“THE SONG OF MARY ”
Candle: Peace
Fourth Sunday of
Advent
Rev. Thomas B.
Cundiff
Luke 1: 39-56
Luke 1: 39-56
Mary Visits Elizabeth
In those days
Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of
Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth
Mary’s Song of Praise
And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servantIsrael
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’
And Mary remained with her for about
three months and then returned to her home.
I. INTRODUCTION
God is always turning
things “upside down” in our lives. Stuff
happens. Things in life disappoint
us. While Advent is a joy-filled season,
there are also numerous challenges financially, in our relationships. We are disappointed when we cannot live up to
expectations set by others around us.
Yet here we are in
worship with God always challenging us to turn things “right-side up” with our
values, in character, in how we live our day-to-day lives.
Repent is the term
John the Baptist uses. Turn back to God! Let’s start getting things right? Ask for God’s forgiveness.
And something else we
can learn throughout Advent in anticipating Christmas: God is giving us Jesus to help us make this repentance,
this turning things “right-side up” in our lives a little bit easier. It’s much easier to know the right way to do
things with Jesus as our guide. Sin is
tough! With the pressures of the world
around us, accepting and then emulating Jesus and the way he gave himself to
others is a tough assignment.
That
is the one thing I invite you to think about today. How do we in this world full of sin and frailty,
anguish and depression and despair, turn things around?
The story from
scripture also known as the “Magnifat”:
It’s about a girl named Mary who gets pregnant. When everything seems to be going pretty well
with her, all of a sudden the world turns upside down for her with this
pregnancy. While everything about this
pregnancy is unexpected, God is revealed to Mary. God intervenes. Not only is Mary pregnant but she is holding
in her womb the ONE
who would become the expectant Messiah and Savior of the world!!! I can’t imagine the emotions! Pain mixed with pure joy in knowing a new
life—precious life is growing in her womb!
God has surely given her an awesome task and responsibility in carrying
in her womb this “child of God”!
Isn’t this what God
gives every woman and man and family?
Are we not all born in the same way?
Are we not all special? Are we
not all children of God—sons and daughters – children of God born in the image
of God?
From a theological
perspective, what Mary doesn’t know is that God is also going to shake things
up for the entire world through this birth of a baby who would be named
Jesus! While it was the common
expectation that this baby would be a great Monarch – well that didn’t
happen. That wasn’t God’s plan! From his birth through the rest of his life Jesus
would live like most men. The
difference? Jesus would also grow to
recognize he is the Son of God…..the Son of God who would teach and preach and
heal the infirmed….live and die and rise from death so that year after year
after year we would celebrate his presence with us as the living Christ…..helping
us turn things right-side-up in our lives with God. This is what living RIGHTOUS lives aligned
with God is all about! Repenting and
turning our lives toward God in seeing clearly where God leads – ding the RIGHT
things when it comes out our relationship with God!
Truly, Jesus was born
into the world, the “Magnificat” -- the “Christ” – “Messiah” – to help us all get
things RIGHT in our lives and our relationship with God. What a wonderful message two days before
Christmas.
Breaking
this down into three points:
II. HUMBLE SURROUNDINGS
First, Jesus was born
in humble surroundings in an unlikely place, a barn-like shelter in a
lowly manger in an Inn
in a small town named Bethlehem
As one author said in
an article a few years ago:
“God not only comes in places
where we would not expect, but deliberately chooses people we would probably
dismiss as unlikely prospects for carrying out God’s mission. Mary was such a person. And in the ‘Magnificat’, we hear wonder
in Mary’s voice as she confesses that God has ‘looked with favor on the
lowliness of (t)his servant.’”[1]
It’s important to
note that Mary works to turn things around in her life and with God asking God
– confessing to God her frailty – asking God to look upon her with favor! All of this from one young girl, Mary, in
humble surroundings.
A second point, next
to being born in humble surroundings, God lifts Mary out of gloom and dark
despair to experience a joy in the miracle of birth – in the glory of [quote] “the Mighty One who has done marvelous and holy things from generation animals
to generation” – the Mighty One who
now does marvelous and holy things through a baby born in a manger – in a
stable even when surrounded by stinky animals – a gift is given Mary and a baby
is born – and joy is the blessing Mary receives.
The challenge we have
in our lives is to reach toward God to grasp the blessings – the pure joy of
Mary giving birth to a baby named Jesus – a birth that would lift the world out
of gloom and despair:
“Joy to the world, the lord has
come”—If only we take time to
accept all the good God
can give us through the birth
of a babe in a lowly manger.
IV. BLESSED
This is the third
point: from humble surroundings
and lifted from despair, Mary comes to know she is truly blessed. Mary sings ---
“My
soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for God has
looked with favor on the lowliness of this servant.”
In turning g things
right-side-up with God, some important choices we need to make:
Will we look to God
as victims of the suffering we experience?
Do we expect the world to take care of us in our need? Or through faith in God will we look to God?
For help? For blessings? Will we confess to God our frailty? Will we ask God’s help in turning things
around in our lives?
Regardless what
happens to us throughout life, we need to search for and find those blessings from
God – to find and embrace them and use them in living our lives in God’s
favor!
Now we are just two
days away from Christmas. Will we take
time in the next 24-48 hours to search for an find God’s blessings to
embrace.
Let’s identify the
blessings in life….and count them….and celebrate them….and use them to turn
things around in our lives.
Let’s recognize God
is with us embracing us and loving us.
Let’s discover what
it means to live in harmony with God!
My friends in
faith: God has truly lifted us along
with Mary from humble surroundings and despair in our lives to magnify within us
many blessings…..if we only recognize these blessings in our midst. We are truly blessed.
Now the question we
must take home with us: in addition to
recognizing our blessings, will we find ways to share our blessings with
others?
Amen
