The Canticles Of Christmas:
The Song Of Mary



A Sermon On:

Luke 1: 39-56







PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO





DRAMA: "QUITE CONTRARY"

TEEN: (standing off to side)
Mary, Mary, quite contrary
Why?
Why does your body grow?
The gossip is, maybe
You're having a baby
That even your parents don't know.

MOM: It's getting quite late.
DAD: You mean, it's getting quite EARLY. It's almost 1am!!
MOM: I wonder.....

Mary enters silently and wordlessly crosses behind the two chairs. She is facing us, her back to mom & dad. She is obviously uncomfortable with mom & dad's silence.

MOM: It's awfully late, Mary.

(silence)

DAD: Mary! Your mother was talking to you.

(Mary turns to face them)

MARY: Yes..... I know.....
MOM: Is there anything.....
MARY: Nothing.
MOM: There must be....
MARY: Mother, there's nothing.... nothing that you or father can say.... or
do....
MOM: We just can't stand seeing you this way.
MARY: (now she's a bit frightened -- do they know???)
Seeing me how? Which way? Which way do you mean, mother?
MOM: You're so quiet and secretive. You never confide in us, anymore.
MARY: (with obvious relief)
Oh.... That!
MOM: It's just not like you, Mary. You were always such a talker.

MARY: Mouthy Mary.
MOM: No, not mouthy. Just open! Delightfully open.

(Mary turns her back on mom and faces us)

MOM: You always told us everything. School, friends, joys. Everything!
But now....
DAD: We just don't know how to talk to you anymore.
MARY: Mom, Dad....
MOM: We wish you would confide in us.
MARY: What I'm going to tell you....
DAD: We want to help.
MARY: Will not be easy.....
MOM: Whatever the problem is....
MARY: Not easy for me to speak.....
DAD: Whatever it is....
MARY: It will not be easy for you to accept....
MOM: We'll stand with you.
MARY: Mom..... Dad......
MOM & DAD: We're here, baby.
MARY: ..................... I'm pregnant.

(silence)

MARY: Mom?................ Dad?

actors silently leave stage.


BIBLE READING - LUKE 1: 39-56


The Christmas season - joy to the world, silent night, peace among men....
For many people it is a season of joy and festive pleasure.
For others, though....
Well, for others the season brings a darkness to their souls that rivals 5pm December skies. Loneliness is deepened. Turmoil in relationships seems accentuated. Depressions deepen. Griefs and losses seem accented.
Yes, Christmas is a turbulent time for many.

In the months preceding the first Christmas "turbulence" would have been precisely the operative word for young Mary - chosen Mother of God.

She was probably a young teenager; maybe 14 years old, living in a backwoods town, minding her own business, anticipating her wedding to a local tradesman.
A godly young woman who honoured the Lord and honestly tried to live in a way that pleased him. Devoted servant of God.

A very ordinary life till that day:
An angel visit.
Words that she was favoured by God - a jewel in His crown; her life pleasing in His Holy sight.
And then the bombshell - a moral, miraculous virgin pregnancy.

Her answer is at once profound and simple. Luke 1.38 records it -
I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said.
No arguing or challenging.
No upfront worrying about her reputation.
Just simple surrender to a God who divinely knows best.

And then what ????

When she skips her first period, begins to feel the first trimester tiredness and morning sickness, and realizes just how real all of this is - then what?
When she realizes that she's going to have to tell her mom and dad..... and her fiancee Joseph. Will mom and dad throw her out? Will Joseph believe?

We don't consider it often, but can you imagine the tension in her life?
That's why we did the drama.
It wasn't all sweetness, halos, soft lighting and Christmas carols.

Notice the bible reading.
The angel finishes his announcement to Mary. And the very next scene shows her trudging across country to visit her relative - Aunty Elizabeth.
Have you ever read this story and wondered why she made the trip?

Up until recently there were homes for unwed mothers in the Ottawa area. Unmarried, pregnant girls were considered a disgrace to the family and were shipped off to have their babies. Word was "they went to visit an aunt." Now here Mary, off in a big hurry to visit Aunt Elizabeth. Was it entirely voluntary? Something inside of me doubts that.

It was a four day journey from her out-in-the-sticks hicksville hometown to Judea. We can only imagine what those days must have been like. God had spoken to her. Divine truth was overwhelmingly and physically real.
But the fallout was hard to deal with.

Which over the history of God's people is how it often has been. Just ask faithful prophet Jeremiah who spent time rotting in a dungeon hole. Or prophet Isaiah, who was sawn in two and murdered for faithfully delivering God's message.
No - God's actions are not always kindly received.

Difficult days for Mary.
But her faith goes with her. And her mind no doubt travelled back through the history of God's people - a history that would have been taught to her by her parents and which would have been stored deep in her heart, as it was with all God's faithful in that society with little written material.

What does she think about on that 4 day journey? Scripture gives us a clue. We know that she sings a song. Those of you who are up on your bible knowledge may recognize that song. It is pulled from the Old Testament and the experience of another woman who was having her first child - Hannah, mother of the prophet Samuel.

Hannah was a humble woman who loved her husband, honestly tried to serve the Lord, and lived a simple life. She had no children, but after prayer was given the miracle of new life growing within her womb. A huge, huge blessing for her! Leading to the song recorded in 1 Samuel 2.

