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Unless noted otherwise all scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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"Oh, how I praise the Lord. How I rejoice in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed.” (Luke 1:46-48)
Surprise! Some of you were expecting to hear something from 1 John. Well, we haven’t forgotten John but for the next three weeks were going to take a Christmas break and focus on some of the events surrounding the birth of the Savior.
Now, you probably recognize that the words I just quoted to you from Luke 1:46-48 are actually from Jesus’ mother Mary.
This is a very famous section of the Bible – often known by the title “The Magnificat” – which comes from the beginning of the Latin version.
Young Mary has found herself in a surprising situation – pregnant. And I say that this is surprising because Mary isn’t married. She’s only engaged – betrothed. Nor has she been with a man (if you know what I mean).
Of course, an angel has given her a little bit of the low down on the situation. She’s going to have a son who will be named Jesus – a king – whose kingdom will never end.
It’s exhausting just to think about it. Mary decides that she needs a little time away – to recover from the shock undoubtedly.
So she takes a trip to the hill country to stay with her relative Elizabeth – who is old – and pregnant as well.
As Mary greets Elizabeth the baby in her womb – John the Baptist – starts to jump for joy. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and cries out: “Mary, you are blessed by God and your child is blessed – and not only that you are extra blessed because you’re believing that the Lord will do what he said.”
Mary is starting to get used to all of this unusual attention – and without missing a beat she breaks into song. Well, actually it doesn’t say that she sang – but her words are arranged in a song format so we strongly suspect that she sang it.
By the way, this song – the Magnificat is reminiscent of the Old Testament passage that we read a few minutes ago – 1 Samuel 2:1-10 – where Hannah breaks into this prayerful song as she brings her 7-year-old son Samuel to the Tabernacle in a place called Shiloh.
And apparently expectant Jewish mothers had been singing a version of Hannah’s song for centuries. So Mary’s song isn’t without precedent.
However, I would argue that the Magnificat is the first really clear picture of how God is going to be bringing in his long expected kingdom.
In the Old Testament there are lots of little fuzzy images of the coming Messiah and his kingdom – but now suddenly the lens is radically adjusted and the image starts to come into focus. And Mary’s song is that first major turn in bringing that lens into focus.
This song is really important because it provides a new clearer picture of how God works – and is working. It really highlights God’s MO – his method of operation.
Now, the church has historically recognized that Mary is a very special person. And she should be honored as such. But in doing so we’ve at times painted her as some kind of super woman – sin-free – super gifted – super faith.
You almost get the idea that if she were not the virgin mother of the world’s Savior she could have been the savior herself. But this isn’t at all the picture that we get in the song.
Look at verse 48 – “For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed.”
Mary is significant – not because she is super spiritual but because she is this extremely humble lowly servant girl. She is a nobody as far as the world is concerned.
And yet God is starting his revolution with her. When you think about it, one of the great surprises of Christmas is God’s propensity toward working thru the lowly.
This is the key point this morning: ONE OF THE GREAT SURPRISES OF CHRISTMAS IS GOD’S PROPENSITY TOWARD WORKING THRU THE LOWLY.
Indeed, the incarnation – the birth of God in human flesh – a Savior-baby born to a commoner is a total shock to these people who were expecting the Messiah to ride in standing on top of a Sherman tank.
The people were crying out for a Savior – but God sent a... lowly baby – and not even one with a silver spoon in his mouth – but born into a barn and cradled in a smelly feeding trough.
This was definitely a marketing problem, if you ask me. If God really wanted to impress everyone he would have sent the Messiah in parachuting from a big blimp – with a giant heavenly angelic back-up contingent. He would have totally eradicated all of the Saddams of his day.
This, however, isn’t God’s MO. Instead we have this lowly unimpressive baby born to this lowly unimpressive unwed 13 year old servant girl – or however old she was – 12, 13, 14 was the age for betrothals.
But this is how God functions when he’s carrying out a major operation.
