Today we light the fourth candle on the Advent wreath because it is the fourth Sunday of Advent and the last one before Christmas Day!
Today’s theme we focus on is love—God’s love for us; his love that would do whatever it took to make sure we would be with him forever. God’s love would be born as a baby in Bethlehem, in the Person of Jesus, to save the world from sin, death and hell.
Some Advent wreaths have Holly leaves and red berries. Holly leaves are prickly and remind us of the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head on the Cross. The red berries remind us of Jesus’ blood he shed on the Cross to pay for our sins and give us life with God forever. Jesus was born for us to die for us. He took our place on the Cross. That’s how he saved us for life with God forever.
As we look at the Advent wreath, the white candle in the centre connects all the other Advent candles. The white candle symbolises Jesus. It is only through Jesus that we can have true hope, peace, joy, and love.
SERMON: Fourth Sunday of Advent—“God’s love for the lowly”
Advent is such a lovely time of year. It is a time so densely packed with rich imagery and symbolism that point us to the realities of life and salvation that has come from heaven to earth with the birth of Jesus. The Advent wreath is one of the main symbols which itself has layers of meaning. Lights, candles, Christmas Trees, Advent calendars and the nativity scene are others.
When I was in our backyard one morning last week I heard one of the most beautiful songs from a bird I had never heard before. It was so light and joyful, sounding like a tune from a flute. It made me ponder whether a songbird could feature as a symbol of Advent, because so much of the Advent message is proclaimed in song. There is Elizabeth’s song, Zechariah’s song. The angels’ song. And the song in today’s Gospel reading—Mary’s song.
Today’s reading begins with Mary, now pregnant with Jesus, hurrying off to visit the home of Zechariah and greet Elizabeth. Mary couldn’t wait to speak to Elizabeth and tell her what she heard from the angel—the child she was going to conceive would be the Messiah! Part of this divine plan was already unfolding in Elizabeth’s life—she was pregnant with John the Baptist who would urge people to get ready for Jesus, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Mark 1:4). John the Baptist’s first testimony to Jesus, his first heralding of the King, takes place before he’s even born, as he leaps for joy in his mother Elizabeth’s womb at the good news Mary brings.
In the excited conversation between the two women, Elizabeth exclaims to Mary with a loud voice: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why I am so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Notice, though, that with Mary’s song comes a shift. Elizabeth’s focus is on Mary. But Mary shifts the focus away from herself, and onto God: “My soul magnifies the Lord” (v. 46). This song is often called the “Magnificat,” from these first words in the Latin translation of the Bible.
Mary rejoices in what God’s saving love means for her, magnifying God’s love and grace in choosing her to be part of his plan of salvation. God had been faithful to his promise to Abraham and all his descendants, fulfilled in the Christ child conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit. God would trust Mary’s hands to hold her Maker and Redeemer, but Mary declared that she was unworthy of all the honour that God had bestowed on her. Mary admitted that she was a humble servant and, in her song, describes her own lowliness. She knew the Saviour that God was knitting together in her womb was the Saviour she also needed. All she can do is sing of God’s incredible grace and love in using her to fulfil his purpose of bringing salvation to the world.
On this fourth Sunday of Advent, as we look at what Mary truly recognized about God and about herself, we need to likewise recognize ourselves for who we are. God is holy, and we are not! We are sinful human beings who apart from the grace of God deserve only death. To magnify the Lord means not highlighting ourselves or what we have done or can do, but focusing our faith and confidence on Christ in all things. Yet our default human condition is one of magnifying ourselves; one of being proud of ourselves and our achievements towards our relationship with God.
But it is on the terms of humility, not pride, that God seeks to relate with us. In verse 51 Mary says. “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” When I heard the bird singing such a beautiful song in our backyard last week I tried to catch sight of it, but couldn’t, because it was a small bird concealed in the foliage. Have you ever realized that only the small birds sing?” It is the Willy Wagtails, Blue Wrens, and various Finches that give a beautiful song. It is not the proud and mighty eagles or hawks that sing. Sure, they screech and shriek, but they don’t sing.
It was in Mary’s lowly state that God had chosen her to bear the Saviour of the world, and in humility, Mary sings to magnify God. God simply chose Mary because of his grace and mercy. Likewise, God has done great things for us in choosing us to be his own, and simply because of his grace and mercy, we too carry the Christ child, born in our hearts in holy baptism. In him, God has given us new life, simply because of his amazing love given to us in the flesh and blood of his Son to save us from our sins and bring us eternal life. It is not our task to magnify—to justify—ourselves before God or others. But God justifies us. He makes us his holy ones in the holiness of Jesus. He clothes us with Jesus’ own righteousness and gives us the right to be called the children of God, just like Jesus. God says we are not guilty, because of Jesus. God magnifies each of us with his undeserved love and still loves us despite our sinful pride.
