The Voice of Yes

Call to Confession

God calls His people to trust Him,

to answer Him with faith and obedience —

to say “yes” to His grace,

as Mary did: “Let it be to me according to Your word.”

Yet so often we hesitate,

we doubt,

we cling to control,

and we answer God with silence or “no.”

Scripture says,

“Return to the Lord with all your heart,

for He is gracious and merciful.”

With humble hearts,

let us confess our sin

and ask God to shape in us

a faithful voice of yes by reading the unison prayer of confession

Holy and Eternal God,

You have surrounded us with a great cloud of witnesses—

those who lived by faith, loved with compassion,

and walked humbly with You.

Yet we confess that we often forget their example.

We grow weary in doing good,

slow to forgive,

and quick to seek comfort rather than courage.

Forgive us, Lord,

for the times we have doubted Your power at work in us.

Forgive us when we fail to see that the same Spirit

that strengthened the saints of old still breathes in us today.

Renew our hearts,

rekindle our faith,

and help us to run with perseverance the race set before us,

looking to Jesus—the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

In His holy name we pray. Amen.

Words of Assurance

Leader:

Hear the promise of God:

“If we confess our sins,

He is faithful and just

to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

In Christ, God turns our doubt into faith,

our hesitation into surrender,

and our “no” into a joyful “yes.”

Friends, believe the good news:

In Jesus Christ, you are forgiven

Luke 1:46-56

46 And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, 47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.     For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,     and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him     from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm;     he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones     and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things,     and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel,     in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers,     to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.

We start today’s message where I start most of my sermons—with music. My love for music began around 1991 when four simple guitar chords changed the music landscape forever. It probably didn’t change any of your musical tastes, but when Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana came out, everything changed for me and for popular music. Before that, the dominant sound was what most called glam rock or hair metal—big hair, lots of hairspray, leather outfits, and honestly, not always the strongest music.

Then Nirvana and Pearl Jam entered the scene. Suddenly it was about the music again—raw, honest songs that gave a generation a voice. They wore grungy clothes instead of big hair and leather. That’s where the term “grunge” came from, and the music sounded gritty too. Those songs became the soundtrack of my high school years. Certain songs instantly take me back to moments in history.

I’m sure all of you have songs like that—music that pulls you back to a moment in your life. Just yesterday here at the church, Robb and Beth were married, and one of the songs played was The Wedding Song. That’s my parents’ song, and immediately it took me back. Steph and I share a love for the song Everlong by Foo Fighters. Lizzie simply calls it “Mommy and Daddy’s song.” She doesn’t even know the real title. But I’m sure in 50 years, when she hears it on the “oldies station,” she’ll remember us.

Most songs are born out of life—joy or sorrow. The classic hymn It Is Well with My Soul came from deep pain. Horatio Spafford wrote it after losing his wife and daughters in a shipwreck. He wrote that hymn standing on the water where they drowned, yet he sang of God’s goodness. Even when storms may come, it is well with my soul.

Today’s text is similar—it’s a song. Mary’s song. She has just visited her cousin Elizabeth, who is miraculously pregnant in her old age, and Mary herself is carrying God’s Son. When Mary speaks, the baby inside Elizabeth leaps for joy. After experiencing all this, Mary does the only thing she can do—she sings. She is filled with so much joy that she breaks into praise.

Before we enter the text, I want to address something. In our Protestant tradition, we sometimes shy away from honoring Mary because of how highly she is elevated in the Catholic Church. Because she is so revered there, we have tended to react by barely acknowledging her at all. But Mary deserves deep respect. She is a model of faith and obedience. She is our sister in Christ—and spiritually, in a sense, also a mother in the faith. That may feel uncomfortable, but let me explain.

When we belong to Christ, we are united to Him and to one another. Mary, the mother of Jesus, becomes connected to us through Him. She needed Jesus as Savior just as we do, and she is part of the family of God with us. This does not elevate her above us; it places her alongside us as someone we honor, admire, and learn from.

Today’s sermon looks at Mary’s Magnificat—the Song of Mary. It gets that title from the first word in Latin: Magnificat,meaning “magnifies”—My soul magnifies the Lord. Mary has just been with Elizabeth and witnessed God’s miraculous work. Elizabeth proclaims, by the Holy Spirit, how blessed Mary is for bearing God’s Son. Mary responds with a song of praise.

