The Song of Mary Rich Nathan December 9 & 10, 2017 The Songs of Christmas Luke 1:39-55

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1 The Song of Mary Rich Nathan December 9 & 10, 2017 The Songs of Christmas Luke 1:39-55 How many of you are done with your Christmas shopping? How many of you haven t even started? Have you at least put up a Christmas tree yet? Are any of you unaware that Christmas is coming in just a few weeks? One way you know that Christmas is coming is, apart from the fact that the malls are packed and you can t find a parking space, is the constant playing of Christmas songs in the stores. Go to any store and you ll hear Jingle Bell Rock or White Christmas or Rockin Around the Christmas Tree or All I Want for Christmas is You. Regarding Christmas songs, maybe your taste runs more to spiritual and religious songs. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of my favorites. How about Joy to the World? Silent Night? O, Little Town of Bethlehem? Hark, the Herald Angels Sing? If Christmas is about anything, it s about singing. I was thinking about singing recently did you know that singing has tremendous health benefits? For those of you who hate to sing (I m thinking of you, men!), for those of you who view singing the way Ebenezer Scrooge views Christmas Bah, Humbug, nobody s going to get me to sing! Singing is really, really good for you! Did you know that? Singing releases endorphins and oxytocin. Endorphins are the hormones that release feelings of pleasure and euphoria. Oxytocin is known as the cuddle hormone that s released when people snuggle up. It decreases stress and anxiety and improves cognition. Several studies indicate that singers and musicians often have higher IQs that non-singers and non-musicians. Singing can improve your overall brain function. Singing lowers your blood pressure. Singing develops your lungs and improves your posture. Singing improves your memory. Singing boosts your immunity. Singing is really, really good for you. Let me share a few other things with you that we know from science about singing. Singing apparently stems from a different portion of the brain than speech. There s a lot of research done on people who have various neurological problems. For example, there are folks who have suffered damage in their brain s left hemisphere after a stroke. They can have problems producing language. It s a condition called non-fluent aphasia. Patients can have trouble putting together a three word sentence, and yet if you ask them to sing an old song they can sing it fluently. You wouldn t know that there is anything wrong with them. 1

2 Research tells us that memory improves with singing even by many people who are suffering from dementia. There are patients who do not recall their children s own names, but if you play a familiar song to them they might sing along and know the melody in detail. So, music and singing come from a different part of the brain than normal speech. Anthropologists say that they know of no tribe or group that doesn t sing. Apparently, it is the case that to be human is to sing. During Advent and Christmas this year, I wanted to do a brief series titled, The Songs of Christmas. If there s one thing that s notable from the gospel writer Luke s account of the Christmas story it s that everyone in the story is singing. Jesus mother Mary sings. John the Baptist s father, Zechariah sings. Even the angels sing. As we turn our attention towards preparing our hearts for Christmas, the Christmas song I want to look at is the song of Mary. Let s pray. Luke 1: 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 the Lord would fulfill his promises to her! 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 2

3 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. Apart from the health benefits of singing together, have you ever wondered why virtually every church, other than a few odd exceptions, sings. Do you ever wonder why that is? They may sing Gregorian chants. They might sing hymns or old spirituals. They might sing contemporary worship songs. But have you ever wondered why virtually every church sings? Singing in the church One reason why almost every church, other than a few unusual exceptions, sings is because Singing is a vital form of praise Now, we can praise God in different ways, but singing is a key part of that praise. According to scripture, praising God has two parts. We can praise God to God or we can praise God to others. Just like I can praise my wife, Marlene, by telling her how wonderful she is and how much I love her or I can praise my wife, Marlene, to other people by telling you how wonderful she is, we praise God to God and we praise God to others. So many of our worship songs are praise to God. I think of the song, Great are You, Lord. It's Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise We pour out our praise It's Your breath in our lungs So we pour out our praise to You only Great are you, Lord. Or Matt Redman s 10,000 Reasons Bless the Lord oh my soul Oh my soul Worship His Holy name Sing like never before Oh my soul I'll worship Your Holy name But singing is not just a vital form of praise. Churches sing because 3

