Year C
Luke 1:39-55
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
Love Magnified In God’s Power
On this Fourth Sunday in Advent with less than one week to Christmas, the excitement is growing and most can hardly wait! Our homes are festively decorated with possibly a few gifts under the tree already. You may have been busy baking cookies and other goodies to prepare for the arrival of family and friends. We have reached the climax in this season and are almost done with waiting and preparing. So it seems appropriate that today on this the climactic Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of love because ‘of faith, hope and love’…love “is the greatest of these.” But this emphasis is scarcely drawn from today’s texts that never even mention the word love. It might be better, with our text’s today, to light the candle of justice or the candle of God’s power or sovereignty.
Yet, however, it may be, that the candle of love still sheds a worthy light on the texts today as we move from the anticipation of God’s promises being fulfilled to a realization of that fulfillment. The Babe is to be born in Bethlehem’s manger but the final fulfillment of all that God has promised will not be realized until the Second Advent, the return of him who was a Babe but is now the reigning Savior and Lord. His mission from the incarnation, through the cross and resurrection is one of justice with love to everyone, the loveless shown that they might be made a lovely fragrance to God. God promised one who would rule righteously and in peace, particularly for the poor, and those without strength.
Jesus is this ruler, and some have recognized this is so from the beginning. The eighth century prophet Micah, remembering King David’s reign, spoke to his people in their present turmoil to comfort them with the promise of another king who would rise from this little town of Bethlehem. As the first David had hailed from Bethlehem, so would the final glorious messiah-king. From little Bethlehem, one would come forth who would be great to the ends of the earth, who would “feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. God will save the world, Micha remind us with a mighty one who will bring peace, but not with a sword, with love and gentleness like a babe in a manger.
Martin Luther in a sermon once spoke on the significance of Christ’s birth in that little town of Bethlehem. He claimed that it is good to be reminded of Jesus’ “lowly origins. For this softens God’s awesomeness, and makes it easier to be in Jesus’ presence: The person who wants to know God, free from unsubstantial speculation about him, must begin at the bottom and learn first to know the Virgin Mary’s son born in Bethlehem. Thereafter they will learn precisely who the virgin’s son is, namely the everlasting king and Lord. This reality then will not be a dread-filled reality but a most beloved and comforting truth.
Just listen to the first verse of the hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” one of the favorites of many. O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by: Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and dreams of all the years are met in thee tonight.” What happened in Bethlehem of Judea has changed everything. Here is the good news how much God cares: God actually gives us a son, and God does this to put us right with God through this son. Yet, we hear the challenge of the texts today as those who have been put right with God: Live with love for others, especially the poor, as if our rightness were really true.
“One of the liabilities, author Barbara Brown Taylor writes of having heard the Christmas story over and over again is that we all know how it turns out. There is no way to recapture the initial shock of the news: that God is coming in the flesh to show us what real life looks like.” The promise of Micah would be nothing more than a historical curiosity, nothing more than a pipe dream, if it were not for the birth of Mary’s son in Bethlehem’s stable. And he comes with priceless gifts to those who receive him, the gifts of hope and peace. He comes to bring the mercy and grace of God to all who have opened their hearts and lives to this gift.
From the first pages of the Bible, God purposes not to be a God without human partners. God creates and seeks fellowship with us because that’s the kind of God we have. This divine choosing is an act of overflowing love. While we sometimes choose to not be faithful to God, God continues to draw close to us for the salvation of the world. This is Mary’s story and what she sings about in the Magnificat as it details the reversals God works in the world through the Son Mary bears. The good news is that God’s faithfulness, while it does not come from human potential, is to bless us humans. Mary, Elizabeth, the lowly, the hungry, his servant Israel, and the whole world are blessed by God’s faithfulness.
Because of God’s action, the story of the meeting of Elizabeth and Mary focuses on the blessing that comes about to these women. Elizabeth’s Holy-Spirit inspired cry of blessing upon Mary is brought about not by Mary’s potential for motherhood but by God’s fulfillment and favor in the child Mary bear’s. Mary’s being is “lit up in a new way by the kingdom of God which has come near…in Jesus,” and she is blessed “in spite of all appearance to the contrary.” She is lowly, and she is lifted up. She is hungry, and God has filled her with good news. Mary’s Magnificat blesses God for the victory won over the proud, powerful, and rich for the sake of the lowly and the hungry.
Mary reads the Emancipation Proclamation for everyone by the Word of God, by the king, Jesus and she is exalted by the Word of God become flesh, which she is the first to serve. This comes about not by her power, but by God’s power and faithfulness. God moves toward us in a child and reorders the world and as a consequence, we are made holy before God. “It is by God’s will”, the author of Hebrews tells us “that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Jesus came to reconcile humanity to God. He came to mend what was broken, to rebuild what had been destroyed, to bury the hatchet, to recover what was lost, and to make peace between God and humanity.
He was removing the wall that exists between God and us “through the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” The coming into the world that we celebrate at Christmas, the Letter to the Hebrews reminds us, accomplishes what has never been done before and will never be done again. God choose to be born in the person Jesus, as a babe in a manger, in a lowly town named Bethlehem, to make the entire world holy ground through his sacrifice of love for you and me. May our souls for the rest of our lives sing like Mary, magnifying the Lord. May our spirits rejoice in God our savior. For he has looked with favor on us, and all generations will call us blessed. For the mighty one has done great things for us, and holy is his name. My friends, the time is at hand. The birth of the Lord is near. Let us rejoice and be glad.