Beeson podcast, Episode 473 Christy Harper Dec. 3, 2019 Announcer: Welcome to the Beeson podcast coming to you from Beeson Divinity School on the campus of Samford University. Now, your hosts, Doug Sweeney and Kristin Padilla. Doug Sweeney: Welcome to the Beeson podcast. I am your host, Doug Sweeney, here with my cohost Kristen Padilla. Today we're beginning advent, which officially began on December 1st with a sermon preached by one of our own colleagues here at Beeson Christy Harper. Kristen, would you please introduce Kristie and today's sermon? Kristen Padilla: Thank you, Doug. Yes, and welcome everyone to today's podcast episode. Christy Harper is Beeson Hodges, chapel curator, and a graduate of Beeson having earned her MDiv degree in 2013 Christy is married to Chris and they have two precious children, and Christy preached this fall 2019 semester during one of our weekly community worship services on the passage from Luke 1:46 through 55 known as Mary song or also the Magnifact. She preached this sermon as part of our semester series on songs of scripture. This was a rich, personal, engaging and biblically faithful sermon, which we believe will encourage and aid you in your walk with Jesus Christ. Especially this advent season. Doug Sweeney: Many of you already know and love Christy, but for those of you who don't, let me just testify that she is a gem. She is a crucial part of the ministries of Beeson Divinity School. And the sermon you are about to hear is one of the best sermons I have heard in a very long time. So let's go now to Hodges Chapel and listen to our friend and colleague Christy Harper. Preach on Luke 1:46 to 55 the Magnificat. Christy Harper: An old Testament reading from the book of Zephaniah chapter three verses 14 through 20 sing aloud, O daughter of Zion, shout O Israel, rejoice and exalt with all your heart O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He has cleared away your enemies, the King of Israel. The Lord is in your midst. You shall never again fear evil. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, fear not O Zion. Let not your hands grow weak the Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you by his love. He will exalt you with loud singing. I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival so that you will no longer suffer reproach. Behold at that time I will deal with all your oppressors and I will save the lame and gathered the outcast and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. Christy Harper: At that time. I will bring you in at the time when I gather you together for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth when our story or fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord. It's the word of the Lord. Christy Harper: Reading from Luke chapter one verses 46 through 55 and Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all the generations will call me blessed for he who is mighty has done great things for me and Holy is his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. The word of the Lord. Christy Harper: Good morning Beeson family. I am overjoyed to be with you and to serve you in this way today and I have felt your prayers. They have been most precious, so thank you for your love and your encouragement and I've been praying for you. Send me the Lord bless this time together. Well, some months back as I was actually thinking about this day in this sermon, I came across this gold mine of a resource I hadn't seen in years. It was a dusty old brown notebook with an inside cover that very humbly stated, Christy's commentary, old Testament and new Testament. And on my 12th birthday, my parents had said, if you read the Bible in a year and write a summary paragraph on every chapter on your 13th birthday, we promise you it will be worth it. There was this idea of a prize in sight along with reading scripture and sure enough I did it because I wanted the goal, but also it was a precious way to have the word stored up inside of your heart. Christy Harper: So when I found it, I was very curious to know what did 12 year old Christy have to say about Luke one and Mary, anything at all? And I had thoughts. The 12 year old Christy said, I wonder what Mary felt like after the angel visited her. Amazed, confused? Probably really happy to be the mother of Jesus and God, you certainly pick the right mom for your son end quote. And should you need this resource for any sermons or exegetical papers in your future that's available to you in my office. You can come check it out. But as cute as that is, it struck me as I read these very innocent words, but I wasn't actually that far removed in age from Mary when she first heard this word, and so I began to wonder what did she think? What did she feel? What did it cost her to actually believe that this was true? Christy Harper: So I realized that we don't know all the answers to those questions, but if you will put your sanctified imagination on just a little bit and picture a young girl leaving on a trip. Because before we get to what she says, verse 39 tells us she gets up and she goes, and this trip is highly important for what she has to say. So picture a young girl leaving in a hurry. Maybe she forgot some things to