Mary: Carrying the hope of the world - Men’s Bible Study
Men's Bible Study • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Scripture:
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 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. 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 our ancestors.” Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Pray.
Lauren got me so good when she found out she was pregnant with Luke. There was this crawfish boil coming up for her work and we were planning to attend. She insisted on ordering some silly “cute” crawfish shirt to the party. She ordered it online and made jokes about us both wearing one. All week I told her there was no way. never going to happen. Well the day of the party I got home from a work event and she told me to go check out what came in the mail…and I immediately went to the shirt thing. Lauren, I am not wearing a crawfish shirt and we are not going to match at your work party. Finally she ushered me into the room and there on the bed was a shirt that says “Baby daddy.” Oh man that was awesome and marked the beginning of months of expectations and fears and all the above.
As I reflect back on that time I began to realize as much as I experienced in the expectation for Luke to arrive it could not have compared to what Lauren might have felt as he was growing inside of her.
Reading and praying about Mary’s experience this week made me think again of our own fears and expectations in that season:
Biggest fear:
Not being good enough
failure
not being able to provide
fear of not having control
fear of losing the baby, miscarriage
fear of not being able to keep them safe
Not knowing what to do
Biggest exciting expectation:
Teaching them about God (great answer....parents you want to talk about discipleship)
Just seeing her/him for the first time
discovering their personalities....so getting to know them
snuggles
who they would look like
expectation of boy or girl…yeah there was a day when you couldnt find out in like the 3rd hours after conception
to hold my little one for the first time
To see them grow and learn
I can only imagine all of the emotion and expectation of being a mother.
Today we talk about the mother of God: Theotokos….… and the magnificat
It is named after the first word of its first line in Latin (“Magnificat anima mea Dominum,” or “My soul magnifies the Lord”).
Now take all of that and now consider what Mary might have felt like....Instead of a pregnancy test—Gabriel one of Yahwehs great angel messengers. Instead of a gender reveal— the reality that God’s son, the messiah of the world was in her stomach. Wow, talk about pressure.
(Show picture. Mary)
What do you see? This is my favorite picture
Unfortunately, we do not know a lot about what this time was like with Mary. We do not get her prayer journal…we cant go back and check her twitter account during that time period. In fact, most of what we know about Mary are from these birth narratives. We get an interesting look into the gospel’s perspective of her in the narrative of Luke here. I want us to consider what it might have been like for the mother of Jesus…to consider the responsibility of literally bearing the hope of the world might be like. Do you think she had some similar fears and hopes....do you think she wondered what he might look like.... yeah figure that one out haha.
Background and context for this story
Background and context for this story
Tell the story:
The birth narrative for Luke begins, not with Mary and Joseph, but with Zechariah and Elizabeth. I love telling different parts of the Christmas story every year. Elizabeth is a relative of Mary, believed to be a distant relative, not because of anything stated but some practical inferences. Elizabeth is married to Zechariah and both were in the line of Aaron. The priestly line established in Exodus. So an angel appears to Zechariah while he is serving in the temple and tells of his wife’s baby. John the Baptist. Interestingly there are some historical markers here that Luke drops in. Zechariah serving in the division of Abijah. Abijah as we know from Levitical divisions served in the 8th week of the year. That is the time of year that Elizabeth conceives.
Then 6 months later, the angel of the Lord appears to Mary and reveals to her the coming responsibility. Mary goes to see Elizabeth in the scene that we read about today.
A few things about the scriptural context....
The women take a prominent role in this text. This is part of the great reversal in the gospel of Luke.
Ben Witherington highlights this radical presentation of the women in the text:
The Lukan birth stories focus on the perspective of the women, Elizabeth and Mary, not their men Zechariah and Joseph. In fact, Zechariah is not seen to be a model of faith for Luke’s audience in the same way that Elizabeth and Mary are. Here we see the first of many examples in Luke’s Gospels of a reversal of ordinary expectations—the women, not Zechariah, properly respond to the initiatives of God in Luke 1 (cf. Luke 4:18). Elizabeth and Mary, not Zechariah and Joseph, first receive the message of the coming Christ, first respond in full faith to that news, first are praised and blessed by God’s angels, and first sing and prophesy about the Christ child.
Witherington, B., III. (1992). Elizabeth (Person). In D. N. Freedman (Ed.), The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (Vol. 2, p. 474). New York: Doubleday.
This hymn is a typical hebrew hymn with parallelism. It is poetry or a canticle with intentional parallels and repetition in from line to line
There is scripture mirrored all through out. 4-5 Psalms drawn out of this. Psalm 107 is an example of this
for he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
There is another really strong parallel in the Old Testament. From 1 Samuel. Hannah, a woman brings her barrenness and pleas to God for a child. Through faith and by God’s hand she becomes pregnant. Gives birth to the great prophet Samuel. Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel is a precursor of Mary’s song. There are huge parallels. Luke is trying to draw a parallel for a reason.
