your heart.  But like Mary, you can trust Him to work His will in the big picture. 

Merry Christmas.

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