Dear friends in Christ.
How many of you are simply amazed to realize that there are merely four days left until Christmas Eve, and eleven days left until New Year’s Eve? How many of you have found yourselves wondering what happened to 2009? How many of you are simply relieved that this year is nearly over and are looking forward to a new start in 2010? If you are, I’m not surprised, after all 2009 was a difficult year for most of us. It was a year filled with four very difficult and emotional funerals for our congregation as well as a number of emotional and unexpected funerals for good friends around town. It was a year filled with economic hardship, layoffs, decreased hours, decreased salaries, and quite a few jobs lost. It has been a year where we have seen more and more people coming in to make use of the food shelf to help them make ends meet. It’s been an up and down year with quite a number of different things going on, and yet, it has been a year in which we were able to give glory to the Lord our God, just as Mary and Elizabeth were able to do in our text today.
For them, it had also been an incredibly busy year as so many things had happened for them! Joseph had asked Mary to be his wife. The angel Gabriel had appeared to Zachariah while he was performing his priestly duties in the Holy Place of the Temple, while the people were praying outside, announcing to Zachariah that his wife would soon give birth to a son, who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. Zachariah had been struck with speechlessness as a sign of the truth of the message Gabriel had brought, all while Joseph was busy preparing to bring Mary into his home as his wife. It was during that time, in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, that the Angel Gabriel appeared in Nazareth, to Mary, announcing that she would be the mother of the coming Messiah. In that simple moment, Gabriel made known to Mary that all of God’s promises would be culminating in the birth of her son, Jesus! She was the woman that God had chosen for the honor for which so many women had hoped! She was the virgin about whom Isaiah had prophesied nearly 700 years before, and she gave glory to the Lord by simply believing that what the Lord said to her would be accomplished.
It was at that time, as our text tells us that “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:39-45, NIV)
What excitement Elizabeth must have felt as Mary’s greeting met her ears and the baby in her womb leaped for joy at the presence of the Messiah growing in the womb of Mary. What excitement Elizabeth must have felt, as the Holy Spirit filled her heart, giving her the opportunity to glorify the Lord for the coming of the Messiah, even before Mary had the opportunity to tell Elizabeth what had happened. What joy must have filled Mary’s own soul as the Holy Spirit filled her heart and moved her to cry out: “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. 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, even as he said to our fathers.” (Luke 1:46-55, NIV)
Well that same joy that Mary and Elizabeth experienced in our text can be ours as well! For as we bring our Christmas preparations to a close this morning, we are taking this opportunity to glorify the Lord God, our Savior because he has indeed fulfilled all of his promises. We are glorifying the Lord God our Savior today, because he is the one who has showered us with his mercy. We are glorifying the Lord our God today, because he has established his eternal kingdom of Grace in our hearts through the faith created there by the Holy Spirit! In his great mercy, it is the Lord who has not treated us as our sins deserved, but called us to faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. In his great mercy, it is the Lord who has called us to be his own and taught us the precious truths of salvation, through the pages of the Scriptures. In his great mercy, the Lord has revealed the many promises that he made to his people Israel; promises about the coming Savior who would free his people from their sins, call them back to himself, and be their shepherd under whom they would live in safety. Just as Micah prophesied in our first lesson, when he said, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times." Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor gives birth and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace.” (Micah 5:2-5a NIV)
Just as Mary glorified the Lord because he had been mindful of the humble state of his servant, so also we glorify our God because he has chosen us to be his own. Just as Mary glorified the Lord because the Lord had done great things for her in making her the mother of the Savior, so also we glorify the Lord because he has done great things in calling us to faith. Just as Mary glorified the Lord because he did not treat Israel as they deserved, but mercifully acted on behalf of Abraham and all his descendants, continuing to issue promise after promise of the Savior, forgiving sins, and establishing his line and up holding it even through captivity and many other difficult struggles, so also the Lord continues to act in mercy on our behalf. Even though it has been and up and down year for us, the Lord has not been up and down with our forgiveness, but has been constant in his assurance of our forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. Even though we have experienced some difficult situations in our work place with reduced hours, unusual shifts, layoffs, and unemployment issues, the Lord has not reduced the grace and mercy that he continually showers upon us. Rather, the Lord has continually stood beside us in every situation we have faced. The Lord has continued providing for our needs in every area of our lives. The Lord has constantly defended us from danger and worked out even the worst situations we’ve faced so that they would ultimately serve our good. It is because of this that we have gathered to give glory to the Lord our God today, who graciously and mercifully fulfilled all his promises of a Savior when Immanuel, the Christ, was born in Bethlehem to Mary—the virgin Isaiah spoke about, the one in labor as Malachi prophesied, the one whose soul glorified the Lord and whose spirit rejoiced in God, her Savior.
As Mary 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. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 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, even as he said to our fathers.” (Luke 1:46-55, NIV)
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church Le Sueur, MN