pack because it's a 70 mile trip from her hometown to where she's going to end up. She doesn't have much, so she couldn't have forgotten that much anyway. It's a busy road. There are plenty of Roman soldiers along the way because she's in occupied territory. She's a conquered person of a conquered people and no way is this safe for her because she's also betrothed and it would not be permissible for her to travel outside of her home outside of her village, much less on an actual trip away. Christy Harper: So it's costing her everything and on 70 miles, which is a long time by car, but by foot, that's a long time to think about what you just received. So she has the opportunities to replay Gabriel's words from God to her and she can hear it in concert with Psalms, with the Torah, with the wisdom literature, with the profits, and it starting to make a little bit more sense, even though she doesn't know how all this is going to happen. She's letting the word of God be the lens through which she's received the word of God for herself, which is beautiful. But 70 miles is also a long enough trip that there could be other voices coming in to whisper to her as well. Right? Plenty of time for the enemy to whisper. Very old, very familiar lies that he's very good at. Did God really say, Mary, did you really hear him correctly? Christy Harper: Why would he have picked you? You are worth nothing in the eyes of the world. And also Mary, Joseph. Let's not forget about Joseph. What is he going to say to you? What is he going to do to you? Because when he does what he's probably going to do, how are you going to raise a child on your own? How are you going to care for God's son if this is actually true? Any of those lies and those doubts ring true for you. Maybe when God's word has come to you and you just don't know how it's all going to work, you just don't know. Maybe you were wrong. Nothing seems to make sense. This is too good or this is too hard. But despite her fears and the unknown, she's letting the word of God dwell in her richly and letting it comfort and clarify for her what she's been given so that when she actually gets to her destination at Elizabeth's house and Elizabeth confirms and affirms for her everything she heard. Elizabeth says, blessed is she who believed what was spoken to her. Christy Harper: Mary, my baby's going nuts. I can feel him. He knows. He knows even inside of me, this is true. Mary, you heard the same God that spoke to Adam and to Eve and to Abraham and to Moses and to Joshua and to the prophets. He has spoken to you and it's true. It's absolutely true. And so I think this is why we need to hear the Magnificat today with fresh ears. I know I do. She models true obedience and costly discipleship. Every part of her, literally every part of her is making room for Jesus to come in and have a home. She is no longer the same ever again. Everything about her has changed and what she tells us though, a beautiful song, all the greatest composers have tried their hand to pin it down and express the beauty of it. It's also a sermon song. Christy Harper: It's a prophetic word going out with the living word being incarnate right inside of her as she's speaking, this is the message we need to hear today. We need to know that there is a Messiah who can deal with the oppression, with the sin and with the brokenness and give hope because he is mighty. Do you need a God who is mighty? I do. We do. But do we actually need a God who is mighty? Like any good song, she has repeated words and phrases and images that pop up again and they all revolve around what I believe is the central chorus. Verse 49 he who is mighty has done great things for me. And Holy is his name. It has beautiful poetry, rich imagery, swift action. And we can see her using similar words, similar phrases, similar tones that Gabriel had spoken to her from God and she repeats it back in her own song. Christy Harper: So listen to what Gabriel says in connection with what Mary says. Greetings. O favorite one. You have found favor with God. All generations will call me blessed. He will be great and be called the son of the most high. He who is mighty has done great things for me. The child to be born will be called Holy. Holy is his name. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones. Do you hear how she's echoing the promises back to God and how in the first section verses 46 to 49 she's dealing with, this is what God has done for me, my soul, my spirit, my savior. I am his servant. All generations will call me blessed. He who is mighty has done great things for me. It is deeply personal for her. When she says my soul, my spirit, it's a way of saying I've got nothing left. Christy Harper: It's all there on the table for you. Every part of me is given up in worship and in praise and an honor to you, and who does she rejoice in? God my savior. I believe she has some familiar words that she would have been thinking about from our sister Hannah early on in first Samuel two. Hannah uses this phrase, the God of my salvation. So she has this in mind, but I think also she just might also hear our friend Habakkuk the prophet who also uses this word, God of my salvation. In Habakkuk chapter three and both