Mary’s Dream
The context for today’s scripture is a meeting between two expectant mothers. Elizabeth is getting on in years and has never been able to have a child. Mary is young and not yet married. Both pregnancies are unexpected and unplanned by the people involved. It’s amazing how news of the same event – being pregnant – can be received very, very differently depending on the circumstances. Both children growing in their mother’s wombs will be special. Elizabeth’s son, John the Baptist, will prepare the way for Mary’s son, Jesus. At the moment of today’s scripture their sons’ ministries lie some 30 years in a future that cannot be seen or known by the mothers, any more than parents today can imagine what their children’s lives will be like in 30 years.
December 14, 2014
Luke 1:46-55, Mary’s Dream
Doug Scalise, Brewster Baptist Church
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Elizabeth, praying against the reality of her past experience, is in seclusion hoping her pregnancy will last full term and bring a son and take away the disgrace she has felt in her culture at not being able to give birth. Mary, having what can only be described as a miraculous encounter, agrees to partner with God according to God’s word, but cannot have any idea what she is going to experience. The angel Gabriel tells Mary her older relative Elizabeth is pregnant with a son and Mary goes immediately to see her. Maybe one of Mary’s thoughts was, “If Elizabeth is truly pregnant, it will be a confirmation of my own experience.”
When Elizabeth greeted Mary by blessing her and the fruit of her womb before Mary could tell her she was pregnant, it provided confirmation for Mary about her experience; she wasn’t imagining it or hallucinating. And Mary said (Luke 1:46-55), “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
According to the promises he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendents forever.”
Mary’s soul magnifies or declares the greatness of God. Magnify has several meanings, including to glorify or praise, as well as to enlarge or to make greater in size. A magnifying glass enables us to see something more clearly. When Mary says “my soul magnifies the Lord” and shares what God has done for her, she is praising God and enabling others to see God’s nature and character more clearly than we can through the lenses of our own experience.
First, Mary praises God for what God has done for her personally.
Her spirit rejoices in God her Savior. Mary looks to God for mercy, salvation, and deliverance. “He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”
“The Mighty One has done great things for me.” How has God looked on you with favor? What great things has the Mighty One done for you? It’s important to remember that Mary at this point was almost certainly only a teenager, yet she’s focusing on God’s blessing in her life and the great things God has done and not the difficulties she will face in being faithful.
Secondly, Mary praises God for what has been done for generations and what the Lord will do in the future and Mary speaks of all these things as if they were already accomplished. God has shown strength, scattered the proud, brought down the powerful, filled the hungry, and helped his servant Israel. The God who has been faithful in the past will continue to be faithful in the future. As a rich American, I’m a little uncomfortable with Mary stating God is not on the side of the proud, the powerful, or the rich who are going to be sent away empty, but we have to deal with the fact that’s what God’s Word states. Luke’s gospel is filled with these kinds of reversals. Throughout his gospel Luke repeatedly warns us not to invest our lives merely trying to climb a pyramid of material success or personal prestige that Mary says God is going to flip upside down.
We said last week that part of preparing for the coming of Christ at Christmas, is accepting responsibility for and repenting of actions, speech, behavior, or patterns of thought that are harmful for us or other people. When people’s lives get turned around and God gets the credit, the Lord is magnified. When we magnify the Lord we enable others to see God and what God has done more clearly than they can with just their own vision. Psalm 34:3 invites us, “O magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together.” Considering the favor God has shown us and the great things God has done for us in our lives, our church, our country, our world – how do we magnify the Lord in return?
Another way we magnify the Lord is through our obedience to God’s word. Elizabeth says to Mary (Luke 1:45), “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Mary was obedient to the Lord even though the future didn’t turn out the way Mary hoped it would when she shared these joyous words. No parent wants to out live her or his child; it’s perhaps the greatest heartache one can experience in life. When Jesus was just a baby a man named Simeon said prophetically and ominously to Mary (Luke 2:34-35), “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Mary could not have imagined as she and Elizabeth shared their mutual joy that one day she’d see her son publicly tortured and executed. However, thankfully her heartache would be transformed to celebration. The gospel of Luke begins with the joy of Mary and the angels and ends with joy after the resurrection of Jesus. The gospel concludes (Luke 24:52-53), “And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple blessing God.”
There’s a sense in which the future is never going to be exactly the way we thought it might be in our lives, our families, at BBC, in our nation or the world; however, it’s important for us to be like Mary who was faithful and kept believing in the goodness of God and the purposes of the Lord even though her dream of having a long, happy marriage and kids didn’t turn out the way she probably thought it would before Gabriel came to her and shared the message that changed her life.
