Mary’s Song of Praise
Luke 1:47–55
December 24, 2006
University Christian Church, Seattle, WA
Rev. Sandy Messick

• She showed up yesterday. Mixed in with the utility bills and the last minute Christmas catalogs. A Christmas card. And there on the front, her face shone with a heavenly radiance. Mary, holding her baby Jesus. You’ve seen those pictures haven’t you? That angelic face, eyes downcast, gazing with adoration at her baby. The halo of gold around her head. You’ve seen it before. On Christmas cards, or Christmas stamps, or stained glass windows, or in nativity scenes.
• But as I read this passage, this beautiful song attributed to Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Magnificat as it is called, I wonder if we’ve pictured her quite right. I wonder if we understand much at all about this woman, much less the child she raised.

• We don’t know much about her. Just a few glimpses of her, here and there, throughout the gospels. Luke probably tells us the most, and the picture he paints is sketchy to say the least. But if we look closely, we find that she was more than just the mother of Jesus. She was in truth, a disciple of Christ.
• We first see her when the angel appears to her. “You’re having a baby,” comes the remarkable words and Mary is stunned. “How can this be? How is this possible?” But after the disbelief, comes the acceptance. “Let it be as you have said.” May God’s will be my will.
• After the whole birth story, in which Mary was remarkably silent despite the fact that she gave birth in a crowded stable and suddenly was visited by a bunch of strangers wanting to take a look at her baby, the next we see of her is 12 years later when Jesus gets separated from the family in the temple. “How could you do this?” she exclaims with typical motherly exasperation. But Jesus explains he was about his Father’s business, and Mary ponders this in her heart.
• She shows up again, when Jesus is an adult, preaching to the masses. Mary follows him. A woman cries out, “Blessed is the womb that bore you,” but Jesus responded, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word and obey.”
• Again, at the cross, when the disciples have all run away, Mary is there, with the other women, and it is they who carry Jesus to the tomb.
• Our last image of Mary comes in the book of Acts (Luke’s sequel to his gospel). Among the first members of the early church, Mary is there, devoting herself constantly to prayer.

• Luke’s picture of Mary spans her lifetime, but what do they add up to? Today we might say she was an over-involved mother. She can’t seem to let go of her adult son. We’d recommend counseling, tell her to get a career, find a husband. But to Luke, Mary was a model disciple, from our first image to our last she was a disciple who devoted her life to God. From the beginning when she said, “Let it be to me…” to our last picture when she was devoting herself constantly to prayer.
• First, Mary was able to recognize God’s will for her life. When God came calling and making outrageous requests, Mary said yes. Moses argued with God for chapters before finally saying yes. Isaiah argued that his lips were unclean, and Jeremiah protested he was just a youth. Mary said yes.
• Second, she recognized that it wasn’t all about her. She recognized that God’s vision wasn’t about making her a mother, but about offering salvation to the world. God’s vision was bigger than herself. We could learn something from her. We, who TIME magazine has named person of the year and printed the latest issue with a little mirror on the cover so we can see ourselves as person of the year. We could learn something from the woman who recognized that God’s plan for the world isn’t focused on me. It’s much bigger than me. Notice in Mary’s song of praise, she’s not praising God that God has made her famous, but that God is setting out to change the world! “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.” This isn’t merely a song of praise, it’s a song of revolution. Mary is singing about God’s turning the world upside down and inside out and it is the revolution that she sings out most strongly.
• And third, Mary was able to stay strong and faithful to God even when life didn’t turn out as she’d hoped. How could she have imagined how things would all turn out, when that angel said to her “congratulations, you’re pregnant?” She was unmarried. After the birth she and her family had to flee to Egypt. People called her son crazy. They put her son to death. And even after his death, she stayed faithful, within the company of believers, facing the persecution of the government and the established religion. And throughout she proclaimed, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” And throughout, she proclaimed and lived God’s words of hope and deliverance. St. Augustine once said, “Mary conceived Christ in her heart before she conceived him in her womb.”

• Our lives too, have their ups and downs. Things rarely turn out as we expect, and only sometimes as we hope. But God is gracious. And God offers strength. And always, God invites us to be part of the story. God invites us to sing a song of praise.
• The story is told of a man opening his door on a Sunday afternoon shortly before Christmas. There on his front porch stood a child with a Santa Mask clutching a worn paper bag. “Trick or treat,” cries the voice behind the mask and he thrust out the bag. Dumbstruck, the man fished in his pocket for a dollar bill and dropped it in the bag. The mask lifts and there is an Asian child with a big grin on his face. The man recognizes him as part of the Vietnamese family that lives down the street. New to the country. Refugees. “Wanna hear some caroling?” the boy says with a grin. “Sure,” says the man, looking around. “Where’s the choir?” “I’m it,” he says, and then launches forth in an off-key rendition of Jingle Bells, quickly followed by an enthusiastic Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Rounding out the impromptu concert, the boy leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and sang a soft-voiced, heartfelt Silent Night. As the last strains of “Sleep in heavenly peace” faded away, the man, eyes wet with tears, quickly pulled out a five-dollar bill and dropped it in the paper bag. In return, the boy solemnly pulled out a half-eaten candy cane and handed it to the man. Then with a quick grin and a heart felt “God bless you” and “Trick or Treat,” the boy was off the porch and running down the street. (Robert Fulghum, Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten)
• When the man asked, “Where’s the choir?” the boy responded, “I’m it.”
• When the world asked, “Where’s the choir?” Mary responded, “I’m it.”
• When God continues to ask, “Where’s the choir?” we respond, “We’re it.”
• And though we are less than perfect, often singing off key and missing our cues. God writes anew the words in our hearts; words of promise, words of hope, word of salvation, words of revolution. And we sing with all we’ve got and all God has given us, and our souls too magnify the Lord.