Master 221: Advent 2010, Mary's Song

I had the opportunity to preach at the church I attend on the second Sunday of Advent. Here is a rough transcript of that message. We partook of Communion on that day since it was also the first Sunday of the month. Because of that I only spoke for about twenty minutes and then transitioned to a time of simple reflection.

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This Advent season we've been going through a sermon series on the four songs of Christmas--Zecharias' song, Mary's song, the angel's song, and Simeon's song-- all of them recorded in the gospel of Luke. And the theme of our series has been: Repeat the Sounding Joy. You may recognize that line from the familiar Christmas carol, Joy to the World. One of the verses in that Christmas carol reads:

Joy to the world: the Savior reigns.
Let men their song's employ
While fields and floods, rocks hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

But it's a funny thing about Christmas carols--they're so familiar to us; yet at the same time, it's so easy for us to sing them over and over again and miss their point completely. My mom, who did not grow up in a Christian home, has described to me the moment when she realized, at the age of eighteen, what the songs that she had been singing for years and years really meant. She had been saying words extolling the greatness of Jesus and all that He's done for us for eighteen years-- singing those songs and not understanding them until someone introduced her to Jesus.

And I think this points to a more general worry. We all love this time of year: all of the activities, the music, the different things that are going on. Christmas is probably bigger, louder, and flashier now than it has been at any point in the history of the world. The church used to start the celebration four weeks before the day of Christmas. Today we start setting things up in August. And yet you could worry that with all the excitement, we've missed the point. Maybe we're repeating these songs, but we don't really understand what they mean. And so I want to look today at the life of Mary, at some of the events that took place in her life leading up to this season, and to look at her words, to see how she understood what was going on at this time of year and what this season was all about.

So we'll start in chapter one, verse 26. Last week we heard the story of Zecharias, the priest, a relative of Mary. We heard about how he was in the temple and an angel came to him and announced that he and his wife--who at that point were very old, well beyond the age of having children--were going to have a son. At that point Zecharias didn't really believe the angel, and it took a little while for him to come around. And we heard about how God did follow through on his promise and John the Baptist was born and Zecharias spoke words of praise to God on that occasion. But these events that we're going to look at take place in the middle of that story. Zecharias has received the angel's message, but John the Baptist has not yet been born. And this is what happens in the life of Mary, starting in v. 26. We're told:

'Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming in, he said to her, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end."

And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God."

And Mary said, "Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; be it done to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

Now at this time Mary arose and went with haste to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zecharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice, and said, "Blessed among women are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.' (1:26-45)

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The story is familiar to us but now we want to turn to what Mary has to say because on this occasion she breaks forth in response to Elizabeth's words and everything that's happened to her. She breaks forth in song, and we want to look at and think about what she says and how she responds to what God is doing in her life.

'And Mary said,
"My soul exalts the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
For the Mighty One has done great things for me;
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is upon generation after generation
Toward those who fear Him.
He has done mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
And has exalted those who were humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
And sent away the rich empty-handed.
He has given help to Israel His servant,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and his offspring forever."' (1:46-55)

How many of you got that?

Or is it kind of like a Christmas carol that flies by and we're not quite sure what we've just said?

We want to go back and look a little more closely at what Mary says in order to understand where she's coming from. She starts out by saying, "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." "My soul magnifies the Lord," some older versions read. Mary opens with words of praise and exaltation, but we don't want to just notice that she's praising God. We want to know why. We want to know what's going on behind that. Who is this woman and why is she praising God in this way?

Mary answers both of these questions for us in the very next line. Why does she praise God? "For he has had regard for the humble state of his bondslave". And now we have to notice this is not "humble state" as in: Mary is such a humble and pious person. This is "humble" as in: lowly; as in: downtrodden; as in: Mary is scraping by a living at the bottom of society. And why is that important for us to notice? Because Mary was living in a culture and time when poverty--when being of humble means and circumstances--was interpreted as a sign that you were distant from God.

