Mercy Remembered
Download MP3We're gonna be in Luke chapter 1 tonight. Luke chapter 1, starting in verse 46. And if you don't have a Bible with you, there it's gonna be in your worship guide as well. You follow along there. So this is the 2nd Sunday in Advent as we opened up our service, recognizing that.
Jeffrey Heine:And during Advent, we are preparing as a church family, as a household of faith. We are preparing for the celebration of Christmas. And so during this time, we were looking at different texts. Last week, we looked at, the gospel of Mark, the whole thing. If you aren't here, it's on the podcast.
Jeffrey Heine:We looked at the whole of Mark's gospel and the objective in that time was to look at that gospel as a whole and behold Jesus. And this Sunday, the second Sunday of Advent, we are looking to Mary's song, her this canticle, this hymn of praise to her God. So we will be, starting off verse 46, Luke chapter 1, and let us listen very carefully for this is God's word. Luke 1 beginning in verse 46. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
Jeffrey Heine:For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed For he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. And 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 mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
Jeffrey Heine:He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich, he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Our father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather in this place and in this time, to sing songs of praise and to offer up prayers of thanksgiving and petition. And Lord, now we come to opening up your word. And we are reminded once again that what what we need, what what our souls most desperately need is that you would speak to us by your spirit. Through your word, you would speak to us even now. That you would comfort us, that you would challenge us and change us, transform us by the renewing of our minds that we might know what is good and how to follow you.
Jeffrey Heine:And so we ask that in this time by your spirit, you would stir up in each and every one of us trust and love and obedience to you. We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. During Advent and Christmas, we are as Garrison Keillor once said, united in a common mystery. A common mystery.
Jeffrey Heine:And this common mystery that we all share together is the mystery of the incarnation. The God in flesh mystery that is so unbelievable that it is a given that it can only be believed in faith. The incarnation, it defies all our sensibilities. It defies reason and expectations. It defies our cultural understandings of both status and decency.
Jeffrey Heine:And although it might seem obvious to those of us who believe, the central meaning of Christmas is not as I heard this week from a Christmas show that my kids were watching. Christmas is not all about good times with friends and family. It's not holiday cheer or tradition or even charity. The central issue of Christmas is the incarnation of God. In the 4th 5th centuries, there was a controversy in the church of whether or not the Virgin Mary should be called Theotokos, the mother of God, or Christotokos, the mother of Christ, the mother of God, or the mother of Christ.
Jeffrey Heine:And the reason that people would argue about this is because even to Christians, even to those of us who believe in the actual incarnation, the idea of God being physically delivered in the body of a human woman as a tiny screaming vulnerable baby, even to us Christians is shocking and scandalous and even distressing. We don't know what to call it. At the very center of all of this Christmas activity that we're already beginning in earnest now, Underneath all the traditions and the consumption, there is a shocking, scandalous, even distressing message that God has come to us, born to die, to rise, to reign. It's startling. And incarnation is this common mystery that we celebrate at Christmas.
Jeffrey Heine:And there, there is a common unity as well, a common unity of celebration, A common unity of praise. A unity of thankfulness to God that he would come to us, even us. A thankfulness that God would look at our humble estate, and that he would give what is undeserved profoundly, eternally undeserved. A thankfulness that he would send a light to shine even in our deep darkness. That he would rend the heavens and come down to even us.
Jeffrey Heine:So here in the 2nd week of Advent, as we prepare for the celebration of Christmas, we have this common mystery and common praise. Since the 1st century in the earliest days of the early church, Luke chapter 1, this song of Mary, Canticle of Mary, often called the Magnificat. Maybe some of you, sang that in chamber choir in high school or something like that, and I'm sure you did an amazing job. I'm sure it was lovely. I'm sure that your family all clapped and you went to Applebee's afterwards and it was wonderful.
Jeffrey Heine:It was great. But this song of Mary, this song of Mary has been included in a part of worship since these early days of the church. It's such a primary example of a servant of the Lord enraptured in the mystery of the, of the incarnation, and wrapped up in this overwhelming praise of her God and savior. According to Thomas Odin, a Methodist theologian, Luke's gospel was likely written in the city of Ephesus during the middle part of the first century. And there's good reason to believe that, that Mary, the mother of Jesus was actually living there at the time of this writing.
