Song of Salvation
12/20/09
Luke 1:39-55
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Pastor Greg Smith
What are some of the emotions that you have experienced during this Advent-Christmas season? If you made a list, what would it include?
• Shock at the amount that you’ve spent on presents?
• Satisfaction as someone opens the present that you carefully selected?
• Powerful feelings of nostalgia— that mix of sadness and happiness and longing as you remember the past?
• Exhausted impatience: something every night for weeks: school programs, church programs, family events, shopping, wrapping?
• Loneliness for family far away or no longer here?
• Joy (or maybe dread) as family arrives?
The Christmas season is filled with emotions. One emotion that you may not often feel is awe and wonder. It’s the feeling of being in the presence of something very great and marvelous. You may want to hide your face or dance with joy. You may be overcome with a certain kind of fear, or you may forget yourself completely.
— I don’t feel awe and wonder very often. Music can lead me into a sense of awe. Looking up at the tallest skyscrapers. Standing at the foot of a Yosemite waterfall.
There is a deep kind of joy in the awe I’m speaking of. It comes from a sense of finding your place in the universe. You are a creature; you are not in charge. There is something very beautiful in that.
Great art and expressions of beauty may come out this experience. Mary's song is an example. The setting and circumstances of Mary's song are important. Mary is visiting her relative, her aunt Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with a wonder child, John who would be knows as the Baptist.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Mary was filled with awe and wonder when she realized what God has done in her life. There was the joy of having a child. But there was so much more! The happiness of expecting a child is joined with the astonishment of the promise of that God has remembered his people— he has sent someone to save us. And so she sings! We can learn from her song.
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
God is her Savior. Salvation has come to her and through her even though she is a very simple, humble person.
It's important to remember Mary’s situation. She had a lot of strikes against her.
1. She was very young, probably no more than 14 years old. She was barely old enough to have the biological possibility of conceiving a child.
2. She was poor and marrying Joseph didn't seem to help matters. When she and Joseph went to consecrate their child in the temple, Luke records that they presented the sacrifice of the poor: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons" instead of the lamb that was prescribed for those of even modest wealth.
3. She was therefore probably on the outer and lower edges of society. There had been a concentration of wealth in a few landowners and the powerful since the time of the kings of old. Plus Mary's region of the country— Galilee— was regarded as backward and irreligious.
4. Add to this that she was now morally suspect. "Sure, Mary, pregnant by the Holy Spirit."
Maybe this is one reason why Mary is singing: God is not beholden to human estimates of greatness and human ways of measuring worth.
2 Corinthians 5:16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Mary rejoices that God’s “mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.”
Some of us have a list about ourselves as long as Mary’s, a list that seems to demonstrate that God cannot really value us. To all of us, the message of Christmas is, "Rejoice, his mercy extends to you and me."
You have a list like Mary's about yourself, and you probably have a list for some others you know, too. Maybe some of those family members you will see this Christmas season: morally suspect, irreligious. Yet they are the very persons that the Lord is reaching out to in his love.
This is all part of the great reversal that Mary speaks of.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
Mary must have sang this song to Jesus as he grew up. The message sounds a lot like what Jesus would later say. Listen to Luke 6:20-26.
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
You can hear the same reversal in Jesus’ words as in Mary’s. When Jesus and Mary speak of the poor, were they referring to the spiritually poor or the physically poor? The answer is, “Both!”
Jesus brought salvation and healing to the lonely widow, the hopelessly sick, the struggling hungry, and the poor. On the other hand, it was the proud and powerful who opposed Jesus. It was the proud and powerful that put Jesus on the cross. And it was the proud and powerful that were humbled as he rose from the dead as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Mary is herself the model. Elizabeth calls her blessed for a reason.
45 “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
When the angel Gabriel came to her with the announcement that she would bear the " Son of the Most High," her response was understandable:
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
This is how the angel explained:
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” Or “For nothing is impossible with God.”
Now what would you say? You could come up with lots of reasons to doubt or protest. But Mary's response was simple:
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.”
This is in contrast to Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah. When he heard from the same angel that Elizabeth and he would have a child in their old age, he only voiced his skeptical doubts:
18 “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
Zechariah ended up unable to speak until his child was born and he followed the God’s direction to name his son John. Mary, on the other hand, received the blessed joy that comes with trust: "my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
Those with power and means, privilege and position may be blind to their need of a Savior. The lowly, the poor, the oppressed and hungry may more easily reach out to someone whose strength is greater than their own. The proud are excluded.
