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November 30, 2005
Midweek Advent 1
Luke 1:39-56
Pastor Joel Zank

We, too, Sing Mary's Song

(Luke 1:39-56) At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, {40} where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. {41} When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. {42} In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! {43} But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? {44} As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. {45} Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" {46} And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord {47} and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, {48} for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, {49} for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. {50} His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. {51} He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. {52} He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. {53} He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. {54} He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful {55} to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers." {56} Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

In Christ Jesus who is true God from all eternity and also true man, born of the virgin Mary, dear fellow redeemed,

Do you have some favorite Christmas Carols-ones you just never get tired of hearing? Why is that? Is it the songs' melodies that you like so much, or their lyrics? Maybe it's the way the tunes and words fit together so well. Or maybe you've never thought about it - you just know your favorites when you hear them. Well, during this season of Advent, all of us get to add a few more songs to our list of favorites - original Christmas carols that we're calling "Songs of the Savior."

Tonight's song is the very first of its kind, written by the very first hymn writer of the New Testament era-Mary, the mother of our Savior. As we'll soon discover, so much of what Mary says in her song could be spoken by every one of us-a truth which leads us to the theme: We, too, Sing Mary's Song. We sing it to glorify God, to praise God's mercy, and to rejoice in God's faithfulness.

Mary has just received some amazing news-the Lord's angel, Gabriel, has just told her that by the power of the Holy Spirit, she, a virgin, will give birth to the Son of God. And, then, to confirm the truth of his good news, Gabriel tells Mary of another wonder worked by God-her relative, Elizabeth, who was well along in years, and who had never been able to have children, was now six months pregnant. We're not surprised, then, when St. Luke tells us that Mary got ready and hurried off to Judea, to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. Here was an opportunity for these three people to share God's promises and by doing so, build each other up in the faith.

And that's exactly what happened. You get the sense that God couldn't wait to bless his people. Mary was barely in the door, had no sooner greeted her cousin, when Elizabeth's baby leaped in her womb. Was this a just a coincidence? Not at all! Inspired by the Holy Spirit himself, Elizabeth says to Mary, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!...{44} As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. {45} Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" (Luke 1:42, 44-45). Before Mary even had a chance to tell her cousin about Gabriel's visit or his strange announcements, God used Elizabeth to confirm everything - it was all as the angel had said-Elizabeth was pregnant, and so was Mary, pregnant with God's own Son.

So what else is there for Mary to do, but to return the favor, to speak words that build up Elizabeth's faith, and ours too! "My soul glorifies the Lord {47} and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, {48} for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, {49} for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name" (Luke 1:46-49). In Latin, the language of the early Christian church, Mary's song begins with the word, "magnificat," and so it has been called by that name down through the centuries. Magnificat means to magnify.

God has just turned the spotlight of his favor on this girl named Mary. Of all the women in Israel, of all the women in the world, he had chosen her to be the mother of his Son. Think of how such news might magnify a person's ego. "God chose me! I'm the one!" Knowing the human ego as well as each of us does, we might expect a little boasting here on Mary's part - a little self-magnification. But that's not what we hear. Rather than magnifying herself, Mary magnifies the Lord-and this isn't mere lip service-this isn't just the right thing to say in an awkward moment-this is coming from Mary's soul. Mary magnifies, she glorifies the Lord by giving him the credit for all that he has done and is doing in her life.

Martin Luther once wrote, "When a prince takes a poor beggar by the hand, it is not the beggar's lowliness but the prince's grace and goodness that is to be commended" (AE 21:314). Mary knows that in every way she is the beggar. She knows her humble state - by the world's way of thinking she is a nobody. But Mary isn't concerned about the world's way of thinking. She knows her lowly status before God-she's a miserable sinner one to be shunned by the Mighty God whose name is holy. She knows that as a sinner she desperately needs a Savior or she will spend eternity in the pit of hell. Mary has no reason to boast, not in herself. She boasts in the Lord, for in his great love he has given that poor sinner what she and every sinner needs most. To God's greatest glory and Mary's greatest joy, she is able to call the child within her, "...my Savior."