In Lloyd’s class a few Sunday mornings ago there was a discussion about mustard seeds and the kingdom of God. You see, Jesus said that his kingdom was like a mustard seed – small unimpressive – lowly, if you will. It starts small – very small – if you’re talking about mustard seeds.
And even after Jesus got things rolling it wasn’t exactly this big impressive flashy operation.
I used to volunteer in the high school ministry called Young Life. I did it for 7 years and totally enjoyed it – and still love that group of people.
However, at one time they had a strategy called “Key Kid”. The idea was that if you could hook into the key kids in a school – the biggest jocks, the student body president, and the “in crowd” – that the rest would follow.
I always thought that was a bit contrary to the way Jesus did things – when you consider the types of people he chose to be his disciples.
Last Wednesday in D/C – that is, Discipleship/Confirmation – we were talking about how Jesus picked his disciples – and the types of people that he chose to hang-out with. Frankly, they were pretty much a bunch of losers – outsiders from a societal stand-point – smelly fishermen, an IRS agent of questionable integrity, a terrorist.
So I asked the kids in our class if they could tell me who were the insiders and the outsiders at their schools. And the discussion turned and they each identified themselves as either an insider or an outsider. Kids know these things.
About half said they were insiders and half said they were outsiders. Then I asked them, based on the information that they had about the first disciples, if Jesus were to come recruiting at their school who he’d go looking for first -- insiders or outsiders?
A few kids had looks of shook on their faces as they realized that they were too cool to get picked.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth...”
The unassuming, the uncool, the unimpressive, the lowly servant girl.
One of the great surprises of Christmas is God’s propensity toward working thru the lowly. And Mary’s great Magnificat is the place where this fact really starts to come into focus in a new and fresh way.
With the birth of Jesus we entered into a new era – the end times era – the times when everything that is “normal” about the world is stood on its head – the weak are considered strong – the poor are seen as rich – the meek are blessed – and the lowly are exalted.
“For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed.”
This morning, in way of application, I want to quickly highlight three characteristics of the lowly – as based on Mary’s song here in Luke 1.
Now, I know that I’m pushing a bit on this passage but I think that these things will more or less be universally consistent in the lives of the lowly people that God uses.
The first one is this UNINHIBITED WORSHIP.
By that I don’t mean reckless, thoughtless, shallow, do-whatever-you-feel should be the norm for addressing God. Rather I’m talking about a sense of genuine awe and vulnerability in the presence of God.
Verse 46 in the NLT reads like this: “Mary responded, ‘Oh, how I praise the Lord. How I rejoice in God my Savior!’”
And that’s an accurate rendering. But the ESV is more literal here – “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...”
The word magnifies in the Greek language – which is what Luke was originally using -- is a curious word – megaluno. Megaluno means to enlarge, to engorge, to swell up.
Mary is saying – “My soul, my very being, is swelling up to praise the Lord. I’m bursting with praise for God."
And this illustrates an openness – and a willingness to get past self – and past circumstance and to well-up in the midst of that uncertainty – and really crisis – in praise of God.
This is what constitutes real worship – moving beyond self, circumstance, and even personal preferences and tastes – to honor God for who he is and what he is doing -- moving beyond the inhibitions of self.
Can you imagine Mary saying: “I can’t magnify the Lord! I didn’t really like the way that Elizabeth greeted me. It would have been better if she wasn’t so traditional – all of this “blessed” language – I can’t relate to all of that kind of stuff... And really, you don’t expect me to be praising God now – with all of the things going on in my life right now – this unplanned baby – and the tension this is causing with Joseph and my family.
"My whole life is up in the air right now so I need to focus on keeping MY head straight.”
No, there’s none of that kind of self-driven nonsense. Instead this lowly girl whom it would seem has all the right in the world to focus on herself and her own problems – breaks into song declaring that her soul swells up with praise to God. That is uninhibited worship – uninhibited by self.
And this leads us into the second characteristic – because it flows out of the first -- A REALISTIC SELF SENSE.
