Lets move back to the book of Luke this morning, and look at
Mary’s song. Mary’s song is Luke 1:46-55. I did a brief Google search to see if
Mary actually wrote this song, but most studies seem to work under the
assumption that she really did, although one assumed that Mary was likely
illiterate.
But it is very likely in my opinion that she DID create this
song. You see, if you go all the way back to the book of Genesis, every time
someone encounters God in a life changing way, they write a song, and those
songs are sung by generations to come, in order to help them remember what God
has done for their people. Then of course, king David comes along and just goes NUTS with all the songs! (which is
fantastic!). So, in all likelihood, Mary, being very much a part of her
culture, realized the enormity of what was about to happen to her, and so she
privately wrote this song... who knows if anyone ever knew about it until after
Jesus’s death. Maybe it was Jesus’s lullaby, and so Jesus knew it, or maybe she
only shared it with disciples, when they were grieving Jesus’s death... or
maybe it first came public after his resurrection when she, once again,
couldn’t contain her praise to the Lord! In any case, it is very likely that
Mary wrote this song... (again, this is in my opinion and based on minimal
research haha)!
But we are only going to look at part of it today. It is a
very full song, and I don’t want to just gloss over the enormity of what Mary has
to say.
The song is sort of split into two themes. Mary praising God
for her specific blessing, and Mary praising God for Israel’s blessing. Today
we will look at Mary’s blessing.
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.” Luke 1:46-48
One of the major things about this portion (that I’ll rip
off directly from Mark Driscol’s inspiration), is that this was very clearly a
stressful time in Mary’s life, given that un-wed mothers were not allowed. Not
allowed, means, an un-wed mother would be “dealt with” (aka killed), especially
if she is thought to have been un-faithful to a betrothed! Mary’s whole life
hung in the balance. Actually,
REGARDLESS of her fate judged by her husband to be, Mary’s whole life was about
to change and NOT be what she had pictured it being, her entire life. (anyone
who has had a child knows that “postpartum” is no way to begin a marriage or
honeymoon phase...). And in those days, a man was actually given a year off
work to help his wife set-up house and to establish their home (I think we can
sort-of read into that “make babies” a little...). So with the census, and Mary’s “going into
hiding” for three months, much of Joseph’s year off would have been somewhat
wasted. Again, not the way anyone started a marriage back then...
Anyway, all these details are to point out that Mary was in
a tough and stressful place after hearing this news from the Angel. Instead of
choosing to just “ponder these things” in a stressful and worrisome way, she
re-directs her attention toward her blessings.
Reminds me of Bing Crosby a little bit! “When I'm worried
and I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep. And I fall asleep
counting my blessings”
Mary makes such an intentional decision about her attitude
right there and then. She said in the first two lines, that her soul Glorifies
the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God her savior! She praises God for
choosing her, knowing what state she was in, and even looks toward the future
full of faith in what Gabriel said, acknowledging that she will be called
blessed as opposed to being simply forgotten for the rest of time!
I know for many people, Christmas can bring some somber
memories. Christmas can be a very humbling time, because it brings you to a
state of mind that is grief. Some people
feel especially depressed at Christmas as well. I don't want to tell you to
just “change your attitude” because that is totally wrong and un-called for.
The Lord knows there is a very real place for grief, even during his
celebrations. But this is what I WILL
say... There is a lesson for ALL of us, in Mary’s song here.
Despite our
circumstances, we need to give God the glory he deserves. I am not saying get a
Christmas tree, I am not saying even to get together with family. I am not even
saying that you should attend a Christmas eve service! I am saying, that this
time of year is REALLY about Christ. Not family (other than God’s family), not presents (other than
God’s gift of salvation), and not carols (other than taking a moment to truly
praise your God...that sounds better to him anyway. I think Christmas carols
not sung from the heart sound just as annoying to God as they do to many of
us).
The truth is, everything else is extra. For many people these things have
become expressions of worship to God, and for many others, they have become
distractions. Yet for some, they have become things that actually REPELL them
from spending time with Christ, due to tragedy in their lives, or
mis-understanding and judgemental people in their lives. The truth is,
Christmas is about worshiping Christ. End of story. We can all worship Christ,
despite what state we are in. We can worship Christ in our stress, we can
worship him in our sorrow... Amy Grant sings a song called “better than a
hallelujah sometimes”.
One of the pungent lyrics that pulls at my heart strings
is “beautiful the mess we are. The
honest cries of breaking hearts, are better than a hallelujah”. I fully believe
this song was written about the many
verses in the bible that teach us that God detests luke warm worship.
Whether it be sacrifices in the old testament, lofty prayers, or repetitive
rituals. They sound like resounding gongs and clanging symbols without love (1
cor 13). And so, Amy Grant took that a step further, to point out that
sometimes when we come to God with our pain, that is TRUE worship when the rest
of the time we put on a show. This is not true of everyone by any means. Many
people have very sincere hearts of worship... but many do not.
And so, we are ALL without excuse during this season. We are
ALL called to worship our savior, just as his own mother did, nine months
before he was even born! Despite all the heartache and unknowns she faced. She
chose to get down to her basics and worship her savior. I think we ought to do
the same.
Dear God, we come to
you as broken people. Lord, please provide each of us with the time we need to
really worship you in spirit and in truth. Bring us each to a place of worship
where, no matter what may lie on our hearts, that you will be at the centre of
it all. May you be glorified this Christmas over family, over giving gifts,
over carols and services and shows... May it be about YOU and how YOU have saved us and you carry us through good
and bad times, all because your son came to earth and we can now be close with
you. Thank you Lord....
In Jesus name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment