{"id":20551,"date":"2024-12-17T14:07:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=20551"},"modified":"2024-12-17T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T13:07:06","slug":"luke-139-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/luke-139-55\/","title":{"rendered":"Luke 1,39-55"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 4th<\/sup> Sunday of Advent | 22 December 2024 | Luke 1,39-55 | Richard O. Johnson |<\/h3>\n

I<\/em>n those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, „Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.“<\/em><\/p>\n

And Mary said,<\/em><\/p>\n

„My soul magnifies the Lord,
\nand my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,<\/em><\/p>\n

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
\nSurely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;<\/em><\/p>\n

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
\nand holy is his name.<\/em><\/p>\n

His mercy is for those who fear him
\nfrom generation to generation.<\/em><\/p>\n

He has shown strength with his arm;
\nhe has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.<\/em><\/p>\n

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
\nand lifted up the lowly;<\/em><\/p>\n

he has filled the hungry with good things,
\nand sent the rich away empty.<\/em><\/p>\n

He has helped his servant Israel,
\nin remembrance of his mercy,<\/em><\/p>\n

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
\nto Abraham and to his descendants forever.“ (Luke 1.39-55 NRSV)<\/em><\/p>\n

I suppose all families have their stories, the lore passed down through the years from one generation to another that helps to define, for better or for worse, what is true about the family. One of those stories in our family is about how my mother came to my soon-to-be wife a few weeks before our wedding. \u201cI want to tell you,\u201d my mother said, \u201csomething that my mother-in-law told me before we were married, and that is that \u2018Johnson men are always right!\u2019\u201d My wife admits that she decided then and there to devote herself to proving my mother wrong.<\/p>\n

Our text this morning is the Magnificat, the beautiful song of Mary from Luke 1\u2014familiar words, and a text particular beloved by Martin Luther. Through much of his life, Luther would have recited or sung these words every day at Evening Prayer. He wrote an extended commentary on them in 1521, and one of the themes he highlights is the tendency in all of us human beings\u2014all of us, not just Johnson men\u2014to be convinced that we are right. \u201cNo rich or mighty man,\u201d Luther says, \u201cis so puffed up and bold as one such Mr. Smart Aleck who feels and knows that he is in the right, understands all about a matter, and is wiser than anyone else\u2026 Oh, how big a bubble we have here!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cO, how big a bubble\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Luther sees this theme throughout the Magnificat, but especially in Mary\u2019s description of her own lowliness, and in her words about God scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. The older translation of that text talked about \u201cthe imagination of their hearts\u201d\u2014a much better translation, I believe. Human beings like to imagine that they know more than anyone else\u2014but in the end, that is just an imaginary conceit.<\/p>\n

Is that a fair rap? Are we really quite so obnoxious as all that? Yes, I think we probably are. I remember a prayer of confession from my childhood: \u201cWe have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.\u201d That\u2019s the nub of the problem, isn\u2019t it? We have devices and desires, and we\u2019re convinced that they are right, that what we think, what we want, what we believe\u2014those things are right, at least in our minds.<\/p>\n

But \u201cOh! How big a bubble we have here!\u201d There are few things made clearer in Scripture than that God\u2019s ways are not our ways, and God\u2019s thoughts are not our thoughts. You know, that really bothers me! I want to be able to figure things out. I want to understand. You see, if I can understand, then I can be right\u2014the way Johnson men are supposed to be!<\/p>\n

Not knowing<\/strong><\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t always understand. St. Anthony was a famous Christian monk in the early fourth century, widely known for his holiness and spiritual knowledge. The story is told of a group of younger monks who came to visit him one day, and he decided to test them. He gave them a Scripture text and then asked each one in turn to explain it. Each one did as best he could, but to each of them Anthony said, \u201cNo, you have not yet found the answer.\u201d At last he came to Abba Joseph. \u201cAnd what do you think the text means?\u201d the saint asked him. Abba Joseph replied, \u201cI do not know.\u201d Anthony said to the others, \u201cTruly Abba Joseph has found the way, for he said \u2018I do not know.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you imagine how puzzled Mary must have been when Gabriel brought her the news that she was to bear the Messiah? Luke tells us just that\u2014she was \u201cmuch perplexed,\u201d and she asked Gabriel, \u201cHow can this be?\u201d But she becomes the example of Christian faith precisely because she is willing to accept and trust what she cannot understand. For Christian faith, that is always the direction that things flow: first we trust; later\u2014maybe\u2014we understand.<\/p>\n

