Minister: Rev. Kerry McCormick

Text: Luke 1:46-55 - Magnificat
Title: Songs of the Season: Song of Trust
Theme: Advent 2011 series

Let’s pray.

Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that, as the Scriptures are read and your word proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today. Amen.

Luke 1:46-55

46  Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, 

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 

48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

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

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 

51 He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly; 

53 he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty. 

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 

55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Said the night wind to the little lamb,
"Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky, little lamb,
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite,
With a tail as big as a kite."

There are songs to this season!  This past week, I Google-d the words “Songs of Christmas” and my computer showed me 55 million websites – by refining my search a bit, I was able to narrow it down to a mere 137,000. The list included everything from songs like “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth”, “Frosty the Snowman”, “Grandma Got run over by a Reindeer” to “Ave Maria”, “Carol of the Bells”,  “O Holy Night”, and everything in between.  

Some songs are just frivolous and silly and give us a good laugh; others touch our lives in significant ways and have the power to transform human hearts from self-centeredness to God-centeredness, to give hope to the discouraged, comfort to the sorrowful, and strength to the weary.

Mary’s Song aka Magnificat (a Latin word meaning “my heart magnifies the Lord”) is one of those kinds of songs.  On the top 10 countdown, Casey Kasem hit parade of Jesus’ day, this would have been a chart topper!  If there were liner notes to scripture, we’d learn that Mary’s Magnificat song is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and it’s used in the context of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth’s proclamation of her baby’s movement at the sound of Mary’s voice.

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 

42 and exclaimed with a loud cry,

"Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 

43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 

44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting,

the child in my womb leaped for joy. 

45 And blessed is she who believed

that there would be a fulfillment

of what was spoken to her by the Lord."

What is it about the Advent season of preparation that makes your heart leap for joy within you?  I remember, growing up, what a big deal Christmas Eve was in my family.  What made my heart leap was the sensory overload at worship: candlelight, orange zest and whole peanuts, fresh cut evergreen boughs, the swell of the congregation singing, the frosty air of returning home way past our bedtimes.  We grew up knowing that our gifts were exchanged only after we acknowledged receiving the true Gift – Jesus.

Can you think of ways the season evokes heart leaping memories or emotions for you?

All that God had intended for humanity would be accomplished through the child Mary carries in her womb.   “Theotokos” is her name, the God bearer.  

As friends and followers of Jesus, we are God-bearers, too. Theotokos.  You.  Me.  We bear the light and love of Christ with us wherever we go these days.  It’s enough to make your heart leap, isn’t it?

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy,
"Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy,
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song high above the trees
With a voice as big as the sea,
With a voice as big as the sea."

Mary’s song is a pretty big song as she recalls God’s desires for Israel over the centuries. Her song is a recap of God’s covenant with Abraham in Genesis chapters 12 – 17 to make Israel a Chosen People who would serve as a channel through which God’s blessings could flow to the rest of the world.  

If you recall back in Genesis, Abraham took his wife and his nephew, Lot, and went toward the land God would show him.  Abraham moved south along the trade routes from Haran through Shechem and Bethel to the land of Canaan – which was populated by a war-like people; so Abraham’s belief that God would ultimately give this land to him and his descendants was an act of faith.  Despite the difficulty of the circumstances (the intimidating natives, his age and a lack of obvious off-spring), Abraham’s faith in God’s promises allowed him to trust in the Lord. 

Through one son, Isaac, Abraham trusted God to keep the covenant.

In Mary’s day, given the historical record of their land having been conquered and ravaged for centuries by one super power after another – the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans – Mary’s people still held a deep and strong faith in God’s promise to one day send the promised Messiah who would free Israel from its enemies so it could fulfill its mandate to be a light to the nations.  Her song sets the stage for us to understand the purpose for the birth of the Christ child, not as a military conqueror or a political leader, but as a fulfillment of humanity’s fullest potential.

Through one son, Jesus, God trusts us to keep the covenant.

