Advent: Of Humble Estate

We're in the third week of Advent, so that's the four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

And so this morning we're going to contemplate this passage that is Mary speaking, the mother of Jesus.

We're going to contemplate it and we're going to at the same time think about our weary hearts and our fragile hearts and what happens as we come more alive to God's astonishing favor of us.

Now, if you remember, Mary was a Jewish girl.

She was probably 13 or 14 years old at the time.

She was a virgin engaged to marry this guy named Joseph.

Now, in the midst of all that, this miracle breaks out in her life.

We read about it in Luke 1 as the angel comes to her and basically says, Don't be afraid.

You're favored by God.

You're going to have a baby, this Messiah that your people have been waiting for, that the world's waiting for, that's going to come and fulfill the law.

Be God's grace to all people, to save all sinners.

I mean, talk about messing up her plans.

I mean, this girl lived in an ancient patriarchal society.

To be pregnant out of wedlock would have had huge ramifications and persecution.

And to that, Mary says, I'm a servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

After this, she goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth.

Now, when she's with Elizabeth, is when she breaks out in this poem, or maybe it was a song, it's called the Magnificant, this passage that we are looking at today.

It's called the Magnificant, because there in verse 46, my soul magnifies the Lord.

Luke 1, 46 through 49.

Let's read a little and make some sense of this.

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.

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.

Point number one is this we grow in joy as we come alive to God's unmerited favor of us.

Mary is rejoicing out of the favor that's been given to her.

When I was in the second grade, my teacher's name was Mrs.

Jordan.

There, little Russ is.

That is a members-only jacket, in case you're wondering.

Like any second grade little boy, I probably had too much energy for a classroom to hold me in.

And yet, this lady, Mrs.

Jordan, every morning when I walked in the classroom, she would look right at me and she would say, Good morning, Mr.

Wonderful.

Now, my sister would not agree with that sentiment, right?

I mean, there's plenty of basis for that not to be true at all.

But guess what?

It's been 35 years.

I still remember it.

I adored her.

Of course I did.

I still adore her.

It's been 35 years.

Because she was making a proclamation of favor over me, even when I didn't deserve it, even on the days I came in being a real pill.

Mary has nothing to offer.

She's nothing but her nothingness and her surrender.

And in response to that unmerited favor announced over her, she says, My soul magnifies the Lord.

My spirit rejoices.

We grow in joy as we come alive to God's unmerited favor of us.

It's what our hearts are longing for.

It's what we're looking for everywhere else in the world.

Verse 50.

She continues in this just poem, in this poetry of praise.

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 two is this God loyally and lavishly favors the weak and the weary.

Loyal and lavish.

Even those of us who are humble estate.

That term humble estate is used twice in our passage.

Earlier this year, the most expensive home to ever be sold at auction in the United States sold earlier this year.

This estate home in Bel Air, California.

That's a house, by the way, in case you're wondering.

That is a house.

It sold this estate, sold for$126 million.

21 bedrooms.

42 bathrooms.

I don't I don't know why.

I don't know.

Who knows?

A wine cellar, full service spa, of course, a gym, bowling alley, movie theater, nightclub, five swimming pools.

A 30-car garage.

I mean, this is extravagant.

It's an extravagant estate.

And it is perfection down to the detail, smallest detail.

Now, 20 years ago in Dekula, Georgia, Christy and I bought our first estate home.

Man, we love that house.

I still love that house.

I could live in that house the rest of my life.

Three-bedroom ranch, half an acre, a little creek in the backyard.

It had a good foundation.

It had some rotten wood around the chimney.

Had to fix that up.

They'd had some problems.

We had a septic problem one time.

We didn't have a swimming pool, we had a hose.

We just hose each other off in the afternoons.

You know, drink from it and hose each other off.

Now I'd love to say that I feel like the Bel Air estate.

Beautiful and put together and perfected.

But most of the time.

And I'll just take a big leap here.

Probably you also.

Your heart and your life just doesn't always feel like the Bel-air estate.

It doesn't always feel that put together.

It doesn't always feel that beautiful or perfected.

We're much more like the humble house.

That needs a little work.

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

That's what Mary says.

Mary says, I'm of humble estate, yet I am greatly favored.

Isn't that amazing?

This is what Jesus is all about.

All the forgiveness.

You hear that favor?

All the forgiveness you could ever need, all the righteousness you could ever need, all the favor you could ever need comes to us in the grace of God, known in Christ.

That's what the cross is.

Our sin put upon him, his righteousness given to us, so we're forever in a position of belovedness and favor.

Even though we're of humble estate.

The best commentary on this passage that I revisit every year when we come around the Magnificant is from the 1500s by the theologian Martin Luther.

Here's what he writes about this passage.

The stress should not be on the low estate, but on the word regarded.

Mary's low estate 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 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 and 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.

It's in the acceptance of our humble estate that we find that we can be rescued.

Point number three is this we sing of God's goodness as we come alive to God's unmerited favor of us.

So we grow in joy and we sing of God's goodness.

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

Favor from God in Christ that we did not earn.

And our hearts grow in joy and sing of his goodness.

Now we can be realistic, I think we should be, that you and I will not always be joy-filled.

We will not always be rejoicing.

Sometimes I am still a pill to be around.

And so are you, in case you're wondering.

You're still human in a broken world where life does not always cooperate.

And it can be tiring and disappointing.

It can be painful.

You're not as put together as you thought you would be at this point.

And your passive-aggressive mom is not either.

Because you're still arguing about the Christmas Eve dinner, and you can't believe it's been going on this long.

