Mary's Song

Sermon December 23     Mary’s Song

Old Testament  Micah 5:2-5

These verses in Micah speak hope to despair with a clarity and power that is nothing less than thrilling. Jerusalem is in extreme distress, it is under siege and the king has suffered humiliation. The people saw no hope. But Micah does see hope and expresses it in these verses.

He sees beyond the the current circumstance to what God is promising to do. Our God is a God of promises, and Micah is God’s messenger.  Despite the evidence of despair and defeat that is everywhere present, the messenger gives speech to the future God has guaranteed.

What about us today? If you read the daily headlines, listen to the evening news, or pay attention to the headlines on the internet things can seem to be depressing. News Commentators seem to paint the blackest picture possible because bad news sells.

Those smut magazines that line the aisle to the cashier are nothing but lies and trash and gossip but people buy them over and over. One of the editors of those trash papers commented that he printed that stuff because people bought it.

In our society when we see headlines like last week with the tragedy of the school shooting, all of the wars going on in the middle east, the gloom headlines of economist painting pictures of gloom and despair our internal spirit knows there is a day coming when God will Send Jesus back to take over this doomed planet.

That is the hope of the church. Christ the King coming in glory. As His messengers we are to declare the goodness of God and the glorious future that we all are longing for.

Responsive Reading- Luke 1:47-55  UMH 199

Like an aria in an opera or a duet in a musical, the Magnificat stops the action of the Gospel in order to celebrate the greatness and covenant faithfulness of God.  God is sovereign in the world and displays God’s greatness by displacing the proud and the powerful, sending the rich away empty handed. (v. 51-53).

God is great, but equally important – and harder to believe for many in our day – God is good.  God’s demonstration of power is not merely a show of force, but is intended to remind Israel that they belong to God and can count on their God to help them.  God’s power and greatness display God’s goodness.

As A.W.Tozer observed nearly fifty years ago, “The greatness of God rouses fear within us, but His goodness encourages us not to be afraid of Him.  To fear and not be afraid that is the paradox of faith.”

Mary’s fear in God is unafraid, and in her song we hear of both sides of God’s goodness in action, the grace and the mercy of God.  Mary bears witness to the grace, the unmerited favor – of God,  who has done great things for her and looks with favor upon the lowly and fills the hungry with good things.

God’s mercy (Heb. Hesed; GK. Eleos) is found in forgiveness and long suffering patience with the weakness and corruption of humanity.

Epistle- Hebrews 10:5-10

I want to back up to verse 4 of todays readings that says:

For it is not possible that the blood of goats should take away sins.

It is impossible for us to rid ourselves of sin.  If we could do that, we would not need Jesus.  If we could fix ourselves, we would not need a Savior.  The hope that the church holds out for the world on this Fourth Sunday of Advent is that God has done something for us that we cannot do for ourselves.  Jesus came on a mission to retrieve us. 

Gospel  Reading ( Please Stand if Able) Luke 1:39-45

The full passage (vv.39-55) which joins the birth narrative of Jesus to the one of John, prophetically proclaims the promise of a birth and is thus well suited to the last Sunday of Advent, the last, long breath before the birth of Christmas.

The lectionary reading begins (v.39) with Mary setting out to visit her “relative” Elizabeth in a Judaen hill town, around eighty miles distant from her home in Nazareth of Galillee (v. 26).  She enters the house of Zechariah and greets Elizabeth in one of the most famous “recognition scenes” of all time.

The spiritual commotion of fetal John – his own first prophecy – turns Elizabeth into a prophet:  she is “filled with the Holy Spirit” v41) and utters a prophetic blessing : Mary is “blessed…among women” even as the “fruit of [her]womb” is blessed” (v.42).

…a familial biblical motif: Elizabeth, like so many significant OT mothers, was barren (v7)- is added to the supreme blessing of becoming “the mother of my Lord” v. 43 the bearer of the “beloved son” of God (3:22).

When they meet, Elizabeth learns what Mary already knows.  Thus informed, Elizabeth makes the important connection between Mary’s blessing and Mary’s believing (v.45) what God spoke to her through the angel; an implicit contrast is with Zechariah’s doubtful response (1:18-20).

“Happy are you (v.45) , Elizabeth exclaims, although the reader shortly learns through Simeon’s song that Mary’s soul will necessarily taste also sorrow over her son (2:35).

As God is the ultimate source of fertility and birth, the womb is a profound symbol of potential for the new and surprising, the unexpected and joyous:  “the child in my womb leaped for joy” (v.44).   This motif  of joy culminates in the angelic announcement of Jesus birth (2:10-14).

It is hard to know what brings people to church on the Fourth Sunday of Advent.  Perhaps they are there every Sunday, or maybe today is somehow special?  Perhaps they were asked to light the Advent candles or sing in a pagent or bake cookies for coffee hour?

They may not be on open display, but doubts and hurts are close to the surface for many. People need to sit for a while with a people and a God – who will accept them as they are, not as they feel they are expected to be.

Experiencing true acceptance in worship, you may find yourself asking Elizabeth’s question:  “And why has this happened to me?” This very human sized story prepares us for the grand, history-changing birth that is yet to come. We are strengthened, prepared, and deepened for the Christmas celebration. The Miracle of Miracles.  EMMANUEL – GOD WITH US.