Luke 2:36-40 Anna Worships

 

Christmas is over and many people have already moved on and are looking forward to New Years and saying good-bye to 2020, I guess I can understand some of that thinking! Yet Christmas is more than a one-day celebration, it’s a turning point in history, a turning point in our own lives when we make the decision to actually follow Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. That leads to new ways of living, a new way of seeing the world around, a new relationship with God and Jesus through the Holy Spirit. What Christmas does is it introduces us to Jesus, to our Messiah, to the one who shapes our day-to-day living out loud lives.

Christmas leads us to lives shaped by worship, lives that look like Romans 12, especially the way Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it.”

What does this all have to do with our passage this morning, you might ask? Luke introduces us to Anna, a prophetess who has been a widow for a really long time after her husband died after only seven years of marriage. Rather then get married and find life security that way, a woman without a husband or children to look after her usually found themselves in really hard places, Anna chooses instead to spend her time in the temple worshipping day and night, fasting and praying. Likely Anna became a temple worker, one of those people who did the quiet behind the scenes work that kept the temple functioning, such as cleaning, cooking for the priests, and organizing the different things that went on in the temple area. This allowed her to spend most of her time in the one place known to be where God meets his people, a place of worship, allowing her to take her everyday, ordinary life and place it before God as an offering. Anna’s soul and life are shaped by worship.

Luke also emphasizes that Anna is a prophet. This is an important theme for Luke, that the coming back of prophecy is a sign of the coming of the Messiah after about 400 years of quietness on God’s part. Luke emphasizes prophecy to take away any doubt about who Jesus is, that he is the promised Messiah, that he is the Son of God as the angel said, that Jesus has come to save his people, as his name itself tells people. Because of how Anna’s life is shaped around worship, shaped by being centred on God and the Scriptures, shaped by prayer and fasting, her soul is very open and sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit and the presence of God.

There are three things that we can learn from Anna. We learn perseverance. Ever since her husband died, Anna dedicated herself to a life of worship. Now spending all her time in the temple is not for everyone, even the priests only stayed for weeks at a time and in-between their shifts at the temple, they would return home to be with their families. I’ve often wondered if Anna knew Simeon and that he had been told that he would see the Messiah before he died. There’s a patience and a perseverance that grows out of that patience that helped Anna continue to center her life on worship even though there must have been temptations to go back to a more regular life. Anna stays focused on God even though she has not been given an easy life. There must have been times of loneliness, times of questioning God’s plans for her life, even times of doubt, hurt and tiredness, and yet she kept her zeal for the Lord.

The second thing we learn from Anna is about worship. Anna’s life is centered on worship. Now worship is more than coming to church on Sunday or temple on Saturday, worship is a way of life. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Colossians, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” This is what day-to-day worship looks like: doing everything as if you’re doing it for Jesus. That makes sense if we call Jesus King.

There’s another approach to worship that I discovered on a Catholic website in a homily. The writer says that in worship we rediscover our greatest treasure. This greatest treasure is our Lord, it’s finding a place where we belong because in worship we come home, we rediscover forgiveness and restoration. The writer reminds us that in worship we return to the place where we are most welcomed and cared for: our Father’s home. When I read this, I immediately thought of the scene in the parable of the Prodigal Son where the father is standing in the roadway waiting for his son to come home, and once he sees his son, he gathers up his robe and runs to greet him, embracing him with deep unconditional love! When our lives are centered on worship, when we arrive in church to worship with each other, it’s coming home and being embraced by our Father.

The third thing we learn from Anna is that a life centered on worship leads directly to sharing our faith enthusiastically. After seeing Jesus and hearing Simeon’s blessing and warning for Mary and Joseph, she goes off giving thanks to God. What a moment for her, to see the promised Messiah! We go all crazy seeing some sports, music, or movie star, Jesus, the promised Messiah is so much more than any human star, no matter how famous or important they think they are.

Anna’s response to seeing Jesus is to talk to everyone looking for redemption of Jerusalem about Jesus. These people are looking for someone to bring them freedom, salvation from their oppressors and Anna has good news for them! In Anna’s response, we hear the echo of the shepherds’ response, right after they went to see the child born who is the saviour of the world, they talked to everyone they met about the baby they had seen and the message the angel gave about the child. When you get good news, amazing news, you want to tell everyone!

Worship doesn’t end when the pastor says “Amen” after the blessing and we sing the last song, worship goes with us out of the building and into our lives. It flows into our day-to-day relationships, our homes and workplaces, our neighbourhoods and communities, compelling us to share the good news of Jesus; the salvation he brings, the new life he offers because of his death on the cross for our sins and his resurrection from the grave as he defeats sin and death. As followers of Jesus and children of God, we also participate in Jesus’ resurrection. This means we live in hope, it means the brokenness and hurt of our past doesn’t need to shape who we are anymore, our identity now comes from Jesus and we can move forward knowing that Jesus can bring us healing, give us a new life rooted in him.