My back sometimes hurts when I wake up in the morning.

I somehow missed getting muscles, like filling out.

That didn't.

Coach kept saying, you'll fill out.

Just the world doesn't always cooperate with us.

Our bodies don't.

Life doesn't.

We're not always beautiful and put together and perfected.

But we will experience taste and seasons of joy and of a peace that sort of is more profound than a circumstance.

And it's not because you've earned it, and it's not because life finely cooperated.

But because you're favored.

And you didn't deserve it.

And you didn't earn it.

You don't have to maintain it.

Now we have something to sing about.

If we survey Mary's song, she's just describing how good God is.

She's rejoicing in him.

Verse 47, God my Savior.

48, He has looked on me.

49, for He is mighty.

Holy is His name.

50, His mercy.

51, He has shown strength.

52, He humbled the proud.

53, He filled the hungry.

54, He helped His people.

55, He spoke to us.

This week this led me to three growth and grace questions for us to ponder.

Number one, in what ways am I growing in my awareness of my humble estate?

In what ways am I connecting to that?

Not to be cast into despair, but to be freed in the honesty of who I am.

Number two, we move right into number one goes right to number two.

In what ways am I coming alive to God's unmerited, lavish favor of me in Christ?

How am I being set free by such a love and such favor?

Number three, this Christmas season, what would it mean for me to worship more than whimper and live in gratitude more than griping?

Worship more than whimper and live in gratitude more than griping.

What would that look like for me in this Christmas season?

Pastor Scotty Smith, he writes this about this passage in a prayer.

He prays this I have nothing to boast in but you, Jesus.

You came to me when I wasn't seeking you.

You're being formed in me just as surely as you entered the world through Mary's womb.

I'm a blessed man only because you've done great things for me, and you continue to do great things for me.

Holy is your name, Lord Jesus.

I have no concern for what any generation may say about me.

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.

Point number four, God's word, Christ Himself, it's ultimately God's word to us, Christ Himself, is the secure announcement of favor that our hearts long for.

A few months ago I was in an airport.

I'd been away from family for four days, away from my wife and my three girls.

And it was early in the morning to fly back.

It was a direct flight back with a little bit of a time change, sitting in the airport.

I have my aisle seat reserved, I'm ready to get on the plane, get my aisle seat, I was gonna watch Top Gun 2 Maverick again.

Just keep rewatching that on planes.

It's so good, right?

So good.

I was supposed to arrive home at 4 p.m.

I already had the whole plan.

I was gonna train there, get my bag off the baggage claim.

I was gonna train over the West Deck, get my car, drive home, and be home for dinner and movie with my family.

And then an announcement came over the crowd.

Flight was oversold, overbooked, looking for two people to give up their seats for a thousand Delta bucks each.

Nobody moved.

You know, you kind of look up, nobody moved, but everybody pulls their phone out as we're all figuring out how quick we can get home.

Like, is there like a plane at the next gate and I can be home 30 minutes later?

So we all pull, it's not good.

It's 4 p.m.

to midnight.

Like that's the stretch here.

That's the sacrifice for the thousand bucks.

Nobody gets up, nobody moves.

Because we're we're processing, I'm processing.

I'm like, thousand bucks is a lot of money.

But like I really want to go home.

Like, I really want dinner in a movie.

Like, I really want to go home.

And I'm gonna have to like rent a car if it's too long to be in the airport, and then I gotta spend money in the day.

Another announcement,$1,200.

It's now$1,200.

Conversations are starting.

Okay?

You can start to see everybody talking.

Like, what could we do?

How can we do it?

You know, starting still, no no nobody gets up.

But I make my decision, my price is$2,000.

I probably should have done it for$1,200, to be honest, now that look back on it.

But at the time, I really want to come home.

You know the feeling.

But I'm like,$2,000, that's the point where that's absurdity.

Like, I gotta, I have to.

I can't, I can't just not do it.

Another announcement comes on,$1,500.

Immediately, two people pop up, boom, it's over.

I missed it, it's done.

They get it.

I get home at 4 p.m., I grab my bag, I get dinner in a movie with a family.

Essentially a$1,200 dinner in a movie with my family.

But what if out of what if out of insane extravagance?

Right, just what if?

It's a what if.

Play with me.

The announcement comes on, and the lady who was talking, what if she had said we're ever booked?

We are gifting limitless favor with Delta.

First class seats forever.

I mean, can you imagine such favor from a source of such power and authority and resources?

And here's my point.

I think the point's better than illustration.

Illustration doesn't really work all that great.

It breaks down a little bit, but here's the point.

The point is this we spend a lot of energy grasping for favor.

I do, you do, we all do this.

What's gonna deem me okay or enough or worthy or forgiven?

Just like what can somebody else?

Like, you know, if I get enough approval of other people, favor of other people, status, success, an image, how good we look, how we dress, how well put together we are, how beautiful and perfected the Bel Air state, what we've done.

And all that's incredibly exhausting.

And it's actually our sin.

It's called self-justification.

And God steps into our sin and our mass and all that exhausting grasping that we do into our humble estate.

And he says, In Christ, I forever favor you.

Can you imagine?

Such a lavish favor.

We're gonna close with the collect prayer for this week, for the week of Advent, this third week.

As we do this, as we did it last week, you're welcome to bow in prayer.

You're welcome to read the prayer on the screen as I pray it.

You're welcome to open your hands in a posture of prayer.

However, you would like to posture yourself in prayer.

Let's pray.

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 we honor and glory now and forever.

Amen.