River Road Church Baptist

December 21, 2003

Dr. Cecil E. Sherman

“Fitting Into the Plan of God”

Luke 1:39-56

Last Sunday, the text was about Mary. Gabriel appeared and asked her if she would carry Jesus. In the last verse she said, “Yes.” Immediately, we are carried into another frame. It’s still about Mary, but there is also Mary and Elizabeth, in some way kin to Mary, but we don’t know how. Elizabeth was a priest’s wife. She was growing old, she had no child, and that was a curse in that society and she felt it. God appeared to her husband and promised that Elizabeth would bear a child. That child would be John the Baptist. Interestingly, and some of us can identify with this, Zechariah was so startled upon hearing this he was dumb and didn’t speak again for months. I had that thought myself.

Mary was engaged to Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. She was a virgin, probably 15 or 16. When God’s angel appeared and asked her to serve God by carrying a child, this was to a be a work of the Holy Spirit that would not be understood, actually would be misunderstood, and involved for her embarrassment, explanation, all manner of things that were complicated.

Gabriel told Mary about Elizabeth’s pregnancy and Mary made a visit to Elizabeth. Elizabeth was in Judea and Mary had been in Galilee. She immediately made the journey and she stayed three months. These were plain women. One was too old to have a child and the other too young. Neither had an education. They were of a common lot and yet, there is a dignity and a beauty in their greeting that has captured the imagination of posterity. God spoke through them. Their insights were elevated and their words have a quality of a revelation about them. The ideas that are carried in Elizabeth’s greeting and Mary’s response, which is called “The Magnificat” afford the text for today and sermons all over the land.

What is there about these people that makes it memorable? First, their attitude—both of them felt like they were lucky to be chosen. Now, this is so different from a lot of conversation around religious institutions. In my youth I listened to language like this – “he surrendered to preach.” Sounds like he fought until he could fight no more, then he gave up and resigned himself to the drudgery of preaching. General Lee didn’t surrender until he had no other choice. At least that’s my understanding. Surrendered, gave up…how different is the language of the text? Mary and Elizabeth were delighted. Now, last Sunday Mary has to think about, she’s got to question, but she’s processed this, she’s decided something good has happened. She’s decided she’s fortunate. Now we’re beginning to get into an idea that needs to be around religious people all the time. Hey, I’m lucky to be asked.

I remember talking to a man a long time ago about doing something as prosaic as teaching a Sunday school class. The fellow’s name is Wayne Jewsbury. He was an engineer-type. He consented to teach the class for a brief period of time, and I want you to know that his consent was reluctant. From time to time, I talk with Wayne today. He’s still teaching the class. Every time I see him, he thanks me for asking him to do it—altogether different from his attitude at the beginning. He said, “This work has defined me and refined me (his words), more than the work I do during the week. It’s become what I see myself as doing. I’m doing something that really gives me joy.” So important has Wayne become to that class until, from time to time, when people in the class have died, he has been asked to take part in the eulogy. He has become the teacher for a sizable number of people. At once they were young adults, but they are no longer.

Our definitions of joy are too cheap. Make somebody happy—go buy them a gift. No offense here, but there will be toys given children that will bore them by the dark on Christmas Day. Does that mean you’ve got to do it again and again and again? Hey, raise your sights. Joy is a bigger word. Once there was a man in prison writing to some people at Philippi. He was soon to be before Caesar and his life was at stake and he writes, “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.” Rejoice! It’s a Christmas word, but it’s a word for all people who have hope in God. It’s a powerful word. It’s an attitude that is larger than circumstance. If outward conditions have to be good for you to be glad, you’ll sometimes be glad, but you’ll as often be sad. But if there is within you anchored the idea that God has laid a hand upon you and has a reason for you, your joy will endure bad times and good times, as much as night and day. It comes and goes and comes and goes. There is a constant. There is an attitude. It’s an attitude of joy when Elizabeth greeted Mary she became ecstatic and Mary responded and you can feel the energy. It’s an attitude.

