The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, December 20, 2009
4th Sunday in Advent; 8:30 a.m. Holy Communion
“God Works Backwards”
Luke 1: 39-55
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, you work in ways that often seem so strange and unnatural to us; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, that as we look at your servant Mary, we may see through your eyes and rejoice with her at your activity in us and the world, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
On the fourth Sunday of Advent we focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus. When you hear the phrase, “Mary, mother of Jesus,” what thoughts come into your mind? Perhaps you think of scenes you have seen on Christmas cards or in great paintings in Museums – Mary looks so wonderful, so dignified and holy.
But if we had lived as one of Mary’s contemporaries, we would have had quite a different picture – a young woman who claimed to be religious having a baby out of wedlock. Perhaps some of the kinder folk might have thought that she had been taken advantage of; others not so kind – that she was a hypocrite, saying one thing, living another. From later on in Luke’s Gospel (4:22-30) we know the residents of Nazareth took umbrage at Jesus’ words and tried to throw him off a cliff (4:29). They were not very nice! If that is how they treated Jesus, what was their attitude towards Mary? Just image their comments when Mary returned from visiting her cousin Elizabeth for three months, looking quite pregnant!
We need to grasp the reality of the situation because we tend to sentimentalise history and be selective in our way of looking at the past. We need to feel the full impact of what was going on, because only then will we see clearly how God works – how he worked then and how he works now. As we see with Mary, God’s working can get us into a lot of trouble. In fact, as today we look at Mary’s song – our Gospel reading, known as Magnificat from its first word in Latin: “(My Soul) praises” – we shall see that God works backwards to what our natural inclination would expect. In fact, we shall see that the nature of God’s Kingdom is that he does the unexpected – often the reverse of what we would naturally think.
Working Backwards with Mary
Let us look in more detail at Mary’s situation. First, she was a nobody; in a society that valued what was old and male, she was young and female. She was from a small, unimportant, rural town. Mary was not significant in the eyes of the world. Then God made her situation even more unpromising, in worldly terms, as a crucial element in his plan. He made her pregnant out of wedlock. This was not a very auspicious beginning. We also know from the continuation of the story, that it unfolds in a backyard stable, the birth celebrated by some shepherds – disdained by society as pilferers and no-goods – and later by some foreigners. All this seems quite backwards to what it should be!
How does Mary react to all this?
My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour…From now on all generations will call me blessed. (Luke 1:46, 48)
She was right – but it sure didn’t look like that when she first said it! How could she possibly have seen things this way? She knew the truth of what the apostle Paul would later write in his first letter to the Christians at Corinth:
God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise…He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29)
Mary knew, and so should we, that God works backwards – contrary to the way we think he would work. This is the nature of his Kingdom; he wants to make it absolutely clear that it is “Not by might nor by power, but by his Spirit,” (Zechariah 4:6) and so he works backwards.
Working Backwards with Us
If this is how he worked with Mary, then this is how he works with us. How many here think that you are not very important or gifted; that compared to the rich and famous or wise and powerful, you are at the bottom? You are not a natural leader; you feel old and helpless; you have a fairly ordinary job and responsibilities? Well then, we’re prime candidates as individuals and as a church for God to use us.
But in order for God to use us, there are things we need to learn from Mary, so we, too, can rejoice in our disabilities and see vision and hope where no one else does. There are three things Mary teaches us through her song – Mary knew the Scriptures; Mary knew God; Mary was willing for God to use her.
a. Mary knew the Scriptures: The first characteristic is that Mary knew the Scriptures. This song of hers we read in the Gospel is steeped in Old Testament phraseology and thought. There are strong parallels with the song of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2 (1-10) – where a barren woman is given a child who will change the course of history of God’s people. “He has helped his servant Israel” (verse 54). Because Mary knew that God had brought about his purposes through this tiny, insignificant group of people – when they acknowledged their dependence upon him and were not trusting in their own strength – she knew that he would work in the same way with her. So with us. The more we know the content and thrust of Scripture, the more we will know God’s character and his way of working. Mary knew the Scriptures. An individual or church that is steeped in God’s word will not be deficient in its vision. We need to know the Scriptures.
b. Mary knew God: The second characteristic is that Mary also knew God. Because she knew the Scriptures, Mary could put her trust in God, not in outward signs of power and strength. Look at her faith, “All generations will call me blessed…he has scattered those who are proud…He has brought down rulers…He has filled the hungry” (verses 48, 51, 53). She uses the past tense, not only because God has come through in the past, but because God is going to come through in the future. She was so sure of God that even though Israel was then an occupied country with a puppet tyrant as a king (Herod) she could speak of his work as being already done.
She knew God and could trust him, so she had hope. This is how we can have hope – how we can persevere in our own lives and as a congregation – we know the God who works contrary to what things appear and so we can have a vision. We look forward to what God is going to do in and through us. We do not give up hope even if our present circumstances – as did Mary’s – seem totally devoid of hope and a future. God is mighty – he can do it. Mary knew God – so do we; in this way we have hope and a vision.
c. Mary was willing for God to use her: The third characteristic of Mary was that she was willing to be used. Earlier on in the chapter, at the visitation of the Angel Gabriel, Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Elizabeth tells us that Mary also believed God could use her – “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished” (verse 45). Then, in Magnificat itself, she refers to herself as being a servant of humble state, one with reverent fear of the Mighty God. She also rejoices that God is her saviour – she knows she has value in God’s sight, she was worth saving. She knew and believed that she was there to be used by God and that she was helpless without Him – but she also knew that she was capable of being used by him.
Our problem is that we tend to view ourselves from the extremes – we either have such a high opinion of ourselves that we are always putting ourselves in the way so God can not use us – or we have such a low opinion of ourselves, we do not put ourselves forward because we can not see how God could possibly use us. In either case, we are useless to God. In Mary’s case, because she was both humble and open, she could be used by God. In humility, she was willing to be used.
Conclusion
Know the Word of God, know God, be willing to be used by God. This is all it takes for God to work backwards in the world. Look at some examples – Mary, the disciples, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Cranmer, Florence Nightingale, Mother Theresa – and countless others – people weak, afraid, and even foolish in the eyes of the world but powerful tools in the hands of God. Are you willing for God to establish His Kingdom by working backwards through you?