The central theme of Hannah's song is that God is constantly watching for the struggling, the oppressed, the weak and the needy.
The ones in life that think they're pretty good, the ones who feel they've got things together, and those that are willing to push others into a corner or run right over them as they move towards meeting their life's objectives -
- those are the ones that God will Himself push into a corner or run right over while He directs His Holy passionate care to the weak.

Hannah's baby shows her precisely such care of the Lord.
Now here's Mary, insignificant average young woman, told that she'd better go and visit the relatives for a while till mom and dad could figure out what to do, and till Joseph cooled off some.
Would she be able to return home?
Would there still be a wedding?
No answers at this point.

Just the Word of the Lord through the angel, and encouraging message of scripture about a God who cares for the weak.
Which was probably about how Mary was feeling.
Weak.... stressed..... unsure of where this all would lead.....

A four day journey.

And what would Elizabeth and Zechariah say?

Well -
Psalm 30.5 says, "Sing to the Lord, you saints of His; praise His holy name.... weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
And that's exactly what happens in the life of this young virgin.

Mom and Dad send her away. Far away. Hush hush. Secret.
What does Elizabeth do? Read v.42 -
In a loud voice she exclaimed - "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"

Can you see how huge this is for Mary?
She has God's message through the angel.
She has the story of scripture from the life of Hannah.
But how there is flesh and blood, kin, affirming her, welcoming her.
No secrecy - it's a loud welcome.
No hesitation - to Elizabeth this is an honour.

And it's like the dam bursts - song floods over the banks where before there was contained hesitation and uncertainty.
Mary takes the song of Hannah and remoulds it to fit her own life.

I'd like you to see and understand the process that's at work here, my friends.
Because what finally gives Mary courage, what - to use Psalm 30 language - turns her mourning into dancing is a three-fold support.
Three elements give her new joy, courage, and stability.

Three - which ought to come as no surprise to you contractors and engineering types. You probably know that if you want to build a platform of some sort, say a table, and you want it to be stable on any surface, no matter how uneven, you know (right?) how many legs to put on the thing.
Three.
Tripods never wobble.

Mary had a tripod at work in her life:
These three keep Mary secure and solid; allowing her to sing her praise song with joy to the Lord.

They are the three elements that can give security and stability to your life and mine, too.

The tripod of the believer's life.
Mary experiences it. And bursts into song.
It's a song of "Aha!!!"
"Aha!" says Mary as she gains a glimpse of God's great work throughout history, and a bit of sense of her place in that work. Oh, she hasn't got it fully worked out. But things begin to get a bit of perspective.

The central theme of Mary's song is in vv.52-53:
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.

She understands in her own way how God takes people who are willing to go His way, willing to let go of their own agenda, willing to serve wherever He calls.
God uses the humble.

But the proud - those who insist that their way is the only way and the right way, that their priorities need to come first;
those that wonder what's in it for themselves
those sorts of people get sidelined by the Lord in a big hurry.

"I am the Lord's servant.... May it be to me as you have said."
And the Lord takes a little nothing of a girl and uses her as a key element in this huge plan of salvation which He is laying down.

Please allow this truth to sink in, brothers and sisters.
Soak it in while you watch the story unfold.
See the dynamic of the Kingdom of God.

It's the same dynamic that the Son of Mary showed in later years.
Philippians 2 says, "....Christ Jesus.... being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! THEREFORE God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name."

It's the dynamic that Jesus preached:
"Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it." (Luke 9.24)

Lord - here's my life.
Whatever you want - do it, Lord.
Whatever you need - take it, Lord.
Wherever you lead - I'll follow, Lord.

That's humility - subjecting your life completely to the Lord.
Completely different from pride - which tries to be very independent, and which tries to move you to the front of the line.

For three months Mary stays with Elizabeth, resting on that tripod of support.
Eventually things calm down in Nazareth. She returns home.
Still singing - at least, I think so.

What's going in your heart as you see this story unfold?
Is there a song there? A song of similar joy, perhaps?
A song of awe at the great things God does, and how He has a place in that work for you - little you?

Or is there a quiet? Perhaps a dull quiet that isn't really sure what to make of everything going on around you?

Or instead of song, instead of quiet -- is there perhaps a roaring storm, a swirl of uncertainty, the sort of uncertainty Mary may have been experiencing along the road from Nazareth to Judea when absolutely everything seems in a mess, turned right upside down?

What's going on?

I don't want to pretend to be able to offer you any quick fix or simple way out to enjoying Christmas fa-la-la. I'd simply like to point you to the God of the Humble, our Father in Heaven, the Father of Mary's Son Jesus Christ.

He worked in profound and miraculous ways in the life of this teenage nobody to do amazing things. He continues that work today.
He has a place,
He has the love,
He has the space for you, too.

When you can humbly come.
No agendas. No conditions.
Just come.


When you do, you can expect Him to work somehow - through one of the legs of His Kingdom Tripod.
There can be a sorting out wisdom.
There can be strengthening support.
There can be corrective guidance.
There can be a quiet ear and supportive presence.
There can be gentle healing.
There can be new beginnings.

So that you, too, can sing.
So that "Joy to the World" can become your song of real inner joy.
So that "Silent Night" can be your song of new life. Quiet.
Peace.