Sometimes You’ve Got to Sing it, part 2

Luke 1:48b-55

Last week we started in on Mary’s song.  Remember that a song in the Bible is never just a song; it’s going to be much more than that.  Mary’s song is the summary of the entire Book of Luke/Acts as well as a summary of salvation history.  It’s all about what God is doing, rooted fully in God’s purpose. 

Mary’s song started with rejoicing in her inmost being; everything she is celebrates what God has done for her.  All generations will call her blessed for the Mighty One has done great things for me – holy is his name! (Luke 1:49).  Notice that the activity in this passage is never human activity; it’s all about God.

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.”

God extends mercy. He has performed mighty deeds. He has scattered the proud. He has brought down rulers. He has lifted the humble.  He has fed the hungry. He has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant.  He has remembered to be merciful.

This is good news… at least, if you’re hungry, humble, or in need of mercy.  God has shown mercy, has lifted the humble and fed the hungry.

But if you’re the proud, the ruler, or the rich, this news doesn’t sound all that good.  1 Peter 5:5 tells Christians to clothe [our]selves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Why does God oppose and scatter the proud? Why does God bring down rulers?  Why does God send the rich away empty? Doesn’t God love everyone and want to give us all good gifts?

Yes, God loves everyone.  God loves us all so much that He doesn’t want to leave us where we are.   As American human beings, one of our biggest flaws is our fierce independence.  In some ways we never outgrow the toddler attitude of “I do it myself.”  There are things we just can’t do ourselves, but if we’re not humble, we think we can.  One summer when I was in seminary, my friend Chad and I were hired to do construction work for “Bob”.  He was completely renovating the house he lived in, and one renovation he was attempting was to put a storm cellar under a house that was built without one.  To do this, he rented a jackhammer for the day and challenged Chad and me to dig through Kentucky bedrock.  If we got down 6 feet, he’d buy us a steak dinner with all the trimmings.  We got there as early as we thought prudent to be running a jackhammer in a residential neighborhood and we pounded away.  All day.  "Bob" told us we’d be able to break off large chunks at a time.  Maybe our definition of “large” was different, but after nearly 12 hours of constant jackhammering, we had dug a trench approximately 1½ feet deep and six feet long.  Well short of our goal.

The problem wasn’t that we weren’t working hard enough.  The problem was that we had the wrong tool for the job.  Bob eventually hired real construction workers with a bobcat equipped with a jackhammer and a backhoe, and they worked most of the day and dug out his pit.

And we who are proud, independent, and rich often have built in ourselves the tendency to believe that we can do it all on our own; that we aren’t in need of God’s help, that we don’t need His mercy.  This is the attitude that pervades our society: as long as I’m good enough, I’ll go to heaven.  There are some serious problems with this attitude.  First of all, Jesus defines “good enough” in Matthew 5:20 by saying, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” He goes on to say in Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Do you think we have a chance at “good enough”?

When we come to God with the attitude that we can do it ourselves, we come unfortunately outfitted with the wrong tool for the job.  We’re essentially saying that we are better than God, that we don’t need him, and that we’re smarter than God because we know what we need better than he does.  What we’re doing is setting ourselves up as our own gods, which puts us in direct opposition to the God of the Universe.  We’re committing high treason against our Creator.

But directly contrasted with God’s actions against the proud, we have God’s actions for the humble.  He is merciful.  Deuteronomy 4:31 tells us For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which he confirmed to them by oath. 

What God is doing through Mary is a clear demonstration of God’s mercy.  Instead of abandoning, forgetting, or destroying His people, He is taking action to fulfill the covenant – a covenant which we did not uphold.  He has every right to abandon us, because a covenant, by definition, must be upheld by both parties.  But instead of destroying us, which He has every right to do, He saves us. God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8) 

God is performing mighty deeds.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, a virgin gives birth.  God does the miraculous.  He heals the sick, gives sight to the blind, restores hearing to the deaf, forgives sin, and even raises the dead!  And our God is still doing mighty deeds! 

God lifts the humble.  The book of Deuteronomy says that the wandering in the wilderness was intended to humble His people to test them to know what was in their hearts: would they then keep God’s commands?  Would they trust God with everything? Psalm 25:9 tells us that He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.  The contrast against the proud is clear; the proud person isn’t interested in having his path guided.  This is a question for the men out there: if you’re driving somewhere and your GPS isn’t working and you dropped your cell phone and it’s not working, will you stop and ask for directions?  

We don’t stop and ask for directions, because we’re too proud.  We can find our own way.  Unfortunately that extends to our spiritual life.  And the truth is, we won’t find our own way.  When I was in college, I went on a road trip with my brother and his friend, and we got lost multiple times – we drove around for three hours looking for a museum that was listed in our atlas (which we later found out had burned down three years earlier).  We drove around for three hours looking for a drive-in movie theater (we were on the wrong side of the interstate). We couldn’t find the CNN building in Atlanta.  And when we did ask directions, we asked the wrong people.  The homeless man in the middle of the street wasn’t the best person to ask directions to CNN.  The convenience store proprietor trying to keep the loitering gang kids from stealing all his merchandise was probably not the best person to ask directions to a movie theater.  And when we go asking spiritual questions, pop culture and our godless friends aren’t the right places to go.  Go humbly to God, who guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.

Remember as we read this that the poor and humble aren’t simply the unfortunate for whom life in general hasn’t been kind. The powerful and privileged by definition oppose God, while at the same time, they oppress other people.  So when God opposes the proud, powerful, and rich, he is at the same time being gracious to the humble and hungry.

God is working through individual lives (like Mary’s) and through groups of people to turn society upside down.  This is what the Sermon on the Mount is all about: if you want to read something radical, read Matthew 5-7.  Jesus turns everything upside down, completely subverting the entire structure of society, a society that calls the rich “blessed” and the poor “cursed.”

God uproots these definitions and says, “you’re blessed when you follow me, no matter what the earthy consequences might be.” Remember that Mary was called blessed, not simply because she became the mother of Jesus, but because she turned her back on all that was important to her earthly self and was 100% obedient to God.

Here’s the thing: what Mary’s song says, Jesus lives.  The act of conception set into motion the decisive work of God!  God chose for His Son a humble beginning – no room in the inn for him, attended by shepherds.  Christ Jesus being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

But from humble beginnings comes greatness: 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 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)

God is at work.  And when Mary’s song includes Abraham and his descendants, she is including us as well.  We are the objects of God’s mercy, if we will humble ourselves and receive his merciful gifts.