Verse 48 again – “For he took notice of his lowly servant girl...”
This is a great verse. Mary doesn’t let all of this attention go to her head – “I’m just a lowly servant girl. This is more than anyone of my stature could expect.”
Whenever we’re caught up in the work of God we are confronted with our own limitations – whether that be our sinfulness or our social and intellectual inadequacies.
When we worship – truly worship – we’re always going to have a sense of our lowliness in the presence of God. I am not a god. I am not a peer to God. I am not his good buddy. I’m not even a third stringer in the same league as God.
Yet, this doesn’t lead to an unhealthy groveling either. Mary is aware of her own low state and at the same time exhibits an awareness that God is raising her up. It’s not her doing – she takes no credit. This is about God, not her – but she adds... Look at the second half of verse 48 – “...and now generation after generation will call me blessed.”
No false modesty here. And very prophetic! “The Blessed Virgin Mary” – honored as a woman above all women – for she bore God in her womb.
The church has traditionally given her the title Blessed Theotokos – Greek for “Mother of God.” And while we want to avoid a cultish devotion to her, we recognize who she was – just as by the grace of God she had a realistic self sense.
Thirdly, the lowly person has a TRUE SENSE OF WHO GOD IS.
This is all tied into the idea of worship – praise – magnifying the Lord.
This isn’t all about me, Lord, it’s about you. For you are incredible!
Chris Tomlin has a song on his “Not to Us” outstanding CD called Famous One. “You are the Lord, the famous one, famous one. Great is your name in all the earth, the heaven’s declare you’re glorious, glorious. Great is your fame beyond the earth...”
This is about God’s fame.
Verse 49 – “For he, the Mighty One, is holy, and he has done great things for me.”
Verse 50 – “His mercy goes on from generation to generation, to all who fear him.”
Here’s that energizer bunny image again – this time talking about the unending mercy of God.
Everything that is happening, says Mary, is indicative of God’s ongoing mercy. And not only is he merciful but he is powerful enough to carry out his mercy.
Verses 51-53 – “His mighty arm does tremendous things! How he scatters the proud and haughty ones! [52] He has taken princes from their thrones and exalted the lowly. [53] He has satisfied the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.”
Justice – that which seems so unattainable on our own – it flows naturally from God. And it’s all tied up in this baby that Mary is carrying.
And then, verses 54-55 highlight the reliability of the Lord, “And how he has helped his servant Israel! He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful. [55] For he promised our ancestors — Abraham and his children — to be merciful to them forever."
The song of Mary looks back on the promises made 2,000 years earlier to her ancestor Abraham, and it sees all of the events coming to fruition in her life as a fulfillment of those promises. Talk about long-term perspective!
If we don’t get an answer to our prayers in 15 minutes we become anxious and are offended that God isn’t listening to us. Woe is me! God doesn’t care about me – why should I care about him. I’m not going to church anymore.
Move your eyes off your navel and see the big picture – the long term picture – “He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful.”
And the baby in Mary’s tummy is the most powerful fulfillment of that promise.
This is exciting stuff going on. And the great surprise of it all is that he is making it happen through a bunch of lowly people – little people – mustard seeds – the unimpressive – the unassuming.
It’s as though God took the bottom 10% of SAT scores and gave them an auto admit to Stanford.
The point is this – as you celebrate Christmas this week – and people are jockeying for the important spots at the dinner table or to dominate the conversation or to control what the family blob is going to do -- who goes to which parent or grandparent or who gets the remote for the TV – and subsequently decides which football game everyone gets to watch --
As people are showing off their new toys and gloating that theirs are better than yours (and they really are – make no mistake about that) – I want you to enter into the true spirit of the whole Christmas thing – to tune in to what counts – to sit back and relax in the fact that in the over-all-scheme of things – it is the lowly who are exalted.
Not the big shots...
Not the people who make the most noise...
Not the people who get or give the biggest presents...
The lowly, the servant girl.
