The Love of Mary

The Love of Mary

Mary’s Magnificat

[All I Want for Christmas Slide]

Good morning and welcome to worship on this 4th Sunday of Advent! The Sunday of Love. You do know what that means, right! This is the final week before Christmas, so if you need gifts, NOW is the time.

That also means that next Saturday night, we will have our Christmas Eve Candlelight services. We will gather here at 5:00, Common Ground at 6:00, and again in here at 7:00. Come to one or come to all! It is going to be a great time together.

Our next service after that will be a combined worship service here in the Sanctuary at 10:40 on January 1, 2023 were we will renew our commitment as God’s people with a “Wesley Covenant Renewal Service.” You will not want to miss that!

And, now is a time that some of you have been waiting on. Now is the time for me to give you a little gift. It isn’t something you will take with you like a candle or a stone… but an image for you to share with others! Since some time in September, we have been working on what it would look like to have a new Logo, a new sign, and a new look as we live into the next season of First Methodist Church. Our Common Ground Worship Leader, Jonathan Dunlap has ASAP signs downtown and he has been working on this for us. And… we are finally ready to reveal the new logo and the new look for First Methodist Church. Jonathan prayed, contemplated, walked the building, and prayed some more trying to figure out what we have as an icon or image that people will instantly recognize as First Methodist Church of Brownwood. We didn’t want to use a denominational logo, we wanted something unique to this church and this body of believers… and this was the answer to his prayers!

FMC Logo

Ohhhh.. Ahhhhh… I know. I love it. One of the people who got to see it early said, “I have sat many nights waiting to pick up my children from school and I sit and stare at that steeple and pray.”

Over the next week you will begin to see the outside signs updated with this logo, and then over the next weeks we will start seeing the inside signage changed out. When it is all said and done, from property line to property line will all match with this logo and look.

OK, more on that another time.

[Great Women of the Bible – Mary]

We are here to talk about Mary! The Mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Priscilla has read for us one of the most memorable passages from the life of Mary, so, with the Magnificat in mind, let us pray.

[Prayer]

Some of you were here for this last Valentines Day, but I thought I would share my prose of Love again. If you haven’t heard it, well, I hope I touch on your generation… so, here goes:

“Love is the answer”. We ask ourselves, “What’s Love got to do with it?” We know love is “More than Words,” it isn’t just “Feelings.” Deep down we know that love isn’t just looking at our spouse and telling them “Baby, I'm Amazed," or “You Look Wonderful Tonight.” The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, but then we look over “Heaven and Earth” and see who our neighbor is and ask, “How Am I Supposed to Love You?” while in our heart we understand that “God Only Knows.” Because “That’s the Way Love Goes.” Our God is no “Part time Lover.” God offers an “Endless Love”, actually it is the “Greatest Love of All.” The “Longer” we look at it the "More" we realize that we don’t need some “Silly Love Song” to recognize the “Beautiful” “Unforgettable” “Glory of Love” that is lavished upon us from above.

Our problem is that “Time after Time” we jump on the “Love Rollercoaster” and try to “Justify our Love.” When we miss “The Power of Love” we look at each other and say “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” and think that we are “All Out of Love.” We sing a “Love Song” about being “Safe in the Arms of Love” to find the answer when really, we “Just Want Somebody to Love Us” “Faithfully”. But we are so wrapped up in trying to find what it means “When a Man Loves a Woman” that we miss the true “Visions of Love.” “Perhaps Love” has lost its meaning.

“You and I” keep “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places,” looking for our “Dream Lover” and trying to find "Who's Loving You" when what we need to realize is that it is “The Keeper of the Stars” that says, “I Just Called to say I Love You.” There is only one that says, “I Love you Always and Forever”, One who cries to us “Let me Love you", "Honestly." There is only one that “Truly, Madly, Deeply” longs for us to say “You Light Up My Life.”

