The "Mary" Honour Blessing that Prosperity Churches Don’t Want

Christmas has just passed and many of us will have heard the Christmas story read in our churches from chapter 1 of Luke or Matthew

In these passages we read about how the Angel Gabriel brought news of pregnancy both to Elizabeth and her young cousin Mary. Both refer to the messages as evidence of God showing them His favour. 

Two Women, Two Miracles

The news to Elizabeth brought a removal of her shame: 

Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people

Some translations use the word 'disgrace' instead of 'reproach', but both mean shame.  The New Living Translation, instead of saying 'among people' gives cultural meaning to the words by saying 'disgrace of having no children'.  In other words the blessing was that God removed her cultural and earthly shame of infertility.

The news to Mary, however, which was almost identical in that it was an announcement that she was to have a baby, had a different immediate earthly outcome.  Both babies were unexpected miracles that seemed to be outside the realms of possibility (Elizabeth being humanly too old to conceive and Mary not having 'known' a man in a sexual way), and Mary's miracle is also described by the Angel as evidence of God's favour in Luke 1:28,30:

And he came to her and said, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!"

And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

 But the news to Mary didn't remove any public shame.  Instead it brought shame for Mary and for Joseph.  

Joseph, when he found out the news, wanted to divorce Mary quietly and 'privately' so as to avoid public shame and disgrace.  However, with God's intervention through the angel's visit to Joseph in a dream, he didn't divorce her. Instead he and Mary had to live with the rumours, stories and shame that went with a baby being concieved by Mary while they were still in the betrothal period.

So we have two women, two stories of good news of a baby, and two stories of favour from God, but one brought relief from earthly shame and one was the very means of bringing earthly shame.

Earthly Shame in Eternal Honour

This raises a significant issue that Prosperity churches, here in Africa especially, don't talk about.  

It's the issue that honour from God may equal shame on earth.

It's an issue I've spoken about before on this blog and an issue that needs to be re-calibrated for many Africans.

Culturally for Africans, earthly shame is the only shame to factor into life.  When a person becomes a Christian, they think that the type of honour God gives, is honour according to how they understand honour.  And so if Scripture says believers 'will not be put to shame' (eg Romans 9:33), it is understood Christians will never experience shame on earth if they are truly living in God's favour, blessing and honour.  It is believed that blessing from God always equals earthly shame removed.

But here, in Scripture, are two women, who God tells us in His word, were godly, blessed and favoured, but the outcome for one of them was only earthly shame compounded and heaped on.

Yet, did Mary seek God to remove her shame and seek a prophet for deliverance from such a curse, deciding it could not be of God because it brought shame to her and her husband? No. 

Mary recognised that God's honour can result in earthly shame, but God's honour always, always is supreme over any earthly shame.  

As we look at her praise song, often called the 'magnificat' (in Luke 1:46-55), she knew that God looks on the humble, and exalts the humble.  He feeds the poor and hungry and sends the rich away empty. God humbles the proud and brings them down.  God's accounting system of what is of high value honour status and what is of low value was the opposite of her culture's accounting system of honour and shame.

She knew that in God's system of things, honour and shame were not just about today and what people around might say today.  She didn't just live for today.  She was a woman who lived for God's eternal purposes.  She knew that a day would come when future generations would call her 'blessed' even if they didn't just now.  What God thought of her, and that God chose her, was of far, far greater value to her than what others around might say. 

In the events which spelt 'Earthly shame' for Mary, she described as her 'mighty' and 'holy' God doing 'great things' for her.

This is the message we have to preach, preach, preach, counsel, counsel, counsel, teach, teach, teach, live, live, live……especially here in Africa.  Because it is a message that is mis-understood - in endemic proportions!

Sadly its a message of truth that is not only opposite to cultural honour and shame values, but it is opposite to the teaching of a huge number of churches and TV preachers across this continent.

It's passages like the first chapter of Luke and Matthew that have to be looked at with non-Western eyes and seen for the rich truth they have to speak powerfully into honour/shame dominated hearts.

Be Willing for a "Mary" Plan 

Yes, we can be thankful when God's plan and favour include a removal of earthly shame, like for Elizabeth. 

But we need to help folk understand that instead of an 'Elizabeth plan', God might have a 'Mary plan'. ….a plan that from our temporary, 'now', earthly perspective looks shameful, but from an eternal, future and heavenly perspective is of great blessing. 

If God brought His greatest gift to the world through a 'Mary plan' of earthly shame (of which Jesus' conception was only the beginning of much earthly shame for him and his family), then why should we even begin to doubt that He can bring great blessing to us and the world through what seems to us as shameful means in the eyes of those around us?

Let us lift our eyes to heaven just as Mary did and praise and thank the Lord for whatever situations He chooses for us - whether honourable or shameful in the eyes of the culture around us - trusting that God sees more than we do, knows more than we do, has much bigger plans than we do and loves us more than we can imagine.  

The honour God wants us to enjoy is on a 'Mary' scale - He wants us to know the type of joy Mary had as she praised her Lord and Saviour for the great favour and honour He bestowed upon her even though it meant her life was about to be clouded in earthly shame.

Let's not choose joy and honour limited by worldly and cultural terms.  Let's choose joy and honour that supercedes earthly definitions!  Let's not just seek God for 'Elizabeth plans', but be eagerly willing and rejoice in 'Mary plans' too!