The self-humbling God who raises up the humble
Midnight
Communion Sermon 2017 Dallington
Also used a
similar version at Warbleton in 2016
Readings:
Isaiah 9:1-7 (p693)
Luke 1:26-55 (p1026)
[Joke:
Little Johnny: Daddy,
where did I come from?
Daddy: “well, birds and
bees, mummies and daddies love one another… etc.
Johnny: because David says
he comes from Scotland and I was wondering where I come from?]
I don’t know if Mary and
Joseph ever had such conversations with Jesus.
Where did he come from?
Well, from heaven, of
course.
How must it have been for
Mary?
She was a youngster,
engaged to be married to Joseph.
And we know he was a good
guy.
She looked to have an
ordinary happy life ahead of her.
And then completely out of
the blue, God gives her this greatly troubling message that she can’t get her
head around – at least to begin with.
And who could blame her
for her fright and confusion?
An angel appears.
In the Bible angels are
terrifying beings, not sweet girls with tinsel and drooping wings, but the
fearsome messengers of God, warriors, even.
This divine emissary
informs Mary that she will give birth to a son, who will be the Son of God, and
who will be conceived in her by the Holy Spirit.
That’s quite some message
to take on board!
She’s never asked for
this.
It’s not what she had
planned at all.
How will Joseph take it?
Or her parents?
Can you imagine even
broaching the subject?
An illegitimate son will
be the talk of the whole village.
A child out of wedlock
would be a great scandal in Mary’s day.
And who’s going to believe
her story about an angel and a virgin birth?
So I’m not sure Mary would
necessarily have thought that this Christmas angel had brought unqualified good
news!
Perhaps it seemed like a
disaster.
She could imagine all her
dreams crashing down.
Her life is ruined.
And it’s God’s fault!
Later in the gospel, Mary
is warned that Jesus will be rejected and that a sword will pierce her own soul
too.
She will watch as her son
is crucified.
How can this be God’s
plan?
And what’s good about it?
Although Jesus was a real,
genuine human being, I expect being the Mother of God had its moments.
It’s not exactly normal!
Jesus was no ordinary boy.
Did Jesus walk on his bath
water?
I suspect not, but Jesus must
often have baffled his parents.
Having said that, in our
readings, Mary quickly shows remarkable insight into this baby and what his
coming will mean.
Whatever her doubts and
questions, she’s quickly able to accept this impossible news.
And to see it as the most
wonderful news.
Part of the reason for
that, I bet, is that Mary knew her Bible.
The song which she sings here
is very similar to the song that Hannah had sung centuries before, back in Old
Testament book of the prophet Samuel, about the birth of her son, Samuel.
He too will be God’s
servant.
It was another miraculous
birth because Hannah and her husband had been unable to have children.
Hannah’s song ends by
looking forward to a time when God will judge the whole world through his
anointed king.
“Anointed” is the meaning
of “Messiah” or “Christ”, the promised rescuer king who was specially chosen by
God and who would put everything right and rule for ever.
Mary rightly understands
Jesus’ birth as the fulfilment of Hannah’s hopes.
And Mary sings a kind of
slightly adapted cover version of Hannah’s famous hit song.
At last, as Mary sings,
all the ancient promises of God are being kept.
All the longings of God’s
people will be fulfilled.
The child in her womb is
the culmination of all God’s purposes from the days of Abraham, 2000 years
earlier.
He is the one chosen and
marked out to bring in God’s kingdom in all its fullness.
God is, as Mary puts it,
“remembering to be merciful”, as he said he would.
Jesus is the Son of David,
the king who will be even greater than great King David of old.
Mary rightly sees the
birth of Jesus as a revolutionary act which will lead to a great reversal.
Christmas is the
scattering of the proud, she sings:
The bringing down of
rulers from their thrones,
The sending of the rich
empty away.
Think of wicked king Herod
who just doesn’t get it, who rages against this Christ, and tries to kill him.
Herod is confounded.
His attempt to rebel
against God is terrible, but it’s also ridiculous and pathetic.
God’s mighty purposes are
unstoppable.
It’s both laughable and
tragic for anyone to think they could stand in the way of God.
The powers that be are
overturned but the humble are lifted up.
The hungry are filled.
Why?
Because God has come down.
He came down to earth from
heaven who is God and Lord of all.
Christmas is the true
story of the self-humbling of God.
The eternal Son of God has
taken on flesh.
He has become a tiny
embryo in the womb of Mary and then a helpless baby in a manger.
So that changes
everything.
The revolution has begun.
Here in this insignificant
corner of the Roman Empire, in the family of a peasant girl who can’t even get
a room for the night, here is true might, true greatness.
If only the inn-keeper had
known that he had consigned his creator to his out-buildings!
The presidential suite was
inadequate for this baby.
In the humility and
vulnerability of a baby, born out of love, to save us, is the fullness of the
everlasting God.
Even as God the Son
governs all things, he will cry out in hunger and fall asleep.
The one who upholds the
universe will be held by his mother.
He who succours all things
will nurse at Mary’s breast.
The King of Kings becomes
helpless and dependant.
Soon he will be a marked
baby, wanted, hunted, hated – and will flee as a refugee.
Eventually he will die in
our place so that we might be forgiven.
The humiliation of God.
This baby will utterly
confound all human thinking.
He bursts our categories,
to such an extent that we will do away with him.
He is so counter-cultural,
so unexpected and unacceptable that he cannot be allowed to live.
Jesus will go down into
the very depths of death for us, but he will be exalted to the highest place
and given the name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall
bow.
In the topsy turvey
kingdom of God, the way up is down.
Death leads to new life.
And so Jesus bids us come
and die, that we might live.
Mary says, “He [the Lord]
has filled the hungry with good things.”
That’s good news as we
come to his table tonight.
We come to him empty
handed and hungry and he will feed us.
Jesus was born in
Bethlehem, which means The House of Bread.
He was placed in a manger,
an animal’s feeding trough.
Jesus is food – food for
the world.
He would say, “I am the
bread of life.”
He invites us to come and
feast on him, in our hearts, by faith.
He is all we need.
He alone can really
satisfy.
Mary shows us the right
response:
The response of obedient
faith.
“I am the Lord’s servant,”
she says.
“May it be to me as you a
have said”.
It might not be as we’ve
planned it, we might not understand it all, but Almighty God can do the
impossible.
Christmas proves it.
This Christmas, let us,
with Mary glorify God and rejoice in God Our Saviour.
Amen.
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