Sermon Tone Analysis

Luke 1:46-55

 

! Introduction

            The Christmas season always involves a lot of singing.

We love to sing the old familiar carols.

Did you ever realize that the oldest Christmas songs come right out of the Christmas story in Luke 1, 2? They comprise Mary’s song, Zechariah’s song, the angel’s song and Simeon’s song.

During this Christmas season, beginning with the Sunday’s of Advent and then on Christmas Day, we will examine the songs of Christmas from Luke 1,2.

As we examine these songs, we will learn many things about God and the way he works with his people.

We will hear the good news of God’s work in history and in bringing salvation to His people.

I always enjoy a jack-in-the-box.

Even though you know what is going to happen, you never know when it is going to happen and so it is always a surprise.

Surprises are not always a good thing, but most often we use the term in a positive way.

Before we got married, Carla had a number of showers and almost all of them were planned in such a way that they were a surprise.

What a pleasure that was!

When our oldest son, Joel, was born, we lived in Steinbach.

Some friends in Winnipeg wanted to make a baby shower and so we had to find a way of getting Carla to Winnipeg and we managed to make it a surprise.

A surprise is an event in which something we do not expect happens.

Sometimes parents tell their children, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

The children are all excited and can hardly wait for the surprise to be revealed.

As we celebrate the advent season, we celebrate the message of God in which he said to the world, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”

In the announcements of Messiah’s coming and in the Christmas event, we learn that God acts in ways that we do not expect.

We learn about God’s surprise in the first song of Christmas, which is Mary’s song found in Luke 1:46-55.

Read text.

!

I. Praise God For His Unexpected Blessing Luke 1:46-49

            We don’t know much about Mary from her growing up years, but we can expect that she was an ordinary girl.

Her expectations were likely that she would marry, bear children and live a pretty normal life.

She was already engaged to be married and expected that she and Joseph would be married and settle into the carpenter shop and have a good life.

What a surprise when the angel of the Lord came to her and announced that she was going to bear a very special child.

She was surprised to learn that she would bear a child even though she had never known a man.

She was surprised with the news that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah.

It was the hope of every woman in Israel that she would be the mother of Messiah.

Although many may have had this hope, I suspect that few believed it would happen to them.

Mary seems to have recognized the difficulty this surprise would bring, but she also was willing to accept the blessing this surprise would bring and so in Luke 1:38 she says, “I am the Lord’s servant,”… “May it be to me as you have said.”

After hearing the announcement, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was 6 months pregnant with John the Baptist.

When she arrived at her home, the baby leapt in Elizabeth’s womb and she prophesied, reinforcing the surprise message by recognizing that Mary was the bearer of the Lord, the Messiah.

It is in this context that Mary sings her song.

The song is about surprise.

It is about the joy of the surprise Mary had received and it is about the surprising ways in which God works.

In verses 46-49, Mary expresses her praise to God for what He has done for her.

Verses 46, 47 are her expression of praise.

She expresses her joy before God and praises Him.

As she continues in her song, she next gives the reasons why she is praising God and rejoicing before Him.

She has experienced a wonderful surprise.

She has been showered by God with a blessing that she did not expect and she did not deserve.

She begins by acknowledging her “humble state.”

She was not a queen like Esther.

She was not a warrior, like Deborah.

She was not a prophetess, like Huldah.

She recognized that she was an ordinary person, just a young girl who was going to be married.

She understood that there was nothing special about her.

But, God surprised her and gave her a very special role.

She recognized the great role she had to play and what the implications of that role were.

She understood that from now on, she would be called blessed by all the succeeding generations.

She rejoiced that God, the Mighty One, the Holy One had done great things for her.

He had acted in an unexpected way on her behalf and she accepted the surprise and praised God for it and rejoiced before Him because of it.

!

II.

God’s Unexpected Acts

            In the surprise she experienced, Mary recognized that what happened to her was in character for God.

He acts in unexpected ways.

!! A. God Has Mercy On Those Who Fear Him   Luke 1:50

!!! 1.

What we expect

            As human beings, we have a pretty clear expectation of strict justice.

I was listening to the news the other day and heard an item about some hospital records that were mistakenly faxed to the wrong location.

We have heard this week from the mayor of Walkerton, Ontario.

In these situations, mistakes were made, and wrongs were done.

It is expected that these wrongs be paid for or corrected.

People were hurt, some died because of these mistakes and society demands justice for these wrongs.

Many religions of the world, are very strict with justice.

For example, the Muslim religion, has many rules and the punishment for violating the rules are always strict and often violent.

But we are not much different.

When the hail goes over one person’s farm and hits another, we wonder what he did right, or what the other one did wrong.

We have an arbitrary list of things which need to be done in order to be pleasing to God.

I’m not talking about faith for salvation, but all kinds of additional deeds of goodness.

We are quite judgemental about others who do not meet up to those standards.

Whenever we fail in our efforts to please God, we beat ourselves up and condemn ourselves and find it very difficult to accept God’s forgiveness.

What we expect is reward for good behaviour and punishment for bad behaviour.

!!! 2. How God Acts

            Mary saw in the surprise she had experienced the unexpected way in which God acts.

She knew that she did not deserve to be the mother of the Lord and yet God had given her this blessing.

In her surprise, she saw that God does an unexpected thing.

He does not act only with justice, but also with mercy.

She says, “vs.

50.”

This is an unexpected thing for us.

Instead of acting with what justice would demand, God acts with mercy.

He rewards her with a blessing which she recognizes that she does not deserve.

This is the nature of God.

He rewards us with mercy which we do not deserve.

Salvation is not about earning a place with God, but about receiving the gift of forgiveness which is given by His mercy.

Mercy is not reward.

As we continue in our Christian walk, God continues to act in mercy towards us.

He changes us, sustains us and continues to forgive us, not as a reward, but as an act of mercy.

Such mercy is shown to those who fear the Lord.

This is very unexpected.

We would want to say that mercy ought to be given to those who please the Lord.

Mary recognized the unexpected way in which God works when she said that mercy is shown to those who fear the Lord.

To fear the Lord is to recognize that He is the Lord.

It is to accept His rule over us.

It is an act of humility which accepts God.

!!! 3. Changing Expectations

            If this is the unexpected way in which God acts, then we have to change our expectations.

We can stop offering people a plan to reform themselves and instead offer them a forgiveness in which God will transform them.