Not only was Mary poor, but her hometown was Nazareth in Galilee. And we know from elsewhere in the gospels that Nazareth was not well thought of. People in Israel had a saying: "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" It was a rhetorical question. The religious leaders of that time understood that nothing holy or righteous or godly ever comes from Galilee. Think about Mary being in that situation. Add to these the fact that she's a woman. And in that culture and in that time, that automatically set limits on how close she could be to God and how much He could use her.

It's with these thoughts in mind that we need to read Mary's words of praise: "My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave." That's what's so startling about what's happened to Mary: that no one, maybe not even herself, --no one would expect that God could reach out to this woman in this particular way, could make her such an important part of His plan, could send an angel to her who would greet her by saying, "Hail favored one! The Lord is with you." And its because of all of that that Mary is just blown away by this encounter and she breaks forth in words of praise and exaltation to God.

She continues: "For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed." Again, no one in that time would have thought that a woman in her kind of position could be blessed by God in this way, and yet she foresees that on into eternity people will recognize her as a recipient of God's blessing. And then notice the reason why. Why is she going to be so blessed? Why has God had regard for her? Is it because she's so pious? Because she's so righteous? Because she's so upright? No, none of those things. She tells us in v. 49: "For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name."

Why have I received so many good things from God? It's because of what He is doing and because of who He is. And here it's helpful to think about what it means to say "Holy is His name." What does it mean to say that God is holy? Are we just saying that God is morally upright? That's often what we associate with holiness. And yet that's not the emphasis of this passage. To say that God is holy is to say that he is set apart, that he is separate, to say, if you will, that he is wholly other. And this is the idea that is at the center of this entire song: Mary recognizing that as far as her culture is concerned, as far as the expectations of the people around her are concerned, she is at the bottom, and there is no way for her to change any of that about herself. And yet she gives glory to God because God is the one who is wholly other, who is not bound by those systems, not bound by those rules, not bound by those values, but is able to break through all of that, and reach out to this woman whom no one would think could be blessed, and bless her, use her, choose her, and put her in this central place in His plan.

This, then, is the good news of Christmas: "He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave." And we see it clearly throughout this text. As we look at what Mary is doing and saying, the message comes across loud and clear: the good news of Christmas is that God has regard for the lowly state of his bondslave.

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But then here is the question that I invite us to consider as we move into this Christmas season: If someone were to follow you around, were to look at your life and your words, in these days and weeks leading up to Christmas, would the same message come through loud and clear? Would those people, watching you as you live and interact with people, and what you do--would they come to the conclusion that the good news of Christmas is that God has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave?

It's not going to be news to anybody that as much as we look forward to Christmas and celebrating Christmas and all of the good things that we associate with Christmas, Christmas is also one of the hardest times of the year for some families--for those who don't have jobs, for those who can't afford christmas presents, or for whom the money that would have been for Christmas presents suddenly has to go for the car repair or paying the rent. When families come together, sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes we run into those old feuds and quarrels. Sometimes the pressure of trying to pull off Christmas, to meet the expectations of children, of relatives, of neighbors, to meet the standards of our own expectations--and we're driving after this harder and harder with each successive year trying to make it bigger and better and you could get the sense that maybe we've forgotten that the good news of Christmas is that wherever you find yourself, in whatever circumstances, even as bad as things may be, God has regard for the humble state of His bondslave.

This is the message that Mary proclaims and the good news that she has to announce to us. You'll notice in the first part of that song she's talking about how God has touched her life, what God has done for her. But then, as she continues, she casts the net wider and she starts to talk about how God reaches out to all people. She says in v. 50, "And His mercy"--the mercy that she received is not just for her, but she says--"His mercy is upon generation after generation of those who fear Him." And then she starts to look both into the past and the future. She says, "He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever.

