TITLE

THE SONG OF MARY

December 23, 2018

Rev. Mark F. Bartels

Old Testament Lesson; Malachi 5:2-5a

Epistle Lesson; Hebrews 10:5-10

Sermon Text; Luke 1:39-55

We will look at Luke, chapter one, verses thirty nine through fifty five.

In those days Mary got up and hurried to the hill country, to a town of Judah. She entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Just as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She called out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? In fact, just now, as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy! Blessed is she who believed, because the promises spoken to her from the Lord will be fulfilled!”

Then Mary said,

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

because He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,

because the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is His name.

His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with His arm.

He has scattered those who were proud

in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones.

He has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

but the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the aid of His servant Israel,

remembering His mercy,

as He spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and his offspring forever.”

First of all, I love this time of year. We get to sing lots of hymns. Probably everybody here has favorite Christmas carols. In fact, the past couple of weeks, we have been asking our members to put down on the Worship Participation Card what your favorite Christmas hymns are. And then, we started singing them, before the service.

Everybody has favorite hymns. There is probably something about the message of the hymn, or the hymn brings up some memory from the past, or it has some particular context that is really important to you that makes you love that hymn.

When I was a kid, I had the privilege of growing up in a home where my dad, (who was a pastor), had as one of his passions - hymns. He loved to talk about hymns. I mean, we could be driving in the car, or we could be eating lunch, or we could be just out on a walk somewhere, and something would happen that would draw some hymn to his memory.

He had this great knowledge of hymns. He could tell you who the author was, when the author lived, what was the context of that author's life, and what that author went through.

He could tell you the context of the hymn, the historical context, and what was going on the world at that time, and maybe what was the event in the author's life that caused him to want to write that particular hymn.

And, he could talk about the theology of the hymn, and the basic message from scripture that the hymn was trying to convey.

It was really fun, and intriguing as a kid to learn all about these messages in the hymns.

In fact, my dad is a hymn writer. And, because my dad is a hymn writer, and has written some great hymns, you can imagine if you were to ask me, “What are your favorite hymns?”, I would pick out a few my dad has written. One of my favorites goes this way.

Jesus graciously direct us

Through each day,

O’er life's way.

From the foe protect us.

And though many woes surround us,

We’ll not fear

With you here,

Nothing shall confound us.

I love that hymn!

We all have favorite hymns. There is something about them that has special application to our lives.

If Jesus were here today, and you were to ask Jesus, “What are your favorite hymns?”, what do you think He would say? You know, in His day they sang hymns, too. I am almost certain there is one that would come right to the top of Jesus' list.

The number one reason I am thinking that is because the author of the particular hymn is none other than Jesus' own mom. Mary wrote a hymn! I bet that hymn was very dear to Jesus' heart.

We call that hymn, The Magnifcat. In Latin that is the first word of that hymn. That means, 'My soul magnifies'. It means, 'magnify' 'my soul glorifies', or 'magnifies the Lord'.

I want to talk about that hymn, the special significance it certainly had to our Savior, and the special significance it should have to all of us.

But first, in order to talk about the hymn, I want to talk about context, because context can really help us understand the message of a hymn. So, here is what was happening. The nation of Israel knew the Messiah was coming. That meant some woman, some day in Israel, would give birth to the person who was going to be the Messiah. They knew that woman who gave birth to the Messiah had to come from the line of David. And so, there were probably many, young women in the land of Israel, who wondered, “Could it possibly be me that someday the Messiah is going to come from?”

I am sure there were some families in Jerusalem, in particular, who had legitimate reason to really wonder, “Could the Messiah come from our family, from our young daughter?”

Maybe, because they lived in Jerusalem, which was kind of the hub of the center of what happened in the nation of Israel, they thought, “If the Messiah came from our daughter, certainly being here in Jerusalem would be a prime location for Him to be born.”

Maybe there were families who further thought, “You know, we have a lot of really deep, deep religious connections here in Jerusalem. We have family and relatives from the Sanhedrin.”

(That was the religious ruling party.)

Maybe they thought, “There is a real possibility the Messiah might be born to our family, because of the connections we have to the religious world, and the impact He could have.”

Maybe, in addition they thought, “It is even more likely He could be born to our family, because we have political connections, too.”

You take somebody who has religious connections, and political connections, that person would really be set up to be the Messiah.

Maybe they even thought, “Our family has a lot of wealth. Wouldn't that be a benefit to the Messiah to have all of those connections, and all of that wealth?”

