Sermon: “A Different Way to Bethlehem 3 of 4”
Jonathan Arnpriester, Chandler Methodist Church
December 13, 2015 (Second Service)
Luke 1:45-53
And Mary said: "My soul magnifies 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.
These are dangerous times. You know pastor, you should say
something about the dangerous times in which we live from
there upfront in church. You should tell us what the Bible says
about American politics.
Are you thinking that I should talk then… You would be
surprised how many times I am asked that question or
encouraged to do that very thing. And this is the Sunday in
Advent when we enter into God’s politics; that is what is Mary’s
song, is God’s politics. If you want to know where God’s
interests lie, listen to Mary.
But let us just say for a moment that I would find that to be a
good idea and I stand before you and I tell you my
understanding of biblical application to American politics. And
some of you would be really happy with me and I would call
you” friends”. And some of you would be really upset with me
and I’d say: “well you are disloyal”. And we have just
successfully just founded a cult around your ability to agree
with what the pastor thinks you ought to do. And then the
next time an issue comes around; you would have to come back
and ask me again about what you ought to think and do, my
loyal friends. And so the church has just become about me and
what I think and my interpretation and dear Lord, I hope, I
hope, I hope, that we all have an understanding of the biblical
text that is larger than us. It has a higher calling to all of us. It
has a higher calling for all of us. And when you can reduce the
biblical understanding down to a political plank,
congratulations, you have just reduced the church to being a
tool of our culture. And any time something happens around
the church, we have to run around inside and wave our hands
and tell the people. The church ceases to be the church and
becomes a political club, so you can understand why I have
problems with that because we have a higher calling, a calling
to understand the larger biblical view, and none of us ever will.
Our task is to try, our task is to strive, and our task is to listen.
If we are reading scripture wrong, our task becomes to judge
others, to point fingers, and to get that little vein to stick out.
Have you ever come away from a vociferous argument, and you
have really gone toe to toe with someone and you have said all
the right things and they have said all the right things and you
both made your point and you walk away from it and gone:
“Wow, they were right. I should change my way.” Have you
ever done that? Have you ever known anyone to do that? It
does not work that way. Confrontation to change someone
else never works. Even a real reasoned argument, presented
carefully, does not work. The most we can do, all that we can
do, is over time, if we live out our faith, intentionally, carefully,
listening more than we talk, willing to listen and understand
someone that we do not agree with. Over time, over time, over
time, somebody might take an impression of us that when they
are running and losing the heads, we have ours. That leaves an
impression. They might watch us for a while, at times we don’t
even know. That is the hope we have of changing someone
else’s life.
In our text today, Mary offers us two things that we can do in
the mists of dangerous times. I know, some who say: you
ought to be talking about this or that politics. Which issue
would you have me grasp? The political candidates roaming
the land? They are not candidates yet because the parties have
not chosen candidates so they are currently listed as used-car
salesman, trying to gallivant around the nation going “look at
me, look at me”. Let us call it what it is. Are you talking about
our current governor or the one who preceded her? Did you
wanted me to talk about our current president and his
handling, or our former president or how about the one before
him? Which issue should I grab? When the church gets into
politics, it takes us places that leads us to be not the church.
We can use words like: “it is dangerous out there”; that is
nothing new. Mary lived in the culture where it became
acceptable in the community to stone a woman who was
pregnant outside of marriage. How can you get your mind
around that? Until that becomes reasonable in the
community?
It is dangerous times, but Mary does two things. Mary first off,
she gets herself someplace safe. She tells Joseph, and in Luke it
is not clear how long it takes for Joseph to do his mental work.
You know that work we guys have to do when someone tells us
I’m pregnant. And Joseph has the additional task of: “and it is
not yours but you are going to be the father”. How long does
that take? overnight? two days? six days? sixty days? We do
not know, Luke does not tell us. Joseph is about his work and
Mary goes down to the hill country of Judea and stays with her
cousin Elizabeth who was also pregnant with a child she did not
expect. Mary was a virgin and Elizabeth was too old. She and
Zachariah had tried to have children, they had not been
successful. They chalked it up to being too old and suddenly
she is pregnant. She perceives the work of the Holy Spirit in her
as well. And these two women are in this place and they spend
time together.
The second thing that happens is they sing. Elizabeth’s
husband Zachariah, he heard what was going to happen to his
wife and he had not done his work yet and he started talking.
You know how guys do when they feel like we should be in
charge and we should know what is going on, And the historical
observation that I would make. And you know how we do that.
Zachariah was struck dumb. The angel of the Lord visited him
and said: “you shall not talk, you have nothing to say, stop it”
and Zachariah went … and he could not talk anymore. He was
struck dumb and we might want to take that as a sign, a biblical
sign that when you do not have anything to say, it is a great
opportunity to shut up. And the work of the Holy Spirit
precedes without your mouth involved. Yeah, that makes me
laugh too. Mary and Elizabeth sing, they do not have radios.
They do not have boy bands. And so they sing, for they know
the songs of Isaiah the prophet of the Lord, they sing the songs
of the other prophets, and here in this text we get the politics
of God. My soul magnifies the Lord. What does your soul
magnify? What does your soul, the way you live your life, the
way you present to the Lord, what does that make visible, that
would not otherwise be visible? Your soul magnifies? Maybe,
maybe you need to sing? Would you guys come back up and
lead us again? And we’ll do some more singing.