God is our Savior. He has come to us in the baby to be born. Just as the gospel shows, Jesus calls us to repentance, he forgives sinners who humbly seek him, he heals the sick, he has fellowship with outcasts and he dies a death that saves. God is our Savior in Jesus, Mary's baby.
This Savior is available to every generation. This is how Mary puts it:
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation. …
Luke’s is the gospel of “the least, the last and the lost.” God reaches down to the least: Mary is the example.
In the Old Testament, God’s basic strategy of renewal was from the top of society down. The history of the Israel is the story of the kings and other top leaders: the future of the people was dependent on the faithfulness of the leaders. The strategy of renewal was from the top down.
In the New Testament, God’s strategy seems to have changed. Now renewal is from the bottom up. This leads to some surprising results.
— God announces the coming of his Son and King in a surprising place. Not in the center of power— Jerusalem— but in the backwoods of Galilee.
— The announcement that the baby was born came to surprising people: not priests or kings or governors (or when they did hear, like Zechariah and Herod, they didn’t believe!), but to shepherds and poor people.
In the Old Testament, leaders changed, but hearts seemed to remain as rebellious as ever. In the New Testament, real change comes as the Holy Spirit works in one heart at a time and in one community at a time. Maybe the real difference between the Old and New Testament is this: Jesus is the King who changes lives from the inside out. That isn’t all Jesus does, but this is where he begins.
In Jesus, God was accomplishing what was long promised.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
The blessedness that Mary received and rejoiced in is a blessedness that we can share. Mary is blessed because she believes.
45 "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!"
Mary rejoices in God’s mercy to her.
My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed…
This blessedness is not available to the proud. Mary rejoices because God’s “mercy extends to those who fear him (in the sense of trust and obedience) from generation to generation.”
Pray for those you will see this Christmas season that don’t know the one whose birth they celebrate as Savior and Lord. Pray that we all would have humble hearts before him! Rejoice! God's love reaches to simple people like Mary — and to people like you and me.
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Pastor Greg Smith
What are some of the emotions that you have experienced during this Advent-Christmas season? If you made a list, what would it include?
• Shock at the amount that you’ve spent on presents?
• Satisfaction as someone opens the present that you carefully selected?
• Powerful feelings of nostalgia— that mix of sadness and happiness and longing as you remember the past?
• Exhausted impatience: something every night for weeks: school programs, church programs, family events, shopping, wrapping?
• Loneliness for family far away or no longer here?
• Joy (or maybe dread) as family arrives?
The Christmas season is filled with emotions. One emotion that you may not often feel is awe and wonder. It’s the feeling of being in the presence of something very great and marvelous. You may want to hide your face or dance with joy. You may be overcome with a certain kind of fear, or you may forget yourself completely.
— I don’t feel awe and wonder very often. Music can lead me into a sense of awe. Looking up at the tallest skyscrapers. Standing at the foot of a Yosemite waterfall.
There is a deep kind of joy in the awe I’m speaking of. It comes from a sense of finding your place in the universe. You are a creature; you are not in charge. There is something very beautiful in that.
Great art and expressions of beauty may come out this experience. Mary's song is an example. The setting and circumstances of Mary's song are important. Mary is visiting her relative, her aunt Elizabeth, who was also pregnant with a wonder child, John who would be knows as the Baptist.
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Mary was filled with awe and wonder when she realized what God has done in her life. There was the joy of having a child. But there was so much more! The happiness of expecting a child is joined with the astonishment of the promise of that God has remembered his people— he has sent someone to save us. And so she sings! We can learn from her song.
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
God is her Savior. Salvation has come to her and through her even though she is a very simple, humble person.
It's important to remember Mary’s situation. She had a lot of strikes against her.
1. She was very young, probably no more than 14 years old. She was barely old enough to have the biological possibility of conceiving a child.
2. She was poor and marrying Joseph didn't seem to help matters. When she and Joseph went to consecrate their child in the temple, Luke records that they presented the sacrifice of the poor: "a pair of doves or two young pigeons" instead of the lamb that was prescribed for those of even modest wealth.
3. She was therefore probably on the outer and lower edges of society. There had been a concentration of wealth in a few landowners and the powerful since the time of the kings of old. Plus Mary's region of the country— Galilee— was regarded as backward and irreligious.