Second idea – their self-worth was changed. They thought differently about themselves. Life had meaning. Try convincing an inner city kid that it makes a difference whether he studies or not. It’s hard. Why? They don’t believe their lives have any meaning or value and events happen all around them that are senseless and depreciate the value of life.

Mary and Elizabeth could have resonated with that. Who were they? Well, Rome was far away and powerful; they were nobodies in a backwater. Who and what difference? And then they were given what they believed were assignments from God and all of the sudden, they saw themselves in a different light. God needs my service. It’s an honor to be noticed by God. From now on, all generations will call me blessed. I thought, sounds a little pompous, but what am I doing with this text? I mean they’re preaching on this text down the road and at the next stop and at the next stop. We’re all working this text today. Every generation will call me blessed – she got it right. Those people who put store in Jesus, identify Mary as the mother of Jesus. Go down and talk to the children. They may or may not understand incarnation, but they know where Jesus was born and they can call Mary by name. The text has it right and we identify her and praise her and are grateful for her. She has meaning. She endures. This is what we all want. All of us want a legacy. Some of us say it. Everybody wants to be remembered by something.

What? Well, in Mary’s case, she carried Jesus and her life has meaning. She joins herself even to the history of the Jews that begins in Abraham, and she connects herself. She says, I am a link in the chain; I’m a piece in the puzzle. The picture is not complete without me. It makes a difference.

Lots of folks need that these days. A lot of people wonder if they make any difference. Getting ready for this sermon and reading the usual commentaries that help me, I fell upon my old friend William Barkley and he told a story. It’s the story of somebody I never heard about, a wondering scholar in the Middle Ages. His name was Muritus, I think. I’m sure about how you spell it; I’m not sure about how you say it. He fell ill in an Italian town and was taken to the hospital for the poor. The doctors who examined him spoke in the language of learning, which was Latin. The common lot could not understand it. They saw in him another poor man. One of them suggested that they use him for an experiment. He’s speaking to his peer in Latin. Muritus responded in the Latin they understood, surprising he said, “Call no man worthless for whom Christ died.” That’s a religious idea that’s hard to lay hold of—call no one worthless, call no one worthless. Everybody has meaning. That strains my credulity.

In a previous job I used to walk through the Atlanta airport often. I wasn’t there to pass the time of day, I was trying to board a plane, get off a plane. There are more people there then there ought to be. I used to wonder how in the world does God sort it all out? Pray – well how many switchboards in heaven are listening? God has a design for life. Is that something for children, or is it true? These women believed their lives had meaning and it changed their estimate of themselves.

Last idea – God. Their take on God--Mary had an idea of the nature of God that actually, it had to be a revelation. God hates pride. Later on, Jesus would flesh out that idea. But God is not impressed with proud people. He responds to needy people. Jesus would say this about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One prayed like so, “Lord, I thank thee that I am not as other men are and he listed his qualifications,” and the other said, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” Then Jesus asks, “Which of these people went to his house in better shape with God?” Mary had that figured a long time before. It’s rather amazing. She had a take on God.

Another idea – she had the idea that God would probably reverse the fortunes of people in eternity. Jesus said, “It’s hard for rich people to go to heaven.” He tells a story about Dives and Lazarus. One is a beggar and one is a rich man. One goes to Hades and one goes to Abraham’s bosom. It’s a reversal of fortunes. Mary anticipated this. She had a right take on God. One the things that messes up some people in the whole religious scene is they misread God. If you don’t get it right on God, it’s going to mess up your head big time. You can call it theology, call it what you will. But you’ve got to get a fairly accurate picture of God. In fact, it has a whole lot to do with your ability to communicate with other people. G.K. Chesterton said, “Find me a landlady who has the same idea about God I do and I can get along in her house.” We can understand each other. It’s pretty foundational stuff.

Three ideas all interwoven, joy, meaning, and God. The older you get, the more the temptation to be a bit cynical about Christmas. Joy, meaning, God – those words don’t come so much in order, as they really are all tangled, because there’s God, there’s joy and meaning and apart from God where is joy and meaning? It’s all about Christmas…joy, meaning, and God.

CES; lmk, mt