A while back, our family invited a woman to live with us who had found herself homeless. She was a stripper and had sold herself in the past to take care of her children. When she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour, it was like a whole new beginning for her. She was able to experience what healthy love felt like, she was able to see that she was more than what people had believed, that she was loved by God and precious. Life changed for her immediately and at the same time, the consequences of her past took years to over come, but with the help of the Holy Spirit reminding her who she now was, with the help of a group of people in the church who befriended her and walked with her, she was able to enter the new life Jesus offers and today is a lover of God and shares her faith freely with others. She found that coming to worship every week reshaped her soul and keeps her centered on God.

So, during a time where worshipping together is limited, it’s wise to remember that we can worship God in whatever we’re doing by focusing on doing it for Jesus while waiting eagerly for the day we can all gather together to worship God all together as a Bethel Church family again. Until then, keep sharing your love of God and Jesus’ offer of new life and hope with everyone you know!

Luke 2:25-35 Simeon Blesses

 

Our Scripture passage this morning is more often preached on the Sunday after Christmas rather than on Christmas morning. It’s 8 days after Jesus’ birth and Joseph and Mary are going to the temple to offer a sacrifice that echoes back to the Passover. As Joseph and Mary enter the temple courts with Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, they bump into a man named Simeon. Simeon’s hanging around in the temple because God told him he would meet the promised Messiah before he died. The temple seemed like it would be the best place to meet the promised Messoah.

Simeon’s another regular person that God uses to reveal who Jesus is. This seems to be a theme for Luke. Rev William Willimon writes, “Luke seems to say, if you really want to know what's really going on, ask the people on the bottom or out on the fringe.” Shepherds, older priests, regular townsfolk are all the first people that heaven reveals the coming Messiah to. It used to make me wonder why the high priests and important people in the temple didn’t recognize Jesus while shepherds and old men and women got it. But, when you stop and think about it, important and wealthy people often feel like they don’t really need Jesus, while older people, regular people who live through the good and hard times of life know that they need Jesus to simply get by.

I love how Luke lets us know how Simeon is in the temple at exactly the right time, “Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.” Simeon has learned the art of listening to the moving of the Holy Spirit, to paying attention to the voice of God and responding. God and the Spirit are speaking to us regularly in many ways: through the Bible, through our prayers, through wise faithful people in our lives, by moving us when we see injustice and things not being the way they should be, and even through creation. The question is, how are we going to respond to God’s voice and the Spirit’s moving?

Simeon responds with praise, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations: a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.” Here’s our last Latin lesson for this Advent season, Simeon’s blessing is called The Nunc Dimittis. The website Got Questions tells us that “The Nunc Dimittis is traditionally seen as a song and derives its name from the Latin Vulgate’s opening words of Simeon’s speech when he saw Jesus. In English, the Latin phrase means “now you dismiss.”

Simeon reminds us that the story of the manger is not a sentimental story to justify making Christmas about presents, and a quick church service before stuffing ourselves and lying down for an afternoon winter’s nap. In a way, this time of COVID may be a blessing in disguise as our celebrations this year are probably simpler and we’ve become more aware of the preciousness of fellowship and life, for the strength and light of hope that is found in Jesus, Mary and Joseph’s child.  

Simeon’s words of praise recognize that Jesus is not just Israel’s Messiah, but that Jesus is coming to bring light for the entire world. Jesus isn’t sneaking into the world under the radar; Jesus’ birth is broadcast in the night skies so that even gentiles from the east are able to see God’s announcement that a Messiah has come and salvation is here for all peoples; angels announce his birth to shepherds, prophets proclaim his coming centuries before, and now, here in the temple, Jesus is being presented right in the centre of Israel’s life and culture.

For the first time on Luke’s story of Jesus’ coming, he makes it completely clear that Jesus has come for Israel and the Gentiles. The angels spoke of good news for all people, but Simeon makes it completely clear that Jesus has come to also bring the Gentiles in from the darkness into the light of his salvation. Mary and Joseph marvel at what Simeon says, Jesus has come, not just for his own people, but for all people including Gentiles. That’s way bigger than they ever thought. That’s really important for you and me because we’re counted among the Gentiles; Jesus has come to shine his light into our hearts and lives, to save us, to bring us hope. Jesus shines his light into our lives through the presence of the Holy Spirit, something definitely needed in a chaotic hard year like this past one.

Emerson Powery writes, “Only Simeon would allude to the significance of the Messiah’s role for the inclusion of the Gentiles, which partly establishes the eschatological nature of this appearance. The Messiah’s coming would inaugurate the end-time events of Jewish eschatological hopes. And, this messianic figure will come from Israel. In Isaiah’s words, “I will give you (Israel) as a light to the nations (or, Gentiles), that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth,” (Isaiah 49:6). Powery goes on to say, “Luke’s narrative, however, will also end with a reference to all “nations” (or, “Gentiles”): “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).” Jesus comes to die. We bring children into the world so they can have life, Jesus comes to die so we can have life with God through eternity, so we can be freed from the fear of death. Jesus’ death is for everyone, all you need to do is believe in Jesus.

