Mary’s Song – Luke 1:46-56

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So the reading is from Luke's Gospel, chapter one, verses 46 to 55, and it's on page 1026 in the Bibles.

And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble estate of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him. From generation to generation, he has performed mighty deeds with his arm.

He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised to our ancestors.

We have a beast lurking in 257 Baslow Road.

It was a beast. It's got green foliage spraying up and it seems to be disconcertingly crackling. Sorry about that.

Better. Right.

Technology, eh?

Yeah. I must cultivate a voice like some of the great Victorian preachers who could be heard three miles away without a microphone.

It's me.

Ah, no, I think. Is it?

Sorry.

Oh, dear. Right, well, this is a first for me, I have to say. Right, wait a minute.

Good morning. Thank you, Chris. We have a beast lurking in 257 Basler Road.

Well, it sort of spoil the illustration, but never mind. It's a plant that's flourishing. Ask the two ladies who came to Life of Jesus, they might have seen it lurking on the sideboard. It is a massive, I mean, massive, Christmas cacti. And if you want to know how it is flourishing so, well, ask Nikki.

She's the one with green fingers and she has a secret potion which she feeds it and it makes it flourish. And just as we long for our plants to flourish, so too do we want our lives to flourish. If you go into W.H. smith's at the station or an airport or anywhere like, am I. Is it me?

Am I full of static?

Is my hair going ding?

I'll get cold. Anyway, we're made to flourish. There are lots of books, aren't there? If you're going on a train journey, you might think, what do I have to read? And there is books on health, how to have health, how to be successful in work.

Seven steps you take and you will be a great successful businessman. Hobbies just abound, don't they? Your love life, your Sex life. There's so many different things that you can discover how to flourish. And we want our lives to flourish, not fail.

And that is true of the Christian life as much as any other part of life. And Paul has written about this in his wonderful little letter to the Colossian Church. And this is what he says in chapter two that Nicky and I have been reading recently about how you become a flourishing Christian. And he says, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness. So we're to be rooted in Christ.

Remember Jesus. Illustration of he's the vine, he's the plant. We're just the branches, without him will not flourish at all. We're to be built up in Him. He's our rock, he's our foundation.

We're to be strengthened by the good news that first brought us to faith. We're transformed for a new life fit for the kingdom of God. And he finishes in these couple of verses with overflowing thankfulness. If you want to be flourishing as a Christian, you need to be overflowing with thankfulness.

When we have a torrent of thankfulness flowing through our hearts, fears and doubts that we have are swept away like flood waters clear away all that's in their way. Think of the news of those Spanish floods and seeing what happens when a wall of water comes down a street. People standing there doing their daily lives, and then suddenly they see cars moving with no drivers and cars just being swept away. And everything in its path is swept away. When water is overflowing in abundance, it sweeps everything away.

And it just. It is what is there. There is nothing else. So if our hearts are full of thankfulness, if our thankfulness is overflowing everything else, all our troubles and doubts are going to be swept away.

The Magnificat, our Advent song for today.

A song where we find Mary overflowing with thankfulness. She just is gushing with thankfulness. But how does she do it? Just think what she's been faced with. We read about it, or you can read about it few verses beforehand.

Gabriel comes to visit her with news, and all her plans because of that visitation are just swept away in a way that must have been very disturbing. She was planning to get married.

What's going to happen there? She's been told she's going to be having a baby, but she's not married to the man she's betrothed to. Her future her security is in doubt. She's living in a culture where the shame of pregnancy outside of marriage was. It's just beyond our comprehension because that does not happen these days.

More and more children are born out of wedlock. There is no shame in it whatsoever Today. Mary lived in a culture where there was great shame. It was a capital offence, technically speaking. So how could she be overflowing with thankfulness when all these troubles were so in her face?

Well, she does it by magnifying God. She focuses on God and makes him the centre of her attention.

And his glory and power and faithfulness place all her troubles into a different perspective. If you're interested in photography, you, you. I can't walk around with this, can I? If you're interested in photography, you might know about the way you can frame a picture just by changing the type of lens. So from exactly the same spot you have a view and you fit a wide angle lens on and you get a wonderful panoramic view of a landscape or a building or something like that.

And there is just lots in the picture and there are pictures where that is a really good thing. You get the big picture, stay in exactly the same spot, change the lens to a telephoto lens and suddenly one thing will stand right out because that fills the frame. The scene hasn't changed, but the focus has. And that's what Mary does by magnifying God. It's not that her troubles have suddenly gone, her problems haven't gone, but God is there in the midst of our troubles and good times, and yet she chooses to focus on Him.

