Sermon for CATM – December 13, 2009 - Advent II – Mary’s Song – The Magnificat
Who here has been on the Internet this week? Who has been on Youtube? Well, today we’re going to talk about Mary’s Song, otherwise known as the Magnificat, so in case you’ve been confused by what you’ve seen on Youtube, this should clear it up.
Video intro: Not the magnifi-cat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1V0pgipCJk
Please stand as we read Luke 1:39-56
Frederick Buechner’s little book of character sketches of people from the Bible has this to say about the angel Gabriel as he encounters Mary: "She struck him as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child. But he had been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it.
He told her what the child was to be named, who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her.
’You mustn’t be afraid, Mary,’ he said. As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn’t notice that beneath the great golden wings, he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of Creation hung on the answer of a girl." SOURCE: Frederick Buechner in Peculiar Treasures.
Last week we talked about the first advent theme of ‘hope and waiting’ and we tried to put ourselves in Mary’s position as she received the news that she would bear the Son of God, the Christ child.
We thought for a while about Mary’s response to the angel, and we considered that she might have said “No!” This would have led, no doubt, to a further assignment for the angel Gabriel.
But of course Mary said “Yes” and in saying “Yes” Mary accepted all that the angel had said to her.
This was, for Mary, quite an assignment. Quite a mind-blowing opportunity.
She had no prior heads-up that this was going to happen. She, as a teenager, did not have the maturity of someone who could begin to grasp the implications of what was being asked of her, as if a thousand lifetimes could prepare someone.
But Mary did say “Yes!”, which, you know, strikes me. Why did she day “yes”?
How did she, in the thick of an angelic visitation which must have been quite terrifying, come to a place where her fears and her anxieties and probing questions could perhaps be put over here, and she chose to agree to be a part of this wild, outrageous plan.
God…God the Son, would be birthed in her. How? How did she find that courage?
I think today’s Scripture reading, which follows immediately from last week’s, gives us some insight into Mary, into her character, into her faith and into her openness to be used by God for this completely unique purpose.
Let’s have a look again. If you were here last week you remember that to help Mary get her brain around what was happening, the Angel had pointed to a relatively minor miracle as he said to her that Elizabeth, relative, most likely her cousin, was to have a baby in her old age. So then…
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.
Mary wanted to verify what she could verify, to get a sense of the mystery that was unfolding in and around her. So, having already believed and having already committed herself to being the bearer of the Son of God, Mary checks out the angel’s story by visiting her cousin.
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.
Again, the plot thickens. Not only is Mary able to confirm what the angel has said by witnessing Elizabeth in her old age carrying a child in her womb, there has been a bit of a divine dance (eruption) in Elizabeth’s belly.
At the moment when Elizabeth heard Mary’s voice, the child she carried leaped for joy.
Let me ask you. Who was Elizabeth carrying in her womb? [John, who would be become known as John the Baptist]. On one level this was a moment where two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, meet and rejoice in their mutual blessing of bearing children.
On another level this is a moment where God, the Son of God in gestation in Mary’s womb, meets for the first time the one who would be His herald, the one who would, in 30 years or so, baptize Jesus as Jesus began His public ministry.
But for right now, in this intimate meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, right now there was joy. Joy at the arrival of the Son of God, though not yet given birth.
Joy at the knowledge that God was doing something new, that God was intervening in a way that, although it was quite clearly prophesied in the Old Testament, [On PPT but not read aloud: Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. it was unheard of in the here and now.
These words, written 700 years earlier, were coming to life.
And there was joy. Joy that God was breaking His silence, Joy that after 400 years the ‘mute’ button was being turned off and something truly wonderful was happening.
And this joy was first felt by a baby, yet to be born or named, in the womb of Elizabeth…a baby who was without knowledge or experience in the world, but who nevertheless FELT at a gut-level, an intuitive response to presence of the King of Creation in Mary’s belly.
And Elizabeth, herself a prophet and a woman seriously tuned in to God, praises Mary for her chief accomplishment so far. Elizabeth says: “45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"” We’ll come back to this, but this really is the key to living a life blessed by God. And Mary was to live such a life.
In response to Elizabeth’s words, in response to the joy that the unborn John the Baptist expressed at Mary’s arrival with the Christ Child in utero, Mary utters words that have become known as the Magnificat.
Entire works of art have been created, inspired by this moment in history. Claudio Monteverdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Vivaldi and Rachmaninoff and more recently John Rutter have set Mary’s words to song. And so we have the Song of Mary.