Simeon moves from praising God to offering the family a blessing. As we hear Simeon’s blessing, it’s important to know that a blessing is about speaking God into someone else’s life; this is what Simeon does now. Simeon turns to Mary with a prophetic warning, reminding us that Jesus not only came to be born as a human being, but that his life’s purpose is going to come at a huge cost, not only to himself, but to Mary as well, “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” The manger leads to the cross and then the empty grave. Salvation and grace come at a huge cost to Jesus and to his mother Mary. The light of the world will need to shine through a whole lot of darkness.

Rev. William Willimon reminds us, “Our salvation is coming to us, but it won't be cheap. We are not only given joy in the birth of the Christ child, but also a risky assignment. This is what the church means when it says, "rejoice." Soberly, reflectively, joyously, thankfully we gather in our churches during Christmastide to ponder the deep, costly nature of our salvation.” Jesus comes to bring salvation, joy, and hope but in doing so, Jesus forces us to reveal our hearts: do you choose him or the world, him or your heart’s desires.

As you reflect on the deep costly nature of our salvation this Christmas, will you choose the one who is spoken against by the powers that are in place here, the one who turns the world upside down, as Mary sang in her song, the who comes to serve instead of being served, the one who offers forgiveness to the very ones crucifying him, the suffering servant who brings light to all people, including the Gentiles? When you choose Jesus, you choose forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope and love, you choose the light of the world and you choose to let him shine through you into the world. Jesus calls us to be a light as well, to allow his light to shine through us into the lives of those around us. In a time when things are hard, gathering together is difficult, I encourage you this Christmas to reach out to those who find themselves alone and shine some joy into their day, shine God’s gift of Jesus into their hearts.

Luke 2:8-14 Angels Proclaim

 

God is with us; his love is big enough for everyone. How do you measure love that looks like leaving the most perfect place in the universe to come to an oppressed afraid poverty-stricken country, to a humble family who have royal roots but who give birth to their first child in a stable? In his love for us, God comes to meet us where we are at. Thomas Lane Butts writes, “Jesus was born into a world riddled with fear. So much of the lives of people was controlled by factors over which they had no control…. Israel was occupied by the Roman army. The destiny of the country was in the hands of people who did not have their best interests at heart. Every change seemed to worsen their situation, which was already bad. Most news was bad news. Fear so consumed first-century people of Israel that when they did not know how to feel they were instinctively afraid.” Fear was normal; imagine living in a time where being afraid was a normal part of living. This is when God shows to change the world!

An angel appears one evening to shepherds watching their sheep in a field outside the small town to Bethlehem to proclaim God’s great love, a love that takes away fear. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all people.” In our own world, a world filled with more bad news than good news, a world filled with pandemics, conflict, hatred and fear, our ears and hearts are drawn to the angel’s news, hoping to finally hear good news, news that will bring joy to all people, not just a fortunate few. We’re not meant to live in fear and conflict and anger; these all come into the world through sin. Fear, conflict and anger drive people apart, this is not the way it’s supposed to be. God’s answer for the bad news in our world is found in the angel’s message, “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

The news will cause great joy for all people, the Messiah has arrived, words of hope, words to bring people together rather than drive people apart. The angel brings good news for all people, to bring hope that things can be different. Did you hear? It’s for all people. The Messiah who comes to save, comes for all people!

Thomas Lanes Butts tells the story of a powerful children’s message, “She ended the brief homily by saying, "And God loves you and you and you," pointing as she spoke in three different directions. She paused to let this profound message sink in. During the silence, a child down at the far end of the chancel behind the baptismal font toward which she had not pointed, said in a wee, small voice, "What about me?" I hear that child’s cry, I’ve heard it in so many conversations with people who are seeking God, people who wonder if God sees them and if he could ever love them. They’ve heard too often that they’re not wanted, that they need to change before God can love them or accept them; they’ve heard this even from the church and they find it hard to believe God could ever love them. They’re searching for good news, for someone who will love them, who can save them from the fear, the oppression, the brokenness all around them, and often in them. I’ve cried those words myself.

The angel reminds us that the good news is for all people. Our theology tells us that God chooses us while we are yet sinners, that he chooses us way before we could ever choose him, that Jesus has come to offer forgiveness, to bring healing to the broken-hearted, to give us his Holy Spirit to begin the journey of sanctification, the journey of being shaped into his image; a life-long journey. You see, the good news the angel brings is that a saviour has been born, not just for the Jewish people, but that the saviour, who is Jesus, has come because God so loves the world that he has given us his only son, that whoever believes in him shall have eternal life! Did you hear that: “whosoever believes!” god’s love is offered to all people; all that’s needed is belief.

