The Magnificent Blessing

Good morning everyone. I'm so glad you're here. You know we're in a series called Christmas Blessings and hearing kids sing Christmas carols in church counts as a Christmas blessing in my book. Wouldn't you agree? Let's encourage them one more time. They were awesome. They were so good. And you know they really made it look easy.

And I'll show you what I'm talking about. I'm going to show you a video of another children's choir singing at Christmas. They're singing that famous carol, The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy and what you're about to see may just be the world's next great soloist. Or not. I'll let you decide. Watch this. Isn't that great? Man. And you know there's some proud parents that are just going, "Our little girl, she's a prodigy!" It's awesome.

I love the response, little boy. I guess he's playing Joseph or something in the blue because he's kind of heart stunned and kind of inspired at the same time. I don't know if he noticed if the little head shaking and he's like, "Sing it, sister!" He leans back, "He came from the glory! The glory is kingdom!" Man. Too cute.

But when you think about it, the birth of Jesus has inspired more music than any other event in human history. From Bach to Handel, Charles Wesley to the modern era, endless streams of Christmas albums, some of which I might add should never have been made. I mean, no judgment here, but Billy Idol, seriously? Happy holidays from Billy Idol. Or how about Carol Channing? "The year without Santa Claus!" Can't imagine why he stayed away.

Here's one I bet you've never seen, "Christmas with Colonel Sanders." I'm quite sure what he has to do with Christmas. Even Roseanne Barr is getting in on the gig. What's great about this album is that it features an extended version of the 12 Days of Christmas. I guess the song's not quite long enough in and of itself. Can you imagine anything else you'd rather listen to? I sure hope so. I mean, perhaps Regis. David Hasselhoff. Or get this one, Corla Pendant. Who is Corla Pendant? I have no idea. Just the most bizarre Christmas album of all time.

Like I said, the birth of Jesus inspired a lot of music, but that doesn't mean it's all good. Long before any of this stuff, though, long before the first Christmas carols were written or the great classics, even before the angels sang to the first shepherds watching over their flocks by night, before Jesus was even born, he inspired one of the greatest songs ever written. And today, we're going to talk a little bit about that song.

And I want to say at the outset that I'm indebted to a pastor named John Ortberg. I heard him preach on this passage about a year ago, and I'm going to be borrowing from him at times liberally today. But this song we're about to sing, about to see. It's profound. It's insightful. It's theologically deep. And it was written by a peasant girl who was maybe all of 14 or 15 years old.

It's Mary's song about the magnificent blessing that she received from the Lord. And in one of the lines of her song, Mary says, "From now on, all generations will call me blessed." Personally, I don't think that Mary's saying that blessed is going to be a part of her name or title. I say that respectfully, but I think she's simply reflecting on the incredibly unique role that God chose her for.

I mean, of all the women who have ever lived on this planet, whoever will live, Mary was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Now that's a magnificent blessing. And Mary has some magnificent things to say about it. And I think sadly for us, we don't give Mary a whole lot of airtime.

That's likely because over the centuries, there have been beliefs and traditions that have evolved about Mary that go well beyond the Bible's depiction of her. So in response, I think we've gone way in the other direction. Kind of relegated her to a little figurine on the mantle. But Mary has something to say to us today. Mary is going to impress you. Her devotion, her courage, her amazing mind.

But more important, I hope that you'll be even more impressed by the son that she carried as she raised. Because every life sings a song. Every life has a set of core lyrics, including yours and including mine. And the most magnificent blessing of all happens when the lyrics of our lives are cut up in the love and the grace and the goodness and the majesty of Jesus Christ. And that's my prayer for all of us today, that that would happen all the more in our lives.

But before we think about our own lives and songs, let's take a look at Mary's song. You'll find it in Luke 1:46. It begins at verse 46. It's also on the front page of your message notes. But it's important for us to realize that these are more than just words for Mary. She had to live this song out.

