Worship Fully
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Today is the last Sunday of Advent- that season when we wait expectantly for God to show up in the unexpected places. And so our theme today is worship, because, what better way to celebrate Christmas than to celebrate like Mary did, like Simeon did, like the wise men did, like the shepherds did, and like the angels did? So I'm going to play this video again, because it is so beautiful, and it's one of those songs that reminds me of why we worship- that God loved us enough to forfeit the privileges of being God to step into our human frailty to redeem it.
[[VIDEO]]
[[VIDEO]]
Today I want to look at worship through the lens of Mary's response to what God does through her. And before we start, I'll say this:
Mary is amazing. Truly. She's an amazing woman. And because she is an amazing woman, Catholics ascribe too much importance to her. But think about it: of all the woman throughout all the history of all the world the God could choose to use to bring his messiah into the world, He chose Mary. We protestants have reacted too strongly to this and given her too little prominence. So, today, I want to look at Mary's reaction when she senses the realness of all of God's promises to her. Remember, after the Angel, Gabriel says to Mary that she will bear the Messiah, and Mary's response is basically, "Amen".
And she goes to her cousin, Elizabeth, a woman who is past child-bearing years, to find she is pregnant with John as Gabriel told her, and as she sees the evidence of God's promise to her, Mary sings a song. She can't do anything by worship in this moment, and she says:
Mary responded,
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
Tell the Story
As a response to the news of her pregnancy, Mary's deepest inner person, her soul, her spirit, is flooded with joy, delight, and she directs all of her worship to God because: He has seen her.
As we remember the story, Mary is young, poor, pregnant out of wedlock, hiding in an obscure hill town which is currently occupied by a foreign power. She is living in utter obscurity. She has no reason to be beside herself with joy towards God. She is of humble estate and yet here she is… flooded with joy, overflowing with gratitude, so much that she bursts into song as her spirit soars. WHY?
Because God sees her.
Vs 46 And Mary said,
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
When you know the Divine sees you, your deepest inner person, your soul is touched, and you can't help but Worship Fully
You can say things like Mary said; "from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is Holy."
The reason for this worshipful response is that the soul's deepest longing is to be seen and known. To be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known. There is something about being seen/acknowledged/lifted out of obscurity that validates your life. The hidden question many of us are asking is: Does someone see my life? Does my life matter?
Illustrating our desire to be seen.
If you've been around kids for three seconds, you know they like to interrupt conversations often for benign reasons. for instance, Isaiah came up to me while I was talking with Rebecca, and said "Hey Daddy," like 6 times in a row just to ask if I wanted a little cookie or a big cookie (cookies we weren't even eating anytime near the point at which he asked me. He didn't care about the cookie. He just wanted to talk. He just wanted to be seen.
Sometimes we just want to know someone sees us.
It’s funny but that need doesn't go away.
We long to be seen.
It’s why celebrity is so intoxicating. These people are seen so we think they must matter. I need to be seen to matter. On top of this need to be seen, our culture can breed isolation which just compounds our loneliness and can feed our despair at not being seen.
Maybe you work a job where you feel like you're just a cog in a machine. Where you can be easily replaced. On the factory line, one person doesn't matter all that much, just replace them with someone who can do that part. Find another person to crunch that number, pour that drink, send that e-mail.
Very quickly we can start to feel obscure, cosmically insignificant.
In the book Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, the author Dave Eggers captured this sentiment early in the days of reality TV, as his main character writes in to MTV to be on "The Real World."
“Dear Producers,
Something is radiating deep within me and it must be transmitted or I will implode and the world will suffer a great loss, unawares. Epic are the proportions of my soul, yet without a scope who cares who I am? This is why I must but must be one of the inhabitants of MTV's "Real World." Only there, burning brightly into a million dazzled eyes, will my as yet uncontoured self assume the beauteous forms that are not just its own, but an entire market niche's, due.