Marcus Goodyear writes, “Jesus is more than just a baby in a manger. He is more than just a good teacher and a storyteller. He is more than our prayer buddy who takes our requests to God. Jesus is our savior. He is Christ. He is the Lord, fully God and fully human.” …. “Christmas is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. His life is a model for how we should live. His death for our sins is a model of the humble nature we should have. And his resurrection is a promise that someday we will know peace on earth and good will toward all people.”

In coming to proclaim Jesus’ birth to shepherds, God is showing that the Messiah is for everyone. By choosing to proclaim the history changing birth of Jesus first to simple shepherds working in the fields, God is showing that Jesus is coming for all people. Shepherds held a low place in Jewish culture and were considered untrustworthy simply because of their job. In the eyes of most Jews, they were social outcasts, even though they were mostly ordinary people trying to provide for their families, put food on the table and a roof over their heads. These are the people the angel reveals the good news to first! Who are the social outcasts today that ache to hear good news for them: the homeless, often times First Nations peoples, drug addicts, LGBTQ persons, among others; all are often looked down on or easily dismissed by many, even within churches? Yet today, these would likely be the ones the angel would come to, to proclaim the good news of the coming of the Messiah. Just look at who Jesus hung around with during his life-time, all those on the fringes, yet today our churches are mostly main stream. How did this happen? If the good news is for all people, how do we so easily leave some out, especially those who need the good news to give them hope, strength and healing.

The Bible, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, use the image of a shepherd for those who care for God’s people, including the Lord himself. Psalm 23 is the Shepherd Psalm, calling the Lord our shepherd, Isaiah 40:10–11 also pictures the Lord as a shepherd, “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.” Hebrews 13:20–21 is a blessing, “Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

Jesus, the Great Shepherd, reminds us that we’re called to a life of humility and service, to seek out the lost sheep in our community, to protect them and feed them. The message is for all the people in our community. Many of the heroes in the Bible were shepherds: imperfect shepherds who needed God’s grace too: Abraham, Rachel, Jacob, Moses and David. Jacob comes from a broken family, Rachel deceived her father and fought with her sister in a dysfunctional marriage, Moses ran from an angry Pharaoh after murdering an Egyptian soldier and spent years in the wilderness; all with stories of brokenness. Their stories remind us that when you have messed up badly, when you have been rejected again and again, when you have lived in humble circumstances, that the good news of Jesus, the forgiveness of sins, the healing from the brokenness that sin creates, the grace that Jesus offers is for them too. Your own stories of brokenness and hurt and how you found healing in Jesus, speaks loudly to the good news of great joy. Jesus came to find lost sheep, even when they don’t even realize yet that they are lost and has passed the torch to us to tell the good news to all people, to show them Jesus’ love.

Jesus comes to bring “Glory to God in the highest heaven,” as he draws people from all nations to himself with the offer of the gift of, “peace to those on whom his favour rests.” Picture the angels appearing in the night sky, shepherds looking heavenward in wonder, the sheep sleeping and waiting for morning to arrive, a picture of peace, of calm, of what peace feels like. Peace with God and with others, peace with yourself, healing and wholeness in our relationships, flourishing communities where all people are embraced and the potential of their God-given gifts are encouraged to grow. This brings glory to God and comes because Jesus defeated Satan and death, and is establishing his kingdom of peace here on earth. Jesus is “the good news that causes great joy for all the people.” Let us bring glory to God by going and telling others the good news of Jesus!

Blue Christmas: Matthew 11:25–30 Rest for the Weary

 

Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year, as well as at the end of the year; a time when people want to take time and celebrate to get through the short days and long nights. This is partly why this time of year was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a time to bring light and hope into the world. It has become a time to celebrate with gifts and meals together, with parties and special church services filled with Christmas music and manger scenes. But when you come to the end of a year, we also discover that in the year, some of us have had too many opportunities to experience loss, brokenness and hurt, making celebrating really hard to do. We need a place where we can admit that life is hard and we’re not always able to keep a smile on our face or a song in our hearts unless it’s a lament.

It’s times like these that Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11 is so needed, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The loss of loved ones, the loss of jobs, the inability to be with grandparents and parents because of the pandemic, the feelings of anxiety and worry all come together to weight down our hearts and souls, making it hard sometimes to even go from day to day, never mind trying to find the energy or desire to celebrate and sing happy joyous Christmas songs that don’t connect at all to where we are at. We need a safe place to simply say, “The world is too dark for me to celebrate right now.” Jesus knows this and invites us to come to him and just rest.

Life can be hard and sometimes we run out of strength or energy to keep on going as normal. We get it that that others won’t understand because they’re not in the same place we are, so we keep the pain buried where it sits and slowly grows deeper. Tonight, Jesus invites you to take whatever is in your heart and life and give it all to him. You may not feel strong enough, but he is. Jesus understands your loss, your weariness, your hurt and he says, “give it all to me and I will give you rest.” Rest in Jesus tonight, be honest with him about all that’s going on inside, he’s giving you this place tonight as a safe place to mourn instead of celebrate, to cry instead of laugh, to rest instead of run.

