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THE GIFT OF JOY
Gifts of the Season, Part 3
Luke 1:39-56
December 16, 2007
Pastor Bob Sanders
Our Scripture reading comes from the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel and features an amazing song known as the Magnificat. It’s been put to music by some of the world’s greatest composers – Vivaldi, Mozart, and (as we’ll hear in a moment) Johann Sebastian Bach. But the one who first sang it was anything but famous. She was an unknown, uneducated girl from a backwater village known as Nazareth. But in the verses just before today’s reading we learn God had chosen Mary for something extraordinary. God sent the angel Gabriel who announced that she would be the mother of the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of the Most High God. No human father will be involved. The child will be conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And that’s not all. Gabriel says there’s been another miracle. Mary’s older cousin Elizabeth, who’s been childless all these years, is now six months pregnant. “For with God,” says the angel, “nothing will be impossible.” And Mary, knowing full-well how costly this will be for her, gives herself in obedience and trust: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”
Then the angel left her, and here’s what happens next:
Luke 1:39-56
39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” 46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Mary leaves her home in Nazareth and travels to a village in the hill country of Judea, where she enters the home of her cousin Elizabeth. Several years ago I visited that same village. It’s called Ein Karem – a handful of houses nestled in the rocky hills just outside Jerusalem. There is a church in the center of town with a walled courtyard around it. And posted on those walls, in forty-one different languages, is the song Mary sang while she was there, the Magnificat. I lingered in Ein Karem for a while that morning, thinking about what this song meant for Mary and what it means for you and me today.
There are two stanzas in the song. In the first stanza (verses 47-49) Mary sings in joy and wonder at what God is doing through her. “My soul magnifies [magnificat in Latin] the Lord,” she sings,
…and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor 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.
Mary can’t get over it. That God would use me, she seems to say, that the Mighty One would choose me to give birth to his Son, to bring the greatest blessing in all human history. In the eyes of the world she’s a nobody. But it doesn’t matter what others think of her. Mary knows that in God’s eyes she is somebody. In God’s eyes, Mary matters. God has chosen her – lowly little Mary – to bring the Messiah into the world. And so Mary sings this song of joy. She magnifies the Lord. She rejoices in God her Savior.
And if that’s true – if Mary matters to God in all her lowliness – then so do you and I. We may not look like much in the eyes of others. But we matter to God. Some of us are struggling this Advent season. Some of us are out of work. Some of us are fighting cancer. Some of us are dealing with the loss of a loved one, or the breakup of a marriage. Some of us are new in town and feeling lonely. It can be hard to sing songs like “Joy to the World” when you’re hurting, when your world is falling apart. Maybe this year we should try singing along with Mary. Maybe this year we need to be reminded that ordinary people like us, fragile and sometimes broken people like us, are precious in God’s sight. We’re the ones God wants to use to bring Christ into this fragile and broken world.
Mary matters to God. And so do you.
In the second stanza (verses 50 and following) Mary sings not just about what God has done for her, but what God is doing for all people – especially the poor, the oppressed, the have-nots. Don’t miss this. Underneath Bach’s beautiful music, and behind the Latin text, this is radical stuff. God is coming in this amazing, unexpected way to do amazing, unexpected things. Listen to what Mary sings:
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.
She’s singing about a Messiah who will turn the world order upside down, a Messiah who will bring down those on top – the proud and powerful, the wealthy and tax-sheltered – and lift up those at the bottom – the hungry and homeless , the oppressed and imprisoned.
Sounds more like a protest song than a song of praise, doesn’t it? It’s dangerous – the kind of thing that can get you arrested.
When Mary declares God brings down rulers from their thrones, anyone listening to her back then would think immediately of Herod the Great – the cruel tyrant who ruled Judah and who murdered thousands, including his own family members, for anything that hinted of rebellion. When Mary announces God will send the rich away empty, she’s pointing her finger at Herod’s insatiable appetites that laid such a heavy tax burden on Israel, crippling the poor of the land. A woman in first century Israel who sang about God bringing down the powerful and lifting up the lowly could be arrested and tried for political subversion.
It was dangerous then, and it still is. In the 1940s Archbishop William Temple, head of the Church of England, warned his missionaries to India never to read these words in public for fear it could start a revolution. For a time in the 1980s the government of Guatemala declared it so subversive that you could be jailed for doing what we’re doing today – for daring to sing Mary’s Magnificat.
Let’s be honest. It’s not easy for us to sing about God’s action for the poor and lowly when we’re the ones with most of the money and power, when we’re the ones who are on top of the world order. It’s not easy to sing about the have-nots when we insulate ourselves in this comfortable ‘burb and never have to run into anyone who is actually hungry or homeless.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but is it really possible to sing the Magnificat on Upper Drive in Lake Oswego?
Please understand. I’m not accusing. I’m confessing. I live here too, and I enjoy as much as anyone the beauty and comforts around us. What’s more, I’m a Princeton-educated, white male minister of a Presbyterian church – a denomination that some still think of as “the Republican party at prayer.”
That was a confession, not an endorsement.
So, how can we sing Mary’s song? Well, part of the answer is in this Advent Conspiracy we’ve been talking about these past few weeks – going against the culture, turning consumerism into compassion. It’s in doing what many of you are doing – sharing with the families of prisoners through Angel Tree, providing clean water for desperate Zambian villagers through our women’s ministries, feeding hungry families nearby through the Care and Share program, and helping free children caught in the sex trade in Cambodia by giving generously at our Christmas Eve services.
As we give ourselves to these, to the least and the lost, we might find ourselves able to join with Mary in her song of praise. As we let our hearts be broken by the things that break God’s heart, we might be able to lift our voices with hers, and sing about the One who brings down the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the lowly, the One who fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty.
And as we sing it, remember God is able to do amazing things through ordinary people who are yielded to him. No matter what your background or condition this morning, God wants to use you, if you’ll let him. God wants to bring blessing into the world, through you. Give yourself to him this day. Let him fill you with the Holy Spirit. And don’t be surprised if you find yourself singing along with Mary:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
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