And so, there certainly must have been people wondering, “Who is going to give birth to the Messiah?” Nobody in their wildest dreams would have ever thought it was going to be some pauper girl, some 'nobody' named Mary, some poor peasant girl who had no connections, really, with anybody of any power, or circumstance, some poor girl who in the socio-economic scale would have fallen in to the poverty line, who came from some town way long away from Jerusalem, some 'Podunk town' called Nazareth, where people even said, “What good could come out of Nazareth?” Nobody in their wildest dreams would have thought Mary would be the one from whom the Messiah would come. She did not have any great education. She didn't have any great connections. She didn't have any money.

And then, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, to Mary! Of all people. And told her, “You, you Mary”. Maybe at the time she was in the home of her mom and dad. Maybe she was dressed in rags, and sweeping the floor, covered in dirt. This poor pauper. And, this angel appears, and says, “You are going to be the mother of God's Son.”

Totally unexpected. Mary, humbly heard the message of the angel, and said, “May it be to me, as you have said.”

Now, can you imagine what was going on in Mary's heart at that point? I get nervous, when I have to stand up here, and talk to you. Can you imagine what was going on in Mary's heart? “Me? A nobody? I have no education. I have no connections. I am supposed to raise God's Son? The fate of the world is now on my shoulders, as I am going to raise Him?”

Can you imagine what was going on in her heart? And, don't think Mary was a stone, and she didn't need comfort, didn't need to hear the Word of God.

The Bible tells us, (and this now takes us to our text) the angel had told Mary (in addition to her being the mother of God's own Son), her cousin Elizabeth, in her old age, was expecting, and she was going to give birth to the forerunner of the Savior. And so, now Mary hurries down to the hill country in Ephraim.
“In those days Mary got up and hurried to the hill country, to a town of Judah. She entered the home of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Just as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Now to this point, nobody except Mary knew she was the one who was going to be the mother of God's Son. But now, in order to verify to her that it is true, the Holy Spirit reveals to Elizabeth, “The lady standing in front of you, that young woman, that is the mother of God's Son.” Listen to what it says.

She called out in a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

There is the verification for Mary, “The message you heard from the angel is true and accurate. You are the mother of the Lord.” Then, she goes on, and says this.

“In fact, just now, as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy!”

Even little John the Baptist, unborn, knew his Savior was in the room! That was there to verify, and comfort Mary. “Yes, Mary, you, you, poor Mary, are going to be the mother of God's Son.”

“Blessed is she who believed, because the promises spoken to her from the Lord will be fulfilled!”

Then Mary sang what we call the Magnificat. I am going to read through this. There is some really deep theology in there. The basic message Mary conveys in this beautiful hymn, inspired by the Holy Spirit is this.

-Number one, it talks about the nature of God, what God is like. It says God's basic nature is He is gracious. He is merciful.

-Number two, who is He gracious and merciful to? He is gracious and merciful to the poor, the lowly, the humble.

-Number three, there are those who are proud, that the Lord brings low, so that they see how much they need a Savior.

Just listen to the message of this hymn.

Then Mary said,

“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior,

because He has looked with favor

on the humble state of His servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,

because the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is His name.

His mercy is for those who fear Him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with His arm.

He has scattered those who were proud

in the thoughts of the their hearts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones.

He has lifted up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

but the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the aid of His servant Israel,

remembering His mercy,

As He spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham, and his offspring forever.”

If you look at the phrases there that talk about the poor, the lowly, the humble, the meek, it says, “...He looked with favor on the humble state of His servant.”

It says, “His mercy is for those who fear Him...” That means it is for those who realize, “Man, if I don't have God's help, I have nothing.”

“He has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things...”

I have many times heard people say, “You know it says in the Bible that God helps those who help themselves.” That is bad theology. That is not what the Bible says. The Bible does not say God helps those who help themselves.

The Bible teaches God helps those who can't help themselves. That is His nature. He is a gracious God.

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Martin Luther, and you have probably heard me say this a number of times but, it gets to the heart, and core of Mary's song. “If you tremble, if you are troubled by a feeling of God's wrath, and a horror of God's judgment and of Hell, then have confidence. You are the one God wants to talk to. You're the one He wants to show His mercy to. You're the one He wants to save. That is what His promises say. He is the God of the poor.”

Listen to what it says in 1 Corinthians, chapter one.

