To me, singing carols is an essential part of Christmas. My neighbor was laughing at me the other night because he overheard me singing Christmas Carols as I strung lights on every bush, shrub, and tree in my front yard. I probably should have taken the hint and stopped singing but I couldn’t help myself. I sang well into the night because I love Christmas carols. I am not opposed to frosty the snowman and Rudolf the red nosed reindeer, but personally, I prefer the classics; Joy to the World, Silent Night, Angels we have Heard on High. I know not everyone shamelessly sings Christmas carols loud enough to make the neighbors complain, but I have never met anyone who didn’t like Christmas carols. Even those who couldn’t carry a tune if you gave them a bucket, even those who grumble and grip when the hymn of the day has more than 3 verses, in the end even Ebenezer Scrooge enjoyed singing a Christmas Carol.
Carols, hymns, and psalms are peculiar to Christianity. You find them rarely in non-Christian religions and organizations. It seems those who are without Christ have nothing to sing about. Christians, on the other hand, have been singing Christmas Carols for centuries, indeed we have been singing them even before we were known as Christians.
This Advent we are going to examine an ancient Christmas Carol known as the Magnificat. The Magnificat first sprang from the lips of a young girl by the name of Mary. Mary sang the Magnificat in response to the angelic announcement that the long-awaited Savior of the world would be conceived in her womb. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth proclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” In reply Mary sang the words of this evening’s text.
When I read tonight’s section of Mary’s Magnificat, you will notice that she sings about the “mindfulness” of the Lord. That the LORD God, the great I AM, the Ancient of Days should notice her, pay attention to her, be concerned about her... it was beyond understanding.
Mary sang of “humility” because she knew who and what she was. Though she was a descendant of King David, Mary was not some palace princess, she was a plain peasant from the city of Nazareth. Of her hometown, people asked, “can anything good come from Nazareth?”.
Mary was a nobody from a nowhere kind of place, but her lowly status was not the depth of Mary’s humility. Mary was a sinner. Now I know there are some who wish to see her differently. They would like to believe that Mary was a sinless saint or at least if she did sin her sins must have not been as bad as ours. They like to call her “the holy mother” and imagine her stranding beside her son as she dispenses forgiveness as the co-redemptrix of Christ. But Mary knew what she was, she knew the depth of her humiliation, she knew she was a sinner which is why she sings this song to her “savior”.
We have this in common with Mary. When she sings about humility, she sings about us. We aren’t exactly people of status. Think about how the apostle Paul described the Christians in Corinth, “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth…” I mean no offense when I say this but as I think about members of Messiah it seems God is still choosing the foolish, weak, and lowly.[1]
Like Mary we are lowly in status, but also like Mary, that is not the depth of our humility. We too are sinners. From time to time we try to elevate ourselves above others and imagine that we either have fewer sins or the sins we do have are not as bad as the sins of others. But then we come face to face with the mirror of God’s law and we can’t help but see that we fall as far short of the glory of God as anyone else and we are reminded of the depth of our humiliation, we are reminded that we are sinners in desperate need of a savior.
We have no reason to expect that the Lord God would be mindful of us, Mary had no reason to expect that the Lord God would be mindful of her and yet He was and is. Mary carried the savior of the world in her womb and that Savior carried the sin of the world to the cross. The Lord God was mindful of Mary, and He is mindful of you, He is mindful of the humble state of us all which is why Mary finished the first verse of her Christmas carol with the word “blessed”.
Our reading for this evening is Luke 1:46-48.
46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed…
[1] 1 Corinthians 1:26-28