Shout Aloud and Sing for Joy!

THE MAGNIFICAT: LUKE 1:46-55 (MESSAGE)

And Mary said, 

I’m bursting with God-news;

    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.

God took one good look at me, and look what happened—

    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!

What God has done for me will never be forgotten,

    the God whose very name is holy, 

set apart from all others.

His mercy flows in wave after wave

    on those who are in awe before him.

He bared his arm and showed his strength,

    scattered the bluffing braggarts.

He knocked tyrants off their high horses,

    pulled victims out of the mud.

The starving poor sat down to a banquet;

    the callous rich were left out in the cold.

He embraced his chosen child, Israel;

    he remembered and piled on the mercies, 

piled them high.

It’s exactly what he promised,

    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

What an interesting proclamation!  After being told by an angel no less that your life is about to turn upside down, that you are about to be shunned and that you will be looked at with suspicion forever, would this be your response?  Would you really shout, “I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God”?  Would you be joyful about all that this news means for you and your life?

Being a highly wary person, I don’t think I could have embraced this startling good news as well as Mary.  If I were an unwed teenager who was just told that I was going to have a baby, I probably would have looked for the closest place to run and hide.  Thank God, I’m not Mary.  And, thank God, God didn't choose me.  You see, in Mary, God found a joyful and willing servant who not only bears the amazing news of God’s birth for us in the flesh, but who also willingly bears the sorrow of her child who will be denied, abandoned, forsaken, unjustly accused and put to death for being himself. On the third Sunday of Advent, we rejoice with Mary that God chose her and we rejoice with God, that Mary was willing to be chosen.

I hope that you will join us this third Sunday of Advent, December 16 at 10am at Christ Church as we feel the presence of joy and expectation. Together we will experience the disbelief and the jubilation as we hear the angel’s words, pray and sing all with joy! “God is Grace! God is with us!” A Family Christmas Dinner will follow worship in the Parlor. All are welcome!