4 Singing is a vital form of prayer I don t know if you realize this, but in the Bible many prayers are sung. A large portion of the book of Psalms was sung by the ancient Jews and Jews today. A large portion of the book of Psalms are in fact prayers. So, for example, we read this in Psalm 4:1 Psalm 4:1 Answer me when I call to you, my righteous God. Give me relief from my distress; have mercy on me and hear my prayer. Psalm 5:1-2 1 Listen to my words, LORD, consider my lament. 2 Hear my cry for help, my King and my God, for to you I pray. A large number of the songs we sing in church are in fact prayers. Are you aware of that? For example, we sing the song Give me Faith. Give me faith to trust what you say That you're good and your love is great I'm broken inside, I give you my life In this song, we re surrendering ourselves to God in prayer. We re asking him to soften our hearts, to open our eyes, to give us faith to continue. Or how about this song as a prayer? Set a fire down in my soul That I can't contain That I can't control I want more of You, God I want more of You, God We can get so caught up in the world and get so dry inside. We can feel so empty, so we need the Lord to ignite our passions, to set us on fire again to increase our love for him, to cause us to live lives that are pleasing to him We sing in church because singing is a vital form of prayer. And we sing in church because: 4

5 Singing is a vital way to strengthen ourselves in trial Sometimes we think, I can only sing when I m happy or when I m in the mood. But singing brings strength to our souls in times of trial. I think of Acts 16 where Paul and Silas are unjustly imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. What do they do when they re in prison and beaten. At midnight, they re singing. This has been true of suffering believers in every age. In every age, Christians have found strength in singing to the Lord. I think of some of the old spirituals like Let My People Go. When Israel was in Egypt s land, Let My people go; Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let My people go; Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt s land, Tell old Pharaoh: Let My people go. Historians say that Moses in the song actually refers to Harriet Tubman who was called Moses for her work with the Underground Railroad. The repeated refrain of the song Tell old Pharaoh, Let my People Go refers to white masters. Slaves sang in the fields. It was singing which provided strength for slaves to endure their hardship. Singing is a vital way that we pick ourselves up. When you re down, friend, do you sing? Do you pick yourself up and focus your attention on the Lord by singing? Singing is so important for the Christian. How should we sing? Listen, I know all the excuses for not singing. I ve heard them all. I prefer hymns, not the songs we sing at Vineyard. Well, we re not actually singing to please you. We re singing to please God. I don t know the words to this new song. You can mouth the words until you learn them. The worship leader sings in a range higher than my range. Well, sing off key. That s what I do all the time. I have a terrible voice. Then sing badly. Join me and sing badly. The music is too loud. Get ear plugs. Whatever it takes. Listen to what John Wesley the father of the Methodist Church said. This was part of his instructions in an early Methodist hymn books. Sing lustily and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead, or half asleep: but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of it being heard than when you sang the songs of Satan. 5

6 I love that! For those of you who, like me, didn t grow up in church, think back to rock concerts you may have gone to. I had no problem belting out songs along with the band. Why should I not then sing to Christ because I was saved by Christ? Why should I hold my voice back from Christ? I didn t before to Satan. In Luke 1, beginning in verse 46, Mary begins her song. Luke 1:46 And Mary said: My soul glorifies [magnifies] the Lord The Song of Mary has traditionally been called The Magnificat because in the old Latin translation, Magnificat was the opening word of her song. It means to magnify the Lord. You know, there are two ways to magnify something. You can use a microscope or you can use a telescope. A microscope makes something small look really big. A telescope makes something that s big, appear to us as big as it really is. When someone in the Bible magnifies the Lord, they re not trying to make a little God big to us. We re not microscopes. When we magnify the Lord, we re telescopes. We re saying, This infinitely big God needs to be seen by you as infinitely big, infinitely competent, and infinitely wise. Mary s Magnificat, the song that magnifies the infinitely big God, is all about God. One of the most ancient hymns in the ancient church and it s all about God. It tells us that some of our self-centered worship songs need to be adjusted. I love God-centered worship, that s why I love the song of Mary. What does this worship song tell us to sing about regarding God? First of all, We sing about God s grace Luke 1: 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. We read of three blessings concerning Mary in chapter 1. First, the angel Gabriel blesses her in Luke 1:28. Then her cousin, Elizabeth, blesses Mary two times in Luke 1:42, 45. And, finally, Mary says of herself that she is blessed in Luke 1:48. Why was 6

7 Mary so blessed? Blessed by an angel. Blessed by her cousin, Elizabeth. And Mary says All generations will call me blessed and we have. She is known as the blessed Virgin Mary. In some traditions the idea that Mary was blessed means that she became the dispenser of blessing. People go to Mary for blessings. They go to Mary for healing. They ask Mary to answer their prayers or Mary to intercede with Jesus. For some, Mary became the dispenser of blessing and grace. Mary is not the dispenser of blessing in this story; Mary is the recipient of blessing and grace. But why? Why did God choose Mary? There are two different ways that we can understand Mary s blessedness. One is that God found in Mary a purity, an attractiveness, a goodness that he was able to bless. God found something in Mary that drew his attention and affection. Another approach is that there was nothing in Mary worthy of God s blessing. God out of his own grace chose this young, poor, ordinary woman to be the mother of the Savior for no other reason than his own love and grace. Martin Luther, the Father of the Protestant Reformation, distinguishes between two types of love human love and divine love. He said this: The love of God does not find, but creates, that which is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it. In other words, human love is drawn forth by the object of the love. We see something in the object of the love, something beautiful, something attractive, and we say, I love that person. I love them because. and then you fill in the blank. I love them because they are great listeners. I love them because they are sensitive to me. I love them because they love God. I love them because they are pretty, because they re handsome, because they have a great job and make a lot of money, they re kind, because they treat me well. Human love is elicited by the object of the love. Divine love is totally different. Divine love is not elicited by the object of love. Divine love simply is. As a theologian named Miroslav Volf said in a wonderful book titled Free of Charge, Divine love doesn t depend on the truth, beauty, or goodness of the beloved. Because God s love isn t caused by its object, it can love those who are not loveable, sinners, evil persons, fools, and weaklings in order to make them righteous, good, wise, and strong. So let me apply this idea of why God blesses to you and me. Why would God ever bless you? Why would God ever bless me? Why does God love you? Because you ve done 7

8 some things that have caught God s eye? Because I was particularly obedient this week? Why does God love you? Why does God love me? The answer that the Bible gives is that God loves us simply because God loves us. Because God is love. It is not because you or I are lovely, or worthy of his love. Why are we blessed? The only answer the Bible gives is because it is the nature of God to bless us. You say, Rich, I don t feel very blessed by God this Christmas season. I m going through a really hard time right now. I want you to know that whatever you re going through, God sees you. God understands. God s love is still there for you. And no matter how hard it is for you right now, friend, you have been blessed. You can count your blessings even while you grieve. A good friend of mine recently lost her husband after he suffered through a 10-year unbelievably courageous battle with cancer. I recently asked her, How are you doing? She said, It s really hard, particularly at night when I m alone. It s hard. But then she added quickly, You know what, I m so blessed. God blessed me so much by letting me have my husband for 30 years. We had such a good marriage. I loved him so much. Do you miss someone this Christmas? Someone who s not there for you? You feel like you re living with a hole in your heart. Can you still say thank you to God for the time that you did have with this loved one? Thank you, God, for the amount of time I did have with my baby. With my son or daughter, my husband or wife or whomever. The truth is, we are all blessed by God way beyond what we deserve. What does Mary s song teach us to sing about? We sing about God s grace in our own lives. Mary s song also instructs us to: Sing about God s kingdom The Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke about in the New Testament is often called an upside down kingdom. The weak are exalted. The powerful come down a peg. This kingdom is an upside down kingdom. Mary sings about this great reversal, this upside down kingdom here: Luke 1: 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. 8

9 I mean look at the people who Christ is impressed by in the New Testament. None of these people would be on the Fortune 500 list. None of them would end up in Sports Illustrated Magazine s swimsuit issue. The people who impressed Jesus in the New Testament are not folks who are playing on the beach over spring break, running around showing their hard bodies. Who impresses Jesus? A widow who placed her two last coins in the offering plate. A blind beggar who cried out for healing. A healed Samaritan leper who came back to say, Thank you. A woman who had seven demons cast out of her. A dishonest short little tax collector, who climbed a tree to gain a better view of Christ. Let me read to you a statement by a contemporary journalist: My career as a journalist has afforded me opportunities to interview stars including NFL Football greats, movie actors, music performers, best-selling authors, politicians, and TV personalities. These are the people who dominate the media. We fawn over them, pouring over the minutia of their lives: the clothes they wear, the foods they eat, the aerobic routines they follow, the people they love, the toothpaste they use. Yet I must tell you that in my limited experience. our idols are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent upon psychotherapy. And where do you find some of the most well-balanced, healthy, loving and secure people? They are in the Central African Republic doing relief work. They are mentoring kids in the inner city. They are handing out food in food pantries. It is not the rich and the famous whose weddings are covered in detail in People Magazine, who end up celebrating their Golden Anniversaries together. It is not movie stars that people look back on their lives and say, here is a person who influenced me to become a better human being. It s people who serve, who are generous, who give their lives away who impact us the most. When the kingdom of God breaks in, God begins to run the show. And when God s will is done on earth as it is in heaven, everything changes. The world right now is upside down. Are the ones who are praised and seem to be winning the humble or the peacemakers? No, they re the ones being stepped on. But when the kingdom of God breaks in to an individual s life, to a family s life, to a church s life, to a society s life, what s upside down now will be turned right side up! When God is allowed to have his way in your life or in your marriage or in your family or in your dating relationships, when God is finally allowed to have his way in a church or a community or nation, everything gets turned on its head. Our character changes, our actions change, our values change. When God s Kingdom breaks into an individual s life, we start to value giving over getting and serving over 9