This is the “Love” we seek, and once “We Found Love,” “Real Love” and “Don’t Stop Believing” we will hear the words “I Will Always Love You," "I'll Be There for You," and know that “By the time we get through, the world will never be the same.” Why? Because it is once we feel this love and recognize this love that we can look to God in heaven and say, “Because you Loved Me” I can live out a “Crazy Love” that guides me to live a life where I pray, “Everything I do” I do for “The One Who Loves Me.”

“It Must Have Been Love” that kept Jesus on the Cross. I don’t have to cry “I Want to Know What Love is” I simply have to look at the fact that “To Know HIM is to Love Him” and "To Be Loved." I don't have to wait for "Time in a Bottle" to be changed "From the Inside Out."

You see, because of Jesus, “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” because "If" I allow God to live in me, then “Love Will Find a Way” and… for you and me… It is only with the love of Christ in us that we can say “Love Will Keep Us Together.”

Amen…

Love truly is the answer. And when I think of Mary, I can’t think of anything but Love. If there is anything I would want to say, “All I Want for Christmas is…” it would be Love! And, it is through Mary, literally, that Love comes into our lives.

So, Let’s talk about Mary.

Turn to Luke 1, beginning around verse 26. Here’s Mary, a 14 year old teenager minding her own business in her mother’s kitchen. The kitchen was usually in a cave under the home, so it would be cooler, and the meats, vegetables, and fruits didn’t spoil too quickly – think of a Root Cellar of our parents and grandparents’ day. So here she is, minding her business in the dim light of the oil lamp when suddenly the room was filled with light and an angel tells her, “Don’t be afraid, you’ve found favor with God.” I don’t know about you, but I think I would be afraid… There must be something terrifying about the angels because the first thing they always say is, “Don’t be afraid.” Right.

So the angel says, don’t be afraid Mary, you are going to have a baby.” But what does Mary say,

Starting in verse 34:

[Luke 1:34-35]

Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

Mary goes logical. Mary has her doubts, right. I mean, she has never been intimate with a man, biologically, scientifically, naturally, it is impossible for her to become pregnant. Right? SO…

…the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

First, let me make this point before we get back to Mary. The Holy Spirit didn’t show up on Pentecost Sunday. The Holy Spirit, the presence of God in the world, was already here. The third figure of the Trinity was present at the Creation of the World and the Holy Spirit shows up throughout the history of the people of God. The difference was at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was poured out on us all. The Holy Spirit was poured out on you and me. Living in us and around is the power of the Holy Spirit – the power of God’s presence with us! That power living in us is an amazing thing that allows us to do amazing things in the name of God!

Ok, back to Mary.

Mary’s life was forever altered that day. The words of the angel rested on her and in her. But I want to contrast something here. In that same chapter, an angel had appeared to someone else with a similar message. Last week you heard a little about Elizabeth, but I want to compare her husband, Zacharias, to Mary.

Beginning in verse 5, we see the story of Zacharias doing his duties in the Temple, he’s been selected and honored to go into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctum of the Temple and burn incense and pray. This was such an important and holy task that the Priests were not only honored to do it, but they were terrified as well. They were afraid to go before the presence of God in the Temple because if they had any unconfessed sin, they knew they may be struck dead, because sin was not allowed in the presence of a Holy God. They were so serious about this that they had bells attached to the hem of the robe and a rope tied to the priest, so that if the priest stopped moving, they would know and they could use the rope to pull him out of the Holy of Holies. This was serious business.

So, when the Angel of the Lord appeared to him there, he had a right to be afraid, but, again, the angel says, “Don’t be afraid. Your wife Elizabeth is going to have a baby, and he’s going to be special, like Ezekiel or Isaiah preparing the way for the Messiah.”

What does Zacharias say?

Luke 1:18

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”

Men, I want you to notice something here… Zacharias admitted he was old, but even talking to the angel he didn’t call his wife old…. “Well advanced in years,” but not “Old.” Just one of many lessons from scripture, Amen.