And when the angel Gabriel comes to her and tells her she's been chosen to give birth to the Messiah, this was not exactly welcome news. Remember, she's engaged to Joseph, not married. But she's about to become a pregnant, unwed teenager in a world that is hostile to girls in her condition. She could have literally been killed by stoning the maximum penalty for what would be presumed to be adultery.

Scott McKnight is a university professor and author and he writes in a book about Mary that's a fascinating read. But in this book, he talks about how the Israelites developed around the time of the first century what they called the law of bitter waters. And it was for cases where someone was suspected of adultery but maintained their innocence.

Mary being engaged was Joseph's legal wife, even though they haven't had the wedding ceremony and they certainly haven't consummated it. But once Mary's pregnancy starts to show, all the facts point in the direction of her guilt and even if Mary denies what everyone else believes. So again, this law of bitter waters was for times when someone was suspected of adultery but maintained their innocence, which you would expect of Mary if she had been confronted.

Well then what happens? Well according to rabbinic writings from this time that described this, the woman would have been brought to a very conspicuous place in the town or the village, probably right at the main gates. She would be required to literally drink bitter water. They would tear her garment, exposing part of her chest. They would let her hair down, which would be a sign of shame. They would remove her jewelry and passerby's, especially women would be encouraged to stare at her in order to shame her and in order to make an object lesson out of her.

So when Gabriel tells Mary that she's going to conceive by the Holy Spirit, this bitter waters punishment may very well have been something that she envisioned having to endure. And it's not just the religious culture that could be harsh. Remember, Gabriel tells Mary she's going to give birth to a king. Well those are dangerous words.

In fact right after Jesus is born, the wise men, the magi, they come and they arrive in Jerusalem and what are they asking? They're asking where's the one who's been born what? King of the Jews. And when Herod hears this, he tries to use these guys as tools, tries to use them to lead him to this new king. And after finding Jesus, the wise men are warned in a dream to avoid Herod. They go home another way and then God warns Joseph in a dream to take Mary and Jesus and they flee. They go all the way to Egypt.

And just as they get out of Bethlehem, Herod sends in his soldiers and they slaughter every boy two years old and younger. Herod's thinking to himself, "Whatever king might have been born in Bethlehem, he's gone now." This is all part of the context of what God was calling Mary to do, to conceive by the Holy Spirit while she's engaged, to give birth to Israel's king while they're being ruled by a psychopath, to eventually live as a fugitive in a foreign land.

And you know what? The Bible really doesn't tell us what Mary thought of all this. All we really have is a song that she composed in the days or weeks following the angel's announcement to her. And at that point, she doesn't know a whole lot about her future. She doesn't know how this is gonna play out. But it turns out she knows a little something about the God who has called her. And she responds to him in this amazing song.

"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 remembrance of his mercy. According to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Mary's song is often called the Magnificat because in Latin it begins with that word, "My soul magnifies the Lord." Now Mary's not claiming to be perfect. The Bible says there's only one perfect person, that's Jesus. But in Mary's song and in the decisions that she makes, it turns out this young teenage girl is an amazing woman of faith.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Well, yeah, I kind of knew that, Mark. I mean, how else could she be? She's the mother of Jesus. I mean, how do I begin to compare my life to someone like her?" Well, bear in mind, it's not a competition. Mary had a very special, a very unique role in God's story, but by reflecting on her life, I think it will help us refine or clarify our role in His story. That's the opportunity we have for us this morning.

So if you haven't already, flip your notes over to page two because this would be a great time to ask this first question, "What does my soul magnify?" Mary sings, "My soul magnifies the Lord." Well, ask yourself, "What does my soul magnify?" I don't know about you, but I find that to be an incredibly penetrating question. "What does my soul really magnify?" What takes center stage in my life?

Because everybody's soul magnifies something, and the thing or things that you magnify have a way of becoming our song. Listen to what Ortberg says about this verse right here. "To magnify something is to give it an extraordinary large place in your life. Your mind wanders to it when you have nothing else to think about. Your desires get shaped around it. Your identity gets tied up in it. Your joys and your sorrows are all wrapped up around whether or not you're getting more or less of it. It's part of the human condition. We all magnify something. An alcoholic magnifies the bottle. A workaholic magnifies success. A hypochondriac magnifies their health or their illness. Warriors magnify problems and obstacles and what might go wrong. Some people magnify money. Some people magnify sex. Some people magnify approval. And some people magnify security. We all magnify something. Mary magnified the Lord.