So we begin to get in a position where we can be thankful. When we're focusing on God and we see things in this new perspective, magnifying him, glorifying him, increases the possibility to be filled with thankfulness. In Ludlow Road, where Nicky and I lived in Guildford for quite a few years, we arrived at the house and it had a shared water supply. And if you went to the bottom of the garden with a hose pipe, you'd be lucky if you could fill a bucket in about 10 minutes. The pressure was non existent.

So eventually we got a new water main and it was so powerful you turned the bathtap on and it filled the bathroom with water because it just hit the end of the bath without touching the bottom or the sides and just sprayed everywhere. Pressure makes a huge difference to how abundant something is going to be.

When you look at God, there are so many things to be thankful for. As you look at him, the pressure to make you overflow with thankfulness is turned off. It's not a dribble. If you have eyes to see, you're in the line of a fire hose, of things to spray you with, to fill you with thankfulness.

And that's what we're going to look at today, just to see how Mary does that and what she focuses on. Now, there are all sorts of different ways you can split the Magnificat down into manageable bites, as it were, but this morning, we're just going to look in three parts. So the first couple of verses is praising God for work in her own life. Mary starts reflecting on her her own life. Then she moves on to God's mercy to all people.

And then she brings the focus back down to God's promises to all his people. So starts very personal, wide angle to everybody and then narrower angle again to think about God's people in the kingdom of God. Verses 46 to 49, this is what she says. And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Saviour, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me.

Holy is his name.

Mary sees and glories in the God who saves her. See, she recognises that she needs saving. She knows she's not perfect. And this is completely ironic, isn't it? Because there are some Christians, great numbers of Christians, who believe that Mary was immaculate.

She too had to be perfect for Jesus to be perfect. The wonder is, no, Jesus is perfect, but Mary is not immaculate. And Mary herself sees that she is not immaculate. In her song, in the Magnificat, she says, I need a saviour. What more evidence could you have that Mary was not perfect?

Mary sees herself, you see, against the backdrop of God's holiness, and she sees the gap.

Nicky and I were down in London for Nicky's birthday and you go on the Tube and there's the voice, mind the gap, mind the gap. Don't fall down the gap. When we see ourselves against God, there is a whacking great gap between us. How can we relate to a God when there is that gap?

When we contemplate God, we're struck by this gap, the gap that is between our turbulent, dark state of life and the purity and perfection of God. But Mary is awestruck by this. She's not crushed with despair. There's two ways of viewing it, isn't there? You could look at that and think, oh my, there's no hope.

But she sees the hope because she knows, and this is very interesting, she calls God mindful of her. That's the buzzword at the moment, isn't it? Be mindful. Are you mindful? Are you reflecting on your life?

Are you sustained by your thoughts and reflections?

You see, Mary knows that God knows her, and she knows that God knows her how she really is. She is a nobody. This is what is just so mind blowing to her. God sees her as a nobody. We are nobodies.

We're not celebrities. I don't think so.

But you see, Mary glories in this because she sees that God really does know her and he sees her as she really is, and yet he still cares for her.

And not only that, he chooses her above all others. He chooses her above the good and the great, to be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God.

Do you know? God really does know you.

God really does care for you.

We need to give ourselves time to reflect like Mary does on that amazing truth. She sees the gap. And yet in God's mercy, he isn't put off. Let that fill us with awesomeness and that will generate overflowing thankfulness. God really sees me as I am, and yet he still loves me.

He still cares for me. He is truly mindful of me.

So Mary meditates on her nothingness and the great might of God and she's filled with overwhelming praise. Now Mary's song changes gear. Or as it's a song, perhaps it changes key. You could probably tell me more about that, Roger. Tom Wright, in his little book on Luke, has an interesting point to make.

And I'm not a musician, so I couldn't do this. But for any musicians among you, you might like to think, let me read the Magnificat. Let me read Mary's song. What sort of music would really give expression to what Mary is putting into words? And he is very perceptive.

He's got lots of contact with other cultures and things. The rhythm and the beat are the hands clapping? Are the feet stamping? What would be the best musical accompaniment for this song? That's just something I thought.

That's a really fascinating thought. But anyway, Mary moves from thinking about her particular circumstances to reflecting on God's dealings with people more generally in the world as a whole. So verses 50 to 53 say this. His mercy extends to those who fear him from generation to generation he's performed mighty deeds with his arm. He scattered those who are proud in their innermost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble. He's filled the hungry with good things, but sent the rich away empty. Mary started with God's personal dealings with her. Now she recognises that God deals with everybody in the world and he behaves in just the way that he's been behaving with her. You see, God is not fickle.

He doesn't have favourites. He doesn't hone in on people and say, I like you, I'm going to care for you. But you know, he loves everyone. Jesus, when he was on this, this planet as a physical human being, loved everyone, even his accusers, even Pilate, who put him to death. Jesus loved him.

