Advent: You Are Greatly Favored

Well, I uh third week of Advent.

Uh Brad preached the first week of Advent, second week of Advent is the third week of Advent.

Advent is the season leading up to Christmas, different seasons of the year on the church calendar.

Um some of you are familiar with that from your background, some of you aren't.

And so Advent is this season leading up to Christmas.

I I got y'all a present today, uh, Christmas present, but we're gonna wait on it till later.

Sorry, Scott, if I disturb your station.

Scott took over the stage, apparently.

Um we're gonna wait on this, but I got your present.

It's Beyonce tickets.

No, it's not Beyonce tickets.

Okay, it's not Beyonce, don't get too excited.

Uh it's something else, but I didn't buy it.

Uh so that's a hint.

I didn't buy it.

And it's for all of you, although I'm just at some point I'm gonna ask one of you to open it on behalf of everybody.

I'm just gonna leave it there.

Okay, so don't let it bother you too much.

It's just gonna sit there.

We're gonna come back to it.

First, we're gonna talk about Mary.

And so Mary, Jesus' mom, Jesus' mama, Mary was a Jewish girl, probably around 13 or 14 years old, when this whole Christmas story develops.

This angel comes to her and says, it's a crazy story, right?

Miraculous, and says to her, Greetings, O favored One, the Lord is with you.

This is actually how Christy, um, when I wake up in the morning, it's how Christy greets me.

I walk down the hallway, and that's what she says.

I heard it this morning.

Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.

Uh so this scene is called the Annunciation.

There's an announcing to and toward Mary, right?

It's God saying to her, You are greatly favored.

You are greatly favored.

And this is not normal, so she's afraid.

It's not normal to hear an angel speaking to you.

It's not normal to hear this.

You're greatly favored.

This is not a thing that we hear all the time, although we're all wanting to hear it all the time.

So she's thinking, I'm guessing.

I'm guessing on some level, she's thinking, I'm favored?

Like I have no resume.

I'm not religious elite.

I'm a lowly 13-year-old girl who's about to get married.

I mean, like, people don't know who I am.

Right?

I mean, she's just she's like any other 13-year-old girl or boy, or heck, any of us, right?

Like, we just all want to be favored.

Favored by anyone.

And mostly favored by God.

And then she hears this voice from an angel that says, You are greatly favored.

See, it's God's word to her, and this is the defining announcement for the core of her being.

This announcement.

And the text says there in Luke 1, and our text this morning is based on the Book of Common Prayer centuries ago.

These texts were assigned different weeks coming up to Christmas, and so that Isaiah 35, which Janine read, and this Luke 1, these are preset for us.

That's what we're following, these weeks.

And so, in this Luke story of the Christmas story, the text says, uh, this angel saying, Hey, don't be afraid, you're favored, don't be afraid.

Um, don't be afraid.

But by the way, you're gonna bear a son, so don't be afraid about that.

You know, never mind that you're a virgin, but don't be afraid of it.

Call him Jesus.

He will be the son of the Most High, the throne of his father, David, he's gonna reign over the house of Jacob, his kingdom will have no end.

And so he's saying, Hey, this is the Messiah.

All these promises, these prophecies that have been occurring in your people and in your scriptures for a very long time is coming through lowly you.

And she's got to be thinking, I'm about to get married.

I'm in a culture where if you're you're not a virgin, you're not getting married.

And I'm marrying Joseph, Joe, down the dirt path, and we're gonna go camping on the lake for our honeymoon, and everything was gonna be good.

And now this?

And how can this be, right?

So say, how can this be?

I'm a virgin.

How could this even happen?

How could this even happen?

The angel says, Well, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

So that the way in which the Messiah will come will be incarnation, a miraculous coming of God into humanity.

Some of us believe this.

Some of us believe this sort of almost easily.

Like you just have this gift of faith.

Some of us wrestle with this all the time, over and over again.

And I've just been praying this week that even as we hear this story, that we would just have, we would have just new faith in the incarnation.

That if there is a God of love, how could he best show us he loves us?

Except to incarnate himself into our world.

And she responds to all of this.

A lot of news.

There's a lot to take in for this 13-year-old girl.

And she says, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

It's like her saying, Okay, I'll trust you.