Now specifically, what about the Lord did Mary magnify? Well for starters, she's mindful of God's goodness and His grace. Look what she says here. She says, "For He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant. Surely from now on all generations will call Me blessed." She's like stunned by this. "For the mighty one has done great things for Me and holy is His name." Mary magnifies God's goodness, His grace. In other words, she's grateful. She's a grateful person.

Now what typifies you? Grateful or grumpy? I mean more or less. Which way do you think you lean? And before we answer that, we probably would do well to console our faces. You know what I mean? Because they have a way of giving us away. You know this is true. You know they say that you wear your heart on your sleeve. I don't know about that, but I know that we wear it on our faces all the time. Some people have kind of yes faces. Some people have kind of no faces. I see smiles bursting out throughout the room right now. That's good. Raising our game.

Someone sent me this last week. The latest cat to go viral on the internet as if it needs another one. But this one's kind of cool. This is called Grumpy Cat. Look at the face on this guy. I mean he was born that way. You know? He's got those dark rings under his eyes and that permanent leave me alone scowl. You know? I don't know what kind of issues he has, but I guess if I was going to have a cat, that would be kind of a cool one. I don't know. But makes me wonder. What makes me grumpy Mark? What makes you grumpy you? Probably has something to do with the things that we magnify and how they're going in our lives.

One of the great things about Mary is that she magnifies the Lord despite the fact that he's about to make her life a million times more complicated. She just magnifies his goodness and grace. Another theme that Mary hits really hard is what's sometimes called the Great Inversion. That's a term describing how God's kingdom has a way of turning the ways of this world right on their head. It's like when Jesus says that the first will be last and the last will be first. Well that's exactly what Mary says right here in her song.

"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." Now Mary's a peasant girl living in a little obscure village under the thumb of the Roman Empire. She knows about oppression. This is her daily experience and yet despite that she's confident that God's justice will prevail.

And I wonder if Mary sang this song to Jesus when he was a baby or a toddler growing up. Maybe when they were living life on the lamb down in Egypt and they were essentially for all intents and purposes a homeless family. I wonder if she sang these words as a lullaby when he couldn't sleep or when he'd had a bad dream. We don't really know. But what we do know is that one day Jesus stood up on a hillside and he preached the most important sermon in all of history and he begins that sermon, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth."

It's not the proud but the humble that God exalts, the herods, the Caesars, the dictators. God is going to bring them down. And in his sermon Jesus strikes some of the exact same notes that Mary does in her song. Mary goes on to say, "He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." And since we're all rich compared to Mary it would do well for us to understand what she's saying here. She's not saying that to have money or wealth is a sin. She's saying it's a sin to make a God out of it. And God will expose the emptiness of that kind of idolatry.

But at the same time he fills the hungry with good things. And one day Jesus is preaching to 5,000 men and all the women and children that belong to them and it's a long day and at the end of it they're all tired, they're hungry, there's no place to get food. And Jesus looks upon them with compassion and He feeds them all. And I wonder in that moment did He hear His mother's song? He fills the hungry with good things. Is it possible that He thought to Himself, "Hey Mom, I'm singing your song. I'm singing your song."

And not to be too crass. But I think we often imagine God using Mary for her womb alone. Like she simply was there to provide for Jesus' biological needs but His personal development, His emotional development, His spiritual development. Well that must just come through some kind of heavenly download. I don't think it worked that way. Surely the Spirit informed Jesus and He was every bit the Son of God but He was also His mother's son. And she left her mark on Him.

So ask yourself, "What is my soul magnify? How am I leaving my mark? What will be my legacy? What are the things that I'm teaching my children or the people in my world about what ultimately matters to me in life?" By the way, this is why the food drive that we just finished was such a blessing for us. We often think of it and talk about it in terms of what it will do for our community, which is all true and great. But the greatest blessing is reserved for us because we just... you just can't help but receive more than you give.