Friends, how we too want to sing Mary's song! The Mighty One had done great things for her. He's done no less for us. Out of all the people in this world, he chose us to be his. With the same power that miraculously conceived the Christ in Mary's womb, God has placed his Son in us through the water and promise of Holy Baptism. How shall we respond? Shall we magnify ourselves in all this? It's tempting isn't it? Pride and selfishness form the very core of our sinful nature. We have no trouble at all pushing God off to the side so that we may claim center stage for ourselves. Never is that more evident than at this time of the year. Do you suppose that a stranger to our world would ever guess that we are preparing to celebrate the birthday of our Lord? Look at us-from the youngest to the oldest, all of our holiday wishes, all of our holiday shopping, all of our holiday parties seem to be all about us. That's a rather rude way to treat the Christ-child, but worse than rude, it's a reflection of all that is wrong with us; it's a reflection of the sin that still clings to us and endangers our relationship with God. There is no place in God's family for self-centered children. The fact that we're in his family has nothing to do with us; it is all about God, all about his willingness to take us spiritual beggars by the hand, lift us up from the punishment we deserve and save us for himself in heaven. How good it is for us to sing Mary's song, so that her words might remind us of our humble state, even as they teach us to glorify our God.

God is glorified best when we sinners honor him for his kindness as Mary does in this Song of the Savior. So we, too, sing Mary's song to praise God for his mercy. It seems to me that we don't hear nearly as much about God's mercy as we do his grace. I'm not sure why that is, because God's grace and mercy are two sides of the same coin. When I think of grace, I think of the goodness that God's shows to us sinners, goodness we don't deserve. When I think of mercy, I think of God withholding from us sinners the misery we do deserve. In the middle section of her song, Mary chronicles for us the way that God works in the lives of us sinners so that we may live each day in his mercy. Mary begins by pointing out that the kindness she has received from the Lord is not intended for her alone. She says: "His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation"(Luke 1:50-53). In this context, to "fear" God means to respect him for the great things he does on behalf of sinners. It means to hold God in reverent awe, in the way we might regard someone who has saved our life. In fact, that's a good way to think about this. Imagine yourself as the patient in a trauma unit. You have no pulse-you're dead on arrival, but God is the great physician who spends every ounce of his energy, employs every bit of his skill to bring you to life. That means that as your spiritual doctor God must use the scalpel of his law to expose all the damage sin has caused you. What damage would that be? How about the sinful pride that ruins all our thoughts? On the surface we all pretend to be very modest, but deep inside we really believe that we are better than all the sinners around us, and because we are, we deserve every good thing God can give us. The same sinful pride convinces us that we are in the driver's seat of life, rightfully in control of our own destiny. And last but not least, sinful pride has us all thinking that we are so rich in good works and self-righteousness, that the day will certainly come when God will have no choice but to welcome us into his heaven. Think of it, my friends, that's the kind of damning arrogance that naturally fills us all. What, then, could God possibly do for us? Mary tells us: "He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. {52} He has brought down rulers from their thrones... {53} He has ...sent the rich away empty" (Luke 1:51-53). In other words, God has used his law to cut away our deep-seated pride, convincing us "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). God has toppled us of from our thrones, showing us that we're not the captains of our fate, but rather slaves to our sin, destined by nature, not for heaven, but for eternal death in hell. What a shock - we invested everything we had in self-righteousness, but the market has crashed, leaving all of us spiritually bankrupt. God's law has taken away everything we considered valuable. Why? To humble us-to make us so fed up with our own sinfulness that we would hunger after God's mercy instead. And it worked my friends. Look at what our God has done for us. We are here worshiping him through no effort and to no credit of our own. God has done this- he "...has lifted up the humble. {53} He has filled the hungry with good things" (Luke 1:52b-53a). He broke us down with his law so that he could lift us up with his gospel. He emptied us of our pride so that he could fill us with his pardon. He has stripped us of our self-righteousness so that he could clothe us with Christ's righteousness. Now we have all that we need - we have Jesus by faith, we have his suffering in hell as payment for sin, his constant forgiveness and the peace that it brings us, and best of all we have his promise of heaven and life without end. What more reason do we need to sing Mary's song? We need no more reason at all, but we have one just the same. We, too, sing Mary's song to rejoice in God's faithfulness.

Have you ever wondered why God stays with us sinners when we keep sinning against him day after day? Obviously it's not because of our faithfulness-not at all. It's because of God's faithfulness to himself and to the promises he has made. Mary sings in her closing stanza: "[God] has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful {55} to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers" (Luke 1:54-55). If God's continued goodness to us depended in any way on our goodness to him, we would never see the light of heaven. But here is the good news of Scripture-Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:13 "If we are faithless, [God] will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself." In other words, we Christians can live out our days confident that God will keep using his law and his gospel to keep us his people. As often as we turn to his Word, he will show us our wrongs, our need for a Savior, and, then, without fail, the God who knows all and sees all, will purposely forget every last one of our sins, and remember only his great love for us in Christ.

My friends, all this we learn from the virgin's simple song-a hymn she's no doubt still singing in heaven above, where, by God's grace, we, too will sing Mary's song to the praise and glory of Jesus, her Savior and ours. Amen.