So, like I said, Mary's a part of this tribe, this people group, and they believed that they had been chosen by this one true God.

And this was very different than all the other tribes.

Many other tribes in the ancient world, they were creating gods.

And they had lots of gods.

A God for this and God for that, a God for the rain, God for the sun, God for the soil.

They had all these different gods, and a lot of times it would manifest itself into some statue or something, you know, something that they made.

But this tribe, Mary's tribe, believed something differently.

They believed they had been chosen by one true God, and that this true God was spirit, and that this true God should never be manifested into a statue or an image.

And they believed that this God would one day come amongst them and be with them and experience their world, and then in humility die for them.

And that he would give to them despite their weaknesses.

And this people group, this tribe she was a part of, if you read this story, I mean, they're like uh, they're like us.

I mean, they're just kind of flailing about, like, like kind of have their act together at times, then other times the marriage isn't so good, the tribe's not so good, they're losing the battles, the integrity's not so good.

And despite this, that God would come into their people.

And so this promise is developed that the Messiah will come.

And so into this context is Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

This is the context that Mary hears this promise.

So when she hears this promise, she knows what this is about.

She's like, oh, this is the Messiah.

Like, I didn't expect it coming this way, or he coming this way, but but so this is wow, this is it.

And so then she goes and she visits her cousin Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is an older lady, she's past the age of having children, so she's barren, and yet she's pregnant as well.

And so her child becomes John the Baptist, Mary's child becomes Jesus, and Mary is so moved by this vision, this experience.

She's having this gal chat with Elizabeth that we get her bursting out in Psalm.

It's called the Magnificant.

And it's in Luke chapter 1.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

And it's a poem.

She's pulling from some Old Testament references, but it's her own poem.

And maybe she sang it, maybe she said, maybe it's like a spoken word thing.

I don't know.

But it is an outburst, a reaction.

So we're going to work our way through this.

It's in your bulletin.

Luke chapter 1, verses 46 and 47.

Luke 1:46

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

So a few points.

Point number one: joy is the response to good news.

Now, joy is not always the response to good advice.

It's not, right?

I mean, advice sometimes can be good, and you come away from it, you're like, that's great advice.

And sometimes you come over and you're like, they think I'm a moron.

Or you come away from it and you go, like, oh, I've been failing at that that long.

I didn't even know.

But now that advice has shown me, I've been failing at it that long.

Or advice over time can be good to start, and then later it becomes burdensome as you realize you're not doing real well, you know, aligning yourself with the advice.

But good news is different because news is something that has been done, accomplished, it's happened, right?

That's what the news is.

What's the news at night?

What's the news at night?

What's happened already?

So something that's already happened, and then coming to you and saying, hey, here's what's happened.

And joy is the reaction to good news, right?

Like after years of trying, and then you hear, we're pregnant.

That's man, that's that's good news.

Gilmore Girls is on Netflix.

Some of y'all?

Good news.

There's a new Magnum PI coming out.

Good news, some of us, right?

I love the car.

Brad has a pair of the shorts, by the way.

He likes to wear the shorts around.

I like the car.

Good news?

We know good news.

She said yes.

Good news.

It happened.

Verses 48 and 49.

For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

Why?

For he is mighty, has done great things for me.

For he who is mighty has done great.

That's why.

And holy is his name.

So the reason why, you know, blessed Mary is not like, oh, she's so great.

You know, she is so holy.

She's so wonderful.

No, it's like she's so lowly.

And God was so compassionate and mighty to look upon her.

And so here's point number two joy, joy fruits from God's goodness, which is known in your lowliness.

Joy fruits from God's goodness, which is only known in your lowliness.

We can keep reading and make sense of this as Mary just keeps going.

She keeps expounding on God's goodness.

Verse 50, 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 and the thoughts of their hearts.

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

I mean, that's good news.

If you're tired at all, that's good news.

He has filled the hungry with good things.

That's pulling back from that Isaiah 35, Janine read.

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.

So God's not partial to the rich and to the proud.

This is another way of saying God doesn't just go to lunch with people who have their acts together.

Or better put, God doesn't just go to lunch to people who pretend like they have their acts together because I think I've said this, I've said it over and over again.

I've had enough lunches and enough coffees to know none of us have our acts together.

