Advent of Our Song :: Luke 1:39-56
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior (LSB 248).
Oh, how I love this canticle! ... I love it because it is our song! This is the song of the church!
For more than a millennia, from generation to generation, during Vespers and Evening Prayer, the Church has been singing these words. They were first sung by Mary in the hill country of Judea. And thankfully, the church has them in three additional canticles that can be sung during the Lord’s Divine Service. We just sang one of them.
Mary’s song ... our song ... serves to remind us of what God always remembers ... that He does great things to us ... that He fills the hungry with good things ... that He helps his servant Israel to remember his mercy. And this is great news from our Gospel reading in Luke 1 on this Fourth Sunday in Advent!
WE GET TO REJOICE IN THE ADVENT OF HIS REMEMBRANCE.
1.
Following the visit by the angel Gabriel and the miraculous conception of the Son of God ... the day God actually became incarnate ... because life begins in the womb ... Mary left her home in Nazareth and made the arduous journey to Judea to visit her relatives Elizabeth and Zechariah (v 39). Elizabeth was also pregnant, also miraculously, because she was an old woman and Zechariah was an old man (1:18). In just three more months, she would give birth to the voice of the one who would call us to prepare the way of the Lord (v 56).
And then it came to pass: Mary came knocking, and Elizabeth realized the first advent of God in the flesh had come upon us. As Mary said her hellos, Elizabeth interrupted her with a great shout ... Blessed are you among women, Mary. Blessed is the fruit of your womb. For behold when the salutation of your voice came into my ears, my baby leaped with rejoicing joy. How is it that the mother of my Lord would come to me? (vv 42-44).
This is a most remarkable confession of Elizabeth. Though she had not seen her Lord, she loved him. And even though she could not yet see him in the flesh, she believed in him, and was filled with a glorious and inexpressible joy while awaiting the outcome of her faith, the salvation of our souls (1 Pt 1:8-9).
Today our Lord and Savior is making himself known to you through his mother, the church, in the second advent of his remembrance. And blessed are all of you who treasure and keep God’s Word and Sacraments.
Do you recognize this truth?
2.
Elizabeth’s reaction isn’t normal. The world is blind and deaf to the presence and reality of God. The world isn’t interested in hearing the Gospel, let alone God’s word (Dt 18:15). They don't believe God draws near in ways we don't understand.
But through Elizabeth’s confession, we are seeing and hearing evidence that the Holy Spirit does indeed call, gather, enlighten, and sanctify the whole Christian church here on earth through the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of his sacraments. It is only by the Holy Spirit that she would recognize the advent of her Lord in the womb of Mary.
The Christianity of the world today doesn’t think this is even possible, that God would become a man born to die ... that God could draw near through means of grace. The Christianity of the world today is too focused on what they must do to earn salvation, to make themselves right with God.
The world may say God is good, but the world focuses on their pious emotions and feelings and life as proof of that. They pay lip service to God, ignoring who the Lord actually is ... how he comes into our presence. They deny that they are even sinners. They deny their role in failing and broken relationships. They deny how they destroy life, shedding the blood of the innocent. They turn abortion into a sacrament, thinking it can liberate mankind. They pay lip service to taking care of each other. They abandon their marriages, declaring no love lost. They are too wrapped up in thinking only about their gods called me, myself, and I. They put on a haughty display of their own abilities and lives. They think they can find god in their heart, in their mind, in their emotion, in their spirituality.
3.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, in the name of Jesus, repent. Confess your sins. Turn away from your pietism and false gods. And then sing with Mary,
For the mighty one has done great things to me, and holy is his name,
and his mercy extends into generations and generations to those fearing him (vv 48-50).
4.
God’s mercy is for everyone, for every generation ... yes, even for you and me ... chief of sinners though we be. As Elizabeth’s child, John the Baptizer, will soon proclaim: Mary’s child is indeed the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Behold him and him alone. He is near in word and truth, and bread and wine and water, just as he was near in the wind of Mary. And in this we can rejoice always.
As you recognize this, you will be able to answer Elizabeth’s question: why would God visit?
The answer is because we all need forgiveness, and Jesus always remembers, drawing near to provide the means.
The son of Mary came to do for you what you can’t do for yourself ... to provide for you the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Jesus drew near to live his life in humility for you. He drew near to live his life without sin for you so that he would be able to stand in your place as a sinner for you. He drew near to redeem you from that sin and your ensuing death, not with gold or silver but with his innocent suffering and death on a cross. He drew near to you to shed his blood for you. He alone drew near to you in order to receive all of God’s wrath for your sin (1 Jn 2:2). And just as importantly ... he drew near to you finally to rise from the grave before you, giving all of you who believe in him the living hope of eternal life with him.
Blessed are you who believe this word of God was perfected in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus, the son of Mary.
5.
This is the objective reality of our song. As we sing with Mary, God then helps us to remember why we are here and why he draws near in the church ...
He fills the hungry with good things, and the rich he sends away empty.
He casts down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the lowly.
We sometimes struggle to remember this. But this is the reality of our Lord’s word and sacraments. He draws near to you because he always remembers His promises and it gives us reason to rejoice. His means of grace ... baptism, absolution, and the Lord’s supper ... fill us with all of God’s best. They protect us from ourselves. They give us what God says they give us ... the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation ... because where there is forgiveness there is life and salvation. That is who he is. Behold, I am with you always (Mt 28:20), he says. Do these in my remembrance (1 Co 11:24, 25).
This font isn’t just a symbol. The bread and the wine on the altar aren’t just a memorial. These means aren’t just representations. They are how he draws near now until his final advent, when he appears in the clouds with glory. They are why we can sing with Mary.
For behold, from this day, all generations will call me blessed (LSB 249:1).
6.
And we are in the church ...
Our Lord Jesus meets us here every Lord’s day. He appears here in our midst. He leads us here to his font and ushers us here to his altar. He cleanses us here through the water of life and nourishes us into everlasting life with his previous body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of your sins.
What better reason is there to rejoice always and to magnify the Lord? Here, we see God choosing what is weak in the world ... the church ... to shame the strong. We see God choosing what is low and despised, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (1 Cor 1:28). We see God lifting us up forever.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us rejoice in the Lord always, magnifying the Lord. Again, I say, rejoice, singing with Mary. Let your requests be made known to God.
He will hear them. He is near. He will remember. He always remembers in Jesus’ name.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts, and your minds, in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:4-7).