Alice and I love to drive down streets in the dark and see the
Christmas lights. It does look like a Christmas wonderland. We like to go to
the mall in the evening for a walk. The stores are bursting with merchandise;
people are strolling and shopping. Various gifted and talented musical teams
perform Christmas music every evening. Yesterday The Harpur Jazz Ensemble(
Binghamton University) was performing. It was a treat. In my book the best
music and the best literature deal with God and His Redeeming story in and
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who came in meekness and majesty and reigns with
truth and grace and will come again in Majesty and splendor.
We
will meet for our Wednesday evening fellowship and study this evening at 6 PM.
My wife and I love Christmas music. Dr. Elsworth Kalas calls them the songs of
the season. According to Dr. Kalas, one of the songs of the season is the song
of Mary recorded in Luke 1. The song itself
has traditionally been called “the Magnificat,” from the first word of the Latin
version. Dr. E. Stanley Jones, the great
Methodist scholar, author and evangelist, and missionary to India said that the
Magnificat was “the most revolutionary document in the history of the
world.”
In
the Magnificat, Mary reflected on what it meant to her to be chosen to bear the
Messiah. She praised God for his great mercy to her personally. Her words are
personal and her point of view turned inward. As we read this song, Mary seems
to fade from view; she is praising God for the effects the coming of Christ will
have on the world. Her point of view is outward and her words are global in
their scope. In Luke 1:46-48, Mary praises
God because he has chosen her to bear the Messiah, despite her lowly estate.
Verse 48 is the key: “For he has been mindful of the humble state of his
servant.” It is a statement about the
sovereign grace of God. Mary was not the last
choice after everyone else said “no.” Mary was God’s first choice... God’s only
choice.
As God has done great things by
choosing such an unlikely person, He also does great things in unlikely ways
today. Verses 51-55 not only reveal a change in focus, but also a change in
tenses. When Mary talks about herself, she uses the present tense; but when she
talks about the world, she uses a past tense—"He has performed, He has
scattered, He has brought down, he has filled.”
Across the centuries proud and daring men have lifted their heads to
challenge the Almighty, but he swats them down like flies. What happened to
Saddam Hussein? What happened to Erich Honecker? What about Idi Amin? What
about Vladimir Lenin? When was the last time you thought about Juan Peron? Or
Pinochet? Or Ho Chi Minh? Or Mao Tse Tung? They come, they rise to power, and
sooner or later, they disappear.
The
coming of Jesus Christ means that God has set a moral revolution at work in the
world. It is a revolution in which the workers of iniquity are eventually
brought to justice. Think about the Biblical account of the “Tower of Babel.”
That story tells us how God works. He let the proud gather together and carry
out their grandiose schemes, as they planned to rise up to heaven. God watched
for awhile. He waited, seeming to ignore their deeds, and let them revel in
their temporary success. However, God scattered the proud, with a swiftness and
intensity that they could never have imagined.
Proud men expect to carry all with them, but God crosses them up. He
breaks their bows. He blasts their projects. He brings them low. He does it
all by the very counsels with which they thought to advance
themselves.
"He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.” (52) : The coming of Christ brings about a great reversal of fortune in society. The proud are brought low and the humble are lifted up.
What men call luck, Mary called the work of God. When someone loses
it all, we talk about bad luck. When someone "hits the jackpot", we say he had
good luck. Mary. on the other hand, understood that behind the faceless mystery
called "luck" stands God himself. He lifts up, and no one can bring down. He
brings down, and no one can lift up again.
As
John Calvin once siad, the princes of the world don’t understand this. They
grow insolent, fat and lazy, and greedy. They indulge in luxury, swell with
pride, and grow intoxicated with power. They soon forget that all they have
comes from God. To quote Calvin exactly, “If the Lord cannot tolerate such
ingratitude, we should not be surprised.”
In
Christ,
Brown