It's just some of us are better at dressing ourselves up.

And it is such good news to go, oh wow, so he exalts those of humble estate.

So when we when we're just like Mary, just humble, like the pretension's gone.

And this is such good news because God is not won over.

He's not won over by us having our act together.

He's not won over by our wallet.

He's not won over by our weight.

He's not won over by our moral standards.

He's not won over by our contemplative prayer for the poor.

I mean, all those things could be great, but he's not won over by that.

That's not what wins him over.

What wins him over is his own love for us.

So the thing that wins him over is not your love for him, but his love for you.

That's the thing that wins him over.

This is why this is incarnation.

And this is why we're secure.

Right?

Because God's favor to you, God's favor to Mary, you are greatly favored.

It wasn't based in how much she loves him.

It was based in the fact that he's coming toward her.

And he loves her.

This is what the incarnation is about, for love for us to know that comes into the world and eventually leads to the cross, right?

Jesus the Christ, who lives amongst us, experiences our world, teaches us, and then leads us to the cross.

And at the cross, the ultimate place where we see all of our shortcomings.

That gap between who we should be and who we are, which we all know in so many ways, that gap is put upon him.

And God says, I'll make the whole thing right.

I put upon you my righteousness.

I will pull you toward me.

There's joy.

That's good news.

It's not good advice.

That's good news.

That's news.

It's been done.

It's been accomplished.

News to you.

And so joy is the reaction to that news.

Martin Luther, the theologian in the 1500s, he said this 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 or the means of the beggar is not to be praised, but the graciousness and goodness of the prince.

So I gave money to my children this week.

There's Christmas shop at the elementary school.

They go to the elementary school Christmas shop and they buy presents for me and Christy and Mimi and Graham's and Grain Grand and a couple cousins and different people, some friends.

And so I give them money, and then they go to the Christmas shop and they buy me a gift with my money.

Right?

Right?

So I give the gift that supplies the means to create the gift that comes back to me.

This is how this works.

And it's great.

It's fantastic.

I love it.

I love that gift.

It's a fantastic gift.

It's better than anything I could go buy.

And in their security in our family, they don't manically walk around depressed about their means or their credit or their inability to gather money, right?

They're not depressed about any of that.

Rather, they speak, they speak about my great ability to give them a$20 bill.

Like this is the glorious act.

Luther goes on.

You must not only think and speak of lowliness, but come into it.

Sink into it.

Utterly helpless.

That God alone may save you.

See, none of it's good news unless you get there.

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.

Gospel's good news.

We have this good news that we may fall into distress and lowliness, and that God thereby may have his work in us.

So point number three, we embrace our lowliness, but we sing of his goodness.

Most of this poem, this magnificent, you look at it, she's referring to her lowest state, but she is reacting out of that and just seeing, speaking of his goodness, of God's goodness in general.

So we visit our lowliness.

We constantly visit our lowliness.

We need to face it, we need to see it, we need to experience it, we need to smell it, we need to live in it, rest in it, sink in it, we need to know it and claim it and confess it and repent of it.

We need all of that to know ourselves.

And only then is there any good news from outside of us.

Only in some measure of honesty about our condition are we ready to receive some sort of love from outside of us, a righteousness from outside of us.

This week I was just thinking through a few different ways I'm experiencing that.

So in meetings, I get defensive.

I get defensive because I'm prideful.

Because I have the best ideas.

And everybody else's ideas are a little bit under me, and I'll entertain you, but really I come in with the best one.

And there's pride there.

And I talk first because I'm selfish.

Because I got the best idea I've been thinking about all week, and I'm ready to go.

And I need to.

There's insecurity there.

That I'm like that.

There's there's an insecurity, and I need to, I need to know that.

I need to, I need to rest in it, I need I need to get to know that a little bit.

Can I actually ever be free from it having control over me?

And it's sin.

Let's just go ahead and call it what it is.

It's selfishness and pride, it's sin.

It's me self-saving myself out of my own insecurity rather than going, yeah, that's me, and that's not healthy, it's not helpful, it's not loving my neighbor, it's not good for me.

And I need to confess it.

I need to repent of that.

That's not the right way.

I need to repent of that.

And in that, it's not depression of my lowliness.

