Sermon - Jeff Raines - Vibrant Praise - [Luke 1:46-56]

Sometimes we silence ourselves and feel like our voices don’t matter.  We may even feel like we don’t have a voice.  

Zechariah was silenced, but sometimes Advent calls for us to speak and maybe even to shout about what God has done.  

Luke 1:46-56 records Mary’s song - her response to what God is doing in her life.  Mary was young, without much agency in kind of an insignificant place.  Nazareth was a small town never mentioned in the Old Testament.  She wouldn’t have thought she had much of a voice either.  The rich and powerful then and now tend to have loud voices, but in this moment, Mary finds HER voice.  

In Luke 1:38, she offers her willing heart:  “Behold, the Lord’s bondservant; may it be done to me according to your word.”  

She then becomes a prophet as she pours forth praise in her song, the Magnificat.  Clearly she has been reading, longing, and listening.  Mary’s song is revolutionary- prophesying about how Jesus will overturn the world’s powers.   It may even make us uncomfortable, but the gospel without discomfort ceases to be good news for the world.  

Mary is exuberant, celebrating with Elizabeth.  We don’t need self-silence, but to exult with Mary:  “My soul magnifies the Lord!”  

God is always with us, knows us, and sees us.  We must magnify the Lord.  We must grow in our knowledge of God’s greatness and how big God is (Psalm 139:1-7)

It’s easy for us to live ungrateful lives.  We need stories of the faith and we need each other.  

“We meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer 

We say with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior because ______________.”

What is your because?  Who needs to hear that from you?