Worship!
Sermon
Living Between the Advents
Preaching Advent in Year B
Object:
"My soul magnifies the Lord," Mary said, and I think that she meant it. I also think that it is hard for us to put ourselves in Mary's place or to imagine that the same responses made by Mary are responses that could be made by us. But if you think about it, it is fair to say that Jesus comes to us, too, and that is why Mary's soul magnified the Lord: because Jesus had come to her. The coming of Jesus to us inspires us to worship and praise God.
I believe that the main thing about the coming of Jesus to us that should inspire our praise is what it teaches us about the grace of God. We know of no merit on Mary's part that caused God to choose her. In fact, it is exactly because God chose Mary despite her absence of merit that makes it such an act of grace. We see Mary's awareness of her status in several places. When Gabriel said "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you," Mary wondered what in the world that could be all about (vv. 28-29). In her song she said, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant" (vv. 47-48). God chooses and uses the humble and lowly exactly because they are humble and lowly. He chooses those who are undeserving exactly because they are undeserving. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," the baby who was born to Mary would say after he grew up. He meant then, and still means now, that God can bless and use those who realize their insufficiency and their utter dependence on God.
Carlo Carretto has said, " 'He has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden,' said Mary when she saw, accepting her nothingness, the essential love of God and felt her flesh become the dwelling place and nourishment of the word incarnate. How wonderful that Mary's nothingness should attract God's all."1 Indeed. How wonderful that our nothingness should attract God's all. Jesus has come to us, has been born in us, has come to live in us. The very Son of God has chosen to dwell in us despite, or maybe because of, our nothingness. What can we do other than worship the God who has shown us that kind of grace?
In his gracious acts toward us, God shows his power. Christmas is, as is all the story of Jesus and his church, all about what God has done, is doing, and will do. When Mary asked her very good question about how she could bear a son when she was a virgin, the answer she received was all about God: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.... For nothing will be impossible with God" (vv. 35, 37). Make no mistake about it: We praise and worship God because of what he has done, because of how he has shown and continues to show his power. We experience that power in our own lives and we see how his power operates in the lives of other people. His power elicits our praise.
But what does it mean to worship God for all the wonderful and gracious things that he has done and is doing? Surely it means to do what we gather as the church to do: It means to sing, rejoice, and celebrate as the body of Christ. But it means something else. It means to share in what God is doing. It means to participate in what God is doing. It means to become a part of what God is doing. It means to live our lives in service to him. Mary was worshiping God when she sang in response to what he had done. But she was also worshiping God when she said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (v. 38). She willingly submitted to how the Lord wanted to use her in carrying out his plan of salvation.
Such willingness and such submission are part of our worship of God, and it can be very hard to worship that way. As Conrad Hyers has said, "The 'chosen' of God are clearly not chosen on the basis of having the most to offer, but rather on the basis of having nothing to offer but themselves. And the 'reward' of this chosenness is often that of being the clown, the scapegoat, the butt of the joke, the 'fool for Christ's sake.' "2 Mary had to become a fool for Christ's sake. She had to become the butt of the joke for Christ's sake. She immediately left town upon the reception of her good news. No doubt but that her situation set the tongues of Nazareth wagging, especially those that belonged to the polite and the respectable and the other hypocrites. But that's the way God works. He chooses the foolish to shame the wise, the humble to shame the proud, and the weak to shame the powerful. God's ways are the reverse of the ways of the world, and he chooses the unexpected to do the unexpected in ways that are unexpected.
Are you submitting yourself to the will and ways of God in your own life? It is about what God is doing, but in some mysterious way it does matter whether or not we participate in it. Frederick Buechner, in his imaginative way, imagined what Gabriel might have been going through when he brought the good news to Mary.
She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he'd been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it.
He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. "You mustn't be afraid, Mary," he said.
As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn't notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl.3
God was doing what God was doing, and in his grace he chose Mary. Somehow what she said next really mattered. Maybe what you say next really matters. Will we worship God for what he has done in Christ by submitting ourselves to the ways in which God wants to use us?