10 being served. When the Kingdom of God breaks in a married couple s life, the husband or wife is not just concerned about how their own needs are being met, but now they are concerned about how they are meeting their spouse s needs. When the Kingdom of God breaks into a community s life, it s no longer every person for themselves, people start looking out for one another. We start working for the common good. In our world, people climb the ladder of success and then pull the ladder up behind them, so nobody else can make it to the top. But when God s work is done on earth as it is in heaven, successful people help build ladders so that everyone can climb up and everyone has an opportunity to succeed. Finally, what should we sing about? We sing about God s grace. We sing about God s kingdom. And like Mary, we Sing about God s justice Luke 1: 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, just as he promised our ancestors. There is a sense in all of this that after waiting for centuries, justice has finally come. After generations of oppression, God has finally come to our rescue. When I think about songs that cry out for justice, I think about all the great protest songs of our generation. Of course, the most famous protest song probably in American history is what became the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. You know what I m about to say. It s the song, We Shall Overcome. I m going to show you this brief video clip of We Shall Overcome sung by tens of thousands of marchers by the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. King gave his I Have a Dream speech. You know, there are lots of sources for that song, We Shall Overcome. Music historians say that it traces its roots to a gospel song written by a man named Charles Albert Tindley. Some of you may not be familiar with Charles Albert Tindley. Let me tell you a little bit about him. He born as a son of a slave back in the middle of the 19 th 10

11 century. He didn t have an opportunity to get a formal education. He went to Philadelphia and worked as a janitor in a church. He was a brilliant young man. He was self-taught and he went to a synagogue in Philadelphia and he got some of the Jewish leaders there to teach him Hebrew. Then he learned Greek by taking a correspondence course. He began taking other courses by correspondence. And even though he didn t have much of a formal education he took the exam for ordination with the Methodist Episcopal Church. He scored so high on the exam that the Methodist Episcopal Church retained him as a pastor. He served in a variety of churches on the east coast. Then he went back and became the pastor of the church he used to be the janitor of. Charles Albert Tindley grew that church from 150 people to 1,000. He became known as the Prince of Preachers. His church building is on the national register today. It was renamed Tindley Temple. It was Charles Albert Tindley who wrote the gospel song that was the origin of the song We Shall Overcome. His song was called I ll Overcome Someday. I ll close with a few of the lyrics. This world is one great battlefield, with forces all arrayed; if in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome someday. I'll overcome someday, I'll overcome someday; if in my heart I do not yield, I'll overcome someday. A thousand snares are set for me, and mountains in my way; if Jesus will my leader be, I'll overcome someday. I'll overcome someday, I'll overcome someday; if Jesus will my leader be, I'll overcome someday. Friend, can you sing along with Charles Albert Tindley, and with Mary, that because I ve placed my faith in a God of justice, I will overcome someday. Whatever you re going through right now, whatever someone you love is going through. I will overcome someday. They will overcome some day! We sing because God is gracious! We sing because God s kingdom has come! We sing because God is just. We sing because God will enable us to overcome someday! Let s pray. 11

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13 The Song of Mary Rich Nathan December 9 & 10, 2017 The Songs of Christmas Luke 1:39-55 I. Singing in the church A. Singing is a vital form of praise B. Singing is a vital form of prayer C. Singing is a vital way to strengthen ourselves in trial II. Sing about God s grace III. Sing about God s kingdom IV. Sing about God s justice 13