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But, God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
So, the nature of God is to come, and help those who realize how much they need His help. Look at Jesus' ministry. He grew up, knowing this hymn.

-First of all, who did He pick for disciples? They were nobodies. They were nobodies. They didn't have special religious connections. They didn't have special political connections. But, by grace, He chose them.

-Who did He perform His great miracles on? It was not the powerful, the strong, the mighty, who felt they did not need Him. Herod wanted to see a miracle, because he just wanted to see a miracle. But, who did Jesus perform them on?

-It was the lepers who needed Jesus mercy, and help, marginalized by society.

-It was the people who couldn't walk that Jesus said, “Get up and walk”.

-The poor,

-the meek,

-the lowly.

-It was the blind who couldn't see that Jesus restored their sight.

-Who did He give such comfort to?

-It was the despised ones.

-It was the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman at the well, who Jewish people wouldn't even look at, let alone talk to, that Jesus comforted with the assurance that He was her Savior.

-It was the woman caught in adultery, who was so rejected by society that they were going to stone her to death, to whom Jesus said, “I don't condemn you.” That is who He came to help. That is who He came to show His mercy to.

-It was the woman who lived a sinful lifestyle, who washed Jesus' feet with her tears, and dried them with her hair. People looked at her, and said, “If Jesus knew what type of woman was touching Him, He would not let her touch Him.” But, that is who Jesus came to help, and have mercy on.

-It was the thief on the cross. Talk about being shunned by society. It was him who Jesus looked at, and said, “Truly, truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise”.

So, it is those who need Him most, and realize it, that is who Jesus graciously, graciously has come to help, and save.

But, Mary's song has a flip-side to it. The flip-side is those who don't realize how much they need God's help. Here is where it is so important not just to read scripture. It is easy to read scripture, but it is not so easy for us to let scripture 'read us'. So, today, let's let it read our hearts, because scripture knows us. It knows us. Just apply this to your heart. Mary's song says these three things.

-“He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.”

-“He has brought down rulers from their thrones.”

-“...the rich He has sent away empty.”

So, He has scattered those who are proud in the imagination of their hearts. There, God is reading our hearts. Don't our hearts, in the imagination of our hearts, don't we think, “You know, my way of doing it is better, than that person's.” “My ideas are the best, and they are sure better than his, or hers.” “I wish everybody would recognize how really good I am.”

When in insecurity, or fear, we see someone else who we think actually may be smarter, or faster, or stronger, or better looking, or whatever it may be, in the imagination of our hearts, what do we do? We try to bring them down. “Oh, they may be fast, but that is just 'cause they are lucky.” Or, “They may be smart, but that is because they got lucky with that guess.” We try to bring them down. We may even say things like that out loud to other people. But, you know, when we do that we are just building 'a house of cards'. Someday that is all going to collapse, if that is where we think we ultimately get our help from who we are.

Then, Mary says,

“He has brought down rulers from their thrones.”

Now, just let scripture read our hearts, here. We all sit on little thrones. We are all little rulers. We all think to ourselves, “If I could just control this person, (my spouse, my kids, my grown kids, the people at work), if I could just control them, then everything would be great, and it would go just the way I want it to” Sometimes, oftentimes, when we try to get that much control, things can backfire on us. But, in the end, in the end, if we think we are the ones who can control everything, it is all going to collapse, if we don't realize we ultimately need God's help.

Then, she goes on and says,

“...the rich He has sent away empty.”

There is nothing wrong with being rich, but being rich carries a danger with it. In the book of Revelation, Jesus was speaking to a congregation that had a lot of wealthy people in it. Here is what He warned them. “You say I am rich. I have acquired wealth, and do not need a thing.” In our hearts we can get to that point to think, “I have it all”. And we forget how much we need God. So, anyway, Jesus says,

“You say I am rich. I have acquired wealth. I don't need a thing. But, you don't realize you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”

Here in this song, Mary, through the Holy Spirit working through Mary, strikes at our hearts. He wants us to see how wretched, poor, miserable, and blind we really are, and how much we need God. And when you realize that, and think to yourself, “Why in the world would God ever, ever want to help me?” If you are troubled, and you tremble at the feeling of God's wrath, and the horror of God's judgment and of Hell, then have confidence. You are the one God wants to talk to. You are the one God wants to show His mercy to. You are the one God wants to save. That is what His promises say. He is the God of the poor.

I want to close by reading the words of Mary’s song: