Sermon based on Luke 1: 39-55
4th Sunday of Advent, December 20th, 2009 (Snowed Out)
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, Pastor
It doesn’t bother me that sinners come to church. What bothers me most is people coming to church and not singing.
I know this might sound a little harsh to those of you who are tone deaf or can’t carry a tune in a bucket, but I’m really not talking about your singing, musical ability or lack of it. You sing fine. Even if you’d rather listen to rest of us, that’s O.K. too. The music I’m talking about doesn’t have to be sung with your voice, but it has to be sung with your life.
This kind of “soul” music is what today’s Bible text is about. It’s about Mary’s song. Who knows if Mary had a great singing voice? She could have sounded like the late George Burns, (God rest his soul) or Conway Twitty and it wouldn’t have mattered a bit. Even if Mary had the worse voice on planet earth, she still had the sweetest song ever sung---even sweeter than the angels at Bethlehem.
Why was Mary’s song so sweet?
It was the song of the “willing” heart. “Be it unto me according to thy word” (v. 38). The sweetest music is made by those who “want” to, not always by those who “can” or “can’t”.
I’ve aspired to be a great singer, but I’m just an O.K. singer. That’s why I’d rather sing in group rather than solo. It would be nice to have a great solo voice, but that wasn’t given to me. Heaven knows, I’ve worked hard to make it so, but my voice can only do what I’ve been given. Interestingly, this inability to sing greatly has made me love music more, not less. Because I want to sing, I like music.
It is our “want to” do the good, loving, caring things that makes life sweet. The one thing we know about Mary is that she was “wanted to” be used of God. This is part of what made Mary’s song sweet. She wanted God to use her in her life. Because she wanted to be used of God, God did use her. She was the first person to carry Jesus within her life. Her desire to be used of God teaches us also what is essential about Christian discipleship: humility, readiness and willingness to serve and be used of God. This is what counts more than any talent, skill or other capacity we have.
What we also know is that Mary willingness was not automatic. She had to grow in it. It had to grow in her. Literally. Everything that happened to Mary is a beautiful symbolic image of what it means to follow and serve God today. Mary was the first learner and first disciple. She is the first to learn from Jesus, even though he was only a baby in her womb.
We know that a child learns much from its mother, but what does a mother learn from her baby? Do you think a new mother learns anything about life by carrying a child? We may not know exactly what Mary experienced, but we can know that a new baby changes everything. Bringing new life into the world is one of the greatest learning experiences of all human life----more than any book or teacher could ever teach us. Even though my wife and I could not have children, when we adopted our daughter, it changed us. While most of you parents remember what it was like when you brought the baby home for the first time, I remember when we brought our 15 month toddler home for a home visit. The social worker told us we could take our prospective child home for a few hours and then bring her back to the office. Knowing I only had a couple of hours, the first thing we did was jump in the car and drive from Shelby to Statesville to show my parents. After a hour or so I knew I needed to be headed back, but instead I called the social worker to ask if we could keep the child over night. They said it would be fine. The next day when we took the child back, I cried. I did not want to give her back. Already, everything in me changed---my priorities, my dreams, my outlook, and my desires. That child had already changed everything, while teaching me all kinds of new lessons for life. That’s what a child does.
Bringing a child into your life clarifies most everything it means to live with a purpose. By accepting God’s call in her life to have and raise this child, Mary teaches all of us how to “sing” a greater tune with our lives. When we are willing to serve God and when we live beyond ourselves, our lives sing.
Mary’s song was also a song of the “worshipping” heart. “My soul doth magnify the Lord” (v. 46).
What does Mary mean by this: her soul magnifies God? How is it that by focusing on God that her life begins to sing a greater tune?
All the great music of Christmas points us to the mystery and message what is most important. Right at the center of Christmas songs are two great themes: One theme is about God coming to us in the flesh. The other is about our coming to God in our flesh as we give ourselves to God in a way that God lives through us this world. We call this the mystery of incarnation: God becoming flesh so that we become children of God in our flesh. This a deepest mystery at the center of our faith that is never fully understood in the Bible or in any theology books. In fact, most of our human attempts to explain the incarnation, fail. We are never called to explain the incarnation, nor even grasp all the meaning of it, but we are called by God to live and practice the incarnation as we allow Jesus to be born in us today.
How Mary sees her life as a “soul-magnifying- the- Lord” is what it means for every believer to live on this earth. When we live our lives glorifying and magnifying the Lord we join in the music of heaven, not just in rituals or ceremonies, but by living so that others see God’s love magnified and made visible in us. But living for God is not just to live as a witness for God, but as a witness to life itself. We don’t live our best human lives when we live to magnify or glorify ourselves. Look what happened to Tiger Woods. He is the number one news topic these days and not for any good reason. It is tragic what can happen to a human when they think that they are at the center of their own universe. People who live for themselves often get stuck on themselves, think they can do no wrong and before long, they think they can do whatever they wish and it’s not long until they lose all their marbles. You can decide to live your life by your own tune, playing your own music, but unfortunately it isn’t long until life goes off key. This is what happen to Tiger Woods and it could happen to any of us.