Her song reflects another song from Scripture—Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel. Hannah had been barren, mocked by others, and cried out to God for a child. God answered her prayer, and she praised Him and dedicated her son to His service. Hannah magnified the Lord with her soul, and Mary echoes that same faith. They are not identical songs, but they are deeply similar. Mary knew the Scriptures and used God’s Word to express her praise.

That is the first lesson for us: when we praise God, we let Scripture shape our voice. Mary knew God deeply—in her soul. She knew His stories, His promises, His character. She had walked with Him, heard His Word, met His messenger Gabriel, and knew she was favored by God.

Think about this: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. These are the words of a teenage girl, pregnant out of wedlock, in a culture where this could mean disgrace or even danger. Yet she rejoices. When was the last time we spoke this way?

Sometimes the hardest part of following Jesus is choosing joy—choosing to magnify God even when life is hard. People notice joy. What makes faith attractive to those who don’t believe is seeing someone who, though pressed down by life, still praises God and walks in hope.

Mary calls herself a humble servant. Yet she knows generations will call her blessed. Luke’s Gospel loves this theme—God lifting up the lowly. A humble teenager becomes one of the most honored women in history.

“His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.” Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In recent generations, the church has emphasized the love of God—and rightly so—but sometimes we forget the reverence, the awe, the holy fear of God. Jesus is compassionate, yes, but He is also Creator, Lord of all. The One who made everything holds your life in His hands. That holy fear drives us to His mercy.

Mercy leads from generation to generation. Think of your own testimony. Often a fear or deep longing brought us to Jesus—fear of death, fear of judgment, fear of meaninglessness, fear of being alone. But mercy meets that fear, and mercy should not stop with us. Moses commanded Israel to tell the next generation all God had done. Faith is meant to flow through families and communities.

Mary’s “Yes” to God created a legacy. On the 19th I preached about the “Legacy of Yes.” Mary said, “Let it be to me as you have said.” Her yes now has a voice—this song. Hannah’s yes echoed through history; now Mary’s yes does too.

When we say yes to God, He gives us a song. Sometimes that song is literal—written in worship services or sung at life’s key moments. At my ordination, certain songs became my “yes” song. Even today I struggle to sing them without choking up. My yes is still being written—and it is tied to all of you. You are part of my legacy of yes. And you are part of Rev. Dobi’s legacy, and the legacy of pastors who came before.

So what is our voice of yes as a church? Like Mary, we look back to God’s faithfulness and forward to His future. In the next months, as we begin a new chapter with Revs. Little and Enns, we will find our collective song—our shared yes.

How do we do this? We proclaim God’s greatness in all circumstances. I pray that in this last year you’ve heard that from me—that God is great and worthy of praise. But now you carry that message out into the world. Let your life show that saying yes to Jesus is joyful and worth everything.

In that seek humility. Mary was a humble servant of the Lord. She was carrying the messiah but never saw herself as greater than anyone else. Too many times we get allusions of grandeur about ourselves and we aren’t humble or feel we deserve certain things because of our job, our status in the community. We are to be humble and Paul will say in Philippians take the attitude of Christ Jesus our Lord who being in the very nature of God did not consider himself equal to God but humbled himself…Mary, Jesus, they are our examples of humbling yourself before others and in doing that consider others before yourself. 

And when we humble ourselves, we become servants. Jesus washed feet. The Creator knelt and cleaned the dirtiest part of His disciples. If the Son of God can do that, then nothing is beneath us. Serving quietly, joyfully, gives glory to Christ—not ourselves.

So, find your song—individually and as a community. The seven dwarfs sang “Whistle While You Work.” Perhaps ours is “Sing While You Serve.” A song that magnifies the Lord, that celebrates the One who washed us white as snow.

Mary’s song matters. Mary matters. She is not Jesus—but she is a model of faith and obedience. A teenage girl with greater faith than many religious leaders of her time. Her legacy reaches us, and her song becomes our song because the God who worked in her works in us too. So sing—on the mountain, in the car, in line at Walmart. Let your “yes” have a voice.

This adventure we entered a year ago has shaped our voice. We sing: How Great Is Our God. The Goodness of God is running after me. I was taken by the grave robber. I love to tell the story… Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.

What will be our song at FPC? It can be a magnificent melody, many instruments together, a sound that our town hears and says, “That’s FPC’s song.” Are you willing to learn your part? Are you willing to follow the Conductor—Jesus? Or are you trying to play every instrument alone?

My prayer today is that we lay down our conductors' batons, pick up our instruments, and follow the One who wrote our song of yes. May our unified voice echo through our city and beyond—just like Mary. And may future generations call us blessed because from humble beginnings we said yes to God.

Amen.