Dec. 12, 2010 Luke 1:46-55 C & Z “Awesome God”
If you remember last week I told you that this was my favorite time of year because of all the presents we might be getting. Right kids? This all tied into the hope that we have. Today I would like to say that it is also a time of year when we get to hear a lot of our favorite songs. Many of you probably don’t know this but I really love music. Sharon has a hard time understanding how I can turn on the tunes and read or even write a sermon. It seems to be very soothing for me and it doesn’t seem to disturb my train of thought or at least I don’t think it does. Some of my favorite songs are the Christmas tunes that we only play for about a month a year. And I think that this is about the right amount of time to play them or else they wouldn’t be as effective next year if we played them all the time. So I really do appreciate our Christmas services from a musical standpoint. I know that I am not a very good singer but I do enjoy standing up here and listening to your wonderful blend of voices, some good and some not so good, but together they sound great. We are surrounded by music where ever we go today. But there is one song that we never sing and that is Mary’s song from our Scripture this morning. This is a beautiful song of love, power and hope. Let’s see if we can enjoy this a little this morning.
But before we begin this morning I would like to give a little warning about getting caught up in all the activities of the season. Melvin Newland tells the story of a little girl who watched her mother and father get ready for Christmas. To this little girl it seemed that her dad was preoccupied with burdens and bundles and her mom was concerned about parties and presents and they just didn’t have any time for her. She felt that she was being shoved aside because she was always being told, “Would you please get out of the way?” I hope that none of us ever get this way. Anyway, one night in December she knelt by her bed and prayed this prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven, please forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us.” Please don’t let this harsh truth be about you.
Before we begin looking at this song I would like to point out something that is very important. Most of the time when we write songs or poetry we write something about it after the fact. I think of the song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald or The Train Called the City of New Orleans or any other ballad for that matter. Something has to happen and then the song gets written. In Mary’s Song, the event hasn’t happened yet. This is a song of the faith of Mary that all will happen in the future.
If we think about this for a minute, this is truly astonishing. Mary is not very old in all of this. She is probably between 13 and 15. She is at the age when girls wed in those days. She would have been a working girl because everyone worked in those days. There were no child labor laws. There was only the law of survival. In order to survive, everyone worked.
We might think that this was a little harsh. But let’s think about our own country for a minute. We don’t even have to work when we are adults. We have welfare to take care of us. We have unemployment to take care of us. Our government wants to run every little facet of our lives. We are just the opposite of the ancients because it seems that if we work hard we will not survive today. It is far better to be lazy. But I don’t want to go down that rabbit trail this morning.
So we have this young girl writing this beautiful song that begins with love. She begins with “My soul glorifies the Lord.” This young girl must be crazy. Here she is with not much money, pregnant and unmarried. She could be sentenced to death for this. The best that she could hope for is that she be allowed to live even if she is banished from the community. She has got a hundred things going against her, maybe even more. With all these things going against her, she praises God. She loves God. She glorifies God.
Let me ask a personal question and you don’t have to answer to me. When was the last time that you were in a tight situation and you praised God? I am afraid that many people will have to admit that the first thing that comes from their mouths when something bad happens is a curse of God. We swear and curse. I have had many people curse and then ask for my pardon because the pastor is present. Then they go right on swearing anyway like I’m not even there. I don’t like it when you swear but don’t seek forgiveness from me. You are offending God not me. Ask forgiveness from Him. Unfortunately, most people feel that they are far superior to God and would not even consider going to Him.
So Mary leads the way for us by praising God in a tight situation. Maybe we should try saying something like, “thank you God for all your wisdom in letting me lose all my money; or thank you God for this terrible illness; or thank you God that I am pregnant with a child of God.” Don’t curse God because you hit your thumb with a hammer. Praise Him instead.
Look how things turned out for Mary. She became the mother of Jesus. That would have to be a huge honor, especially when she knew where He came from. We don’t know much about Mary but I think she had a pretty good life after this, until the cross that is. But please notice something else here. Mary also says, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
There are denominations where they feel that Mary was some sort of divine person or being from God. Now don’t get me wrong here. She was special because she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus. But she wasn’t divine. It tells us this in this line because she said, “God my savior.” If she was divine she would have no need of a savior. But she knows that she is just like all the rest of us and needs a savior from God. She doesn’t curse God; she calls out to Him because she knows that He is the only one who can save her. She loves God.
The first part of this song just glorifies Him. She tells how she will be known for generations to come. We still know Mary today. She praises Him for choosing her for this role. She praises Him for the mercy he shows to all, even those who don’t know Him. She is very thankful. Then she goes on to talk of the power of God a little bit.
