July 17, 2015
AUDIO
INI + AMEN.
(5. Oops!:) We’ve all been at the receiving end of broken promises.
We’re actually so used to it that we don’t even realize how often we experience broken promises. Big ones. Small ones. “Hey! I’ll text you later.” “I’ll be there at 6.” You’d think that all the little broken promises would make the big ones easier to handle. But they don’t. Big broken promises hurt. “I promise I’ll be at your party. I wouldn’t miss it for anything.” “I’ll help you with your project. Don’t worry about it.” Then the one person you wanted there, who’d promised to be there, wasn’t. You did the work on your own. They didn’t text you, weren’t there at 6.
Now, you and I have experienced our fair share of broken promises, and you’d think that that’d mean we’d do a better better job keeping our own promises. But we don’t, do we?
(4. Ugh!:) We’ve all have broken promises.
We’ve broken them with our friends, parents, brothers and sisters, our boyfriends, girlfriends. “I’ll take out the trash.” “I promise I won’t do it again.” We don’t just make these promises to those we’ve hurt with our words or actions. We make ’em to God all the time. How many empty and broken promises do you make to Him? “Lord, just get me out of this mess, and I promise I’ll never do it again.” “I promise I’ll make up for it.” Promises made; promises broken. Your damnation.
Your yes should be yes and your no, no. That’s what we do as Christians. We’re true to our word. We keep our promises. But when we don’t, we listen to the Magnificat, the song of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We sing with her, as we’ve done five times at this conference: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”
We rejoice like Blessed Mary, with her own words, not because of what we’ve done, but because
(3. Aha!:) WITH THE LORD PROMISES MADE ARE ALWAYS PROMISES KEPT.
(2. Whee!: This means our salvation.)
There’s no doubt about it. “He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.” Just as the Lord spoke—promised—through His Word and Prophets, He helped, He saved. He promised to Adam and Eve, “He will crush your head,” devil, “and you will strike His heel.” And so there’s Blessed Virgin Mary, Eve 2.0. He’s fulfilling this through her. It’s why she sings! Because this doesn’t just mean help and salvation for Blessed Mary, for Israel, for Adam and Eve, but it’s for you and me too!
“His mercy is on those who fear Him,” who trust Him, who have faith in Him “from generation to generation” because Jesus. Jesus fulfills all the Father’s promises. They all find their “yes” in Him. Jesus shows the power of His promises to save you.
Jesus is the promise-breaker in your place. Jesus, God Himself, “has shown strength with His arm,” stretching them out on the cross. Jesus, the mighty One, is “cast down from His throne” in death, but then “lowly,” dead Jesus was “exalted”—raised—on the third day. All of it FOR YOU! That’s mercy upon you, for you. Promises made; promises kept. Your salvation.
(1. Yeah!: Always means always.)
In Jesus God always keeps His promises. He’ll never go back on them.
“The virgin shall conceive.” Blessed Mary sings: “The mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.”
“He will crush your head and you will strike His heel.” Christ crucified and raised.
He “has exalted the lowly.” You are raised up from orphan, promise-breaking sinner to God’s own child in your baptism.
“He has filled the hungry with good things.” Jesus’ body and blood, given and shed for you.
Our promises fail, but God’s promises never fail. It can never be that way. Because Jesus. He always does what He says. “I am the bread of life…Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has life, and I will raise Him up on the Last Day.”
“He has helped” you “in remembrance of His mercy just as He spoke to our fathers,” to you. “His mercy is on” you “from generation to generation,” even to eternal life because Jesus. Promises made; promises kept. Your salvation. “My soul magnifies the Lord”: Te Deum laudamus.
INI + AMEN.
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