Jeffrey Heine:And, and what the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these writers, what they included in their gospels is not only what they thought was most important theologically, but also what was important contextually. It's very likely that Luke's first audience, his first readers could go and talk to Mary. They could ask her about being visited by the angel and what it was like to learn the news of the, of the holy conception. And they could ask her about going to visit her relative Elizabeth after finding out the news. And this is a remarkable thing.
Jeffrey Heine:And I think it's, it's worth us bearing in mind that Luke would have met with Mary because he's, he's taking all these eyewitness accounts as he's crafting this gospel together. Three quick reasons why maybe we can have some confidence that that happened. 1st, which gospel has the story of Mary and Joseph not finding a place to stay in Bethlehem when Mary's going into labor? Luke. Which gospel has the account of Mary swaddling baby Jesus in cloth and lying him in an animal's, manger for getting lost during the Passover feast in Jerusalem and the parents frantically searching for him?
Jeffrey Heine:Luke. Now those sound like mom stories to me. A labor story, swaddling him and having to place him in the manger. Some of you have stories about being placed like in a in a drawer or something like that. And your parents saw it all the time.
Jeffrey Heine:The story of losing, misplacing Jesus, and they're frantically searching for him at the, at the feast of the Passover. All of these things sound like mom stories. And those of you who are taking a significant other home during the holidays to meet your family, you know a mom story because you're terrified that those are gonna happen over Christmas dinner, that these mom stories are gonna come out. And I can just imagine that the brothers of Jesus, James is there saying, again with the end story, like she tells this story every is This account of learning the news of the Christ child. She told Luke about her travels to Elizabeth, and he records this song of praise, the Canticle of Mary.
Jeffrey Heine:And this song has been in regular use within the church, both in the Catholic tradition and since the reformation. The Anglican archbishop Thomas Cranmer, who wrote the Anglican prayer book, the book of common prayer, they included Mary's song for evening prayer. So for centuries, Anglicans would have, would have read this, this for their, their nighttime prayers. They would have gone through these words of Mary, not to honor Mary per se, but but they used these words as Mary used them, to worship God, to praise her savior? Maybe some of you were even raised memorizing Mary's words for prayer.
Jeffrey Heine:And what I want to do with our time is to look at the whole of the song, to get an understanding of what Mary is declaring here. And then I want us to focus on one aspect aspect because there are, there are many, many truths and beautiful things to look at throughout this text, but I'd like for us to focus in on one. So let's look at this hymn of faithful, poor, overwhelmed teenager. In Luke chapter 1 verses 26 through 38, Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel. And the angel said to her, rejoice highly favored when the Lord is with you.
Jeffrey Heine:Blessed are you among women. And understandably, Mary was troubled by all of this and startled by all of this. And Gabriel reassures her and says, do not be afraid for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a son, and he shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the highest.
Jeffrey Heine:And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And very reasonably, Mary asks him how this is at all possible because she's not married and she's certainly not pregnant. And he speaks to her again and says, the holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
Jeffrey Heine:Now indeed, Elizabeth, your relative has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is now the 6th month for her who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible. And precious Mary, precious faithful Mary, who must certainly still be so confused and so afraid. Because was that enough of an explanation for any of you? Right.
Jeffrey Heine:So still confused, still afraid, she responds, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. Now these words should be staggering to each one of us here. The way she responds, her response should instruct our souls in the way that we respond to God in every moment of our lives. She displays for us this picture of submission to God.
Jeffrey Heine:She would say, let it be to me. As St. Paul teaches, these are words of wisdom, and that when we find ourselves in times of trouble, Mother Mary, there we go. I was wondering how long can we keep this up? No.
Jeffrey Heine:That was, Saint Paul McCartney. But these are wise words, wise words that should shape the way that we respond to God. That she would stand before him and say, let it be to me. And then she makes a 3 to 5 day journey over about a 100 miles distance to visit her relative, Elizabeth. And think about that.