All this stuff about God casting down rulers and lifting up the lowly and filling the hungry and sending away the rich--these are all pictures of what God has been doing for the people of the nation of Israel. How way back when, God chose a particular group of people, the descendants of Abraham, not because they were a great and mighty and powerful people. No, they were the smallest nation. They were the most insignificant. And yet, for instance, when they were in slavery in Egypt, God delivered them out of that. When they were in exile, God delivered them from that. God has always been in the business of reaching out to those who could not reach out to him and touching their lives and blessing them and calling them forth into what He is doing. The invitation of Mary is to repeat her sounding joy.

The invitation of Mary is to repeat her sounding joy. And just in case you think this is something that I came up with, I found the same point in one of the commentaries that I was reading. This is what Darrell Bock says: "Mary's feelings in this song are clear. God owes her nothing, while she has received everything from Him. But her story illustrates how God treats others, so she goes on to indicate that her story could be repeated a thousand times over." (NIV Application Commentary) And that's the invitation today, during this Christmas season, from here throughout the rest of the year and on into the future, to repeat Mary's joy. --Not just by talking about it, not just by saying what happened to her a long time ago, but by walking in her example and receiving from God the same grace and mercy that she received so that we can with her declare, "My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave."

And the question is: Are we ready and willing to move into that? It's hard during this time of year. There's a lot of pressure to meet expectations, a lot of pressure to outdo last year, a lot of pressure to make this the best Christmas ever. And yet we see in Mary's own life: She didn't have to overcome her circumstances. She didn't have to pretend that she came from a different town. She didn't have to pretend that she had more money than she actually did. All she had to do, when God came to her, was say, "Yes," to God. To say, "Yes, I will be a part of the plan that You are calling me to. I will make that my priority." That's the invitation for us as well.

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It's with that that we want to move in the direction of communiion.

It's interesting: communion can be a lot like those Christmas carols. The ritual is so familiar to us, it's very easy for us to lose sight of what it's really all about. But, in fact, the message of communion is the same as the message that Mary proclaimed. The message of communion is that God is merciful to the lowly and downtrodden. Isn't that right? Because Jesus was lowly and downtrodden.

From all eternity He had enjoyed perfect fellowship with His Father and with the Holy Spirit. But then He emptied Himself. He humbled Himself and took on a human nature. As a human being on earth He measured up to none of the usual standards of worth or merit. He grew up in poverty in that same town of Nazareth that Mary came from. He never received a formal education, never received any degrees or diplomas. He never earned a lot of money, never owned a house. He never got married, never had a family. He was never "in" with the religious, cultural, and political leaders of the time, and the common people never were completely comfortable with Him either. Eventually He was handed over to the Roman authorities who executed Him as a common criminal. He was nailed to a cross and every Jewish person understood that that meant God had cursed Him and turned His back on Him. And just when everyone was convinced that Jesus was as far away from God as anyone possibly could be, God revealed in the most startling and remarkable way that Jesus was actually at the very center of His plans--that Jesus was, in fact, the Eternal Son of God. God the Father raised Him from the dead. Not only that, but He restored Him to His rightful place on the throne of heaven and conferred on Him the highest possible honor and titles.

And in the same way that we recognized, in Mary's song, the invitation to follow in her footsteps and so come to repeat her sounding joy, so in communion we are presented with the invitation to follow in Jesus' footsteps and repeat His sounding joy. Not just by talking about it, not just by eating a piece of bread and drinking a cup of juice, but by following His example of obedience to the Father. The invitation is to partake of His flesh and His blood, the marks of His humiliation--when He descended from Heaven in obedience to the Father and became human like you and me and so continued to walk in obedience even to the cross. In fact, it is because Jesus was obedient in just this way to His heavenly Father that you and I have the opportunity to receive that same grace and power that were present with Jesus throughout His life. It is because of that, that we have the opportunity to proclaim Christ's death in this way--not just with our words, not just with our rituals, but with our lives. And as we are conformed to the pattern of His death, so, Paul tells us, will we be conformed to the pattern of His life and resurrection.

Meditate on these things as we partake of communion.

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.