I hear the echo from Psalm 46, “Be still and know that I am God.” While life may be more than we can handle at times, God is always strong enough to carry our stuff, Jesus is strong enough to take our stuff onto himself so we can rest. This is why Jesus came to earth as a child to Mary so many years ago, so that he could learn the joys and the struggles of life, so we can come to him knowing that he understands and cares. God calls us to be still so we can experience his soothing presence, his fatherly arms close.

Jesus invites us to take his yoke, we hear an offer from Jesus to come alongside us, to help with the burdens. Yokes helped pairs of oxen to pull together, Jesus invites you to come close to him with your burdens and be yoked beside him and he will help you carry your burdens. You don’t have to do it on your own. Jesus understands how hard it can be to carry loss, brokenness and hurt and how it can wear you away.

This is also why Jesus tells us that he is also the light of the world; that as we rest in him, he shines his hope and healing into our hearts, souls and minds. Jesus comes into our darkness as a light shining on the front porch of the house, a beacon that pierces through the darkness as a guide to safety, as a sign that home is not far away. Jesus fills us with his Spirit to guide us towards the light as a companion on the way to take us to his rest. This Christmas season, may Jesus’ light pierce your darkness and fill you with his rest, hope and peace.

Luke 1:67-79 Zechariah Speaks

 

Zechariah has been silent for more than 9 months now, unable to speak a single word because he doubted the angel’s announcement that he and his wife Elizabeth, both well past the age of having babies, are going to have a baby boy. Now honestly, if God would have come in a dream or vision, I could understand doubting what I heard, but Zechariah was in the Holy of Holies in the temple, the place where you would expect to meet God, so why doubt then when God does show up? Zechariah has grown up on the stories of Abraham and Sarah, and other special births, and still doubts. It makes me wonder how many of us doubt that God can still do amazing things through us, even though we’ve also grown up on the stories of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? Is this why we have a hard time talking about our faith with others and inviting them to follow Jesus with us? Something to think about. God’s not far away, he’s active, even now, why do we doubt God can build his kingdom through us, through our sharing Jesus with others. Have we such little faith in the moving of the Holy Spirit?

It’s not until after Zechariah’s son’s birth that Zechariah gets his voice back. It’s circumcision day, and also the day that the parents reveal the baby’s name. Everyone’s waiting to hear the name, who are the parents going to name the baby after, one of the fathers, a hero from the past, maybe a favourite uncle. The time comes, and since Zechariah can’t speak, Elizabeth makes the grand announcement, “He is to be called John.” The family is thinking, “Huh? John, where did that come from?” All eyes turn to Zechariah, so he writes on a tablet, “His name is John.” Because Zechariah has had 9 months to learn to trust in God and what God can do, Zechariah’s voice returns and the first thing he does in praise God! The church has named Zechariah’s prophecy the Benedictus, which is Latin for benediction or blessed. It’s a prayer that many monks now pray every morning to begin their day. It comes from St Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible called the Vulgate who translated the first line of Zechariah’s prophecy, “Benedictus esto Dominus Deus Israelis,” which in English is, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel.”

I would have been bursting to talk about my new son, but Zechariah is so God centered that the first words he speaks come from the Holy Spirit and are a prophecy that begins with a blessing to God! Now we think of prophecy as pointing to the future, but most prophecy is what we call “forthcoming,” which means the words being spoken are all about what God is doing right now. They are meant to help us see God at work around us and in us.

From the blessing, Zechariah goes straight into telling everyone that, “God has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David.” Did you hear that? God has come, not God is coming! The word come in Greek is the word used to describe a doctor coming to visit a patient; God has come to bring healing! God has come as a child in Mary’s womb, come to experience the brokenness and hurt of the world in order to bring healing and hope. God is redeeming his people already by becoming human in Mary. Jesus has come to save his people, he’s come as the horn of salvation, an image of power and strength. Just as Jesus is a human baby still being formed in Mary’s womb, he also the Son of God. Revelation 5 shows Jesus as a slain lamb with 7 horns and 7 eyes, a powerful image of strength that sees everything that’s happening on earth. Revelation 19 pictures Jesus as a warrior on a white horse riding out to do battle against Satan and the beast that brings destruction.

Zechariah picks up on the horn mentioned in Psalm 132, “Here I will make a horn grow for David and set up a lamp for my anointed one.” Jesus is coming as the descendant of the warrior King David to save his people from their enemies and the hand of all who hate them. As I hear Zechariah’s prophecy talking about the “hand of all who hate us,” I look around and see how much hatred there is in the world today towards the Jews. Anti-Semitism is alive and well and found all over, even in our own province. Historically, even the church has, at times, hated and persecuted the Jewish people.

All the people at Zechariah’s house would have heard him as referring to the Romans, but Jesus has come to fight much more powerful and deadly enemies: Satan and death. The battle is on for the salvation of God’s people. Not long after Jesus’ birth, Satan works through Herod to kill Jesus by murdering all the children under two years old in Bethlehem. Satan directly challenges Jesus in the wilderness at the start of Jesus’ ministry, tempting Jesus to do things the easy way rather than God’s way. Jesus puts on the armour of God, as described in Ephesians, and counters Satan’s temptations with the sword of the word of God. Jesus knows he’s in a battle and at state are the souls of all God’s people.