And when you saved, you sacrificed so that the hungry could be filled with good things. Those are moments when your life sings of God's goodness and God's grace because we're not just offering bread, we are magnifying the bread of life, Jesus Christ. And when you're in those moments, that is the most magnificent blessing of all that is the greatest way that we can spend our time on this earth. Amen indeed.

The second question that we would do well to ask ourselves is this, "Who do I ultimately trust?" Like I said earlier, when Gabriel appears to marry and presents God's plan for her, it's kind of like he's inviting her to jump off a cliff if you think about it. I mean, there's the potential scandal that will surround her life and the harm that could come of that. There's the danger of bringing a king into the world, a world filled with ruthless kings like Herod, in an empire that does not tolerate competition, eventually living as a fugitive for a while in a very real way.

Mary was being called to suffer for the Messiah before he would suffer for her when he would give himself on the cross for Mary and for all of us. So that's why I say that when Gabriel announces this to Mary, it may not have been welcome to the news. Even so, here's her response recorded in Luke 1:38, "Then Mary said, 'Here I am, the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.' Then the angel departed from her.

Here I am. I'm your servant, Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Let it be, Lord." You may not know this, but the song "Let It Be" by the Beatles was inspired by Mary's words right here. When I find myself in times of trouble, "Mother Mary comes to me," speaking words of wisdom, "Let it be." It's a reflection on this song and sometimes God invites us into moments where we don't have all the answers and it may be down a path where we have fears or we don't really want to go and yet in those moments by His grace, He gives us the opportunity to say, "Let it be. Let it be, Lord, according to your word."

I have a friend named Dave who's a pastor, not Dave Hicks here at this church. He's a friend too, but this is a different Dave. And I met Dave when I was invited by his church to speak at their men's retreat and this was a great church, very much like Twin Lakes. I guess I'm biased, I compare him to us, but it was a great church and Dave lived in a very, very beautiful part of the state just like we do and we kind of hit it off.

And a couple years ago, it's about two years ago, Dave gets an invitation from another church to go work for them in a place that's not as nice to live in. And Dave doesn't want to go there. Dave doesn't want to leave his great church. Dave doesn't want to uproot his family. I mean, he's got a good thing going there. But he tells me, "I literally heard Jesus tell me that I needed to go." And I'm like, "Well, wait a minute, Dave. How did that happen? I mean, how exactly did the Lord speak that clearly to you?"

And he says, "Well, when they first offered me the job, I said, 'Well, thanks, but no thanks. I'm quite happy where I'm at.'" And a few weeks later, he says, "I was listening to a sermon by another pastor about how Jesus loves His church." And he says, "Mark, in that moment, as clear as a bell, I heard in my head the voice of Jesus say, 'Dave, I love that church too, and I want you to go and love them with me.'

And Dave told me that began a very excruciating time in his life where he knew what the Lord wanted him to do, even though he didn't want to do it. And one of the most agonizing moments for him was when it was pretty much a done deal, he'd receive the formal offer, and he's finishing this magnificent tree house that he built for his children. They'd anticipated this for months and had been weeks in the construction. He's just wrapping this up when this huge hinge is about to turn.

They're just about to move, and he just starts to weep because he realizes in that moment, "I guess I must have built this tree house for somebody else's children because mine are never really even going to get to play in it." And I don't know what you think about stories like this. Maybe it's a little too subjective. Does God really call people this way? I can tell you this much. My friend Dave did not want to leave the place he was at.

And yet when God made it very clear to him that he wanted him to go down another path, Dave had the grace, the willingness to trust him in that and say, "Let it be. Let it be, Lord, according to your will." And perhaps there's a situation in your life right now and God's Word is calling you to make some adjustments or God's will is leading you a direction, and you don't really want to do that. You want to keep those hands firmly clenched on the steering wheel and it's like, "Uh-uh. This is my life, Lord." And yet in those moments, perhaps if you're in that moment right now, may God give you the grace to trust him even more than you trust yourself, which when you think about it, it's not such a bad thing to do, is it?

