And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
67 And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
2:12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”
Has God done great things for you? Being Christians we say, “Yes, of course He has, great and marvelous things.” Can you name them? Write a few of them down? How much time in a day do you give to the praise of God? Seriously, out loud, verbal praise? Seconds a day, probably not hours, or sadly not even minutes? Have you ever thought about why we don’t praise the Lord more than we do?
The texts of the Bible that center around the coming of Jesus are filled with singing…people are overwhelmed at the extent that God is willing to go to, to be with his people, to bring mercy, which is mentioned five times in the second half of Luke one…mercy comes and people write and sing songs.
In the texts we read this morning we have what is known as Mary’s Magnificat, “My soul Magnifies the Lord”, we have Zechariah’s Benedictus, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, and then in 2:14, the poem there has universally been known as the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, “Glory to God in the Highest”, by the angels and Simeon’s song in the Temple.
All of these poems have OT roots in fact the opening line of the Benedictus is a verbatim citation of Psalm 41:14. The Magnificat and the Benedictus are both “mosaics” of OT texts. That is, phrase after phrase, sentence after sentence we find a reference to the promise of God revealed to his ancient people. The more careful readers probably noticed that the word sing doesn’t not appear in these texts but rather the word said. I do not want to distract us with all the technical arguments for this but it has been shown quite substantially that the words said and sung are interchangeable.
In Revelation 5 we have a series of similar hymns that were being sung to Christ in heaven. Once the word “sang” is used twice the word “said” is used but referring to the same thing. And then later (14:3, 15:3), we are told that such poems were sung. Not only are we to think of Biblical poems as being sung, as was the Jewish custom, remember the Psalms, but the early church not only thought so but made a to do about singing them, and sing them they did!
The fact is, Christian worship has always been sung, however much the musical style or form has varied from age to age and place to place, that is why the liturgies of the church until only recently, were sung from beginning to end. And don’t you find it interesting that our celebration of Advent and Christmas, in fact the world’s celebration of Advent and Christmas, is filled with music and singing, and more so than at any other time in the year! Does music about the Fourth of July, or Thanksgiving or Labor Day begin 30 days out and continue until that holiday? Even Easter we sing hymns about that Holy Day, for a few days, but nothing like we do Christmas.
My point is that we know Xmas carols or hymns for what they are, we recognize them, in fact most everybody does. The stores started playing them the day after Thanksgiving, and we will listen to them in our cars and in homes for most of the month of December! There is nothing like this in all the world. And although this might seem obvious to you, don’t take this for granted.
Most religions and definitely most philosophies do not have this deep and rich musical tradition. You have nothing like the impressive tradition of Christian musical worship in Islam or Buddhism or Hinduism. Muslims, for example, have spiritual songs, or at least some of them do, but they do not sing their praise to God at worship in the mosque. Singing is at the periphery of their worship not central to it. Their faith is not a singing faith as is the Christian faith. Perhaps that is because they have no salvation history to sing about!
Now of course we have all kinds of Christmas music that is not distinctly Christian; Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, I’ll Be Home For Xmas…if the fates allow!!! However, according to a poll that was announced on the radio, would you like to guess what folks said was the most popular Xmas song? Silent Night. At what other time of the year do you hear hymns to Jesus being sung or played in the public square?
Zechariah begins, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel…” That doesn’t sound so shocking but remember, he hasn’t spoken for 9 months…not a word! Did your parents ever introduce to you the quiet game? Maybe on a long car ride…they say, let’s see how long we can go without talking! You knew what they were up to.
Remember, Zechariah has been mute, unable to speak for months, close to a year, but he knows that he will speak again, because the Angel Gabriel told him he would speak AFTER his son is born. He has had 9 months or so to think about what he is going to say…waiting this long to finally get to say something and as soon as his dumbness is removed he gives praise to God…And his poem becomes a song of the church!
Let me point out just a couple of theological gems from this song, both of which are worthy of our consideration.
Today we are not very Biblically literate…Not only do we not know the Bible but we don’t know the connections that make it so beautiful. In Zechariah’s song there are references to Psalm 106, 119, Genesis 17, and 22, Malachi 3, Isaiah 9, 58, and 60.
This is a man who knows his Bible. The covenant promises of God hope in those promises are his life and he sees not a new way of doing things coming to the earth, but the old way, the only way, being fulfilled! His song is filled with scripture…he knew what God promised to do to save His people and now it is happening. And when God does things for His people, His people sing about it, and apparently, they sing quite a bit!
But really this should not surprise us. It is a highly interesting fact that even God sings! “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save…He will exult over you with loud singing!” (Zeph 3:16) God sings…loudly…can you imagine what that must sound like? And did you notice what it is that God is singing about? He is singing…about you! How humbling is that! God sings over US????
If God is singing about our being His, then no wonder the people of God have always known that singing praises, and singing a lot, singing loudly and with deepest feeling is not an add on to the Christian experience but rather carries the Christian experience!
Perhaps part of the reason we miss this is that we do not rehearse the promises that he has made to us. Perhaps, unlike Zechariah and Mary we haven’t made God’s promises the fabric of our day to day lives? Maybe the Lord, His mercy, His kindness to us, is something that someone else has to activate in us before we really think about it, instead of something that pours out of us because we cannot contain it? May this Advent season find our voices warmed and ready to sing the praises of our God!
Prayer: Father, it is so easy for me to wade through the Advent season without thought and without my heart being moved by the tremendous gift of Your Son and the reality of the love and sacrifice You made for the salvation of the world…for my salvation. I pray that I would be struck with fresh eyes and an inquisitive imagination to enter into the joy and wonder of Your love. May I live in awe and wonder this day, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: Noel