4. Add to this that she was now morally suspect. "Sure, Mary, pregnant by the Holy Spirit."
Maybe this is one reason why Mary is singing: God is not beholden to human estimates of greatness and human ways of measuring worth.
2 Corinthians 5:16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Mary rejoices that God’s “mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation.”
Some of us have a list about ourselves as long as Mary’s, a list that seems to demonstrate that God cannot really value us. To all of us, the message of Christmas is, "Rejoice, his mercy extends to you and me."
You have a list like Mary's about yourself, and you probably have a list for some others you know, too. Maybe some of those family members you will see this Christmas season: morally suspect, irreligious. Yet they are the very persons that the Lord is reaching out to in his love.
This is all part of the great reversal that Mary speaks of.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
Mary must have sang this song to Jesus as he grew up. The message sounds a lot like what Jesus would later say. Listen to Luke 6:20-26.
20 Looking at his disciples, he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for yours is the kingdom of God.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when people hate you,
when they exclude you and insult you
and reject your name as evil,
because of the Son of Man.
23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich,
for you have already received your comfort.
25 Woe to you who are well fed now,
for you will go hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,
for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.
You can hear the same reversal in Jesus’ words as in Mary’s. When Jesus and Mary speak of the poor, were they referring to the spiritually poor or the physically poor? The answer is, “Both!”
Jesus brought salvation and healing to the lonely widow, the hopelessly sick, the struggling hungry, and the poor. On the other hand, it was the proud and powerful who opposed Jesus. It was the proud and powerful that put Jesus on the cross. And it was the proud and powerful that were humbled as he rose from the dead as King of kings and Lord of lords.
Mary is herself the model. Elizabeth calls her blessed for a reason.
45 “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
When the angel Gabriel came to her with the announcement that she would bear the " Son of the Most High," her response was understandable:
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
This is how the angel explained:
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.” Or “For nothing is impossible with God.”
Now what would you say? You could come up with lots of reasons to doubt or protest. But Mary's response was simple:
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me according to your word.”
This is in contrast to Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah. When he heard from the same angel that Elizabeth and he would have a child in their old age, he only voiced his skeptical doubts:
18 “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
Zechariah ended up unable to speak until his child was born and he followed the God’s direction to name his son John. Mary, on the other hand, received the blessed joy that comes with trust: "my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
Those with power and means, privilege and position may be blind to their need of a Savior. The lowly, the poor, the oppressed and hungry may more easily reach out to someone whose strength is greater than their own. The proud are excluded.
God is our Savior. He has come to us in the baby to be born. Just as the gospel shows, Jesus calls us to repentance, he forgives sinners who humbly seek him, he heals the sick, he has fellowship with outcasts and he dies a death that saves. God is our Savior in Jesus, Mary's baby.
This Savior is available to every generation. This is how Mary puts it:
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation. …
Luke’s is the gospel of “the least, the last and the lost.” God reaches down to the least: Mary is the example.
In the Old Testament, God’s basic strategy of renewal was from the top of society down. The history of the Israel is the story of the kings and other top leaders: the future of the people was dependent on the faithfulness of the leaders. The strategy of renewal was from the top down.
In the New Testament, God’s strategy seems to have changed. Now renewal is from the bottom up. This leads to some surprising results.
— God announces the coming of his Son and King in a surprising place. Not in the center of power— Jerusalem— but in the backwoods of Galilee.
— The announcement that the baby was born came to surprising people: not priests or kings or governors (or when they did hear, like Zechariah and Herod, they didn’t believe!), but to shepherds and poor people.
In the Old Testament, leaders changed, but hearts seemed to remain as rebellious as ever. In the New Testament, real change comes as the Holy Spirit works in one heart at a time and in one community at a time. Maybe the real difference between the Old and New Testament is this: Jesus is the King who changes lives from the inside out. That isn’t all Jesus does, but this is where he begins.
In Jesus, God was accomplishing what was long promised.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
The blessedness that Mary received and rejoiced in is a blessedness that we can share. Mary is blessed because she believes.
45 "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!"
Mary rejoices in God’s mercy to her.
My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed…
This blessedness is not available to the proud. Mary rejoices because God’s “mercy extends to those who fear him (in the sense of trust and obedience) from generation to generation.”
Pray for those you will see this Christmas season that don’t know the one whose birth they celebrate as Savior and Lord. Pray that we all would have humble hearts before him! Rejoice! God's love reaches to simple people like Mary — and to people like you and me.