We’re part of the same battle Jesus fights against Satan. This is something we need to keep front and center in our ministry: that as Bethel Church, we follow Jesus, love others, serve our community in order to express the love of Jesus, and share our faith so the Holy Spirit can use us to save souls by leading others to Jesus. God fulfills his promises to send a Messiah who will crush the head of the serpent and save God’s people. God remembers his holy covenant to Abraham to rescues us from the hands of our enemies. Jesus enters this battle is so that we can serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness all our days. We serve God by engaging in the good works he has prepared for us to do, by working for justice and a healthy community, working to build people up and help them be whom God has created them to be and come to know Jesus.

Zechariah now turns to the role his son John is going to play for Jesus, “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” John is the advance troops for Jesus’ coming, getting everything ready so that when Jesus comes with the message that the kingdom of heaven is near, the people are ready to receive his message and accept his invitation to follow him and find freedom and salvation rather than follow Herod or Caesar or the temple leadership who found salvation in rule following rather than in faith in God.

But what a kingdom Jesus is bringing in; a kingdom where salvation and freedom is found through forgiveness of our sins rather than with swords and battle axes. Our enemies are not governments or our culture, but the things and people that draw us into sin, including our own hearts. John the Baptist’s message is going to be a call to repentance and a return to God as the way to prepare for Jesus’ coming. John points to the kingdom of heaven as a heart kingdom where loyalty is to God over everything else, including our own wants and desires; a kingdom where we are servants of God who serve rather than to be served and obey Jesus’ call in Matthew 5 to “be perfect as God is perfect.” We are called to be holy as God is holy, meaning that we are set apart for God’s use.

As Melissa Overmyer writes, “Holiness is possible: God, by his mercy and grace, has made it possible for each of us to be holy. He actually promised it to us. This is the good news that we are to proclaim. May we follow the example of John and take to heart the words Zachariah spoke about him: “Go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins.” When we share this good news, “the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace." 

Jesus enters into the world take on Satan and death and redeem us and save us and bring peace. Jesus is more than a gentle shepherd; he’s more like the warrior King David who fought lions and bears to protect his sheep, who fought giants to protect his people, who pays the ultimate price of being separated from God on the cross for us so that we never have to be separated from God our father. Like light brings hope into the darkness, so Jesus, in defeating Satan and death on the cross shines hope into our hearts and calls us to shine his hope into the world through his resurrection!

These are words of hope that we bring to those living in the darkness of fear, anxiety, guilt, shame and doubt, that Jesus has come for us to shine his light into our darkness, to lift us up and bring us strength and peace. We are called to let Jesus’ light shine through us into the world, into people who are seeking hope and a way through life where they can find healing and flourish into the people God has created them to be.

Luke 1:46-55 Mary Sings

 

Pastor David Lose, in an online post, talks about singing as an act of resistance. I had never really thought of singing that way, but when I took some time to think about it, I thought about the Black spirituals sung by the Black slaves as they worked in the fields and kitchens of their owners. Their hymns were their way of pushing back against their masters and how they treated them like animals instead of people, buying and selling them like cattle, using and abusing them, never acknowledging the image of God in them. The Black slaves responded by creating and singing these spirituals filled with hope and longing for heaven, reminding themselves that they were beloved children of God and that heaven was their reward too.

Music often ends up as a battle ground between generations because music is connected with independence and new ways of expressing dreams, hopes and values; for better or worse. It doesn’t surprise me anymore that parents and kids don’t agree on music because, as parents, our own dreams and values change and we often become more cynical about life and give up our idealism for a more pragmatic approach to life. Music is often how our kids hold onto a sense that the world can be a better place, or they go in the other direction and focus on the brokenness and injustice in the world.

Mary sings her song and it’s filled with the reality that the world’s not the way it’s supposed to be; her song is an act of resistance against the way things are, but it’s also a song of hope as she sings of a God who turns our world upside down. Mary’s song is often called the “Magnificat,” which means “Praise.” The name comes from the first word in the Latin translation of the Bible. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum” which translates “My soul praises the Lord.” Mary’s song is all about God’s faithfulness, a theme that runs all the way through Luke’s gospel. As you listen to Mary’s song you can hear her soul praising God for his faithfulness to his people.

The God who saves pays attention to her humble state, it’s hard for us to imagine just what God is doing here. He’s using a young bride of a poor carpenter from a nothing town to be the mother of the Messiah, the mother of God. Mary, the one favoured by God over princesses, will be the one called blessed. Just as God told the prophet Samuel to not judge Jesse’s sons by how strong and powerful they were, so God doesn’t look at how important, wealthy or powerful Mary’s family is when he chooses her, he looks at her heart and sees what he’s looking for; a faithful daughter of God.

