“The Magnificat: The Particulars of Praise” (Part I)
The Rev’d Quintin Morrow
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Fort Worth, Texas
www.st-andrew.com
Luke 1:46-55
December 8, 2002
Unless you’ve been lost in an abandoned cave, or marooned on a desert island, you have heard, at least since the end of October, and will continue to hear until December 24th, frequent use of the phrase “Christmas spirit”—as in “getting into,” “having more of,” or “sharing in” the Christmas spirit. But what is the Christmas spirit exactly?
According to Jacob Marley, Dickens’ literary business associate of Ebeneezer Scrooge, the Christmas spirit meant regret at a lifetime of wasted opportunities for good deeds. To distillers the Christmas spirit comes in a bottle, and approximately $75 million dollars worth will be sold and consumed this month. For the greeting card business the Christmas spirit denotes boxes of cardboard sentiments sent and received. Ninety-five percent of all Americans will send five billion plus Christmas cards this year. And if the malls are any indication, to retailers the Christmas spirit means moving merchandise off store shelves and larger profit margins.
At the end of the day, since this season is not about us or our oftentimes self-interested view of Christmas, but rather about God, and His invasion of space and time to rescue and redeem a fallen, rebellious, and helpless race from eternal destruction, it is who He rightly defines the Christmas spirit to us, and not the other way around.
Put simply and succinctly for understanding, and for the sake of time, let me tell you now that the Christmas spirit, according to God’s Word, and therefore according to God, is (drum roll please) worship. That’s right. Worship. Because of the unmerited, undeserved saving provision God Almighty has made in, by and through Jesus Christ to us, members of a race in active, volitional rebellion against its creator, the only logical and acceptable response on our part is praise and thanksgiving to the one making the provision.
The second lesson appointed for this Second Sunday of Advent, Luke 1:26-56, is one which contains the Magnificat, the familiar and stirring song of Mary as she is greeted by Elizabeth, and contemplates the reasons why God would use a seeming nobody like her to bring His salvation to a world of lost sinners. As we shall see momentarily, the Magnificat is nothing less than a profound and sublime expression of worship, flowing without rehearsal or forethought from the heart of a believing and obedient young woman. It provides us with the anatomy of worship—what genuine worship looks like, the object of worship, and the impetus for worship.
But before we examine the passage, a brief mention of the context for our text is vital to our understanding and application.
Put simply, the Magnificat is the response of Mary to the revelation that she was the one appointed to bear and bring forth the long-awaited and promised Messiah, God’s only Son and His instrument of human redemption. How much this young woman knew of her son’s true identity and ultimate mission to the Gentiles at this initial announcement we can’t be certain. In verses 26-38 of Luke 1 we read of the announcement of Jesus’ birth to Mary by the angel Gabriel. In verse 39 Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth, who was then carrying the Messiah’s forerunner, John the Baptizer. Elizabeth confirms the truth of the announcement given by Gabriel, as the infant Baptizer leaps in her womb, and Elizabeth is filled by the Holy Spirit, upon Mary’s arrival and greeting. Then, notice—don’t overlook this—Mary replies, verses 46-55, in worship, with the words of the song of praise we know as the Magnificat.
My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.
The Lord manifests Himself to Mary and brings her revelation. Mary responds in worship. But here is what is most telling: Mary is the not the only one to receive a divine visitor, or a manifestation of the Lord, and revelation in the first two chapters of Luke, and its accompanying Nativity narrative in the first two chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. In fact, every manifestation of the Lord associated with the birth of Jesus Christ is followed immediately by the witnesses to that manifestation with worship.
Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, at his son’s birth, responds in worship. Luke 1:68:
Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He hath visited and redeemed His people; and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us, in the house of His servant David….
The angelic host, in Luke chapter 2, appears and reveals to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night that born unto them, in the City of David, is a Savior who is Christ the Lord. They go to Bethlehem, find the parents and the baby, and, verse 20:
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
Mary and Joseph bring Jesus to the Temple for her purification, according to the Law of Moses, and Simeon responds in praise with:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the Magi in the East see a new star and travel to find the newborn king to what? To worship Him. Even wicked Herod, when the Magi arrive, deceitfully asks his visitors to reveal the residence of the child to him when they find Him, under the guise of wanting himself to go and worship Him!
Must we be bludgeoned by a 2x4? or do we now plainly see the Christmas spirit for it truly is: worshipping God—the voluntary, sacrificial offering to God of praise for who He is, and thanks for what He has done, arising from a believing heart that seeks to obey His word. That last bit about obedience is vital. Before Mary worshipped in the Magnificat, she responded to Gabriel: “Let it be to me according to thy word.”
The Magnificat, Mary’s Song of Praise, not only fits us with a definition of worship, but, secondly, with the demonstration of godly worship. Notice in verses 46-47 the three aspects of genuine, godly worship.
