Advent: The Interruption of Unmerited Favor

Well, welcome.

Merry Christmas.

It's the third Sunday in Advent, those four Sundays that lead us to Christmas.

Advent's the season of waiting and hoping and longing toward Christmas.

Advent's made up of four Sundays.

Here's an overview of the four Sundays.

Advent Sunday one is about holy and hopeful longings.

Advent Sunday two, repentance and preparation.

That was last week.

This week, this Sunday.

We're in Advent Sunday three, and it's about joy.

Joy interrupting our weariness.

Advent four, Sunday four, love and incarnation.

So these Sunday sermons build a liturgy, a path for us toward Christmas.

And today, Advent Sunday three, joy Sunday, or Godet Sunday is what it's called.

And that's the first word in the phrase, rejoice and the Lord always.

The key idea is joy breaking into the waiting, joy breaking into the longing.

That grace breaks into our weary worlds.

Three weeks ago, sadly, my dog brother passed away.

Our family dog, here's a picture of brother.

He was a labradoodle, he was eight years old, and he had been losing weight for a few months, and then he suddenly stopped eating, and then he stopped drinking, and we discovered he had cancer all through his stomach and GI tract.

So, in a matter of like two or three weeks, pretty quickly, we had to let him go.

Our family gathered around him and loved on him at the vet and was surrounded him as we had to put him down.

It was a horrible day.

I mean, that was horrible to put your dog down, but then as well, it was cold and rainy.

Like it was a horrible day.

And then we got home, and as we were walking into our house, our friend Jake was walking out of the house, and he didn't say much.

He just said, sorry, and he hugged all of us, and then when we got into the house, he had left dinner for us in our kitchen.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and our student pastor Sam had sent crumble cookies to our girls, which I took and just ate away my grief.

Just feed your grief.

Just feed it up.

It doesn't really work, but it's it's a lot of fun.

I recommend it.

That's God at Sunday.

That's Joy Sunday.

In the lowliness, joy breaks in.

It interrupts.

It's the meal of grace that arrives.

Crumble cookies save the day.

God's favor finding us while we're weary.

So our text is Luke 1.

It's known as the Magnificant.

And we look at Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Mary was a Jewish girl.

She was probably a teenager, 13, 14 years old.

And then she hears this message as a virgin girl engaged to Joseph.

In the midst of that, a miracle happens.

Luke 1:30.

Luke 1:30

She hears this from an angel.

I'm paraphrasing.

Don't be afraid.

You're favored by God.

You're going to have a baby, the Messiah, your people have been waiting for who comes to love and save all sinners.

And this would have been shocking.

She's a virgin.

Scary.

She lived in a patriarchal ancient society.

There would have been huge persecution for a single pregnant woman.

And to that, Mary says, I'm a servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word.

Mary then goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth.

While she's with Elizabeth, she breaks out in a song, and that's our passage, this Luke 1, 46 through 55.

Let me read it again.

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

She's talking about herself.

Listen how she talks about herself and how she talks about God.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name, and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm.

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.

Point number one is this God loyally favors us.

He loyally favors you as we are weak and weary.

This term humble estate appears twice in our passages, speaking of our inner poverty, our inner need.

The first home that Christy and I bought in Atlanta was a little shotgun house in Grant Park, a two-bedroom, one bath.

Here's a picture of it.

This is a picture of it after it was fixed up.

It was a real dump when we moved in.

And we renovated that thing bit by bit by bit.

We loved that house.

We poured ourselves into that tiny little shotgun house.

We poured money into that little house and we got it shaped up.

It was a lovely estate, you know, quite an estate home.

I mean, really, it was quite a humble estate, isn't it?

Now, last month, the most expensive home in Atlanta went up for sale.

$25 million, 17 acres.

It's available.

It's available if anybody's looking.

17 acres in the city, lavish gardens.

It's precise.

It's beautiful.

It's extravagant.

I love to think of myself like that.

Like I, that's my ideal version of myself.

I'm going to get myself together that much.

I'm going to be that successful in the world.

I'm going to be that great of a Christian.

I'm going to be that extravagant and put together and precise.

The reality is, is most days I feel like, and I really am just that humble Grant Park house.

We don't feel all that beautiful or put together, do we?

When it comes to matters of the heart, we are all the humble estate.

We want to be the lavish estate, but we're much more the humble estate in heart.

But we're lavishly loved.

And that's why Mary says, I am of humble estate, yet I am greatly favored.

What a powerful statement.

A confession.

I'm a sinner.

I've sinned in my motive and my thought and my judgment toward others and my behaviors.

And yet God's grace for me is enough.

And yet I am favored, and yet I'm loved.

Martin Luther, he reminds us to focus not on the humble estate, but on God's regard of us.

I love this commentary on this passage.

Here's what Luther wrote.

Mary's lowestate is not to be praised, but God's regard.

As when a prince gives his hand to a beggar, the meanness of the beggar is not to be praised, but the graciousness and the goodness of the prince.