But our insistence on being right\u2014it goes beyond the intellectual realm. It\u2019s a very practical stubbornness, as well. We think that we are the master of our fate, the captain of our soul, and we get very huffy when God seems to push our life in a direction that we haven\u2019t chosen.<\/p>\n

Can you imagine how Mary must have felt as it began to sink in that she was to bear a child? What started out as an intellectual problem suddenly began to have some rather practical ramifications. This was not part of the game plan for her. This was not what she expected, not what she hoped. But she responded in a remarkable way. She said yes. She accepted. She trusted. \u201cLet it be to me according to your word,\u201d she replied, and then, shortly thereafter, she could sing, from the bottom of her heart, \u201cMy soul magnifies the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n

True acceptance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now let\u2019s understand something here. Sometimes we think of \u201cacceptance\u201d as a kind of \u201cjust deal with it, there\u2019s no other choice\u201d response. Maybe we\u2019re like the young boy who was running around the house in a frenzy, as young boys sometimes do. He was chasing the cat, jumping on the furniture, driving everyone to distraction. His mother asked him several times to stop, but he kept at it. Finally in exasperation, she picked him up, sat him down on the floor and told him, in that uncompromising maternal voice, not to move a muscle. Crossing his arms defiantly, he said, \u201cI may be sitting down on the outside, but I\u2019m standing up on the inside!\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a bit of that in all of us. We get backed into a corner, forced into something we didn\u2019t choose, and we just grit our teeth and go on. Something unpleasant or unexpected happens, we say, \u201cJust grin and bear it.\u201d \u201cLife hands you lemons, make lemonade.\u201d All that is well and good; it certainly beats lamenting and complaining about one\u2019s lot!<\/p>\n

But that is not Mary\u2019s response. Mary\u2019s response is far deeper than this. She does not merely stoically accept what God has sent her; rather she embraces it and sees it as mercy. She embraces it as God\u2019s<\/em> will for her, and therefore as something good and gracious.<\/p>\n

How does she do it? I think the key is in the last line of the Magnificat, where Mary speaks of \u201cthe promise God made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.\u201d Her trust is connected quite explicitly to God\u2019s promise. God has promised to show mercy on his people, to care for his people. Sometimes that promise may reveal itself in unexpected ways; but the promise is good, the promise is secure, and Mary trusts it implicitly.<\/p>\n

Deeper down<\/strong><\/p>\n

Olive Wynon tells the story of a Quaker, writing to a friend who was dealing with something very difficult. \u201cI know thee can say, \u2018Thy will be done,\u2019\u201d he wrote, \u201cbut thee must say it deeper down.\u201d To say, \u201cThy will be done\u201d deeper down\u2014that\u2019s what Mary shows us. She says it, you see, not just with her mind, but with her soul and her spirit, with her heart\u2014really with her whole life! \u201cLet it be to me according to your word.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that,\u201d Luther says, \u201cis a right soul, and one that fears God.\u201d Or, as Elizabeth puts it, that is why Mary is blessed: because she has trusted that God\u2019s word is true, and that his will for her is good and right.<\/p>\n

In the Small Catechism,<\/em> Luther ponders the petition, \u201cThy will be done.\u201d \u201cThe good and gracious will of God is surely done without our prayer,\u201d he admits, \u201cbut we ask in this prayer that it may be done also in us.\u201d That is really Mary\u2019s prayer, isn\u2019t it? \u201cLet it be to me according to your will.\u201d When that prayer can take root in our own hearts, then from the heart we sing out with Mary, \u201cMy soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 The Rev. Richard O. Johnson (retired)<\/p>\n

Webster, NY<\/p>\n

roj@nccn.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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