12/17/17 Advent 3 Have Yourself a Mary Christmas Luke 1:39-55 Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church

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1 12/17/17 Advent 3 Have Yourself a Mary Christmas Luke 1:39-55 Pastor Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church Something that has become popular on social media is people using creative means to reveal that they re pregnant and whether their baby is a girl or a boy. Have you seen any of these? People pop balloons, have things in different colors, and do a variety of creative reveals. Today s Gospel passage is a creative reveal of a pregnancy. The context for today s scripture is a meeting between two expectant mothers. Elizabeth is getting on in years, and has never been able to have a child. Mary is young and not yet married. Both pregnancies are unexpected and unplanned by the people involved. It s amazing how news of the same event being pregnant can be received very differently depending on the circumstances. Both children growing in their mother s wombs will be special. Elizabeth s son, John the Baptist, will prepare the way for Mary s son, Jesus. At the moment of today s scripture their sons ministries lie some 30 years in a future that cannot be seen or known by the mothers, any more than parents today can imagine what their children s lives will be like in 30 years. Elizabeth, praying against the reality of her past experience, is in seclusion hoping her pregnancy will last full term, and take away the disgrace she has felt in her culture at not being able to give birth. Mary, having what can only be described as a miraculous encounter, agrees to partner with God according to God s word, but cannot have any idea what she s going to experience. The angel Gabriel tells Mary that her older relative Elizabeth is pregnant with a son, and Mary goes immediately to see her. Maybe one of Mary s thoughts was, If Elizabeth is truly pregnant, it will confirm my own experience. When Elizabeth greeted Mary by blessing her and the fruit of her womb before Mary could tell her she was pregnant, it provided confirmation for Mary. Elizabeth and Mary both break into songs of praise to God. Listen to Luke 1:39-55, In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for 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 the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in 1

2 remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. I want to talk with you today about having a Mary Christmas, not merry as in jolly, but Mary as in the mother of Jesus. Having a Mary Christmas might look very different than what many people envision or expect of the holiday we will celebrate in just over a week. In the eyes of God, our discipleship is measured not so much by whether we say Merry Christmas to people, which is easy and costs us nothing; but by whether we have a Mary Christmas, which is living a life of trust and faith, of prayer and worship, of service to those in need, and obedience. Let s start with this; Christmas is a time when God invites us, like Mary, to make a decision about the direction of our lives. Mary had faith that God s promise to her would be fulfilled that s what Elizabeth commends her for. Mary needed to trust God and so do we. Just as some of us like old songs at Christmas time, Mary s song is patterned after the ancient song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, and it s a classical statement of God s activity God brings down the mighty, and lifts up the lowly. Hannah, Mary and Elizabeth, all had to trust God in difficult circumstances, and we are challenged to do the same. Some of us may find it hard to trust God with all the acts of violence in the world; the acts of terrorism, mass shootings and war; the selfishness, short-sightedness, and abuses of the powerful, but we can struggle with trust over issues smaller or less dramatic than those. Some of us have trouble trusting God if we ve been in Elizabeth s position of years of waiting, hoping and praying, and not seeing an answer or getting an answer we didn t want. We may find it hard to trust after years of emptiness and seeming silence from God. Elizabeth may have thought, What? Now?! Are you sure? Aren t you a little late? If we feel like Elizabeth, we may wonder, What have I received for my service, devotion, and prayers there are still problems in my family, with health, with finances. God, why haven t you done something? Sometimes it s like we re holding one piece of a puzzle, and wondering why it doesn t seem to make sense to us. God had something special planned for Elizabeth and Zechariah in their old age, which enabled them to be a blessing to the world in a way they couldn t have imagined when they were younger. Sometimes, people think life has passed them by or that they have already made their greatest contribution, but like Elizabeth and Zechariah, God may surprise you when you re older with a very significant contribution to make. And we still remember Elizabeth s song of praise all these years later. Some of us may identify with Mary. She s a young woman, most likely a teenager, living in a country occupied by the global super power of the day: the Roman Empire. Certainly she had hopes and goals of her own, but God gives her an opportunity to be the instrument of tremendous blessing to the world. Mary is overwhelmed, of course, and wonders, What? Now?! Are you sure? Aren t you a little early, I m not even married yet? For Mary, following God s plan means changing her goals and expectations, and trusting God sometimes that s true of us as well. God invites Mary to something unheard of and unexpected that in the years to come will require being vulnerable to having her own heart and hopes pierced, which is true not only of her but of all parents. 2