Firstly, godly worship is internal. “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” There is nothing intrinsically evil about outward rituals and ceremonies. But as Evangelical Protestants we learn from Scripture and from the corrupted medieval church from which we fled that external ritual and ceremony oftentimes replaces inward obedience and faith. Our human natures tend to want to the lowest common denominator in religion. Just show me how to cross myself, where to genuflect, how to bow, give me the trinkets, pictures, and costumes of religion, then I can do all the outward stuff and still guard my heart against change. The Lord thunders against vain, empty, ritualistic religion in Isaiah 29:13: “These people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me.” You be careful of excessive ceremony. That pleases the flesh. Godly worship begins in the soul, from a heart that believes and desires to obey. Genuine worship will invariably involve motions, postures, and ceremony. But if it proceeds not from a believing and obedient heart all the ceremony in the world is less than worthless to God.
Secondly, godly worship is intense. Mary says, in response to who God is and what He had done, and was about to do, that her soul magnified the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God, her Savior. We miss the expressive character of Mary’s praise in English. The word “magnifies” here is the Greek word megaluno, a word meaning literally to cause to grow, expand or swell up. The word “rejoice” is one meaning to be overjoyed, expressing unspeakable gladness. Don’t you see? Genuine worship, because of what we are doing, necessarily involves joy and gladness on our part. I sometimes look out over the congregation on Sunday mornings and see sad, morose, or bored faces. I see people not singing, not praying, standing, sitting, kneeling in autopilot. And I wonder, “Have they nothing to sing about? Smile about? Rejoice about?” God came down in His son and saved a wretched, miserable offender like me, one who had no spiritual health within him; He closed the mouth of hell for me; He provides for, protects, blesses, and comforts me; when I speak His name He bends his ear to earth to hear me. I’ve got something to sing about. I’ve got something to smile about, rejoice about, be glad about. And so do you. Worship will not involve handstands every Sunday. But you ought to look forward to worship. You ought to be excited to be here. You ought to desire to hear the Word, pray, praise, thank, and rejoice. There is no more important we as believers do than glorify God. And considering how majestic and holy and awesome God is, and what He has done, is doing, and will do for His own, it seems to me that a genuine contemplation of those things ought to result in a smile, a twinkle in the eye, a spring in the step, a voice belting out a new song unto the Lord.
And I am not speaking about worship style here, but the attitude of the heart. Rock bands, fireworks, and videoscreens can mask a shallow, manipulated, transitory semblance of joy. And hymns, reverent hush, and joyous hearts can life-changing. It isn’t the style, but what believers bring to worship internally that matters.
And that brings us to the third characteristic of godly worship: it is interminable. That means, it doesn’t stop when church lets out. When Mary says that her soul magnifies the Lord, she uses a verb in the present tense that expresses continuous action. Literally she says: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and will go on magnifying the Lord.”
Genuine worship doesn’t stop when adverse circumstances arise. You see, we worship an object that never changes—God—and whose promises never fail. Therefore, regardless of what is happening to me, I can and must go on praising the Lord. You recall that in Acts 16 Paul and Silas are arrested in Philippi, beaten half to death and thrown in prison. In verse 25 we read: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” That’s worship.
I hear younger Episcopalians complain to me all the time: “Our services are boring.” Well, first of all, we come here to offer and not receive. Secondly, if we do not worship God individually during the week, we bring no gift to offer here on Sundays. Do you see that? Even the office of Morning Prayer tells us worship is a continuous endeavor for the believer. The title says “The Order for Daily Morning Prayer.” Worship at home all week. Bring that worship with you here on Sundays, and I assure you that worship here will not be boring.
Next Sunday we will conclude with a look at probably the most important part of the text; namely, the declarations of worship. Briefly, in verses 48-55, Mary reveals the object of worship—God and His marvelous character. She says He is holy, mighty, immutable (that is, never-changing), reliable, and a God who speaks. And finally, she reveals the cause of worship—God’s saving actions. Mary says that He elevates the humble—that God uses seeming nobodies like her, that He does great, public, verifiable things, that He humbles the proud, and always, always, always does what He promises. “God, remembering the promises He made to Abraham 3,000 years ago,” Mary says, “is fulfilling that promise in me now.”
It is my hope that you will have a ‘Mary’ Christmas. The Christmas spirit is the lost coming into a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ so that they may join in the worship of this one, true, and living God. The Christmas spirit is God’s elect making good on their covenantal obligations to pick up their crosses and follow Him, to offer to God the sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that speak good of His name—worshipping the Lord in the beauty of holiness, in spirit and in truth, internally, intensely, continuously. Have a “Mary” Christmas this year. Come as is this humble, obedient, teenage virgin from Nazareth. Come saying, “Let it be done according to your word”: come worshipping Christ, this newborn king.
AMEN.
*I am extremely indebted to Dr. John MacArthur’s excellent message "The True Spirit of Christmas" (GC 80-152) for many of the statistics and points of this message.