Jeffrey Heine:She is told that Mary, that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant and she goes like she believes it's true. That it turns into action. This belief is not just something that she agrees with in her mind, but it turns into what she does. That's faith. And once Elizabeth saw Mary and heard her voice, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women.
Jeffrey Heine:Blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And after Elizabeth said these things, Mary responds with her hymn of praise.
Jeffrey Heine:I want to pause here, and I want to ask you to imagine Mary and Luke sitting at a table in a room lit by simple candlelight, And Luke, the doctor is sitting there and he asks, What else do you remember? And Mary goes through these things. Imagine her telling him about making that journey to visit Elizabeth 30 years ago. She remembers being overwhelmed with the news of the pregnancy. She, she remembers this desire to be with Elizabeth as quickly as possible.
Jeffrey Heine:She takes off. She recalls Elizabeth saying that the sun in her womb was leaping with joy. And 30 years later, Elizabeth's son and Mary's son had been killed at the hands of evil men. John the Baptist by Herod, Jesus crucified by Pilate, how much pain and suffering Mary and Elizabeth these two women had endured over the years. But Mary recounts this scene, this time when she and Elizabeth were so overwhelmed by God's love and grace to them, this profound awe, she remembers it.
Jeffrey Heine:And she remembers what she said next. And she tells Luke that she responded to Elizabeth with these words, My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is his name. There's so much going on in this song of praise.
Jeffrey Heine:The breadth of scripture references, echoing Hannah's song of praise and thanksgiving to the Lord in first Samuel. Weaving in parts of various Psalms and words of the prophets. So many different references are interwoven into these words of praise. It's stunning, really. Mary is captivated by the mercy of God, and she worships her God with all that she is.
Jeffrey Heine:The great reformer, Martin Luther wrote of Mary's worship saying, When we experience the goodness that is so rapturously great in God's works, that all our words and thoughts fall short. Our whole life should be excited as if everything in us wants to sing praises. And that's what's going on with Mary. She begins by saying that her very soul magnifies the Lord. Not simply her voice or her mind or her actions, it's her soul.
Jeffrey Heine:The seat of her existence, the core of who she is, is worshiping and magnifying the Lord, her savior. And her spirit, she says, rejoices in God, her savior. She's rejoicing because God has looked upon her. And though there was nothing of her own that would make her worthy of his grace, she did not deserve to be chosen for such a blessing. And she, she confesses that, but God has looked on his humble servant with grace and she will be called blessed in every generation to come.
Jeffrey Heine:So a quick side note, the best way to have a good theology about Mary, what's called Marian theology, the best way to have good right Marian theology is to listen to Mary. Listen to what she says, because she says to us, there was no reason for God to do what he did, but he has done great things for me. And every generation will recognize that God has blessed me beyond what I deserve. I am truly blessed. Mary says that God my Lord, my savior.
Jeffrey Heine:He is mighty and holy is his name. Her praise begins by recognizing who God is. Do you begin in worship like that? Do you begin, not only here when we gather for corporate worship, but in your life of worship, your day to day worship of God, do you begin with recognizing who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as mighty and holy? You recognize who it is that you're talking to, whose presence you are desiring and drawing near to.
Jeffrey Heine:Do you recognize who he is and humble yourself before him rightly? And also just as Mary demonstrates for us, do you see yourself rightly? She recognizes her humble estate. She does not try to make herself out to be more than she is. She confesses who God is.
Jeffrey Heine:She confesses who she is and who God has made her to be blessed. Mary goes on, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. She turns from talking about God's mercy to her individually, and she extends her view. She, she, the scope widens to the view of God's mercy to every generation. Because true worship bears in mind that it's not just a personal reality, but this is a corporate reality.
Jeffrey Heine:Worship isn't only me and God, it's us and God. And Mary says, just like he looked upon me and showed me mercy, he shows mercy in every generation to those who fear him. So a brief explanation about what it means to fear the Lord, because I want to be clear that Mary isn't talking about being scared of God. The biggest reason I can tell you that she doesn't mean being scared of God is because being scared of God is based on being afraid of punishment. And John the evangelist writes to us about this issue in first John chapter 4, when he says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.