You must not only think and speak of lowliness, but come into it, sink into it, utterly helpless, that God alone may save you.

Or at any rate, should it not happen, you should at least desire it, not shrink.

For this reason we are Christians, and have the gospel, that we may fall into distress and lowliness, and that God thereby may have his work in us.

Point number two is this God's unmerited favor awakens in us a song of praise.

God's unmerited favor to us, it awakens, it empowers, it animates love and gratitude back toward him.

We could say our hearts respond in worship when we come to know grace without conditions.

I mean, look at Mary's song.

She's responding to how great and good God is.

She's just describing him.

She's rejoicing in him.

Verse 47, God my Savior.

48, he has looked on me.

49, he is mighty.

Holy's his name.

50, his mercy.

51, he's shown strength.

52, he humbled the proud.

53, he filled the hungry.

54, he helped his people.

55, he spoke to us.

Now we're not always joy-filled and praising.

I mean, sometimes I can be a real pill.

Like specifically on Mondays in the month of January.

Don't ever evaluate your life on Mondays or the month of January.

You're still human in a broken world and you have disappointments.

Life has not cooperated.

It can be tiring, it can be disappointing.

You can be tiring.

You can be disappointing.

You're not as put together at your age that you thought you would be.

I promise that.

I'm not.

46.

Thought I'd be a lot further along.

And my hip hurts.

And the front of my left shoulder started hurting this week.

I was watching rotator cuff videos.

It's like, maybe, maybe, I don't know.

But we have a source of peace and hope and joy that interrupts all of that.

And it's more profound than circumstances.

It's more secure than our abilities.

And it's not because you've earned it or because life has finally cooperated with you.

It's just because we're favored and loved by God and Jesus to us exactly in our place of need.

Listen to these few verses of God's unmerited favor of you.

Psalm 103.10.

He does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities.

That's a big deal if you've messed up.

Titus 3, 4 and 5.

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, he saved us.

Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

1 John 3, 1.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us.

That we should be called children of God.

And so we are.

It's enough to know what you say about me.

That I'm yours.

That I'm forgiven.

That I'm righteous in you, that nothing can separate me from your love.

And that's point number three.

Christ, God's word to you, is the secure announcement of favor our hearts need.

If you're wondering what God thinks about you and how he feels about you, you need only to look to Jesus.

Christ's secure announcement.

In 1939, Robert May, while working for a department store, he wrote a story as a promotion.

Here's the book of that story.

Rudolph, he wrote this, and in 1939 he handed this out in the department store.

You can buy that book for$500 on eBay, quite a deal.

And then 10 years later, it was turned into a song.

In 1964, we get the cartoon movie, right?

Poor little Rudolph.

He didn't play the reindeer games.

He was mocked.

He has a defect.

His nose lights up.

And then one night Santa needs that, and Santa chooses him, right?

Remember this?

Part of the song?

Rudolph with your nose so bright.

Won't you?

Very good.

First service didn't do that.

Just left me hanging, just left me hanging.

For almost a hundred years, we have loved this story.

Why do we love this story?

Why is it so enduring?

Well, if you're like me, you feel a little bit like Rudolph.

You feel a little defective.

Maybe you're too tall or too short or too wide or too this or too that, or at least on the inside you feel whatever.

And into that need we're chosen.

It's a shocking act of favor.

I choose you.

It changes everything else.

The entire story changes because the person in power sets love and attention on the person in need.

We spend a lot of energy grasping for favor.

Am I okay?

Am I enough?

Can I get it from other people?

Will you favor me?

Will you favor me?

Will you favor me?

That's tiring.

Does God favor me?

Does God favor me?

That's tiring.

We do it how we look or how we dress or what we drive or who we know or what we've done or where we've been.

And God steps into all that self-justification, self-righteousness.

I will justify you through Jesus.

I will make you righteous through Jesus.

Into our humble estate, he says, In Christ I forever favor you.

In 1481, Sandro Botticelli he painted this work.

This is the magnificant.

This is Luke 1 and 2 compressed in time.

So it's not linear in time.

You got Luke chapter 1 and Luke chapter 2 all compressed into this image.

Luke 1 · chapter mention Luke 2 · chapter mention

And you know that because you got baby Jesus there while she writes the magnificant.

She's sitting at the center, surrounded by five angels.

They're attending to her.

They're offering her crowns while she writes, My soul magnifies the Lord.

See, Mary's favor does not come from her achievement, it's coming from God's mercy.

And the point of the painting and the point of the passage is God's grace crowns the lowly.

In Christ and the gospel, our sins put upon him on the cross were fully forgiven.

God's grace crowns the lowly.

We are of humble estate, but we're lavishly loved.

Favored.

And this is what we have in Jesus.

Let's close with a historic prayer written for this third week of Advent.

And you can close your eyes, you can receive this prayer.

We're gonna have it on the screen.

You can kind of read along if you want to.

But let's close together.

Let's receive this joy that interrupts our weariness and our need.

Heavenly Father, we come before you, stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.

And because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory now and forever.

Amen.