It's been about two years since Dave made his move. I just talked to him about a month ago. I said, "Well, how's it going, Dave?" And he said, "Well, the last two years have been the hardest years of my life and the best years of my life." And I can tell just in conversation that his heart has grown just that much bigger and his ability to love people has just gone that much deeper and that his life is magnifying Jesus even more than it would have if he would have stayed in that very comfortable place that he was at.

Who do I ultimately trust with my life? Third, what do I treasure and ponder? What do I treasure and ponder? Fast forward on the Christmas story just a little bit. The angels appeared to the shepherds and pretty soon after that the shepherds show up at wherever Mary and Joseph live and see the baby Jesus and they are just blown out of their minds by this whole thing and they're like the first street preachers because anyone who will listen to them, they're telling the story.

They're just spreading this around as much as they can. And in Luke 2:18–19, it says, "All who heard were amazed at what the shepherds told them, but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart." Now notice what Luke does here because everyone is amazed at what the shepherds are saying, but Luke sets Mary in a class by herself. They're amazed but Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

And at first glance, it might just seem like she's collecting some sort of mental scrapbook like a sentimental mom, but the language is much more technical than that. It's much deeper because what Luke is pointing to with the word treasure there, that means to memorize in a very formal way, like when you're developing a mental rolodex, when the things that are going to be essentially the talking points of what you're about, you want to be very clear about those things.

And so Mary is meditating on these things or memorizing these things in order to meditate on them. She's doing theology here in a sense. It's like when people memorize the stats and the names of their favorite sports team. Any of you do this? My son, Luke, he's a soccer nut. He loves soccer. And so he'll talk about these international clubs like Manchester United and Barcelona. I don't know anything about these teams.

I mean, his favorite player is a guy named Kareem Benzema. I have to write it down because I have no idea who this gay place for... Here it is. It's Real Madrid. Okay, great. Hey, I'm just glad that Stanford's going to the Rose Bowl. You know what I mean? Yeah. I have no idea what he's talking about. But for him, that's just important stuff. Now, you asked me about the different surf breaks in our bay. I can provide some details. I can tell you which tide you might want to go to that particular spot at or which swell direction. These are things that I treasure. Information that I ponder in my heart.

And again, there's nothing wrong with having hobbies and interests, but my hope is that over the course of my life and especially as a follower of Jesus, my priority in terms of what I treasure and ponder would be the words and the ways of the Lord. And that seems to be exactly what Mary did even as a young girl. Because get this, this song that we're looking at, it has at least a dozen quotes or references to the Old Testament.

Like Psalm 35.9 that begins, "Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in His salvation." Essentially the same basic thought of the first line of her song. And in addition to other Psalms that she pulls into her song, she's quoting 1 Samuel, she's quoting Isaiah and many more. Somehow this peasant girl has been able to amass an extraordinary grasp of Scripture, which is amazing when you consider she didn't even own a Bible. Nobody owned a Bible. All she could do was hear these verses in a synagogue and treasure them so that she could ponder them.

Or perhaps hear the verses, the Scriptures that her own parents memorized. They all became part of her mental Rolodex. So it's well worth asking, "What do I treasure and ponder? What are the things that you memorize so that you can have them at the ready?" Because they're important to you. Valerie, right over here on her staff, she is like a savant when it comes to hymns. I mean, it's really amazing because we'll be in a...our team will be gathering to talk about a service and talking about a particular hymn or something like that. And Val, she can just quote verse after verse Psalms I've never even heard of. It's stunning.

René has this incredible ability to recall just about everything he's ever read or studied. And he can also tell you who the director was of like every movie that's ever been made, at least the decent ones. Why does he even remember this stuff? I have no idea. It's like who cares what the director of Space Coast was or something like that. But he does. He like treasures this. It ponders in his heart.

As I close in on 50...not there yet, but I can see it. Man, I'm just trying to hang on to the stuff I got up here. You know what I mean? Keep it all there. I mean, I was talking to our camp director, Eric Swanson-Dexill, this week in our office. And Eric's in his early 40s. And he's telling me about this guy that he knows really well, but then he's having one of those moments where he can't remember the name. And he's like, "You know, that guy..." And I said, "Eric, welcome to the club." It just kind of goes on from there.