God, through Mary’s child, is coming to turn the world upside-down. Jesus is coming into a broken world to bring healing. We look at the world in Jesus’ time and we see the great Roman Empire, one of the greatest empires of all time, who has created the conditions for the coming of the Messiah by putting in place the Pax Romana, the Roman peace. They have criss-crossed the empire with safe roads, brought in a code of justice, and a common language, Kione Greek, to make sure trade can flow easily across the empire and to the corners of the known world. And still it was a broken world, just as ours is still broken in so many ways still today and all need the peace that only Jesus can bring.

Mary sings, “His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.” In our series on family, we discussed the importance of faith being at the core of our families and our church so that we can experience the blessings and mercy of God from one generation to the next. As we listen to Mary’s song, we see that faith at the core of her family as she sings those themes of God’s justice and faithfulness. Mary sings of God’s mercy. Mercy, pity and compassion are all ways that the word Mary uses here can be translated, and we often hear the Scriptures talk of God’s mercy, and when Jesus comes, it almost becomes a refrain as over and over again the gospel writers say, “And Jesus saw them and had compassion on them,” or “Jesus took pity on them.” This is God’s heart, Jesus’ heart responding to us, seeing our brokenness and hurt and responding with hope and healing. No parent enjoys seeing their children suffer and will often go to extraordinary lengths to be there for their kids, even if it’s just to hold their hands to let them know that they’re not alone. God’s like that too.

Now Mary gets into the upside-down part of her song of resistance. “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.” “Inmost thoughts” can also be translated as “heart attitudes,” and I think gets at what Mary is singing about a bit better. Heart attitudes shape us and how we interact with others and when our hearts are shaped by pride, we tend to get full of ourselves and we look down on others, making them small. Yet anything we might achieve on our own is really small when you compare it to God’s mighty deeds. God created the heavens and earth, he created humanity in his own image, he delivered his people from the most powerful nation of the time when he brought Israel out of Egypt. He settled his people in land that was claimed by multiple other nations and protected them again and again, and he brought his people out of exile in Babylon. So, what have you accomplished lately compared to that, is the tone of Mary’s song?

It’s also a dig at Rome, powerful proud Rome. Mary sings, “He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” The echoes to the Old Testament take us to proud Pharaoh and how he ended up at the bottom of the Red Sea, it takes us to Nebuchadnezzar who ends up eating grass like a cow, and it reminds us that no matter how powerful Satan might be, even though he’s even referred to as the ruler of this world in John 12, and Prince of the power of the air in Ephesians 2, Jesus knocks Satan off his throne by taking the sin of the world to the cross and dying for us so that we can receive new life through Jesus’ resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Compare Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar and Satan to Jesus, born to a simple couple from a simple place, born in a stable and a refugee soon after birth. Philippians 2 reminds us, “In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” Because of Jesus’ humility and obedience, Paul continues in this song from Philippians, “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Every knee, even the most powerful will kneel to Jesus, whether Caesar, Trump or Putin, all power will be on their knees before Mary’s child!

Mary’s song continues pointing to a world that will be turned upside down, “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.” The first echo I heard was the echo to Jesus’ parable of the beggar Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16. Lazarus ends up in heaven while the rich man ends up in hell, desperate for a drop of water to ease his burning tongue while Lazarus is with Abraham in heaven. While on earth the rich man had a great life but ignored the poor right outside his own gates, while Lazarus was the sore covered beggar at the gates desperate for the crumbs off the rich man’s table. In Jesus’ upside-down kingdom the beggar is raised up while the clueless rich man is brought down.

I also hear the echo to the Beatitudes, an early picture of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom, where Jesus tells his listeners that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. If your heart aches for those who oppressed, for the poor, the widowed, orphaned, homeless, outsider, Jesus will you with his strength and courage to work towards creating a world shaped with the shalom of God. There is a quiet warning here in Mary’s song to be careful that our focus on earth’s comforts and wealth doesn’t consume us, becoming gods in our lives who take Jesus’ place.

Mary’s song ends with God’s mercy to his people as he promised so many years earlier. God is a promise keeper, a God who never abandons his people, a God who saves his people, all through this child that is now growing in Mary, the child who calls us to go make disciples of Jesus’ upside-down kingdom.

 

Luke 1:26-38 Gabriel Announces

 

Advent has begun; a time of waiting shaped by excitement and anticipation, even during a time of pandemic. As I walk through our neighbourhood, a lot of people are putting their lights and trees up early, needing an early boost of hope this year. Christmas and advent are a time of hope where, for a short time we try to lay the burdens of the rest of the year aside, looking to the baby in a manger to give us the hope we all need. This advent our theme is “A Saviour Made Known,” a theme that will keep pointing us to the Christ child who has come to make sense of this world, to bring the healing and grace that is so needed. We begin with a heavenly visitor and a young woman engaged to be married to a humble carpenter.