46 And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
Mary’s life has been changed forever. The course of her life altered in ways she couldn’t yet imagine. She had the ‘right’ to have issues with all that was going on. She could have made this all about her, but instead she worships God. She gives us a hint as to the state of her soul, her humanity, when she says that it glorifies the Lord.
She has been lifted up and given a profound sense of meaning and purpose; her eyes have been opened, and in response she lifts up and exalts in God. She has been entrusted to be a part of God’s purposes, God’s plan for His Kingdom.
And she speaks of her joy as well. You get the sense that words fail Mary here, in her original tongue or in this translation. In the Greek, she says: “Agalliaô” [A gal e ah oe]. That means to exult, rejoice exceedingly, to be exceeding glad. This was Mary’s joy, and her joy is in the Lord.
Then Mary reflects on just how it is that God uses lowly things to do His will.
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. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
You know, this is so important. This is a powerful and consistent way that God works, and it’s always given me huge hope. God uses the humble. He uses the lowly.
He uses those who are not flashy and those who don’t have it all together. This matters to me because none of us has it together. All of us are broken and needy and hurting. All of us feel inadequate for the task.
When we think of ourselves we think of the obstacles in us. But God…our heavenly Father, He uses a young teenager in the backwaters of the world in a Palestinian outpost, a girl who is poor like all the others, to be what is classically termed “The mother of God”, or the mother of Jesus the Christ.
He uses a bunch of embarrassments we know as the disciples to turn the world upside down with the transforming message of the gospel. He uses you and He uses me. And all He needs from us is an unadulterated, undistorted, honest and transparent assessment of ourselves.
All he needs is for us to be honest and humble and hungry for Him. Then we can let go of ego claims on our lives and say, along with Mary, in a frank statement of things, the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is His name.
We can give credit where credit is due and realize that in giving God the glory for everything in our lives, we are not giving up the ego-right to take credit and feel good about it…we’re aligning ourselves with what is undeniably true. God is God and we are not.
Every breath we breathe is a gift from God, every skill we possess is an endowment from our Creator. Every accomplishment is God working in and through us to work His purposes in our lives. That, my friends, is just the truth, minus the human ego.
Enough on that line of thought. Mary ends her song, the Magnificat, with a statement that actually doesn’t quite make a lot of sense coming from Mary alone.
The tone here is prophetic and the historical summary Mary makes is so broad that we’re safest to assume that this is the Holy Spirit within Mary who is prompting her to speak.
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. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."
God scatters the proud, dethrones rulers, sends the rich away empty. This is not good news if we are proud, if we believe ourselves to be better than others because of what we have or the talents we possess, or if we as a result treat others with contempt, God will scatter us.
The Greek for the word scatter means to be tossed into the air like so much grain.
This is not good news if we are powerful. ALL human authorities are eventually dethroned. And this is not good news is we have material wealth, an abundance of outward possessions. They will rust and they, like we, will return to dust.
But…God lifts up the humble, fills the hungry and stays faithful for all time to those He calls His own. This is good news for Mary and it’s good news for you and me.
So…what have we discovered today about Mary’s character, her faith and into her openness to God? I’m asking. [Discussion]
It was indeed Mary’s humility, her realistic understanding of herself, that enabled her to open herself to God and allow herself to be used for God’s purposes.
It was her humility but it was also her understanding that God, being God, did not normally use those great and mighty in human terms to accomplish His goals.
Any questions she may have had about her own unworthiness could be answered by the fact that God ALWAYS uses the humble to do the really important things.
Makes me think of something Jesus said later on in the book of Luke: 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Mary found the courage to say “Yes!” to being the bearer of the Christ child. She was blessed by God because she believed that what the Lord said to her would be accomplished. She trusted God’s Word, understood that it was meant for her personally, and as a result lived a blessed life.
That was Mary’s story, not all of her story, but the beginning of it.
As we ourselves anticipate the coming of Christmas, the advent of Jesus in the manger, may we each find the quietness of heart, the humility and openness to God to accept God’s offer of salvation and life through His Son.
God quite literally dwelled, for a time, in Mary. Did you know that Jesus wants to find a permanent home in you? That He wants to fill your life with purpose? With Himself, actually? That He wants to transform your life.
God’s invitation is to eternal life through His Son. I pray that each one here today will find room in their hearts to wholeheartedly embrace God’s love as He comes to us in the form of the Christ child this season. May you believe as Mary believed.
And as we celebrate communion now, and then spend time in healing prayer, let us, like Mary, come in humble adoration to the God who knows us, who loves us and whose work in us so often leads to unexpected blessing. Amen