Anyway, the effects of aging aside, what do you hang on to? What do you treasure? All these questions. They all add up to, "What does my soul magnify? What do I ultimately trust? What do I treasure and ponder?" They really answered this last question for us. What's my soul? What's the core of what I'm about?

I'm gonna invite you to think about that as I close with this story. Just this Friday, I went to Pacific Coast Manor. It's a skilled nursing center over here in Capitola. I stopped by to see a fellow Twin Laker who's there recovering from surgery. And I go into his room and he just lit up the room because he's so grateful for how the Lord has brought him through this experience, how he even used the tough moments for his good.

There were so many unexpected blessings coming out of this experience. And it was infectious. In fact, even when I first walked in and asked where his room was, there's three gals behind the reception desk and they all light up and like, "Oh yeah, we know where he is." And it's like he's their new favorite patient or something like that.

I say, "Well, how's it going back in the room? And how's your physical therapy?" And he says, "Oh, it's great." Except on the first day, I said, "If you're going to torture me, it may as well not have to be so dreary." So I put a waltz on or something like that. I'll give you a clue to his age. He asked for a waltz. But now when they do physical therapy in that room, there's music because of this guy's influence.

Well, we're talking and all of a sudden this older gentleman, he kind of wheels in real slow in his wheelchair and my friend doesn't recognize him and so he's lost. He's confused. So I offered to help him and eventually I get him out in the hallway and I say, "Sir, can I help you get to where you want to go?" And he looks me in the face and he says, "Yeah, I want to go to Reno." I mean, who could blame him?

And he was having a hard time and all of a sudden this gal named Sandy, another Twin Laker who volunteers, she just appears out of nowhere in the hallway and she kindly takes over and she says, "I know where he wants to go. He wants to go where the music is." She wheels him down the hall where I can hear in the distance some Christmas music playing in the distance.

I say goodbye to my friend and I'm walking through the lobby and I run into Bill, another Twin Laker. And he's got his guitar strapped on his back and his music stand. He's got all his stuff and we say hi, but clearly Bill is on a mission because he's on his way down to that same room where Sandy is and the guy that wants to go to Reno and Bill and some others, they're going to strike up the band and the music is about to go live and they do this every week.

Finally, I'm pulling out of the parking lot and here comes this car and I recognize, "Oh, there's Celia, another Twin Laker." And she's on her way in because she's going to go join Bill and the band and they're going to play for the people who wish that they could be somewhere else.

And the song that Bill and Celia play, and the song that Sandy sings to the man who wants to be in Reno, and the song that my friend sings to the therapist and the staff, they all testify to the same reality which is that the Virgin Mary had a baby boy and His name is Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world. And meant to sing His song is the most magnificent blessing in all of life. So sing for His glory. Sing for His glorious kingdom. Amen. Amen.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your goodness and Your grace. And Father, I thank You that You invite us all to join the heavenly chorus, to be a part of Your band with whatever we have to offer and to have Your song become our song. And Lord, I thank You for this congregation that there is so much that the people in this room right now do, so many things unseen where whether it's in a skilled nursing center, whether it's with their neighbors or whether it's in their school or so many different places, they're singing Your song.

And I praise You for them and I thank You for that. I pray that You would fill them with great joy right now as they reflect on those moments. And for the person, Lord, who's feeling maybe lost or confused or they're at a crossroads of life, I pray that the example of Mary would encourage them today. Because God, if you could take a young woman with no resources, with very little that she could leverage and use her to be part of the greatest story this world has ever known, then there's hope for us because you're the same God you're still working in our lives too.

So give us hope, Lord. Give us trust. Embolden our faith. And Lord, I pray that You would be pleased that we would give fitting honor to Mary, the Blessed Mother of Jesus, even as we worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ today. May You fill us, Lord, with joy and with Your grace. All God's people said, Amen. Amen.