This is part of the Advent and Christmas worship series
"Remembering the Future"
Series Introduction
Advent 1 | Advent 2 | Advent 3 | Advent 4
Christmas
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Service Elements
Gospel Reading
Luke 1:39–56
Call to Worship
Our souls magnify the Lord!
Our spirits rejoice in God our Savior!
The Mighty One has done great things for us!
Holy is God’s name!
—based on Luke 1:45-55 NIV
Let us worship God.
For God is our Maker and our Redeemer;
from generation-to-generation God gives mercy.
People of God,
grace, mercy, and peace
from God the Father,
Christ Jesus our Lord,
and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Advent Wreath Suggestions
Song
"People in Darkness Are Looking for Light" Carlson
The children’s choir sings stanzas 1–3, plus the additional stanza provided for the second Sunday in Advent.
Reading
Today we light the candle of peace, knowing that Jesus alone can make us feel at rest and calm in our hearts. We remember that in Philippians 4 Paul wrote, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”
Prayer
Dear God,
give us the gift of Jesus and the Spirit
so that our hearts can be calm and peaceful.
Help us to know how close you are to us all the time,
and help us to show you and your peace
to other people too.
Amen.
Sermon Sketch
Mary. She takes center stage in today’s lectionary reading, singing a remarkable song about the toppling of the proud and the exalting of the lowly. But although Mary proclaims truths that are near the core of the gospel, this does not mean she had it completely sewn up in her mind. The process of casting down and lifting up of which Mary croons will begin with the life and Mary. She takes center stage in today’s lectionary reading, singing a remarkable song about the toppling of the proud and the exalting of the lowly. But although Mary proclaims truths that are near the core of the gospel, this does not mean she had it completely sewn up in her mind. The process of casting down and lifting up of which Mary croons will begin with the life and ministry of her Son. Thus, Mary will end up being pretty close to the action, but it won’t be easy on her. Being close to God’s “action” in history seldom is.
When we read Bible stories about God’s chosen people, we tend to regard such chosen folks as the lucky ones. Perhaps at first the likes of Abram and Mary felt the same way. At first it looked as though being chosen was like winning the lottery. But suppose you were able to ask any of those people what it felt like to be a chosen saint. You might be startled by their answers.
Ask Noah how it felt to be the survivor even as he listened to the increasingly faint and diminishing cries of the drowning people outside the ark. Ask Abraham how he was enjoying being the father of the faith even as he prepared to plunge the dagger into his beloved Isaac’s chest up on Mount Moriah. Ask Mary how it felt to be the highly favored one of God when her Son turned her away one afternoon, claiming that his disciples were his real family now. Or catch up with Mary at the foot of the cross and ask her how she felt watching the life ebb away from her boy.
In Hebrews 11 we read a famous litany of biblical heroes. They all did wonderful things for God, the author writes. But in the end he sums up their saintly lives this way: “They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them from a distance . . . and they admitted that they were strangers on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13).
Once God taps you the way he tapped Abraham or Mary or all the rest, you suddenly realize that you are a “stranger on the earth.” Suddenly you find your whole life staked to a passel of promises that—in this life—mostly remain just that: promises. We keep journeying toward what Shakespeare once called “the undiscovered country,” by which he meant the future. Along the way we see evidences of God’s presence and care. But at the end of the day, when our lives draw to their close, what we still cling to are the promises of God. It was no different for those we call “saints” or heroes.
But we resist such a scenario. We want the roads of the saints to have been smoother, their vision clearer, their sense of ultimate fulfillment keener. We prefer the confident Mary of the Magnificat to the Mary we meet elsewhere in the gospels: the mother who at times seemed confused, hurt, even peeved at the antics of her Son.
When Mary sang in Luke 1 about the exaltation of the lowly, could she ever have envisioned just how low her own Son would have to go on his path to exaltation (or how low it would drag her too)?
The last mention of Mary in Acts shows her in prayer. It’s a picture of an ordinary woman, not so very different from any one of us, struggling to keep holding on, albeit from a distance, to the promises of God in a world where it mostly does not look like the proud are in retreat in favor of the lowly. In that simple, humble posture of faith and prayer, we see the truth of the Magnificat as it should be seen also in our lives—that it is precisely such lowly folks whom God has lifted up and crowned with the good things of his grace.
Music Suggestions
Organ Pieces
- “Hark! The Glad Sound!” by David Cherwien, Interpretations based on Hymn-Tunes, Book 5 (AMSI SP-102, 1985)
- “Chesterfield” by Theodore Beck, Fourteen Organ Chorale Preludes (Augsburg 11-6156, 1985)
- “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” by Anton Heiller, Choralvorspiele alter Meister (Peters 3048, 1951)
- “Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland” by Johann Sebastian Bach, Bach Orgel Werke, Volume 5 (Peters 244, 1928)
- “Savior of the Nations, Come” by Paul Manz, Ten Chorale Improvisations, Set 1 (Concordia 97-4554, 1962)
Hymn Suggestions
- “Hark! The Glad Sound! The Savior Comes”Doddridge
- “Savior of the Nations, Come”Luther
- “Song of Mary”Westra
- “Tell Out, My Soul”Dudley-Smith
Choral Suggestion
- “Prepare a Way for the Lord” by Michel Bedford (with handbell accompaniment).
Revised Common Lectionary
Year C: Advent—Fourth Sunday of Advent