Zacharias did the same thing that Mary did. He went logical. He questioned how this could happen, Biology, science, physiology, nature said it couldn’t happen. He had doubts. And what happened? In verse 20, the Angel, Gabriel, tells Zacharias that since he didn’t believe the message, he wouldn’t be able to speak until the child is born.

But let me ask you… what is the difference between he and Mary. They both doubted. They both asked, how something like this could happen. What is the difference between doubt that brings discipline and doubt that brings a miracle?

For that answer turn with me to verse 37.

The angel tells Mary:

Luke 1:37-38

For with God nothing will be impossible.”

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Mary’s doubt led to her surrender. Mary’s doubt led to her saying, “here I am Lord, use me. Here I am, your servant, ready to do your will.”

Ladies and gentlemen, do not let this season of miracles pass you by without saying, “Yes, Lord, here I am, your servant.”

2023 is coming, and with it God is going to do great things in this church, in this community, and in your life. Miracles are coming. God is moving in a mighty way. You are going to be confronted with options and decisions that don’t make sense. You are going to be asked to believe from God things that the world, that science, that culture says are not possible. You may doubt… but in your doubt you have a choice – submission or resistance. You can submit to God and walk gladly into the miracles before us, or you can resist and live in the discipline of questioning God… but God is still going to move!

I have a front row seat to the amazing movement of God taking place, not only here in First Brownwood, but across the state of Texas. New churches are being planted – In the newly formed Mid-Texas Conference I know of 6 new churches that have started this Fall. Churches where Baptisms were rare, are having Baptisms. People are joining churches and ministries like never before. Here at Brownwood, we have a Baptism happening right now in Common Ground and we have a couple of Baptisms being planned for the first of the Year. By the end of 2022 we will have seen a dozen or more baptisms and dozens of new members!

As we live this life of Love – love brought into the world through the womb of Mary, God is moving in a mighty way!

Mary said “yes” to God. Mary said, “I don’t’ understand it, but God I am yours. Use me as you will.” And because of Mary, the world will never be the same.

Let me share a little more of her story. While she was pregnant, she went to see Elizabeth, her aunt who was miraculously pregnant. Maybe the most miraculous part was she didn’t have to hear her husband for 10 months… but that’s a different story.

Pregnant little Mary walks into the room where pregnant Elizabeth was, and Elizabeth’s baby, John, jumped in the womb. The way Scripture tells it is:

Luke 1:39 – 42

Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!

The presence of Christ in Mary, in her womb, was already impacting the world. Jesus was making a difference even before he was born.

Mary was simply the vessel of God, the servant of God who brought Jesus into the world 2000 years ago.

Through Mary, some 2000 years ago, God became flesh and dwelt among us. We know him as Jesus – and he is light and love. In him there is no darkness, no evil. Jesus came to us through Mary as the very embodiment of God, the personification of Love.

And it is in Him that we experience love and are able to share that love.

John tells us in his epistle,

1 John 4:15-16

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

This season… this year… choose love!

The gift I want for Christmas… All I want for Christmas is love.

To close, I want to share with you the words of John Wesley as he talks about the gift of love.

[One cause of] a thousand mistakes is [this]… not considering deeply enough that love is the highest gift of God; humble, gentle, patient love; that all visions, revelations, [or] manifestations whatever, are little things compared to love; and that all [other] gifts… are either the same with or infinitely inferior to it.

[Y]ou should be thoroughly [aware] of this – the heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else; if you look for anything but more love, you are looking wide the mark, you are getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others “Have you received this or that blessing?” if you mean anything but more love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting them on a false scent. Settle it then in your heart, that from the moment God has saved you from all sin, you are to aim at nothing more but more of that love described in the thirteenth of Corinthians. You can go no higher than this, till you are carried into Abraham’s bosom.

John Wesley, “A Plain Account of Christian Perfection”

God is love.

Jesus is God in the flesh.

You and I are to be little Jesus’

Therefore, this Christmas… this coming year, go – and be love.