The Joy of God's Upside-Down Kingdom

Biblical joy during Advent looks radically different from holiday happiness. Mary's Magnificat wasn't a gentle lullaby but a revolutionary song about God's upside-down kingdom that lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry. When angels announced Jesus' birth, they chose shepherds - society's outcasts - as the first witnesses. True joy isn't passive emotion but active participation in God's mission to include the excluded and bring hope to the forgotten. This Advent, we're called to embody joy by seeking out those who are overlooked and meeting practical needs in our community.

Transcript

Well, good morning, church. Hey, listen, I'm going to invite you to pull out your Bibles, if you have them. We're going to open up with the Gospel of Luke. We're going to start in chapter one, and we're going to hear today what joy looks like. So this morning, we're going to start in Luke 1:39,56.

If you don't have your Bibles, it's absolutely fine. You can follow along on the screen. But I do invite you bring your Bibles. It makes a difference right in the margins. Underline stuff.

It always gives you an opportunity to go back and relearn some of the things that you've heard already. Hear now the word of the Lord for us today from the Gospel of Luke. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried down to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.

But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord will fulfill his promises to her. And Mary said, my soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on, all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me.

Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear Him. From generation to generation, he has performed mighty deeds with his arm. He has scattered those who are proud in the inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

So over the last couple of weeks, we have lit the candles of hope and peace. And then today, we lit the candle of joy. But I think we have to be honest with ourselves that joy is a complicated word. Right. For many of us, joy feels a little bit elusive.

Maybe joy is something we don't often experience. Sometimes we're happy, sometimes we're content. But what does it mean to be joyful? Oftentimes, we confuse joy with happiness, with comfort, with consumerism, if we're not careful. We think that joy is sometimes found in the gifts under the tree and holiday meals and laughter around the table.

And don't get me wrong, those are all incredible things, and we should be thankful for those things. Don't. Those are not the joy of Advent. The joy of Advent is deeper. The joy of Advent is disruptive.

It's revolutionary. So we know that this scripture that we just read, this is called Mary's Song. If you have it in your. In your Bible, if you were turning there, it would say mary's Song. It's kind of this title for what she was saying.

And around the world, this particular pericope, or this section of verses is known as Mary's Magnificat. When she says, my soul magnifies the Lord, for he has lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. She sings a song that points to who God is. Her song isn't a lullaby. It's kind of a protest.

It was a declaration that God's kingdom overturns the world's values. It was a reminder that God's ways don't look like the way that we expect. God's desire for humanity is that those who've been left out would be included. And God sets the example for us of what this looks like. One of the most beautiful parts of the Christmas narrative is that God's perfect joy is not found in the halls of power, but God intentionally brings joy to those who've been oppressed.

If you've been participating here at Community Brookside for any length of time, you know that I love the concept of the idea of God's reversed and upside down kingdom. This is kind of the idea where God shatters the world's expectations to prove that God wants us to live in a way that's contrary to the rest of human nature, to fight against human pride and arrogance, and instead embrace the rare traits of human humility, empathy, and a desire for justice. When the world glorifies wealth and strength and political power, God reminds us that God values something different than what we value.

God lovingly values widows, the diseased, the broken, the lonely. God always stands on the side of the oppressed and is intentional to bring close those who have been outsiders as another way to prove God's love for all of humanity. God doesn't appoint the arrival of the Messiah, the savior of the world, to a queen or to a king. God appoints the Christ arrival to an Unwed teenage mother, this poor young virgin would be the humble way through which our God would enter into humanity. And as we just read it, brought this powerful joy to this young woman who would have known very few worldly luxuries.

Right. She was filled with a joy that would not allow her to stand still. When the angel spoke to her, she immediately left her home and went to visit her relative Elizabeth, who was also going to give birth to her firstborn. And when Elizabeth, too, recognizes the importance of Mary's pregnancy, Mary responds in song. Have you ever done that before?

Like, something great happens to you in your life and you're like, the world becomes a musical for you, right? Yeah. Some of you, like, I know a few of you, in my mind, I think, yes, absolutely do that. I just. I don't do that very often.

Don't get me wrong, I often whistle around the office. I sing sometimes the songs that we sing on Sunday morning just stick with me all week. And I randomly sing them all throughout the week.

Mary's life became very, very different because of the joy that she experienced in receiving the news that she was going to be the bearer of God.

She had to tell the world about it. And her song is passed down to us in Scripture. We can still hear the joy of her voice More than 2,000 years after the events recorded in the Book of Luke. What many of us don't know, though, is that Mary's song has a bit of a secret to it that I don't think we connect very, very well. Part of the beauty of Mary's song is that it echoes the prayers of a woman in the Old Testament named Hannah.

Do you know who this Hannah is? Some of you might. Most of you probably don't. Hannah's prayer is recorded in the book of 1st Samuel, chapter 2, and was recorded centuries before Mary sings her own song. Hannah's song is also sung in the voice of a young, poor woman proclaiming that God is going to turn the whole world upside down.

The proud will be scattered. The hungry will be filled. The rich will be sent away empty. Hannah's story begins at the beginning of 1st Samuel chapter one. She's living in a time where Israel was spiritually unsettled and longing for a good godly kingship.