And God, as he's merciful to Mary, is merciful to all like Mary. People who see this gap between what God is like and what we're like, if you're awestruck by that, Mary is saying in this part of her song, great things are in store for you.

You see, God lets the proud get on with their lives as they want and that does not go well for them. Okay, it might go well for a while, but ultimately the song says, they will be scattered. You see, they're left to the loneliness of their own private, proud thoughts. But to those who recognise their need for heavenly spiritual food, Mary sees God giving them a banquet. And the food God has on offer is too costly for world wealth to purchase.

So the rich leave empty. It's the humble who are fed. Now, today we're having a special meal. It's not very big physically, but it is a banquet. Spiritually, it's a banquet Jesus initiated and he invites his disciples to attend.

And it's there to remind them of their need for nourishment from him if they are ever to live in the kingdom of God. So will we receive it with humility or will we look at it in a worldly way and say, well, this is nothing. What's the significance here? I've got other things to be doing. If we receive it with humility, we are truly nourished spiritually and it gives us life in Christ.

So when we come to communion, do we come humbly and are fed and nourished, or do we come proud, leave empty handed, because we're too distracted by the riches of this world?

Mary closes a song, reflecting on something that is truly wonderful about God. He is the great, the great promise maker and promise keeper. She says this. He's helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever. Just as he promised to our ancestors, Mary recalls the foundational promises God gave his people, the people who have the second chance.

Creation at the beginning of the Bible is wonderful. Takes two chapters, two different views of it. Third chapter, Everything's starting to fall apart. It's ruined. It doesn't look good.

If you or I had been in charge, I think that would have been it. And God, this is the right way to put it, was sorely tempted to start again. But he is merciful and he offers second chances. So in chapter nine, nine chapters on sorry, in chapter 12 of Genesis, things have moved on from that mother of all big mess ups. And we find God making promises to Abraham, offering out a rich hope of blessing.

And Mary's song ends reflecting on God's mercy and abundant blessings that are available to everyone who trusts in him and sees their need for a Saviour. Now, some say the gospel is pathetic. You have to be a pathetic person to be a Christian because it's all about weakness and brokenness and it's just for the cripples of life. If you're a real person, then you just get on with life. And I don't want anything to do with Christianity.

What that worldview has is a completely blinkered view and a misguided view of seeing people as they really are. Because you see, the truth is we are all weak and broken. And the very fact that somebody says there is no need for a Saviour just shows how weak and broken they are. But it's so easy to follow that line of thinking, isn't it? I don't need the Gospel.

I'm all right, I can get through this. I work with guys like that. You've only got one life, got to make the most of it. We're going to be the best architects. Not in London, not in England, in the world.

Wow. You have to admire their ambition, but what pride and conceit. It's unbelievable really.

We're all broken and we all need a Saviour. And when we see that, our hearts will be filled with just overflowing thankfulness that we have a God who is a Saviour. Just three Queen, three quick things to close on. We need a daily dose of overflowing thankfulness. Archbishop Cranmer writing the prayer book might have been old fashioned language, but boy, what a wise guy.

Every day to close the day, he set the Magnificat as the liturgy or part of the liturgy. He saw the need and the importance of just overflowing with thankfulness. We would do really well, to have a daily dose of overflowing thankfulness. It's just a few verses. You could even get it written out and put in enough card in your wallet or in your purse or something like that and just have it there just to be able to read and to stir you to overthrowing thankfulness.

Cultivate an attitude of gratitude.

Mary does what she does in this song because she is absolutely soused in Scripture. One of my favourite books of the Bible, Ecclesiastes, says there is nothing new under the sun. And that is absolutely true. What Mary does, she probably infringed copyright law because she nicked Hannah's song, the song we were looking at a few weeks ago. It is so similar, it's unbelievable.

It's as if Mary sort of looked at that song and thought that was true for Hannah. It's very true for me. And she puts her own spin on it. And time and again in the Bible we see things where people take something that's happened in the Bible and they reflect on that and they put themselves into that sort of situation. And that's what Mary does.

And that's what we need to cultivate. We need to be reading the Bible so that we can think, how do I fit into this great story of God? So to be overflowing with thankfulness, read the Bible, be fed by the Bible. And we need to remember, in the midst of our busy lives, if we're honest, much can appear dark and turbulent. We need to focus on God's glorious ways and then we will be overflowing with thankfulness.

Let me close with a prayer from Tom Parsons wonderful little book, the Radiant Dawn. Let us pray.

Almighty Father, we stand amazed in the presence of Jesus. I wonder how you have loved and regarded us. Put Mary's sense of amazement into our hearts. Use us today for your purposes, that we, like her, might contribute to the kingdom that will last throughout all generations. In the name of Jesus and in the power of the Spirit, Amen.