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Sermon 17 March 2024 in Copenhagen and Aarh (LGJ)
Translation by MSWord.
Gospel: Luke 1:46-56
Then Mary said: My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior! He has looked to his lowly handmaid. For hereafter shall all kindreds praise me blessedly, for the Mighty One has done great things to me. Holy is His name, and His mercy to those who fear Him endures in generation after generation. He has done mighty deeds with His arm, dividing those who are haughty in the thoughts of their hearts; He has overthrown the mighty from the throne, and He has exalted the lowly; Starving he has saturated with good gifts, and rich he has sent away empty-handed. He has taken care of His servant Israel and remembers His mercy He granted to our fathers—to Abraham and his lineage forever.
Mary stayed with her for about three months and then returned home.
Grace be upon you, and peace, from God our Father and from Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Maria sings. But why? After all, in anguish, no one sings. In fear, we hide. In the uncertainty, we are silent. "I heard you, and got scared!", Adam said. "That's why I hid." No singing. No faith. No thanks. No service.
But the Lord spoke of the child to be born, of the woman's child, the woman's seed (Gen. 3:15). And that's how Adam got hope. And he passed it on to his sons. Death was in the world, but God had promised them salvation and rescue. That's why they thought. They hoped. They gave birth to children. A child would one day become the Savior. And they worked in faith. They gave birth to children in faith. They sang in faith. They praised the Lord. They thought. They became blessed.
And now we are in Nazareth thousands of years later. Here is a young woman who knows the same fear, but also the same faith that the offspring of the woman will save. She knew the promises. Gabriel comes and says , "The Lord is with you, you pardoned!" She was horrified by those words and asked herself what this greeting was supposed to mean. And the angel says, "Fear not, Mary! (1.30) . And later again to shepherds in Bethlehem 9 months later: "Fear not, for behold, I declare to you a great joy. The Savior is born!" (Luke 2:10). And the gospel goes on and on: "Fear not, from now on you shall catch men!" (Luke 5:10). "Fear not, only believe!" (Luke 8:50). "Fear not, you are worth more than many sparrows!" (Luke 12:7). "Do not fear you little flock, for your Father has decided to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32). "Fear not, I know that you are searching for Jesus, the crucified one. ... He is risen." (Matthew 28:5-6). He says that to us too. Fear not!
But then give me the good reason not to fear, but to sing! There is so much in my life that gives cause for fear. All the things I can't handle. All that I did wrong. And the power of the world. Everything that breaks in the big world and in my little world. Here it comes: "For you have found grace with God!" That is the reason.
And the grace was that child! The child who was to save her and us. The whole human race, now was in her mother's womb. "For you have found grace before God. Behold, thou shalt abide with child, and bear a son, and thou shalt give him the name Jesus. He shall grow great, and be called the son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father David; he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever, and there shall be no end to his kingdom." (Luke 1:30-33). That's how big it got. That's how big it is. That's how big it gets. For eternity.
And here Mary sat in Nazareth. What was she supposed to do, though? Who was she going to tell that to? Was thereanyone in the whole world who would understand her and believe her? Well, her relative Elisabeth, who was also pregnant. Bore the child who was the forerunner of the Lord John the Baptist.
This is how we have someone in faith to share salvation with. Church of God. Then we smile together. We say it in the Creed: "We believe in Jesus Christ... conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary!" We sing a hymn. We fold our hands. We know that the Lord is near, He is with us and around us. And we are in Him. We feel a piece of heaven, bliss and eternity. And we gain new strength in faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Let us briefly hear about the FAITH, BEATITUDE, WORK OF GOD, AND SERVICE in her song.
1. FAITH
Then Mary said: My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!
It's about your soul and spirit. Your life. True Christianity involves you and me. Christian faith is not Buddhism with self-contemplation. It is the Lord and you. My soul and my spirit praise the LORD. Christian faith is personal trust in Him, God, my Savior.
She speaks confidently to her Lord and God. She is happy. She knows him and knows who he is. She was raised in a believing home, has mother and father who taught her to pray. She knows the hymns in the Bible's hymnbook. And her aunt's husband is a priest in Jerusalem. There she is now. There she breaks out and sings this little song.