3 Mary magnifies or declares the greatness of God. Magnify has several meanings, including to glorify or praise, as well as to enlarge or to make greater in size. A magnifying glass enables us to see something more clearly. When Mary says my soul magnifies the Lord, and shares what God has done for her, she is praising God, and enabling others to see God s nature and character more clearly than we can through the lenses of our own experience. Part of us having a Mary Christmas is thinking about how we are enabling others to see God s nature and character more clearly through how we are living our life. How are you magnifying the Lord? Having a Mary Christmas also means praising God for what God has done for us personally. This is what Mary does. Her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. Mary looks to God for mercy, salvation and deliverance. He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. The Mighty One has done great things for me. How has God looked on you with favor? What great things has the Mighty One done for you? It s important to remember that Mary, at this point, is a young woman, yet she s focusing on God s blessing in her life and the great things God has done and not the difficulties she will face in being faithful. Mary worships God by recalling the many ways God has acted powerfully on her behalf. Mary also praises God for what has been done for generations, and what the Lord will do in the future, and Mary speaks of all these things as if they were already accomplished. God has looked with favor, done great things, shown strength, scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, filled the hungry, and helped his servant Israel. Mary asserts that the God who has been faithful in the past will continue to be faithful in the future. Some of us may feel a little uncomfortable with Mary stating God is not on the side of the proud, the powerful, or the rich who are going to be sent away empty, but that s what God s Word states. Luke s gospel is filled with these kinds of reversals. Throughout his gospel Luke repeatedly warns us not to invest our lives merely trying to climb a pyramid of material success or personal prestige that Mary says God is going to flip upside down. It s interesting how many people don t want preachers to be political or to speak to social issues, but one of the most famous passages in the New Testament, Mary s song, is very political and social. Can you imagine taking your Bible to the White House or the Capital Building, and simply reading Mary s words aloud? How do you think they d be received in Washington? Another way we magnify the Lord is through our obedience to God s word. Elizabeth says to Mary (Luke 1:45), Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. Mary was obedient to the Lord even though the future didn t turn out the way Mary hoped it would when she shared these joyous words. No parent wants to outlive her or his child. When Jesus was just a baby, a man named Simeon said prophetically and ominously to Mary (Luke 2:34-35), This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too. Mary could not have imagined as she and Elizabeth shared their mutual joy that one day she d see her son publicly tortured and executed. However, thankfully her heartache would be transformed to celebration. 3

4 There s a sense in which the future is never going to be exactly the way we thought it might be in our lives, our families, at BBC, in our nation or the world; however, it s important for us to be like Mary who was faithful and kept believing in the goodness of God and the purposes of the Lord even though her dream of having a long, happy marriage and kids didn t turn out the way she probably hoped it would before Gabriel came to her and shared the message that changed her life. To return to the beginning of our story, some of us, like Elizabeth, may have hoped and prayed for something in our life for years, and those hopes and dreams weren t fulfilled. Like Elizabeth, we need to find ways to hold onto our faith in the midst of that disappointment and waiting. Some of us, like Mary, have had something happen that we totally hadn t hoped or prayed for that significantly impacted our life. Like Mary, we can learn to hold onto our faith in the midst of those totally unexpected events, and to wait patiently and prayerfully for God s future to be revealed. These two exemplary women, Elizabeth and Mary, are great role models and examples of facing both disappointment and the unexpected with resilient faith and courage. That is a message of Christmas that is powerful and lasts throughout the entire year. Mary is pregnant with the possibility of God s future. God s promise is going to be fulfilled in her and through her, but it will take time. Pregnancy requires waiting and coping with changes as they occur. Those changes are not always welcome or comfortable, but they re endured because there s a purpose in mind. A person is growing, developing and maturing, and new life is going to emerge. How can we have a Mary Christmas this year? Like Mary, God s promises can be fulfilled in us and through us, but the new life God wants to bring forth will take time to develop, and may happen in ways that are not easy for us to accept. Like Mary, we can glorify God in whole-hearted worship and prayer that ponders what God is doing in our midst. Like Mary, we can share God s concern and love for the humble, the lowly, the poor and the hungry. Like Mary, we can magnify the Lord in our lives so that others may see God more clearly. If I could have arranged it, I would have gotten great big magnifying glasses about three feet in diameter hanging from a sturdy piece of rope that I could have placed over your head as you left worship today to remind you always to remember that we re called to magnify the Lord in our lives every moment of every day throughout the year. Like Mary, we can have the joy of looking forward with excitement and anticipation for the new life that God is bringing forth within us and through us. Like Mary and Elizabeth, I hope you will ponder what is God longing to birth and bring to life in and through you if you will only believe? Christmas is a time of reversals and surprises; a time to believe and trust and dare to say yes to the Mighty One whose name is holy. It s a time to remember the words of Mary s song, whether we like them all or not, that God opposes the proud, the powerful, and the rich, and is on the side of the humble, lowly and poor so we better be sure to be also. A season in which a merciful God will help us no matter who we are if we will only ask. Whether we are struggling 4

5 with grief, emptiness or pain; with finances, health or hunger; or whether we re grateful and joyful for the abundance of God s blessings in our life, or some combination of all of the above; like Mary and Elizabeth, we can lift our voices in praise because God has sent Jesus for us. I pray we will all have a Mary Christmas, not only next week, but throughout the year. Questions for Reflection or Discussion 1. Like Elizabeth, have you ever hoped and prayed for something in your life and those hopes and dreams weren t fulfilled? How, like Elizabeth, did you hold onto your faith in the midst of that disappointment? 2. Like Mary, have you ever had something happen that you totally hadn t hoped or prayed for that significantly impacted your life? How, like Mary, did you hold onto your faith in the midst of that totally unexpected event? 3. What can we learn from Elizabeth and Mary facing both disappointment and the unexpected with resilient faith and courage? 4. Mary praises God for what the Lord has done for her personally. What are you praising God for today? 5. How would a Mary Christmas look in your life? What might change about your observance and celebration of Christmas if it reflected more of Mary s spirit? 6. How can you magnify the Lord in your life so that others may see God more clearly? 5