I am a Kirk Cameron-Kurt Cobain figure, roguishly quirky, dandified but down to earth, kooky but comprehensible; denizen of the growing penumbra between alternative and mainstream culture; angsty prophet of the already bygone apocalypse, yet upbeat, stylish and sexy!
Oh MTV, take me, make me, wake me from my formless slumbers and place me in the dreamy Real World of target marketing.”
The sentiment is comical but also uncomfortably relatable,
I must be seen to matter. "Something is radiating deep within me and it must be transmitted or I will implode and the world will suffer a great loss".
It’s evident that more than wanting to see, we long to be seen, and will do most anything to be seen.
Just think of this word that was introduced into our vocabulary in the last few years: selfie. How quickly it has conquered the world. It’s just a picture of your own face sent out the world, often with a duck face, or more recently a snapchat filter of deer nose and eyes. This speaks volumes to our desire to be seen so much that we would take a picture of ourselves and show people that already know what we look like.
The desire spills out of us, we long to be seen and known.
It is important to be seen and known, it’s our deepest need. It’s no small thing. To be seen and known by God is what the soul longs for ultimately.
When you look at Mary's song what's striking is that her joy comes from knowing God sees her, in her obscurity, in her humility and lowliness.
God sees her not because of her looks, her intellect, her status, her importance. God looks and sees her in her humble estate, her obscurity.
The result is that her soul feels the infinite relief of being seen by God.
And it is enough. It fills her soul. And she bursts into worship.
After she sees and experiences this for her own life she says, this mercy, is for all those who fear him, who respect, wait, and listen to God.
This mercy of being seen, and known is for each and every generation, for those who wait for God, for those who trust in God,
" He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him."
She connects to the larger story of what God is doing,
God has remembered her and has remembered his people. His gaze is on those that are lowly, the poor, the hurting he lifts up. The proud, the seen, the important people of the world that trample the rest, will be brought low.
This is the story of Christmas, that God has seen us, and that he sees those in need. This is why we as a church have chosen to celebrate Christmas this year by worshipping fully the God who sees and loves us and in response, see and love those that are in need around us and around the world.
Application-[Worship Fully] (connecting to Advent Conspiracy)
This Advent- The invitation to you is not to run from your obscurity, your humble estate, your feelings of insignificance. But instead lean into it. Lean into your life. And know that God looks upon the humble and obscure and invites them into His great story. Lean into your ordinary life and find a God who sees.
This is good news: God sees you. You are not obscure, unseen. Your life matters, so let your spirit rejoice in him, delight in him.
Like Mary, Worship fully.
Maybe you're saying: "Well I'm not Mary, God didn't exactly pick me to be his mother." And if you're a guy, that's a weird thought to have... but anyway...
In the end, Christmas is about the Incarnation, which is what?
God seeing humanity. Seeing us. Becoming one of us.
God, the center and creator of all things present and eternal, dissolved into obscurity 2000 years ago so that we would know our significance in Him.
The Incarnation is God saying "being human, being alive is important, significant...
important enough that I (God) would become human, become alive in human flesh."
The invitation of Advent is to wait, like Mary, for the God who sees and breathes meaning and significance into our lives. To fear him alone as the one whose acknowledgement brings life.
And then to Worship Fully.
As a church this is our desire this Christmas, to tell the story of the God who sees us and who sees the world. And to celebrate that story by following suit: Giving ourselves in worship and service to God and others. That’s why we want to spend less, give more, love all and worship fully this Christmas.
Its ok if you feel obscure, alone, insignificant. Mary's song is an invitation to remain in your humble estate, and trust that God is with you, forgiving, loving calling to you to him, inviting you into his greater story.
Not only has he seen us, but he has given us his life, and we remember him this morning, by coming to the table and remembering that he gave his life for us.
Come and remember come and worship our God who came in human flesh to bring us significance and life again. This Christmas, worship fully this God who sees and loves you, and invites you into relationship with him.