True Christianity is about God and you. You have deeds, feelings, guilt and shame. But you know Jesus, the one Mary bore, the one who was born in Bethlehem, the one the angels sang about to the shepherds. The one you were baptized to belong to when you were an infant.
2. BLISS
He has looked to his lowly handmaid. For hereafter shall all kindreds praise me blessedly,
We think with particular joy of Mary - the mother of Jesus. Not because she was pious and better than others. She herself says that she is poor. But still, she is blissful. We are to praise her blessedly—all generations to come. Us too. Blessed - because she became the mother of God. Blessed because she accepted Him as a mother and in faith.
Here we have the ground of bliss: Her child. He made her blissful. True Christianity has Jesus in its arms – and makes blessed.
False Christianity says, "You may be blessed if you feel the Spirit, if you improve, if you experience God in a special way. Then you might be blissful."
True Christianity has JESUS. And he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit... for the kingdom of heaven is theirs." "Blessed are they who mourn, for they must be comforted." Your sins are forsaken from you. Go away in peace.
Once someone said to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!" (Lk. 11:27). And Jesus answered, "Yes!" He did not deny it. But he added, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and preserve it."
False Christianity makes Mary a saint—makes up weird things about her that aren't in the Bible, and then says that the rest of us might only be blessed. But Jesus makes us blessed by the Word we hear. For by that Word we come to know Jesus as our Savior and gain faith as we listen. We call Mary blessed and honor her for what she really was: the Mother of the Lord. And through her Son we also have the bliss. In JESUS, you are blessed. You are in baptism clothed in Him. That's why you're blissful.
- 3. GOD HAS DONE GREAT THINGS
- for the Mighty One has done great things to me. Holy is His name, and His mercy to those who fear Him endures in generation after generation.
- Mary tells us what God has done to her. But also to us: He has shown us mercy. She does not keep it to herself and is not above others. She knows that the Lord gives bliss and joy to those who fear Him.
- How to be blessed: When you see that you are poor – and how good God is to you. Bliss in lineage after genus. Flax! He has done mighty deeds with his arm, dividing those who are haughty in the thoughts of their hearts; he has overthrown the mighty from the throne, and he has exalted the lowly; starving he has saturated with good gifts, and rich he has sent away empty-handed.
- False Christianity believes that what happens inside the heart is more important and true. It has to be felt.
- True Christianity is about what God has done, His mighty works in history. FOR US. We gain faith and confidence as we listen to the history of salvation, read from Scripture, hear about creation, the Fall, the Flood, the election of Abraham, the people of God the life of Israel, Samson Gideon, Ruth, Samuel, Saul, David, Bathsheba, Solomon, the Temple, Daniel and Jonah. God's mighty works then and in the New Testament: Christmas, Easter, Pentecost. God's great works. Keep reading and learning, listening and telling.
- 4. A CHRISTIAN LIFE IN SERVICE
- He has taken care of His servant Israel and remembers His mercy
- Israel is a servant. And Israel is all who belong to the Lord by faith and baptism. All Jews and Gentiles who are baptized and believe. All believers in God's people are servants of God. Mary also saw herself as a servant: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord." Mary entered for a life-long service. Allowed himself to be tied. Accepted the call.
- False Christianity will not allow itself to be bound, but free, free to express itself and develop itself, free to do what one wants and feels for. False Christianity would rather go from experience to new experience with wonders and signs in order to satisfy its unbelief.
- But when we are with Jesus, we like to be bound. Tie to him. Tie to each other.
- A Christian man and woman allow themselves to be bound to each other in marriage when they want to live together. Until death separates. A Christian man and woman who are expecting a child are bound to the child and receive it from God's good hand. For God has given life.
- Christian in vocation and stand morning, evening and night, Mondays and Saturdays and Sundays. Always. Always his. Always each other's. Always live for others. Always live in the people who are the servant of the Lord whom He cares for. He has taken care of his servant Israel.
- What, then, was the good reason not to fear, but to sing? It is that God has looked in mercy to us. Grace is JESUS. He gives us FAITH, BLISS. We hear about all the works of God. And we rest in His taking care of His servant. Therefore, we will say with Mary, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord!" "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord!" AMEN
Den evangelisk-lutherske Frikirke. post@vivit.dk