Because in your lowliness, you're found by his grace.

It's the only place you're found.

You're not found anywhere else.

In the fourth century, Saint Gregory of Nysi wrote, What was achieved in the body of Mary will happen in the soul of everyone who receives the word.

What was achieved in the body of Mary will happen in the soul of everyone who receives Jesus.

Which brings us back to our gift.

Who would like to open it?

Anybody opener?

Need a thank you.

Thank you, Izzybani grown up.

We need grown up for it.

Very sweet.

You were ready.

Maybe you can be a helper.

You want to be a helper?

Okay, why don't you come be a helper?

Um, all right.

And who who would like to open?

Kristen's gonna open.

Are you well first off, are you um my granny sort of like worked the edges and tried to save the paper?

Alright, we want a tearer.

That's great.

We need a tearer.

Okay.

Alright, so um, Izzy, can you help Kristen open this?

And we're tearing here.

This is the goal, to tear.

Find a place to tear here.

You better like it.

Wow, you know.

It's for everybody, it's not just for you.

And you can't take it.

Well, you can take it home, but for a while you can't like hold it or anything.

For a while I can't hold it.

What is in here?

Get in, get in there, Izzy.

Get in there, Izzy.

Oh, ooh, ooh, okay.

Okay, okay.

Hold on, hold on.

Hold on.

Yeah.

It's it is exciting.

Okay, we're not done.

Okay.

Izzy, thank you, darling.

We sit next to mom.

Kristen.

You just hang right there.

Sam and I we we Sam and I didn't rehearse this part.

We're just gonna see what happens here.

See what happens here, see if I can do this.

Not not Beyoncé tickets.

I'm sorry.

That was that level, Sam, somebody.

Sam needs a ladder.

I I didn't really I didn't really find it this week.

Um Amy made that.

Would you read it, Kristen?

Will you read that?

That's your people are greatly favored.

Will you yell it?

You are greatly favored.

Can I sit down?

Yeah, you can sit down.

No, please stand up.

Stay, you're gonna stay out the rest of the time.

You you can take it home, but it's that's for everyone.

Because in the grace of God, in the work of Jesus, you are greatly.

Favored.

And that is the banner.

That is the banner over you.

There's no other banner over you.

It's what happened to Mary.

I do not think Mary was perfect.

I don't think somebody who's perfect speaks about herself in a humble, lowly estate.

Rather, she was lowly enough to receive this banner.

In our sin, we can live by a whole bunch of different banners, can't we?

We can live by a whole bunch of different words.

A word of shame, a word of merit.

But this is the word of God to you.

Though imperfect in Jesus, you are greatly favored.

And to experience Christmas is to experience this: the Christ.

Into lowliness, incarnating himself.

Not just 2,000 years ago, but to incarnate himself into your lowly estate.

Right now.

Right now.

Today.

And see, this is it's only some of you, you're not even getting it right now, but because it's only good news if you're at the break point.

If you're tired.

If you're exhausted, if you're finished.

If you've tried all the other stuff, you tried all the identity curation and formation and manufacturing, and you're just like, oh, this is exhausting.

Or you did the religious merit thing, and it's exhausting.

Or even within the Christian world, like just like you're trying to uphold your standing with God by your works, like that's exhausting.

And then the fullness of Jesus' work and the fullness of this banner, that you are greatly favored, and it's a banner that doesn't go away.

Finally, your soul could feel its worth that's not tied to what you do, but simply who you are and the fact that God loves you.

And at some point, all those other words they just have to start falling away.

The great thing here is the thing that makes us favored is not us, it's the gift.

Right?

So the regard of God, the regard of God to announce to you the favor is the favor.

It's not a favor like with a back end, like, hey, you know, remember that favor I gave you?

It's not one of those.

It's like, no, I'm I am favoring upon you my favor.

You are greatly favored.

So, my brothers and sisters, you are greatly favored.

May you hear that from your lowly estate and may you sing of his goodness.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your goodness to us, and that you come to those of us who are broken and exhausted, no matter what we look like or where we've been, and that your banner over us is favor.

And we praise you for the great security we have, the great relief we have, because of the work of Jesus that is fully sufficient.

May our lives be great worship and honor to you.

Amen.