Jeffrey Heine:For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. See our punishment has been taken by Christ and we obey with a fear that is a reverence. Reverence, reverent obedience really is what Mary is talking about here. In every generation, those who reverently obey the Lord, they too find mercy and grace. And Mary turns her attention to the mighty works of God.
Jeffrey Heine:And she does it in a strikingly poetic manner. So listen and see if you can hear the movements that she is describing. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.
Jeffrey Heine:He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. She says, God has shown strength and God has scattered. God has brought down and God has exalted. God has filled and God has sent away empty. See here, Mary is describing the enduring might and strength of the Lord against the proud, against the mighty, against the rich, and his enduring mercy toward the humble, the poor, and the hungry.
Jeffrey Heine:You see for in Mary's time to be proud or mighty or rich meant oppressing and dominating others. That's the only way that you could, you could be mighty and rich is if you were oppressing others. And the promise of the kingdom of God is that true might and strength and wealth come from God and not man. And God looks at the humble and the poor and the hungry, and he acts on their behalf to exalt them, to lift them up and to fill them with good things, humble and hungry. This is a promise of comfort to the humble and the broken in spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:This is also a warning shot to the proud and the mighty. It's this cosmically subversive work of Yahweh. It's Jesus looking at Pilate and saying, the only authority that you have is the authority I'll let you have. This is the tuning up of the great trumpet and the white horse being bridled. The proud, the mighty, the rich have been scattered, brought down, sent away empty.
Jeffrey Heine:The humble, the hungry, they have been exalted and filled with good things. Mary is firstly pointing to herself as an example of this, God's mighty work for the humble. Martin Luther wrote of Mary's humble estate saying, The royal line of David was as poor and despised as a dead block of wood, so that there was no longer any hope or anticipation that a king would come from it with any great glory, end quote. And yet God has exalted the humble. This poor young teenager Mary has been graced with this eternally glorious honor of being the mother of God the Christ, And that's what Yahweh does.
Jeffrey Heine:And if some of this sounds too praiseworthy of Mary, and I wouldn't blame you if you thought that it is, Consider your status. Consider your station as a co heir with Christ the king. Consider your status as a child of the living God. He exalts the humble. He lifts up those who do not deserve it.
Jeffrey Heine:Then Mary says, he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. And here's where I'd like for us to spend the rest of our time. The central theme of the birth narrative in Luke's, Luke chapters 12, is that God is merciful. Five different times throughout the birth narrative, God's mercy is specifically talked about.
Jeffrey Heine:And a word that regularly accompanies a definition for the word mercy is the word undeserved. The favor that God has shown Mary in choosing her for the work of bearing the Christ child, raising him, following him. And as the prophet Simeon foretells her after his birth, that she would have a sword pierced through her own soul because of this child. This grace is born of God's mercy, his undeserved love and grace. This great mercy from God was promised.
Jeffrey Heine:It was promised and described over and over again throughout the history of Israel. And this is what Mary references at the end of her song of praise, when she says, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. God spoke of this mercy. He spoke of it to our fathers. He spoke of it to Abraham and to his offspring.
Jeffrey Heine:That's us. And I like to mention 2 places in the old Testament where God speaks of his mercy. He promises mercy. The first is in Exodus 34, when Moses is presenting the law of God, the commandments, Says this, this is after the first set were destroyed, and he's, he's going back up the mountain. So Moses cut 2 tablets of stone like the first.
Jeffrey Heine:And he rose early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him. And he took in his hand 2 tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood there with him, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed Yahweh, Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for 1,000, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But who will by no means clear the guilty?
Jeffrey Heine:How will he accomplish this forgiveness of inequity and transgression and sin? How will God be merciful and gracious, yet by no means clear the guilty? How will he make the guilty innocent? How will he make their sins that are red like scarlet, white like snow? How?
Jeffrey Heine:He's promised mercy, but how will he accomplish this mercy? 2nd example, through the prophet Ezekiel, God said to Israel, Ezekiel 39, therefore, thus says the Lord God, now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel. And I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame and all the treachery that they have practiced against me when they dwell securely in their land with none that make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands and through whom they have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations, then they shall know that I am Yahweh their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining in the nations anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:And I will not hide my face from them when I pour out my Holy Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God. I will have mercy, he says, on the whole house of Israel. He has promised mercy. But how? Mary tells us how.