She was one of two women married to a priest named Elkanah. So one man, two wives. That's biblical marriage, all right. But unlike his other wife, Hannah had no children. And as we have repeatedly discussed, her barrenness was a source of deep grief and shame in her culture.

Year after year, she went to the temple of Shiloh, pouring out her heart before God, praying that God would just give her a son. And in her grief and her rejection from society, God heard her cry. She would eventually give birth to a son, and that son's name would be Samuel. Samuel would grow to become one of Israel's most important prophets. And he was responsible for anointing the first two kings of Israel, both King Saul and King David.

I want us to turn now to Hannah's song. We can find it in 1st Samuel, chapter 2, verses 1 through 10. Here's what it says. Then Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord.

My horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God.

Do not keep talking so proudly, or let your mouth speak such arrogance. For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warriors are broken. But those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those who are full hire themselves out for food.

But those who are hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has borne seven children. But she who has had many sons pines away. The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and rises up.

The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's.

On them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants. But the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be broken.

The Most High will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his King and exalt the horn of his anointed. So whether we don't know it or do know it or not, Hannah's song connects us to Mary's song. It's important.

It connects the God of the Old Testament to the God of the New Testament, reminding us that God's plan started in the garden and continues through today. Hannah herself is important because she embodies faith, perseverance and a trust in God's promises, even when the world considers her worthless. Her story proves that God listens to the cries of the brokenhearted and acts on behalf of the lowly. Her prayer in 1st Samuel 2 is not just for personal gratitude. It is a prophetic declaration that God overturns the power structures of humanity.

God lifts up the humble, he feeds the hungry, and he brings peace through justice. Hannah's voice becomes one of the first great songs of God's upside down kingdom. In Scripture, she herself becomes an example of what God's reversal looks like. Her proclamation that God's peace is not found in circumstances, but is instead found in God's action to restore what is broken. And in Luke's gospel that comes to us centuries later, Mary stands in the same tradition.

When she receives the message from Gabriel that she will bear God's son, she too sings a song, a song of joy called the Magnificat that echoes Hannah's words of reversal and hope. Both women proclaim that God's peace is not just calmness, it's not just silence. God's peace is reconciliation and it's justice breaking into our world. It's God working to make all things right. Hannah's prayer anticipates Mary's song.

And Mary's song announces the fulfillment of Hannah's vision of the birth of Christ. Together, these two women remind us that God's peace has always been about lifting up the lowly, restoring the broken, and reconciling all of humanity to God's self. And the joy expressed in both of these songs is not simple, sentimental joy. It's radical joy, a joy rooted in God's righteousness. When Mary sings her song, it's not because she's experiencing a moment.

It's not circumstantial, because, remember, Mary's circumstances are pretty precarious. She's pregnant, unwed, poor, vulnerable. But in that moment, she chooses to sing. She sings because she knows that God is faithful. She sings because she knows that God is working to turn the world upside down.

And that joy doesn't stay captured in simple song by Mary. It also bursts into the fields where shepherds are watching their flocks by night. In Luke chapter 2:1 through 21:20, the gospel says this. In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria and everyone went to their town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and the line of David. He was there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child while they Were there. The time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks.

At night, an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord.

This will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly, a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth, peace to those on whom his favor rests. When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let's go to Bethlehem to see this thing that has happened which the Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger.

When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told about this child. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen which were just as they had been told. So again we see Mary, who is an outsider, somebody you would not expect to birth God's son.

And here we see the announcement to shepherds who were also outsiders. These folks would have been considered ritualistically unclean. They were distrusted by society. They lived on the margins, far from the centers of power. Yet they were chosen to be God's first witnesses to Christ's birth.

The angel declared to them, I bring you good news of great joy for all people.

Do you see what God is doing in these moments? God is beginning to entrust joy to those the world leaves out. God does not announce Jesus's birth to Caesar or to Herod. God doesn't send a decree to those in palaces, but instead sends angelic emissaries to the to those who are on the margins. God annoyed.

God announces joy to shepherds in fields.

And it's the greatest joy that humanity has ever known. It's given to people that the world usually excludes, Right? So we see Mary sings In response to her joy. And the shepherds rejoice. They actually run to where Jesus is.

Joy. Sometimes we have to remember that joy is not comfort. Joy for us is a sign of freedom, of liberation in our own time. I think we equate joy to the cool things that we get at Christmas, right? We equate joy to consumerism.

The more we buy, the more gifts we receive, the happier we are. And if you get the last present or the most presents under the tree, that's a big deal, right? We find joy in those little things. I think we get told often that joy is found in more having more, doing more, being more, owning more, achieving more, spending more, right? But the joy of Advent reminds us that joy has to be something different.

The true joy of Advent is found when system of continued oppression are overturned, when the marginalized are lifted up and included, when the hungry are fed.

If Jesus were born today, the same kind of joy that the shepherds spread would erupt from places like migrant camps or homeless shelters or mental health facilities, or in prisons or in minimum wage overnight shifts. I don't think God would show up at City hall to announce that Christ has come again. Joy would erupt in places that the world ignores. Joy would erupt again in places that the world excludes, in the margins. And if we do in fact believe that the joy of the Lord is our strength, then that radical, upside down reversal of joy must also be carried by us outside of this room.

