MARY'S SONG

Luke 1:46-55
Galatians 3:23-29

 A baby has a way of turning people's lives upside down.  Life is never the same.

 Take Elizabeth and Zechariah, a childless middle-aged couple.  What a surprise to find themselves expecting a child, an extraordinary child who would rival the prophets of old, a child who would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born.

 And then there's Mary, a young woman, a virgin, engaged to Joseph, a carpenter.  Visited by an angel of the Lord, she is told she above all other women will bear the son of God.   News that potentially could cause Joseph to break their engagement and Mary to be ostracized, or worse.

 Lives changed, their world turned upside down, all because of a baby who would be called Jesus.

 But that's what Jesus came to do, to turn things upside down.  Christ was not to be born into a rich and powerful family.  Instead God chose a poor, humble young women to bear His Son, and when the reality of that hit Mary, she sang:

 I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.
                                                              Luke 1:46-55 (The Message)

 God sent Jesus to remind us all that those things that the world uses to divide us into the haves and the have-nots, that devalue the worth of some and exalts the worth of others are not important.  Galatians 3:23-29 tells us that in Christ, ethnicity, gender, wealth and power don't matter.  We are all one in Christ.

The Song of Mary reminds us that the people of God are given the gift, the freedom, to live in a way that is counter intuitive to the brokenness and divisiveness of this world.  The peace of Christmas we seek is not found in being better than anyone else, winning at any cost, or success at the expense of others.  It is found in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and a loving, compassionate, accepting relationship with others.

As we await the joy of Christmas, let us remember who we are in Christ -- loved, forgiven and united.











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