According to Hebrews 11:1 “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen” – it is believing that because God has declared something, it is already accomplished even if the tangible and visible evidence is not immediately apparent to our visual, tactile and other senses.  Belief in something we cannot see, for which we cannot provide evidence is sort of at the heart of faith, though, isn’t it?  It requires us to trust what we cannot empirically know – for we have trouble validating our experiences of God’s activity in our lives.

As we hear Mary proclaiming that God has already scattered the proud and arrogant; pulled down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the poor; satisfied the hungry with good nourishment, and sent the self-sufficiently wealthy away empty-handed, we are aware she has no evidence to support her words. 

What she does have is the hopeful conviction of a vision of a changed society God was bringing into being where all wrongs will be righted, where every injustice will be corrected, where the oppressed and downtrodden will be lifted up and those who have elevated and exalted themselves will be humbled.

As a God-bearer, a bringer of good news, what is your song of trust in the Lord?  In what ways do you perceive the already and the not-yet nature of the kingdom of God?  How do you perceive a changed society where wrongs are righted, injustices corrected, the leveling of the playing field for the haves and the have nots?  Do you know your notes in the Song of Trust in the Lord? Perhaps you feel both as inadequate and as brave as the shepherd boy.

Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king,
"Do you know what I know?
In your palace warm, mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold--
Let us bring him silver and gold,
Let us bring him silver and gold."

We give gifts to one another as a reflection of the gift we were given in a stable in Bethlehem.  We don’t memorialize it as the procession of a presidential motorcade or the ticker-tape return of a conquering hero.  We think of the birth of the Christ-child in the most modest terms: a cold and drafty lean-to structure (maybe a cave) with farm animals and shepherds milling about in a corner of the world that could just as easily be overlooked.  And in the vulnerability of that moment, we are drawn toward the greatest event known to human history: Emmanuel, God with us, God among us – one of us.

The wonder of it is apparent in a song we’ll sing together in just a moment, but words go like this:

What Child is this who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?

Whom Angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?

This, This is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;

Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

So bring him incense gold and myrrh, come peasant, king to own him;

the King of kings salvation brings, let loving hearts enthrone him.

This, This is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and Angels sing;

Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.

How do you ‘enthrone’ Jesus in your heart?  We were deliberately created in God’s image to be Theotokos – God-bearers in our homes, schools, our places of business, in the community – wherever we live and move and have our being.  Always and everywhere we are trusted by God to be God’s people.  We are expected to participate through our Active Daily Discipleship in processes that help to bring about the kingdom of God in meaningful ways.  It’s more comfortable to be God’s people when we feel like we’re aligning our lives, honoring our part of the covenant – to attend to and nurture our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, to right wrongs, and to care for the last, the lost and the least.

Said the king to the people everywhere,
"Listen to what I say!
Pray for peace, people, everywhere,
Listen to what I say!
The Child, the Child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light,
He will bring us goodness and light."

And so again this Advent season, we find ourselves in a time of preparation; waiting for and trusting God to be God for us.  We stand surrounded a vast number of the saints: Abraham and Moses, Sarah and Rebecca, David and Deborah, Zechariah and John, Elizabeth and Mary.  God comes to us – the least likely individuals in the least likely of places and says to you and me:

“Greetings Bob! Greetings Shirley! Greetings Don & Lynn, Mike and Janet... Do not fear!  You who are highly favored! The Lord is with you!” and then goes on to promise the outpouring of the Holy Sprit upon us – each one of us – so that Christ might be formed within us.

God will not impose on us, but rather offers a loving invitation for us to choose to participate in the in-breaking of God’s kingdom: the already and the not yet.  These are the opening notes to our Song of Trust: as we determine how we will respond to the gift of the Christ child in our hearts anew.

Mary responded by saying, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be with me as you have said.” You and I are here trusting in what we cannot see, but experiencing a living hope, a steadfast faith, and knowing something of God’s eternal and life-transforming love because she said, “Yes.” Would that we might receive the gift of the Christ-child, trust God, and say “yes” too.   Amen?  Amen.