If we want to have music, song, and any lasting value in our lives, we must live at the highest place---living to magnify the God. God draws us to live beyond ourselves----not to steal our lives from us, but to give us our lives back to us, so that we don’t lose them. Humans realize their greatest potential when they make God’s love visible, and make God’s grace and truth knowable in the everyday deeds of our own lives. A life lived for God everyday is the heart of the truest and purest worship and it is the here that you find you’re the music of your life too.
Finally, Mary’s song was also the song of the “blessed” heart. “From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” (v. 48).
When Mary speaks of being “blessed” she’s not only taking about what God does for her, but what God is doing in her is something God is doing for the whole world. Her “blessedness” arises not out of a sense of selfish pride but a sense of selfless humility and of service for the world’s hurting and helpless. Mary sings her life song for the whole world when she says, “My Spirit rejoices…for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden…For he that is mighty hath done to me great things….he has scattered the proud….he hath put down the mighty….he has filled the hungry and he has sent away the rich empty.”
Mary’s song is not simply a “sweet”, tender blessing of love and grace for the world, but it is also a revolution—a revolution of love and grace which challenges all of us, especially those of us who have power and position in life. If you know the pain of feeling powerless or the feeling of being poor in this world, then Mary’s song is full of promise and hope. If we have power and the potential to make a difference in our world, but we are not living to make that difference, and are still only living for ourselves---then watch out! Mary’s song has a hidden, revolutionary message. It could spell judgment instead of promise.
When I lived in the former Soviet Sector of Europe, I saw the curse of communism first hand. It was a terrible curse to see how a government stole from the rich and attempted to give equally to the poor. While, it might seem that overall goal of communism was good, forcing the redistribution of wealth, the great flaw within communism was to overlook human sin and to think this “Robinhood” style of “forced sharing” could be done in a way that was free from corruption or greed. Ultimately, communism failed. What it tried to do right, even if it was “right”, it did wrongly with flawed perceptions. Though communism did “scattered the proud” and it did send “away the rich empty” as Mary’s song expressed, but it left out one major part of the possible and potential hope of blessing. It overlooked the part of Mary’s song which sings: “HE THAT IS MIGHTY HAS DONE TO ME GREAT THINGS… HE HAS SCATTERED the proud…. HE HAS SENT AWAY THE RICH EMPTY…. There is a lot of difference in a government playing God and a government bowing itself “under” or “before” God. When you leave God out of the equation, whether your equation is communism or capitalism, you are asking for a curse of a world without God rather than the hope of blessing which can only come through God. What Mary’s song reminds us, in the strongest melody possible, is that only God brings the blessing. Only when we humble ourselves before God will the deepest, lasting, enduring and eternal blessings come to us. Perhaps the greatest blessing of all is the hope of righteousness, but this is a blessing only God can give to the world when the world gives itself to God.
What happens when the world fails to sing Mary’s song; when we live our lives out of tune with God’s melody of justice, fairness and righteousness? What happens when we don’t live as willing servants of God’s word, or when we only live to magnify our own selves, or when we “rejoice” only in what we do or accomplish? We know that when Mary sang God’s song, it was Christmas. When we sing God’s song by giving our lives to him, by magnifying him with our soul and by making his righteousness, our righteousness, then it can also be Christmas---all over again. But when we refuse to live according to Mary’s tune? What happens then? God help us to have to even look into the reality of that kind of world---a world without faith, hope and humility before God.
Isn’t the result of a world without God ultimately made clear by Mary herself? When the powerful and most blessed fail to sing God’s song, and when people only play their own music in their policy making and in their own profit taking, then their lives become a curse, rather than a blessing. Think about it this way: people can live in the poorest place on earth and be very content because they share and care for each other. People who live in the richest place in the world can still feel very empty because they don’t share or care for each other. This is the very real difference God righteousness or the lack of it makes in our world.
Mary’s song paved the way for Christmas because what she sings is not her song, but it’s God’s. Her music is about living her in God. It is the music of the soul which says: When we bless God, God blesses us with that very blessing we express. The very blessing we need most today in our world and at our time, is in the very blessing we can give. The song we need to hear is in the song we are willing to sing. The very music we all need to keep our lives in tune is the very song we must sing from our own lips and with our own lives. Only when God’s song becomes our song, does Christmas come, does the spirit of Christmas abide or reside in this world. Only when our lives bless him, do we find the peace, the harmony and the spirit of life, which the world needs. A life sung to the tune God gives, is what puts the ”merry” into Christmas. Amen.
No comments :
Post a Comment