Like Mary, God’s promises can also be fulfilled in us and through us, but the new life God wants to bring forth will take time to develop and may happen in ways that are not always comfortable or even easy for us to accept. Like Mary, there’s a sense in which our church is also in a period of pregnancy. It’s as if BBC is pregnant with the possibility of God’s future. In a church, pregnancy also requires waiting and coping with changes as they occur. Those changes are not always welcomed or comfortable, but they are endured because there is a purpose in mind – new life is developing in our midst.
I’ve heard, although it didn’t happen with Jill, that some women may become irritable at times when they’re pregnant. This is probably a malicious falsehood; however, there may be times when the physical changes get so uncomfortable that a person’s attitude and speech take a turn for the worse. The same can be true in growing churches pregnant with the possibility of God’s future. We need to be sure we exercise patience and understanding as we get accustomed to new situations. Like Mary, we can glorify God in whole-hearted worship and prayer that ponders what God is doing in our midst. Only time will reveal what the future will bring. We believe God’s promise will be fulfilled in us and through us but it will take time. So what do we do in the mean time?
Well, what do expectant parents do? They make preparations. When we sing Joy to the World on Christmas Eve we hear the words, “Let every heart prepare him room.” There’s a sense for us individually and as a church that to prepare to birth God’s future we need to prepare room for Jesus to come into our hearts and into our midst. One of the ways we prepare room is through a commitment to worshiping God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. Perhaps there’s a temptation in this large space with comfortable seating to sit back and watch those of us up front worshiping. It’s important for us to fully participate in worship and not to merely be a spectator or observer.
Notice the exuberance and enthusiasm of Mary’s prayer. She’s rejoicing in God her savior. Mary is a wonderful model for us in so many ways including her passion for worship and prayer.
Another way we prepare to birth God’s future is through a commitment to prayer. We read many times in Luke (1:29, 2:19, 2:51) of Mary pondering events in her heart and we know from this prayer in Luke 1 and her presence in the company of believers as they pray in Acts 1 that she was a woman of prayer.
Wholehearted worship and passionate prayer are two of the key ways we prepare to birth the new life God desires to bring forth through us. They’re also vital ways of receiving healthy spiritual nourishment just as expectant parents practice good pre-natal care. An expectant mother keeps her system as healthy as possible and eats nutritious food to give her growing baby the best possible chance. Tragically, there is a severe problem in our nation with pregnant mothers using opiates and giving birth to babies who are also addicted and go through withdrawal in the their first days of life. When mothers practice good prenatal care, the baby benefits, when they don’t, the baby suffers. That is also true when it comes to the new life God wishes to bring forth through us.
To return to the beginning of our story, some of us, like Elizabeth, may have hoped and prayed for something in our life for years and those hopes and dreams weren’t fulfilled. Like Elizabeth, we need to find ways to hold onto our faith in the midst of that disappointment and waiting. Some of us, like Mary, have had something happen that we totally hadn’t hoped or prayed for that significantly impacted our life. Like Mary, we can learn to hold onto our faith in the midst of those totally unexpected events and to wait patiently and prayerfully for God’s future to be revealed. These two exemplary women, Elizabeth and Mary, are great role models and examples of facing both disappointment and the unexpected with resilient faith and courage. That is a message of Christmas that is powerful and lasts throughout the entire year.
Mary is pregnant with the possibility of God’s future.
God’s promise is going to be fulfilled in her and through her, but it will take time. Pregnancy requires waiting and coping with changes as they occur. Those changes are not always welcome or comfortable, but they are endured because there is a purpose in mind. A person is growing, developing, and maturing and new life is going to emerge.
Like Mary, God’s promises can be fulfilled in us and through us, but the new life God wants to bring forth will take time to develop and may happen in ways that are not easy for us to accept.
Like Mary, we can glorify God in whole-hearted worship and prayer that ponders what God is doing in our midst.
Like Mary, we can share God’s concern and love for the humble, the lowly, the poor and the hungry.
Like Mary, we can magnify the Lord in our lives so that others may see God more clearly. If I could have arranged it, I would have gotten great big magnifying glasses about three feet in diameter hanging from a sturdy piece of rope that I could have placed over your head as you left worship today to remind you always to remember that we’re called to magnify the Lord in our lives every moment of every day throughout the year.
Like Mary, we can have the joy of looking forward with excitement and anticipation for the new life that God is bringing forth within us and through us.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
Like Elizabeth, have you ever hoped and prayed for something in your life and those hopes and dreams weren’t fulfilled? How, like Elizabeth, did you hold onto your faith in the midst of that disappointment?
Like Mary, have you ever had something happen that you totally hadn’t hoped or prayed for that significantly impacted your life? How, like Mary, did you hold onto your faith in the midst of that totally unexpected event?
What can we learn from their examples of Elizabeth and Mary about facing both disappointment and the unexpected with resilient faith and courage?
Mary praises God for what the Lord has done for her personally. What are you praising God for today?
What do we learn from Mary about wholehearted worship and passionate prayer?
How can you magnify the Lord in your life so that others may see God more clearly?