God is powerful enough to extend mercy to everyone even those who don’t know Him. He will extend mercy to those who insist on saying, “Happy Holidays.” He will extend mercy to the ones who make your life miserable, like our US Congress. He will even extend mercy to those religions who hate Him. God has that much power.
And his power extends forever and ever. He is the ruler of all generations. He is the ruler of all time. There is no one who can escape Him. Every once in a while I will hear things like; “I really don’t or can’t believe in God.” Once again we have people thinking small because it doesn’t make any difference to the world if you believe in God or not. He will still be there no matter what you believe. He will still have power over you and He will still be there to judge you when you die. It doesn’t matter what you believe, He will still be there. We are not in control of anything. God is and I praise the Lord for this. I praise Him for His wisdom.
He is not only in control but He has also won the final victory. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, Satan and all the false religions of the world have been defeated. We seem to be so vain as to think that it is us who defeats the terrible regimes of the world. We seem to like to think that it is us who won a war. We are merely pawns in all of this. God is the one who brings down the Hitler’s and the Amin’s. God is in charge and He will bring down the mighty rulers who do not know Him. He will bring down this country unless we can get things straightened out a bit. We need revival. We need to get the word out that everyone needs Jesus. Think of the country we could have if everyone knew Jesus. Wow!!
One of the great things about God is that He takes care of us. He will get rid of all the bad guys eventually, on His time. He will also fill us with all that we need to get through life. He gives us our talents. There are times when we think we are really talented or good because we can play football better than anyone else or play music better or just live life better than anyone else. These things have nothing to do with us. God gave us the talent to do whatever it is we do. He also gave us the talent to do the job well so there can be no excuses for not doing something well.
Whatever it is that we need and not necessarily what we think we need but whatever we need, God will give to us. Unfortunately, often times we don’t know what we need or what we already have. For instance, look at me. For most of my life I was never able to get up in front of people and speak. Look what God did to me. I stand up in front of people at least once a week. He filled me with this. Do you know what He has given you? This is why it is important to keep evaluating ourselves so that we notice these changes that God has sent our way. And then we can act on them.
The final part of Mary’s song is where she talks of the fulfilled covenant. This is where the hope comes into our passage. She praises God for being merciful to all of the descendants of Abraham. This is very comforting to the early readers. This helps to give some validity to the story. This is the promise that is being kept. God has not forgotten his people. He has finally sent the long awaited Messiah.
This is the beginning of the story of our Messiah. The people would rejoice that He was finally here. They would celebrate. They would line up to be healed. They would listen to His words of wisdom. They would line the streets as He entered Jerusalem. They would all fall down before Him in praise. Jesus would tell them that they could not be sons of Abraham unless they followed Him. There would be a whole new way of looking at their Jewish religion and they would eventually call themselves Christians.
All these things we have been talking about, the love of our Savior for us, the faith we have in Him for the final victory and the hope we have through a fulfilled covenant, all these things make a beautiful song. And all of these things apply to us today.
Think of all the love that Jesus has for you. I think of it like this. I would like you to look at the Christmas tree. Concentrate on all the lights and then let all the other colors fill in around the lights. Sometimes I just love to turn off all other lights and just look at the tree. I think that this is because Jesus is shining through all of the lights and He is illumining all the other colors and ornaments. He makes it beautiful. A Christmas tree might be pretty all the time but it is not beautiful until you turn the lights on. Then just sit back and enjoy.
The same can be said of our lives. Everyone in the world is made by God. They are all pretty. But they will not or do not become beautiful until they have Jesus inside of them and they allow His great light to shine through their bodies. When this happens, they light up everything that is near them. They become a torch for the Lord, a beautiful, beautiful torch. This is one of the reasons that we are different from non-believers. They don’t have this beautiful light. They cannot light up the colors in the people around them like we can.
If you don’t know Jesus this morning, then ask Him to forgive all the sins of your life and ask Him to live inside you. Ask Him to light up your life with His beautiful, eternal light. Make yourself more beautiful than this tree. He loves you and will never leave you.
This is the season of hope, good will and good cheer. This marks the beginning of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth. He came as a baby just like the babies we have had in this congregation. A baby!! Think how vulnerable he was. Think how tiny He was. And yet, He was God.
This baby would walk on water. He would feed thousands with next to nothing. The wind would calm at his slightest command. Demons fled from Him. He would cure the sick and heal the lame. This man, this God, our Jesus does all of these things and still He knows you by name. He knows your every thought. He knows the number of hairs on your head. And the best part is that He loves you more than you will ever know in this world. What an awesome God! Sing “Awesome God.” Let’s pray.
