We sing stories of hope

How does a weary world rejoice?   •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented
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Intro

Four songs in Luke 1-2 - sometimes called Canticles or “Canticles of the Incarnation”
Mary, Zechariah, Angels & Simeon
Christmas Eve, we’ll get to the song of the angels - gloria in excelsis deo
29th we’ll look at Simeon’s song: Let your servant depart in peace
But today, we’ll take some time to explore Mary’s and Zechariah’s songs.
All four have Latin titles that are often used - Magnificat, Benedictus, Gloria in excelsis & Nunc dimittis
But don’t let the Latin intimidate you - it’s just that they got used A LOT. In prayer, in music (for what are our songs if not a form of prayer?) … and the titles kinda stuck.
Magnificat - My soul magnifies the Lord…and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.
Benedictus - Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.
(Gloria - glory to god
Nunc dimittis - Now let your servant depart in peace… )
These songs - sometimes called Canticles
a hymn or chant, typically with a biblical text, forming a regular part of a church service
Magnificat - shows up in many “evening prayer” liturgies
Benedictus - shows up in many morning prayers liturgies

Magnificat. The song the Virgin *Mary sings when visiting her relative Elizabeth (Lk 1:46–55), the first line being, “My soul magnifies [Lat. magnificat] the Lord.” The song is one of three *canticles in the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke and is appropriate at *Evening Prayer (cf. prayer of Hannah, 1 Sam 2:1–10).

Pocket Dictionary of Liturgy & Worship Song of Zechariah (Benedictus Dominus Deus)

A song beginning “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” (Lk 1:68–79), one of three Gospel *canticles found in the first two chapters of Luke. Appropriate at *Morning Prayer.

Content notes:
From Dr. Bobby Hulme-Lippert December 22, 2021 sermon:
In our passage, Mary speaks, she sings the longest set of words spoken by a women in the entire New Testament.
And it is not just any song. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor and theologian who was executed by the Nazis, he called the Magnificat “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.”
The Scottish theologian, William Barclay, drills down into the nature of that revolution, observing that you have in this song…
a moral revolution (“God scatters the proud in the plans of their hearts” or as the Message translates, “”God scatters the bluffing braggarts.”)
a social revolution (“God casts down the mighty and exalts the lowly” or again as the Message puts it, “God knocks tyrants off their high horses, and pulls victims out of the mud.”)
an economic revolution (“God has filled those who are hungry but those who are rich are sent away empty.” The Message – “”the starving poor will sit down at a banquet and the callous rich will be left out in the cold.”).
So vast are the implications of this song that in recent decades for different lengths of time – countries such as India, Guatemala, and Argentina have outright banned the Magnificat from being recited in liturgy or in public.
What about Zechariah’s song?
Not quite as controversial. But this is a prayer that has been prayed throughout the centuries, across the continents. By people like you and me. And by people in vastly different circumstances.
A prayer that has been borrowed as part of the morning prayer of the Daily Office:
Psalm 95 (Venite)
Psalm 100 (Jubilate)
ancient hymn (Te Deum)
Luke 1:67-79 (Benedictus)

Morning Prayer spiritually follows the natural rhythm of the day as every morning is a reminder of the resurrection of Jesus (1 Clem. 24.1–3), and thus one faced *east during Morning Prayer in late antiquity. Traditional recitations for Morning Prayer include the *Venite and *Jubilate and the *canticles *Te Deum and *Benedictus

This second song is in two sections:
the first part if a song of thanksgiving, full of allusions to the ot prophecies - making the link that the Messianic hopes of the Jewish people are being fulfilled
the second part has Zechariah addressing his son who will play a part in the bigger story, preaching forgiveness of sins and preparing the way.
The final lines of the song are perhaps the most famous, even if the song takes it name from the opening word in Latin.
Luke 1:78–79 NRSVue
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 79 to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Benedictus/Zechariah’s song:
Now, what I want us to see this morning is that these are songs that have been part of the prayers of Christians throughout the last two millenia. And so, if, like me, you sometimes need help learning how to pray, today, we will take Mary & Zechariah’s words and use them as our own.
But who among us needs one more thing on our to-do list this morning?
“pray in a way that seeks moral, social & economic revolution”
What we likely need more than anything is to be in the presence of God. To sit still in that presence. To breathe in the love of God that is revolutionary. And to begin to breathe out the love that Mary & Zechariah’s songs both express and take joy in.
So here’s what we’re going to do this morning. We’re going to use these two great songs.
Breath prayer [insert description]
Feet on the floor. Open your hands.
Breathe comfortably.

Reading: Magnificat

[sing Holy is His Name]

Reading the song of Zechariah on Dec 22 in the northern hemisphere means that we’re reading it just after we’ve passed the darkest moment of the year. We have come through the longest night and today there will be ever so much more daylight than yesterday. And a little more tomorrow… and so on. And we’ll take it, won’t we?!
Elizabeth Webb writes:
On this third Sunday of Advent, Zechariah’s song is very much ours. We see the faint light on the horizon, and we await the full, dazzling light of God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ. We find ourselves now in-between, standing in that moment of the already and the not-yet. The light has dawned but doesn’t seem yet to have reached the deepest darknesses inside and around us.
The truth is, that moment of already and not-yet is where we find ourselves all the time. To live the life of a disciple of Christ is to live always in Advent time, knowing that the light has come and awaiting the light that has yet to shine in its fullest measure. Advent time is anticipatory time, and yet it is also frustrating, sometimes discouraging. The dawning of the light must sustain us as we continue on, in our waiting and in our living, and sometimes the wait for the rays of Jesus’ light upon our faces seems awfully long.
We may, with Zechariah, doubt that such a thing is possible. But also with Zechariah, we praise God for the dawn, seeing in it just the first shimmering of the peace in whose light we already bask, even as we wait for its full radiance.

Reading: Benedictus

[sing Glory]

Benediction

As you leave this place, you go into a weary world— so speak tenderly. Do the good that is yours to do. Choose connection. Hold onto hope. And remember that Christ took on flesh for you. You are God’s beloved. So go rejoicing. The world needs it. Amen.
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