Sometimes You've Got to Sing It (part 1)


Luke 1:46-55

In college, I had a great friend who always asked great questions. One of the best questions he would ask came out of mundane, even trivial answers.  An example would be a greeting: he’d start with “how’s your day going?”  I’d give the obligatory, “good,” and he’d ask, “What’s good about it?”  Not in a dismissive way, but in a “I really want to know” way.  Then I’d get the chance to tell him what was good about my day.

This is exactly what we find in Mary’s song.  Two weeks ago, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, telling her that God had a special mission for her.  Last week, Mary hurried to the home of her relative, Elizabeth, who didn’t need any explanation, but immediately, inspired by the Holy Spirit, knew that Mary was blessed among women for her obedience.  And this week we finally get a full response to what’s going on.

She starts with a word of praise, but like the situation with my friend, she doesn’t stop there.  Instead, she elaborates with the reasons for praise.  This is the whole structure of her song.  

But don’t mistake Mary’s song for just a random outpouring of praise.  Remember last week? I gave you the tip that when someone is under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit: when that person speaks, you need to pay attention, because God is speaking.  Well, whenever you find a song or a prayer recorded in the Bible, it’s more than just someone singing their favorite song.  I used to read Scripture like a musical – I’m generally not a big fan of musicals, especially because the songs can seem so contrived and hokey. Not the Sound of Music; most of those songs actually fit into the plot and sometimes even serve to advance it – after all, it’s a musical about music.  But West Side Story – really?  You’ve got gangs, and their main interaction with one another is singing?  Sometimes I’ve felt like the dialogue and action is there and the songs do little to advance the plot.  That was how I read Scripture.  I pretty much skipped over the songs, thinking they weren’t advancing the story.  In other words, I read scripture completely wrong.

Whenever you find a song, it’s going to be absolutely important.  Whether it’s Moses’ song (in Exodus 15), Deborah’s song in Judges 5, David and Asaph’s song in 1 Chronicles 16, or Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2, these are vital aspects of the text.  In fact, they often give you a summation of the entire salvation history and what God is doing.  

So when you read Mary’s song, it’s not just a jubilant reaction to the angel’s appearance or to Elizabeth’s Holy Spirit inspired words; it sets the stage for Luke’s entire Gospel (just an aside: the book of Luke is only half of Luke’s Gospel.  The other half is called Acts).  This song is more than just a song; it’s a summary of salvation history.   Let’s look at it a little more closely.  She starts with the praise: “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. 

To glorify the Lord is the meaning of life.  This is what we were put on earth for.  And Mary is doing this, not superficially, but from her very soul, the core of who she is.  Her innermost being is glorifying God.  Her spirit rejoices in God.  This is what the prophet Isaiah wrote of: My soul yearns for You in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for You. (Isaiah 26:9a).  It is an amazing thing to get to the place where you don’t have to force yourself or remind yourself to worship God; your spirit within you is bursting with praise for God, and you couldn’t quiet it even if you wanted to.  

This is what Jeremiah spoke of when he said, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention him or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.  I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9). Even if he wanted to, Jeremiah couldn’t hold back God’s word.  And even if she had wanted to, Mary couldn’t either.  Her very soul glorifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God.

This is typical of people who worship God.  This is the norm. It’s what God’s people are supposed to be like. Jesus Himself put it this way:  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24) 

Mary is worshiping in spirit and truth.  We already talked about her spirit worshiping, and real worship is worship in spirit, but it is also worship in truth.  This means worshiping the real God, not a God of our own creation.  It means knowing the one true God intimately – and growing more and more in love with Him.  It also means that your worship is authentic, truly heart-felt, 24/7, not just something you do on Sunday.  Yes, worship is for weekdays, for workdays, for retirement, for vacation, for home, for work, for school, everywhere you go, everything you do.  Everyone around you knows that you love God with everything you are.  Nobody (except for maybe someone who hasn’t seen you in years) says, “Hey, wait a minute; you’re a Christian?” 