During Advent we have reflected on the themes of peace, hope, and joy. God brought all of these to earth in the Person of Jesus when he was born as the Saviour of all. In the timeline of Scripture, today’s reading brings us oh so close to the birth of the Saviour. Mary and Elizabeth rejoice in joyful expectation in what the imminent birth of Jesus will mean. And so on this fourth Sunday of Advent, the theme is love—God’s own love for all people shown most clearly in Jesus, born as the Saviour of the world. As we hear in John’s first letter: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10). As the writer to the Hebrews says—God no longer desires sacrifices and sin offerings, for Jesus has come to set aside the animal sacrifices to make us holy through the sacrifice of his own body, once for all.
This is the Good News we need to hear once again this Advent and Christmas. All around us, we see the gloom of a dark world. The terror attack in Germany, devastating earthquake in Vanuatu. And the ongoing cost of living crisis here, leading to layoffs, failure to repay mortgages and increased crime and violence, make it difficult for many people to see God’s amazing love at Christmas. But the things we see when we look around us—and that which we see when we look deep inside ourselves—show us the very reason we need a saviour. Only a saviour outside of our world could help us.
God came to earth to be this Saviour. He took no short cuts or the easy way out. He came to us in the person of his Son to be born, and give up his own life for you and me by dying on a cross, to rise again from the grave. On the Cross he has cast down rulers from their thrones—the Devil and the Kingdom of Darkness. He has sent the rich away empty, but filled the poor with good things. All of us who are spiritually poor; spiritually bankrupt before God have the righteousness of Christ and the riches of his grace. God has redeemed us from our sins, and made us holy in Jesus, the Holy One. He has won for us the victory over Satan, sin, and death by his precious blood.
In response to God’s love, how do we, like Mary, magnify him during this Advent season? It is when you and I are small and humble before God that he gives us a song of his amazing love. When we understand that we are chosen and redeemed solely by God’s grace and not by anything we do, we sing in thanksgiving and praise. We can join with Mary and sing, “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (v. 49).
When I looked for the bird in our backyard, I couldn’t see it. But I still remember the beautiful song it sang. May it be with us. May we not be concerned about people seeing us, but leaving in their memory the Christian song that sings of God’s great love.
That is a powerful song, because it sings of the One who is mighty—more mighty than world leaders, selfishly blowing our planet to pieces. The One who is more powerful than frenzied and frantic drivers honking abusively in road rage. The One who is more powerful than the abuse, violence, crime and destruction in our neighborhoods. The One who is more powerful than the 29 trillion dollar debt our nation is drowning in, an economic crisis which is breaking businesses and families apart. The One who is more powerful than the forces of nature, swallowing streets in Vanuatu and blazing across Western Victoria. The One who is more powerful than the power of our failing health, our dying and our death.
The love we have received from our Savior is powerful. It changes hearts from unbelief to faith, from pride to humility, from self-justification to repentance, from selfishness to self-giving, generous and grateful love for God and neighbour. He who first loved us fills us with a love that finds new and sincere ways to reflect his saving love to those he brings across our paths each day from now to Christmas and until his triumphant return.
Like Mary and the thousands of other witnesses throughout the centuries, we can tell others of the saving help, undeserved love and mercy of God in Christ, born for us. we can testify to the amazing love of God in Christ Jesus for the great things he has done for us, and still does for us.
What God in Christ still does for us.
That is what Advent and Christmas are all about—not just historical events that took place long ago, but the unseen reality that God still visits us in the flesh and bone of the Christ child today. He is here as our unseen guest, bringing help, grace and love from heaven to the humble, the lowly, the hungry, as he ministers to us through his powerful, life-giving word and sacraments.
Through these means, God still does great things for you, performing mighty deeds every time he forgives you your sins, hiding your guilt and shame in his wounds. He is here to still lift up the humble by pronouncing divine blessing upon you. He still fills the hungry with good things—his holy and precious body and blood that he brings to you through ordinary bread and wine, to bring you all of his saving help from his sacrifice on the Cross.
May all generations call you blessed. For the Mighty One has done—and still does—great things for you in the name of Christ. Amen.
