Upside-Down

Upside-Down (Advent #1) Luke 1:46-55

⁴⁶ And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸ for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.

 ⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. ⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. ⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful ⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

Christmas is all about a world turned upside-down. We enter a scene already in progress – angels have already met Elizabeth and Zechariah, foretelling the birth of John the Baptist. Now the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her the news – that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Messiah. Now, we find this incredible scene. My Bible calls it Mary’s song, though it’s not clear if she sings it or says it. Actually, that’s not the significant part. What is significant is that any time you find a song or a prayer written in scripture, the contents of that prayer or that song are going to be vitally important.

Verse 46 tells us that Mary’s response is to first praise God. Now, remember, Mary isn’t praising God after the fact. She is not giving thanks to God after God has done great things for her. She is trusting in God completely to do these things. At Thanksgiving, how many of us gave thanks to God for the things he has done? Most of us do that. But how many gave thanks to God for the things he has yet to do?

⁴⁶ And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord ⁴⁷ and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, ⁴⁸ for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, ⁴⁹ for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.

Really, as of this moment, what has God done for Mary? She isn’t yet the mother of the Son of God. But as her relative Elizabeth noted in verse 45, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” This is exactly where Mary’s song comes from; she is completely convinced that what God said would come true, and it drives her to worship. Some of us equate worship with singing, but there can be a profound difference. Mary is worshiping from her very core. Her soul glorifies the Lord and her spirit rejoices in God. Does your soul glorify God simply on God’s promises? Or have you stopped and looked at God’s promises?

Here are a couple of God’s promises for you (and this would be a good time to take notes):

·         Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you¸ plans to give you hope and a future.”

·         Matthew 11:28-29 “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.”

·         Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become tired and weary, and young men will stumble and fall. But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.

·         Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

·         Romans 8:37-39 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

·         John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

·         Romans 10:9 If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

·         Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do these promises cause your soul to glorify God? If not, why not? Have you heard them so many times that you’ve lost your perspective? Or do you really believe them? What might your life look like if you would daily remind yourself of these promises God is making to you, and if your soul began to glorify and praise God for them?

Mary’s soul gives thanks to God because he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.  She wasn’t humble in the sense of a false humility that many of us can conjure. She is truly humble, lowly, seemingly worthless. But from now on all generations will call [her] blessed. Why is that? It’s all because of what God is doing. She recognizes that the only thing she has to give to God is her obedience. There is no way she’s going to be blessed otherwise. She’s not going to go out on her own and somehow build up a following and have everyone come back and talk about what a great thing she’s done. The only way she gets there is because of what God is doing. Our culture is full of people shining their own light. Celebrity and fame are the order of the day and the name of the game. We somehow think that if we can get on TV or on stage and do our own thing, that we’re going to find fulfillment. We work hard to make sure that everyone knows what we’ve done and how well we’ve done it. We want the accolades and the glory. But Mary is clear here – the only reason she’s famous at all is because of God. Because God chose her. And what is most important to her is who God is and what God has promised. She uses her fame, as it were, to point to God. The light that she shines is purely a reflection of God, and not from herself. Listen to how Mary describes what God has done:

⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. ⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. ⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

God has turned society and culture upside-down. Did you notice the contrasts here? Mary contrasts God extending mercy to those who fear him with scattering the proud. God brings down rulers but lift the humble. And God fills the hungry with good things while sending the rich away empty.

I love the picture of God extending mercy from generation to generation of those who fear him. God’s mercy is new every day, and God’s mercy is new every generation. God didn’t just extend mercy to one generation and then announce “sorry about your luck” to the rest of us; God continues to extend mercy, and through Jesus, God extended mercy once and for all who accept him. But while God extends mercy, don’t mistake his mercy for cheap grace. This isn’t Santa, threatening children with a naughty or nice list. God scatters the proud. Again and again I’ve heard testimonies about wealthy people who lose everything. Pride in self, pride in accomplishments, pride in wealth, pride in looks… all of these things are fleeting. I’ve buried strong, self-made men who are a shell of their former selves. None of that matters in the long run.

God turns power upside-down as well, bringing down rulers but uplifting the humble. We put so much emphasis on the powerful, whoever that may be. When it comes to our national elections, I heard a lot of people lamenting the end of our nation as we know it, and a lot of Christians were really upset about it. Do you think God was surprised that President Obama was reelected? This is a good time to remind you that God really is in control, and that he is the one who brings down rulers from their thrones but uplifts the humble.

What does it mean to be humble? It boils down to dependence. While we pride ourselves in our independence, God’s design is for us to depend on him for everything. Are we really depending on God for everything, or are we depending on ourselves and our own ability to get whatever it is that we want whenever we want it? When we depend on God for everything, we find out that God is everything we need.

The third contrast here is between the hungry and the rich. The thought at that time was that hungry people were hungry and rich people were rich on purpose – that it was God’s punishment or reward. But Mary knows better – she knows that God turns it all upside down.

Jesus himself fulfills what Mary said. In Luke 4, Jesus is in the synagogue in Nazareth, reading from Isaiah. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor… Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”(Luke 4:18, 21) Jesus is always bringing good news like “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3). Really, the contrast of God giving the hungry good gifts and sending the rich away empty is just a continuation or even repetition of the previous thought. God won’t force-feed himself to us – but when we are hungry for him, we find that he feeds us what we need.  This shouldn’t be a surprise if we’ve read the Bible, because in John 6:35, Jesus offers himself as the Bread of Life, saying “He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never go thirsty.”

Unfortunately, we’re so overstuffed on spiritual junk food that we don’t have any room for the Bread of Life. When we get our spiritual meals from Oprah or Dr. Phil, that’s spiritual junk food. When we get our spiritual meals from pop culture, that’s spiritual junk food. But if you are really hungry for God, he will fill you. Jesus is indeed the bread of life – he is all we need.

There’s a story in Luke 18, where Jesus interacts with the man we’ve come to know as the rich young ruler. This man wants to know how to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the Commandments. This guy is all over that, “No problem.” So Jesus tells him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And when he heard this he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” (Luke 18:22-25)

Our culture values the wealthy, not the hungry. Honestly, most of us are extremely wealthy, not only on a global scale, where if you make $25,000, you are in the top ten percent of the world (even though if you have a family of four, you’re straddling the poverty line at that income level). So what do we do with all this wealth? Do we have to give it all away?

Jesus’ answer to that is that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. In other words, he wants you to wrestle with it. I will guarantee you that if you begin to wrestle with God, God will win, but you stand a good chance of winning as well.

What might Christmas time look like if we were to wrestle with God during Advent? I’ve been doing my best to help you enter the wrestling match - I have been giving you a steady diet of “all you need is Jesus, and if you are looking anywhere else for satisfaction, that’s idol worship” and some of you are starting to get it, and you’re wrestling with it. Others of you haven’t heard a word I’ve said in five months. So here’s something messed up to wrestle with: During this Christmas season, the American Research Group’s survey expects that we will spend an average of nearly $850 per family on Christmas gifts. For the parents out there, the average is $270 per child. Meanwhile, every thirty seconds, a child dies somewhere in the world due to malnutrition or other hunger-related causes.

Mary finishes her song in verses 54-55: ⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful ⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”

What I love about this is Mary’s faith. Do you notice how Mary is praising God before the fact? Has God already done this? Has God already helped Israel with mercy forever? No, that help really doesn’t come until Jesus’ resurrection. But Mary is already praising God for it. That is a picture of faith. What might we look like if we had that kind of faith? Would you pray for the kind of faith that praises God before he even acts?