This gets me to something that bothers me.  It really bothers me.  The Barna Group’s research shows that “most of the lifestyle activities of [American] born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains.”  Born again believers are just as likely to report gambling, pornography use, stealing, consulting a medium or psychic, physically fight or abuse someone, get drunk, use illegal drugs, lie, get revenge, or gossip.  (Un-Christian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons).  If we were worshiping in spirit and truth, don’t you think it would stand to reason that our actions and behaviors would follow?  

It’s not that we are legalistic about behaviors – that “we don’t smoke and we don’t chew and we don’t go with girls who do.” There is great freedom for Christians – because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17).  We are not bound by a strict code of rules and punishments.  This isn’t to say that we should use our freedom to indulge in sinful behavior; it’s not a license to go hog wild.   Paul reminds us, “Everything is permissible” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” – but not everything is constructive. (1 Corinthians 10:23).  

When I was a teenager, some of my friends used to draw anarchy symbols on their notebooks or jackets.  I remember asking one kid about it, and he intimated that government was the biggest problem of society, and that without rules, things would go much more smoothly.  “No rules = good rules” was his credo.  

I asked him if he really believed that.  He said he did.  So I asked him if he’d thought it out… there were a lot of rednecks in Kokomo, Indiana in the late 80s who would have loved to have been given total freedom to mercilessly beat up a punker with no reprisal.  It was those very rules which protected him!

Likewise with the rules the Bible gives us: following the rules isn’t what saves us; only Jesus Christ has the power to save.  Following the rules is what helps keep us pointed toward him.  There are all kinds of things that are permissible but unhelpful.  

You can think of it in relationship terms: a bachelor has the ability to do whatever it is he wants to do.  He can go where he wants, whenever he wants.  He can spend his money however he chooses. He can date whoever he chooses.  He can walk around the house in boxers and belch all he wants and leave pizza boxes all over the kitchen (or living room) if that’s what he chooses to do.

Now imagine that bachelor gets married.  Assuming that his wife isn’t a slob and doesn’t approve of slobbery, one of three things can happen.  First, the wife can clean up after him and try to keep track of him and generally be miserable.  Obviously not a good choice. The second option is that she can nag him and annoy him and bug him and make him miserable.  The third option is that he can recognize that the woman he loves is more important than his freedom to do whatever it is he wants to do, and he can live it out.

This is what Paul means when he says everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial. Our freedom in Christ is freedom to worship him fully, in spirit and truth. And it’s not just because we decided to worship him – our worship of God is always initiated by God himself.  Mary was wise when she 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.She recognizes that God’s action was what enabled her response.  

We’re not just in a vacuum, choosing whatever we want.  In fact, as John writes: We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19). God is the One who noticed us.  God is the One who loves us, who pursues us, who created our inmost being, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs. (Psalm 139:13) 

God knows exactly who you are.  He knows your struggle, your pain, your sorrow, your burden.  He knows you… and loves you.  Remember this above all else – God loves you. And he gives you the opportunity to respond.  He doesn’t force you to respond, because that would not be love and it wouldn’t be worship in spirit and in truth.  It would be a farce.  Love is only love if we have the power to love or to not love.  Without that power, it’s not love.  And God loves us enough that he allows us the choice to love him or not. 

Have you chosen to love God?  If so, does anyone know?  Does your life reflect that love, or do you just manage to love God in the privacy of your own home and on Sunday mornings?  In the example I gave earlier of the bachelor who got married, what would you think of him if he continued on living like a bachelor, going out on dates with other women, doing whatever he used to do before marriage.  Would you say he really loves his wife?

And if we go about our lives, living as if we don’t even know God – if our lives don’t look any different from those who don’t even know God, then how can we say we love him?  We show our love God by doing things that reflect that love.  Christmas is a good example; we can show we love God by giving Jesus a birthday gift on Christmas.  This year we’re bringing that close to home with our Giving Tree in the vestibule, which goes to share gifts with families in our community.  Additionally, we will be taking a special offering on Christmas Eve that will go to Water’s Edge Ministry in Buckeye Lake, an area of true need, where not only are they feeding bodies, but they are feeding souls.  This is over and above our regular giving – it’s a demonstration to God that we love him so much that we will take him on his word – that he will provide for us – as individuals and as a church.

This is key to understanding our relationship with God.  He has been mindful of the humble state of his servant because of his great love.  

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