__________
1. Carlo Carretto, Letters from the Desert, in "Reflections," Christianity Today (December 9, 2002), p. 53.
2. Conrad Hyers, "The Nativity as Divine Comedy," Christian Century (December 11, 1974), pp. 1168-1172.
3. Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who (San Francisco, HarperSanFranciso, 1979), p. 44. Used by permission.
I believe that the main thing about the coming of Jesus to us that should inspire our praise is what it teaches us about the grace of God. We know of no merit on Mary's part that caused God to choose her. In fact, it is exactly because God chose Mary despite her absence of merit that makes it such an act of grace. We see Mary's awareness of her status in several places. When Gabriel said "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you," Mary wondered what in the world that could be all about (vv. 28-29). In her song she said, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant" (vv. 47-48). God chooses and uses the humble and lowly exactly because they are humble and lowly. He chooses those who are undeserving exactly because they are undeserving. "Blessed are the poor in spirit," the baby who was born to Mary would say after he grew up. He meant then, and still means now, that God can bless and use those who realize their insufficiency and their utter dependence on God.
Carlo Carretto has said, " 'He has regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden,' said Mary when she saw, accepting her nothingness, the essential love of God and felt her flesh become the dwelling place and nourishment of the word incarnate. How wonderful that Mary's nothingness should attract God's all."1 Indeed. How wonderful that our nothingness should attract God's all. Jesus has come to us, has been born in us, has come to live in us. The very Son of God has chosen to dwell in us despite, or maybe because of, our nothingness. What can we do other than worship the God who has shown us that kind of grace?
In his gracious acts toward us, God shows his power. Christmas is, as is all the story of Jesus and his church, all about what God has done, is doing, and will do. When Mary asked her very good question about how she could bear a son when she was a virgin, the answer she received was all about God: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.... For nothing will be impossible with God" (vv. 35, 37). Make no mistake about it: We praise and worship God because of what he has done, because of how he has shown and continues to show his power. We experience that power in our own lives and we see how his power operates in the lives of other people. His power elicits our praise.
But what does it mean to worship God for all the wonderful and gracious things that he has done and is doing? Surely it means to do what we gather as the church to do: It means to sing, rejoice, and celebrate as the body of Christ. But it means something else. It means to share in what God is doing. It means to participate in what God is doing. It means to become a part of what God is doing. It means to live our lives in service to him. Mary was worshiping God when she sang in response to what he had done. But she was also worshiping God when she said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (v. 38). She willingly submitted to how the Lord wanted to use her in carrying out his plan of salvation.
Such willingness and such submission are part of our worship of God, and it can be very hard to worship that way. As Conrad Hyers has said, "The 'chosen' of God are clearly not chosen on the basis of having the most to offer, but rather on the basis of having nothing to offer but themselves. And the 'reward' of this chosenness is often that of being the clown, the scapegoat, the butt of the joke, the 'fool for Christ's sake.' "2 Mary had to become a fool for Christ's sake. She had to become the butt of the joke for Christ's sake. She immediately left town upon the reception of her good news. No doubt but that her situation set the tongues of Nazareth wagging, especially those that belonged to the polite and the respectable and the other hypocrites. But that's the way God works. He chooses the foolish to shame the wise, the humble to shame the proud, and the weak to shame the powerful. God's ways are the reverse of the ways of the world, and he chooses the unexpected to do the unexpected in ways that are unexpected.
Are you submitting yourself to the will and ways of God in your own life? It is about what God is doing, but in some mysterious way it does matter whether or not we participate in it. Frederick Buechner, in his imaginative way, imagined what Gabriel might have been going through when he brought the good news to Mary.
She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he'd been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it.
He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to be, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. "You mustn't be afraid, Mary," he said.
As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn't notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl.3
God was doing what God was doing, and in his grace he chose Mary. Somehow what she said next really mattered. Maybe what you say next really matters. Will we worship God for what he has done in Christ by submitting ourselves to the ways in which God wants to use us?
__________
1. Carlo Carretto, Letters from the Desert, in "Reflections," Christianity Today (December 9, 2002), p. 53.
2. Conrad Hyers, "The Nativity as Divine Comedy," Christian Century (December 11, 1974), pp. 1168-1172.
3. Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who (San Francisco, HarperSanFranciso, 1979), p. 44. Used by permission.