(Show Canvas image. hannah and mary comparison)
Heart rejoices —> soul glorifies the Lord
No one holy —> holy is his name
Command against the proud —> promise to scatter the proud
(in both) Tearing down the proud, warriors, rulers —> (in both) lifting up the humble)
And in our text: Mary did not just go full shakesperian here…this is a text that probably predates her and Luke attributes this hymn to her response. So if you are reading this historically as we are prone to do and think wow that is really an odd or rough thing to happen in all of this…yes. it is not meant to be a historical minute by minute account. The Magnificat is attributed to Mary as the response of Israel to the coming of Jesus and we can learn from this hymn.
We can see ourselves in it. As we consider our own response to the truth that the light of the world has come. As Christians, we yearn for God to save
So what are some themes from the magnificat?
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 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. 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 our ancestors.”
Themes?
Worship and Gratitude
Worship and Gratitude
The first response of the hymn and thus of Mary is that of gratitude and worship. Look at 46-47
And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
Elizabeth in our text praises Mary and Mary transfers the praise to God in this canticle.
How often do we begin our conversations with God in worship and gratitude?
How often do we stop and bask in who God is?
How often do we give thanks to what God has done in our lives…
or do we take the credit?
When we understand the hope of God in Jesus Christ has come into the world…it should wreck our sensibilities and it should do it repeatedly. For me, there was no one single point in my life that I can point to....like a Salvation birth date as some point to…but there are moments in time where the assurance that Jesus Christ, the messiah has come, not only did he die for the world but me included and I am invited into that redemption story.
St Augustine:
The Maker of man became Man...
that He, Ruler of the stars, might be nourished at His mother’s breast;
that He, the Bread, might hunger;
that He, the Fountain, might thirst;
that He, the Light, might sleep;
that He, the Way, might be wearied by the journey;
that He, the Truth, might be accused by false witnesses;
that He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be brought to trial by a mortal judge;
that He, Justice, might be condemned by the unjust;
that He, Discipline, might be scourged with whips;
that He, the Foundation, might be suspended upon a cross;
that Courage might be weakened;
that Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die.
Friends, it is no wonder that many of us do not carry this message of hope very far or with any force, because we have not reached an encounter with the holy God.
The opening of this hymn is the passionate worship of a person that has found themselves utterly empty apart from the God who has created them.
Humility
Humility
Secondly, we can learn from the humility in this hymn and it builds on the worship and gratitude.
Through the hymn Mary asks, Who am i, that God should invite me into this story.
St. Augustine, speaking on humility says “If you plan to build a tall house of virtues, you must first lay deep foundations of humility.”
It is in humility that God can deliver hope to the world, because in hope your attention has shifted off of yourselves and onto God.
Off of own needs and wants and to the work of God in Jesus Christ.
Played college soccer for a couple of years and there was a time when I experienced the weird thrill to be recruited to several schools. I remember over and over again hearing and seeing these scouting reports that I was humble and therefore coachable. Sounds like a compliment on the surface. But let’s be honest…it is not, oh man he has raw talent and ability. He is a natural, game-changer. A force in the midfield. Nope…humble and coachable. Translated to the egotistical teenage mind: he works hard, haha. So yes, it wasnt just insecurity, I did not get all of the crazy phone calls that some of my friends and teammates were getting…at least not first.
In the kingdom of God, this is exactly who God wants. He wants the humble. Not just coachable, but fillable.
Who will empty themselves of worldly gain?
Who will sacrifice for others?
Who will put careers on hold to invest in family and neighbor?
Who will look beyond their dreams?
Who will lay down their own lives for the sake of God’s kingdom
Perspective
Perspective
Next thing the hymn does is bring perspective, for all that God has done.
To be a part of the hope of the world is to stand in the strength of the God of hope.
look at verse 51
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
Carrying the hope of the world means we have perspective. We know our insecurities and inabilities fall to the wayside.
Some of us only trust in God has far has our own abilities will take us. We do church this way. We make decisions this way.
Yearning for God to save is about believing that he can save.
Responsibility
Responsibility
The wight of the closing of this hymn can be lost....the hymn says in the last verse, that the promise to Abraham and the descendents is now here. Attributed to Mary in this closing line is the truth that in her stomach and in her care is the one who is the very redemption of the world.
Can you believe the weight of this responsibility?
For those in Christ we have the same humbling responsibility to carry the hope of the world to the world.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Other traditions have made much of Mary, more so than we have. Sometimes I know traditions can get carried away here but I appreciate the Catholic emphasis of Mary. Where I think it falls short though....we shouldn’t simply honor Mary’s faith as the God-bearer....we should see our calling in her and her faithfulness as an inspiration and possibility for ourselves, to be God-bearers in the world.