Songs After Silence Series

Theme: Songs after Silence

Text: Luke 1:46-55

Greetings: The Lord is good and his love endures forever.

Introduction: Everyone loves to listen to Christmas carols. Carols make the Christmas season so special and memorable.Can you imagine Christmas without Christmas carols? There was around four hundred years never heard of joyful celebrations, continuous daily sacrifices to the LORD. There was not an organised worship of YHWH.

400 years of Silence: The inter-testamental period between the Old and New Testaments are the years of Silence. It commenced with the end of the book of Malachi and concluded with the ministry of John the Baptist. The years of silence began in 420 BC ended at 20 AD. The Jews believe prophecy ceased at this time.

Illustration: I have two daughters Shammah and Rhema. Shammah is Old Testament name and Rhema is New Testament name. My professor asked me, where is the inter testament baby?

During this period, Israel was being conquered and reconquered numerous times. It was the Second Temple period, rebuilt after the exile, and destroyed in 70 AD. During this period the Hebrew Bible (TANAKH)was translated into Greek by the Septuagint (70 Writers) because of the Hellenistic Greek culture. The Maccabean revolution in 168 BC was a notable event. Judas Maccabees (“The Hammer”) established the Hasmonean dynasty, not of the Davidic line. There were several Groups emerged among Jews such as, Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Zealots.The book of the Jubilees like Rabbinic literature were written. The Jewish commentary tradition known as the Midrash had begun during this period. The Romans Empire brought an end to the Hasmonean kingdom, and installed a puppet kingdom with an Edomite named Herod. The greatest lesson is we have to be faithful even when we feel like God is silent.

Five Songs of Luke: The Gospel of Luke is the longest and most comprehensive of the four Gospels has several features which the other Gospels do not have. One such a uniquefeature is the three canticles of Mary’s Magnificat, of Zechariah’ Benedictus, and of Simeon’s Nunc Dimittis. Luke records five songs in his first two chapters. Two by women, two by men, and one by the heavenly angels. Henry Burton, A Poet, says, ‘these two chapters are the entryway tothe grand cathedral of the Gospel. As you enter the doors to this cathedral, the first thing you encounter is glorious music.’

Mary’s Magnificat: The song of Mary is found in Luke 1:46-55. Mary’s song is called ‘The Magnificat’ meaning “my soul magnifies the Lord” in Latin. Mary’s song is all about magnifying Jesus Christ as Lord.

German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: “The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings. . . . This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols.”

The Mary’s Magnificat teaches us that Our Songs must be have Scriptural Focus, Spiritual Focus, and Societal Focus.

1. Songs with Scriptural Focus

Mary’s Magnificat profoundly teaches us our personal walk with Christ is more powerful. Her song is “saturated with Scripture.” Her composition of this song has the words drawn from Genesis 12:1-3; 17:19; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14, Psalms 22, 44, 103 and 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

Rev. Dr. Judith Jones (Vicar of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Churches, USA), compares the life of Mary and Hannahfound in Luke 1:46-55 & 1 Samuel 2:1–10. He says, “Both Hannah and Mary praise God for overturning society’s structures by bringing down the powerful and lifting up the powerless. God fills the hungry not only with hope, but with food.”

Mary’s Magnificat has lots of Scriptural quotes including the theological understanding of the promises of God to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3; 17:19; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14). We can understand that If God does not fulfil His promises to Israel, He might not even fulfil His promises to none. God always fulfils all of His promises. Mary praises the Lord in this song that God chose her to be the instrument of His saving act, to be the mother of the messiah. The song relates her to the experience of God’s salvation, mercy, deliverance, and hope in the fulfilment of His promises. Mary magnifies the Lord.

‘Mary provides a template for prayer, certainly not of wishful thinking but of faith, through it we see God’s promise fulfilled for Mary and consequently for all of Israel through the birth of her Son, giving readers consolation in the reality of God’s love and mercy having the last word’ (Andrea Vasquez, University of Dallas).

The words of Mary’s song certainly are “God’s Word” as we read in Luke 1:48: “From now on all generations will call me blessed”? Mary’s blessedness is not like the “Blessed” of our generation which means living a life of privilege and comfort. Using the term has become a way of celebrating those moments when everything is going well and all seems right with the world of an individual.