In the midst of a world that's hurting in ways that impact so many of us today. It is our responsibility as believers in that newborn baby Jesus to bring God's radical joy to the world around us. And I don't see Christians doing that today. Right.

Earlier this week, in a place pretty far away from Tulsa, a group of young people sought to bring joy to a place that often looks bleak and lonesome. The Vernon Hills High School Chamber Choir from Vernon Hills, Illinois, took their gift of song to the Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago. Now, Christmas concerts in caroling happen a lot during the holiday season, but this performance was a bit different.

Can you turn that volume down just a little bit on the. Yeah. So this high school choir intentionally sang holiday songs for patients and staff of a children's hospital more than an hour away from their own community. And this performance lifted the spirits across the entire hospital, bringing joy to children undergoing treatment for some of the scariest illnesses known. The halls of the hospital usually filled with the sounds of machines and quiet conversation.

Sometimes tears suddenly rang with music. Parents for sometimes the first time in weeks smiled through tears. Nurses began to dance with the patients, and children who hadn't laughed in days began to sing along. Now, it might not seem like much, but far too often the world forgets those who are facing some of the hardest moments of their lives. Hospitals the joy that Christmas brings can change the mood and bring in itself a kind of healing, right?

These young singers brought joy to a place that there's often too much suffering and too much sorrow. The sounds of children's voices singing Christmas carols transform the atmosphere of a hospital into something more than a place of physical healing. Patients who may not have had family around for them for 247 were given the reprieve of song instead of isolation, music instead of needles and pressure cuffs. One student, one of the members of the choir said, and he was also a former patient, said, it's really nice making people happy.

Even that simple phrase doesn't quite do justice to what this did for for some of the young people here who are working on giving up hope.

So the blessing was not just for those who received the gift of song this week in Chicago, but also to those who sang. Friends, when we get to participate in bringing joy for others, it is a blessing for us as well.

Joy erupted in a place marked by pain and uncertainty. And that joy wasn't shallow happiness. It was a reminder that even in the midst of suffering, God's presence can break through if we're bold enough to let God break through. Just as Mary sang in her vulnerability and the shepherds rejoiced in their exclusion, joy came to those the world often forgets. This is a beautiful reminder that when we lift those up who are forgotten or lonely, we also get to experience God's joy in our own lives.

Another story of joy that hit the news recently was a story of something that happened right here in Tulsa just about a month ago. In November, a number of organizations, including the YWCA, FC Tulsa and Ascension St. John's Sportplex, joined forces to launch a new sports program called Rising Stars fc. Did anybody see about that in the news recently?

This is a brand new soccer league designed for a very specific subset of young people. It's for youth who are refugees. These are young people who've been displaced from their homes and are living here in the Tulsa area. So refugee children, many of whom lost almost everything in their lives, were given jerseys, cleats, and a chance to play with one another for the first time for a while. At first, the camp was quiet, heavy with grief and a Little bit of uncertainty.

But when the children began to play soccer, laughter soon filled the air. Parents gathered to watch. Some of their neighbors joined in. And what had been a place of displacement before for a time, became a place of joy. The circumstances for these families hadn't changed.

They're still living in a country they're unfamiliar with, surrounded by people they don't know, speaking a language that is unfamiliar. Families were still struggling. But in the midst of the struggle, joy broke through. That joy wasn't comfort or consumerism like we've talked about. It was, for these young people, a sense of belonging, a sense of hope, and a reminder that God's kingdom is designed for the outsiders.

Just as the angels entrusted the beautiful joy to the shepherds, God entrusted the gift of joy to refugee children here in Tulsa.

Sometimes we think that there has to be this grand gesture made or a million dollar program created in order to serve people in a meaningful way that brings joy. But I hope you see that these two small, simple examples are reminders that it doesn't take an act of Congress to make people happy. Sometimes it takes us saying yes to Jesus church. I want to remind you that joy is not something that we just feel. It's something that we should fight for.

So all of these conversations, what does it have to do with who shows up in a manger? Right. Is it still relevant for us?

When we talk about joy, it means that we are called to seek joy not in the things that we have, but in the things that we do. How do we, as people who love Jesus, fight for the same kind of justice that God wants us to fight for? How do we become the voice of inclusion for those who've been excluded? How do we become hope for those who've given up on hope?

We have to embody joy through what we do to bring joy in whatever ways we can to whoever we can. Joy for all of us as followers of Jesus isn't passive. Joy for us is active. It's something that is embodied in our choices and our actions and in the way that we live our lives. So, friends, this week and always, may we be people who bear the joy of Christ everywhere we go.

Let us sing with Hannah and Mary the joy of life that changes humanity. Let us be people who sing hallelujah like the shepherds did. Let us embody God's saving desire by showing up where joy is most needed, in the margins of our world and where those who have been left out or forgotten need to be remembered. The angel declared, I bring you good news of great joy for all people. And with God's help and our action, that joy will still break into our world today, friends, we have to be people of joy.

Let's pray.