This is such a familiar story to us; God sending his messenger Gabriel to a small nothing town and an ordinary simple girl Mary, and yet we keep wanting to hear it again every year. As we listen to the story of Gabriel and Mary, we can almost feel Mary’s fear, wonder and awe-filled confusion at what’s happening as this creature from heaven appears to her. While Mary is really important to this story, the main story here is God at work fulfilling his promise of a saviour, how his plan to bring the promised saviour is going to happen.

God doesn’t hide his plan from Mary, he announces exactly what he’s doing through Gabriel, giving Mary the opportunity to say “yes,” knowing what lies ahead for her. Saying “yes” means that Mary will face disgrace from her parents and community since she and Joseph aren’t completely married yet, she will be shamed in her town as an unwed mother, and she’s got to be wondering what Joseph is going to say and do when he finds out; you can only hide a pregnancy for so long. When Mary asks, “How will this be since I’m a virgin,” she’s showing Gabriel that she realizes her baby is not going to be Joseph’s son.

Gabriel reminds Mary that nothing is impossible with God, or how the NIV 2011 translates it, “For no word from God will ever fail.” He goes on to tell Mary that “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” We hear a number of echoes here to other times in Scripture. The first is when the Spirit of God filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40 once Moses finishes it, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” God does the same thing when Solomon dedicates the temple to God in 2 Chronicles 7, “When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.” These are powerful moments when God shows his presence in clear ways.

But there is also the echo forward to when Jesus goes to the mountaintop with Peter, James and John in Matthew 17, “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” The picture of God overshadowing indicates God personal presence, this is what Mary is hearing when Gabriel tells her the Holy Spirit will overshadow her: God is right here.

But again, this is not about Mary, but about the son Mary is having. Gabriel tells Mary who her son is going to be. Her son is to be called Jesus, which means ‘the Lord saves,’ and “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Jesus is the Son of the Most High, which means that Mary will be the mother of God; she truly is favoured by God! Gabriel is pointing to Jesus’ divinity, revealing that Jesus will be God’s own son. Jesus is not going to be half god and half human like the children in Greek and Roman mythology, humans with super powers; but Jesus is fully God, and through Mary, fully human.

The wonder in this story is not that Mary is going to have a baby as a virgin, the wonder is that God is becoming a baby, is becoming vulnerable and helpless, is only going to be able to survive because of a human couple willing to become a butt of local jokes, willing to be shamed because God becomes one of us. There is nothing that can compare to this ever. We can try to craft stories of princes becoming paupers, but even those stories only hint at what God is doing, becoming one of us in order to save us.

Jesus comes to save us, not from Rome, but from our sin. As God, Jesus is powerful and strong enough to carry all our sins to the cross, but as human, Jesus is able to take our punishment on himself for the entire human race. The cradle leads to the cross, to the grave and resurrection and then the throne at the right hand of God. Jesus is going to be a king even greater than Caesar as Jesus is the king of the kingdom of heaven that encompasses all of creation, not just an empire with boundaries. Christmas depends on Good Friday and Easter for its meaning and importance.

Mary answers Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.” In churches, we often focus on the second part of what Mary says, “may your word to me be fulfilled,” and it’s a powerful response that echoes Jesus’ words to God in the Garden of Gethsemane, where just before his crucifixion, Jesus asks God for another path to follow instead of the cross, but in the end, Jesus tells God, “Not my will, but yours be done.” We focus on Mary’s decision to follow God’s plan; it sounds to us as if it’s her choice to follow God’s plan or not.

But when we listen to Mary through the first part of her response, we get a different picture, “I am the Lord’s servant.” The word Mary uses is doulos and means servant or slave. As God’s slave, something that Paul later often calls himself, Mary doesn’t have a choice to have the baby Jesus, instead she’s acknowledging that God’s plans for her life take priority over her original plans for her life, that God has the power to do as he desires and she will be obedient to God’s plan. I realize how this sounds in our culture today with all the abuse against women and the #MeToo revelations of men using their power against women, yet Mary, as we shall see in her song next week, completely trusts in the faithfulness of her God to her. This is an echo of the trust that Ruth places in Boaz the night she appears at the threshing floor and offers herself to Boaz. Throughout Israel’s history, God has shown himself to be trustworthy and faithful to his people, even when they have not been faithful to him.

So, when we hear Mary say, “may your word to me be fulfilled,” Mary is being obedient to God’s call and plans for her life, to the word from God. She’s telling God she is his faithful servant and accepts the responsibility to give birth to God’s son and raise him to know God and be faithful to his heavenly father.

The word from God spoken to Mary is the same word spoken at the beginning of creation. This same word is now creating a new life in Mary, the Word, as John says at the beginning of his Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” The light comes as a baby born in a stable in a dark time of Israel’s history, bringing new life and hope to all the nations of the world, bringing light still to us today, bringing hope and new life to everyone willing to accept Jesus as your king and become his slave to continue the work of the kingdom of heaven. Are you willing to become a slave of Jesus?