Jeffrey Heine:He has helped his servant Israel, she says. He has remembered his mercy. The mercy he promised to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. And when God remembers something, that means that he is acting. Remembrance for God isn't simply a conceptual activity.
Jeffrey Heine:It's a divine action. And here, God is remembering his mercy. That means he's doing something. So what has he done? And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.
Jeffrey Heine:He will be great and he will be called the son of the most high. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. Mercy promised, mercy remembered. See, this is how it's possible.
Jeffrey Heine:It had to be this way. For us to be righteous, he had to be made into sin. And for him to be made into sin, he had to be born, because we are told, Paul tells the Corinthian church, that he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. The incarnation had to happen for this atonement to come to us. For you to be called righteous and the child of the living God, he had to come.
Jeffrey Heine:He had to be born to live, to die, to rise, and to reign. Earlier this year, art historians and researchers were were doing a deep scan of a painting by the French painter, Edgar Degas. And they were mapping the painting. So here's what they were doing. Scanning every single layer all the way down to the canvas.
Jeffrey Heine:And what they were able to find out as they scanned all the way down was that yes, there had been this painting, this well known painting, but underneath there's a portrait of a woman. Underneath that painting, there was another painting that had never been seen before. And because of this deep scanning, they were able to render what looked like a photograph of that original painting. Christmas has a lot of layers to it, and they're not all bad. In fact, much of the holiday emphasis on family and friends and giving are wonderful sentiments.
Jeffrey Heine:And really our culture needs to be reminded and to have time where these things happen in our culture. And I love that it does, but we have to be sober minded enough to know that there is a painting underneath the painting, One far more beautiful and critical to our souls. A picture that makes the happiness of the season possible, and the sorrows of the season bearable. Because some of you are walking into the happiest Christmas season you have ever experienced, or that's with a new spouse or child or a new job, or maybe you just moved into a new home and you've decorated it for the first time, or at least you're like halfway through decorating it for the first time. And for that as a church family, we rejoice with you.
Jeffrey Heine:And some of you are walking into the hardest, most sorrowful Christmas you've ever known. And for that, as a church family, we grieve with you. We don't have to pretend that the surface painting is all that there is, that it's tensile and discount codes and wrapping paper. You see, the true image of Christmas speaks to both the happiness and the pain that we can all feel this time of year. The central truth of Christmas speaks to the central realities of our lives.
Jeffrey Heine:Like a painting that's been painted over, we run the serious risk of missing the real picture of Advent and Christmas. But as a family of faith, we can remind one another of what's really going on here, That God in his great love and kindness has remembered his mercy. The mercy he promised to Abraham and to his offspring. The mercy he promised us, he has remembered, and that mercy was born of the Virgin Mary, born to live and that perfect life is accounted to us. Born to die and his death is accounted to us.
Jeffrey Heine:And he rose and we rose with him. And he ascended that we would bear and declare his gospel and bring many sons and daughters to believe in this mercy. When he first came to us in the silence of Mary's own body, she was the lone voice of enraptured praise. But now we can join her knowing that when he comes again with the fullness of his mercy and his kingdom, we will join our voice with the voice of the mother of God, the Christ, and sing together, my soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my savior, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Jeffrey Heine:Let's pray. Father God, we need your help. Whether we know it or not, we need your help. Even in this moment To see rightly who you are, to see rightly who we are, to know the truth of who who you've made us to be because of Jesus and your mercy, to believe that we are forgiven. And I know that there are many here tonight that have a hard time believing that could possibly be true.
Jeffrey Heine:So I ask that by your spirit, you would confirm in them the presence of your spirit and their forgiveness and the atoning work of Jesus. God help us to believe. This is a busy season and we need your help to slow down, to look to you, and to worship. So we ask that you would work these words of Mary into our own hearts and minds, this advent. That we too would be overshadowed by your Holy Spirit.
Jeffrey Heine:We would be so overwhelmed by your Holy Spirit that we would know your truth, that we would abide in you, and that we would draw near to Jesus, our king. We pray these things in his name.
