I grew up in
A song was written then that has become the
unofficial national anthem of
O
Flower of Scotland \ When will we see \ Your like again, \ That fought and died
for, \ Your wee bit Hill and Glen, \ And stood against him, \ Proud Edward's
Army, \ And sent him homeward, \ Tae think again.
The
Hills are bare now, \ And Autumn leaves \ lie thick and still, \ O'er land that
is lost now, \ Which those so dearly held, \ That stood against him, \ Proud
Edward's Army, \ And sent him homeward, \ Tae think again.
Those days
are past now, \ And in the past \ they must remain, \ But we can still rise
now, \ And be the nation again, \ That stood against him, \ Proud Edward's
Army, \ And sent him homeward, \ Tae think again.
Today when Scottish national teams play,
they don’t sing the national anthem (God Save The Queen) in the stadium.
Instead they sing “Flower of Scotland,” a song that looks back to a time when
(to quote the last line of the movie) “In the year of our lord thirteen
fourteen, patriots of
Songs are powerful things. The song “Flower
of Scotland” has probably done more to build a sense of national identity in
Subversive songs have a long history, and
not just in
You can’t have a subversive movement without a good subversive song, and, in the first chapter of his gospel, Luke gives us two, one from Mary and one from Zechariah. We’re going to focus on Mary’s song this morning.
Last week we looked at how difficult it
must have been for Mary to hear the angel’s message. One of the words of
encouragement that the angel gave Mary was to tell her that her cousin, Elizabeth,
was also pregnant. So Mary goes south to visit her cousin, and as she arrives,
In last week’s passage Mary’s attitude was one of humble submission to a difficult message. Now, with her cousin’s confirmation ringing in her ears, she bursts out into song.
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant (me). From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.” (Luke 1:47-49)
I said that these songs are subversive – they challenge the status quo and say it has to change – but Mary’s song doesn’t start there. It starts off deeply personal, as a song about “God my saviour,” Mary’s God, and what he has done for her, personally.
From time to time you’ll hear people preach that we need to focus less on ourselves and more on God; that we spend too much of our time thinking about what God can do for us and not enough of out time committing ourselves to serve him and his agenda. I may even have preached a message or two along those lines myself.
But things aren’t that simple. Mary’s song starts with Mary and with her personal experience of being blessed by God. It’s all about me and how God has blessed me and how that will make me famous. It’s only at the very end of the first section that we get “holy is his name.” You could almost think it was tagged on as an afterthought. And it would be a bit of a problem if the song ended there.
It might be a problem if it ended there. But, in a sense, it has to start there. In a sense, we can’t start anywhere else but in our own personal experience of who God is and what he has done in our lives. Mary’s song starts off as a personal testimony, something we all can identify with. A few weeks ago we were treated to the testimonies of Pat and Scott; very different stories, but both stories of God breaking into a difficult situation and making a difference. Each one of us can share a story, probably a number of stories, of how God has stepped into our lives and redirected us, or restored us, or lifted us up out of the pit.
Never think that you have to have all the
theological answers to all the possible questions before you start sharing your
faith and testifying to what God has done in your life. Even if you can’t explain
why or how God touched your life, you can still simply say, “I was lost, but Jesus found me, Found
the sheep that went astray, Threw His loving arms around me, Drew me back into
His way.”
Mary’s song starts off as a simple personal
testimony and so it’s perfectly appropriate that it starts off talking about
Mary. I have a friend who used to work with Scripture Union in schools in
This is how Mary’s song starts out, as a simple personal testimony of how God has touched her life. But it doesn’t stop there. It moves out from her personal experience of God at work in her own life to talk about what that experience of God says about what God is like.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. (Luke 1:50)
We all experience God in different ways, because we all come from different places. You can hear it in the way that people address God in prayer. We tend to have favourite ways of addressing God. Some of us prefer to focus on his fatherhood and call him “Father.” Others of us tend to focus on his authority in our lives and call him “Lord.” Others focus in of his greatness and call him “Almighty God.” And so on…
Mary’s experience of God is described in verse 48, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. The picture is of a great Lord or King who noticed the situation of one of his servants and extended grace to her. From that picture Mary moves on in verse 50 to apply that to everybody who will turn towards him, His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. (Luke 1:50)
Can you see how the picture gets bigger? It started off being about Mary’s own experience of God in her life, choosing her, a humble Jewish girl, to be the mother of the Messiah. It moves out from there to see that as an act of God’s mercy, not just to her but to all of God’s people.
And it moves out again in the next verses as the song fills out the details of what it means when God extends mercy to his people.
I started with a song from
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. (Luke 1:51-53)
When was the defining moment in the history
of
This is a picture of the Exodus; when God
reached down and rescued a bunch of humble slaves from
In the same way that “Flower of Scotland” reaches back to a defining moment in the past to remind the people of contemporary Scotland who they are, so Mary’s song reaches back to a defining moment in Israel’s past and says to her contemporaries, “This is who your God is. He has rescued us before and he will rescue us again.”
This is really subversive stuff.
And along comes this little slip of a girl who sings a song about pulling down rulers and stripping the rich of their goods. It’s just as well that Joseph didn’t go with Mary. I can almost hear him now, “Shhh Mary! Do you want to get us arrested? Enough of these revolutionary songs already! I’ve got a living to make, and the Romans pay good money to tradesmen like me.”
Zechariah’s song a few verses later is even
stronger. “Praise be to the Lord, the God of
That’s one song that would not have
been playing over the PA in the Roman army’s dining hall. It even talks about
the great warrior king David who was the leader during
But they would have been popular with the people, the poor, in fact with anyone who wasn’t rich or powerful.
And there’s the problem. If this baby that Mary is carrying in her womb is the one who will do all this – the one who will turn the world upside down, as his disciples would later be accused of doing – then which side do we stand on? Do we stand with the rich and the powerful? Or do we stand with humble and the hungry? Are we part of the problem, or are we, by God’s grace, part of the solution?
Last week there was a report published from
Statistics Canada that showed that despite a decade of unparalleled
economic growth, the poorest 40 per cent of Canadian families have less wealth
today than their counterparts did 20 years ago. And the bottom half of that
group -- the poorest fifth of Canadian families -- have gone from an effective
net worth of zero back in 1984 to being $1,000 in debt in 2005. (Spectator)
Many of those families live in our neighbourhood. Some of you this morning fit that description. It would be very easy at this point to point to the various ministries that this church has to the poor and the marginalised and pat ourselves on the back. We could point to the Tuesday drop in with its food bank and clothing bank, or to the out of the cold programme, and say to ourselves that we’re doing fine; we’re on the right side. And we would be right, up to a point.
But only to a point. Zechariah’s song says
that God, has come and has redeemed his people.
It speaks of God giving, salvation
from our enemies … to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and
righteousness before him all our days.
In Luke’s gospel salvation is about liberation. It’s about being set free from anything that hinders you from experiencing the blessings of God. As you read on through his gospel you see people being set free from sickness, disease, blindness and demonic oppression. For Luke there is no line between physical, social and spiritual freedom. They’re all salvation.
It’s really easy to limit ourselves to one or two aspects of salvation; to preach spiritual freedom without engaging the plight of the poor; to serve the poor without addressing the social conditions that keep them poor; or to address social and political wrongs and forget that Jesus came that people might be able to serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness all their days.
There are very few people who can do all of those things, which is another reason we need the church to be the church. It’s only as a community of believers – each serving in the way that God has gifted them – that we can demonstrate to the world that God cares for the whole person.
And that is where Mary’s song ends up. It starts off talking about her personal experience, but it ends up talking about God’s faithfulness to a community.
He has helped his servant
Way back in Genesis 12 God said to Abram, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make
your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless
you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be
blessed through you.”
This was God’s promise to Abram, to be
merciful to him and his descendants, in order that through them God could bless
all peoples on earth. Mary’s song is a celebration of God keeping his promise.
She could have had no idea how far beyond the borders of
Christmas is not a cute story about a baby born in a manger. It’s a subversive story, because that baby is the king who came to undermine and destroy everything that holds people in bondage.
- He came to undermine social and political systems that help the rich to get richer while the poor get poorer.
- He came to cast out sickness and disease and demonic oppression that stop people from experiencing all of God’s goodness.
- And he came to overthrow our own sin and selfishness that separate us from God and from each other.
This Christmas, let’s recommit ourselves as a community to preaching the whole gospel to our world and believe God to change it.