Hannah and Habakkuk, they use this phrase to say this is how God has delivered me. But also if we have a God who is a savior, he's also a God who will bring a day of reckoning. And for anybody who sets him or herself up against him, it will not stand. Christy Harper: This is the kind of savior who we have. So this is going on in her mind as well. So she rejoices, she rejoices in God my savior. And why does she rejoice in him? Because he has looked, he has seen, he has remembered, he has chosen, she's not a pawn, she's not a player in his game. She is deeply loved and seen by the God of all creation and all the universe. And yet even though, she's humble. She doesn't have anything to offer. Literally she's humble in her heart. Yes, but she's also literally humble. She is poor. She knows what it's like to be hungry. She knows what it is to be a conquered person. She's a woman. This is not the recipe for success right now at all, and yet all generations will call me blessed. She knows where she stands in salvation history for all of Israel and for all of her people and what God has done for her and her obedience and her response matters and it will be remembered because this is how God is working. Christy Harper: So this is what God has done for her verses 46 and 49 and then it's mirrored and echoed in the last stanza, if you will, of verses 54 and 55 this is what God has done for Israel. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. Do you hear that phrase echoed again? As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever. I think it's really fitting. She names Abraham as the one to whom god spoke centuries earlier. Abraham is the father of Israel. He was promised a miraculous son. He couldn't make it happen. And also when the word of God came to Abraham, what did Abraham do? He got up and he went. He followed, he obeyed. And so Abraham and Mary, they are parallels of each other. The father of Israel, the mother of true new Israel who is come each called to radical obedience and faith, each unable to make it happen. Christy Harper: And each one chosen and precious and beloved by God, not because of anything that could offer or anything that they had done. This is the kind of God who is mighty, who has done great things. And in verses 50 through 54 she starts to pick up the tempo just a bit to show this is how God has been mighty. This is the kind of God you can expect to act with the coming of her son, the Messiah, these past tense verbs that convey this is what God has done in the past. So this will be true of him in the present and also in the future. You can look back to who he is to see who he will be always and forever. So we look back and we hear familiar phrases and images that we've already looked at the semester already. Verse 51 he has shown strength with his arm. Christy Harper: We think of Moses and Miriam and their song, and Exodus 15 as God with a mighty arm holds the waters back. And when he says it's time, they come rushing right back. The God of their salvation. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. I can hear the Proverbs ringing through in this one simple phrase, the proud versus the humble, wisdom versus foolishness. And while translated proud, it's this word that conveys the sense of who I am. What I can do is actually greater than any other power. So essentially it's this idea, this God might be mighty, but I'm actually mightier what I can do, what I can offer, who I am. It's far greater. It's a word that conveys that doesn't matter who stands against them, they're always going to be secure. But we see this inward reality of pride has an outward reality as well too. Christy Harper: Because though we know many who are proud, we don't always get to see it and see the results. But this God, he acts and he does because he has brought down the mighty from their thrones. He has exalted those of humble estate. Think of all the Kings of Israel and Judah who never measured up. You think of all the kingdoms who came against them, who are once powerful and then gone. You think of all the people that Mary had seen come and go as rulers and puppet Kings. She knew power was fleeting. She knew it wasn't ever actually going to last, and yet this is a Messiah, a God who lifts up the humble, the lowly. This is good news for her and for her people because they have been brought low time and time and time again. They need a God who is mighty and a God who was a deliverer. Christy Harper: And while this Messiah, this God can act on the big, the global, the powerful scale, he's also concerned, he's also mighty, but the everyday realities of a just society, he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. Mary knew what it was to be hungry. She knew what it was to be poor. She knew what it was to have to depend on every single day. Where's my sustenance going to come from? And this isn't overturning a social order per se. It's not saying all of those who have will suddenly have all their wealth given here and now they get to rule. It's a leveling out. It's a way of saying if you're full, if you're rich, if you're good, if you don't need a God who is mighty, okay, that's your reward. But if you need a God who sees you, who is intimately acquainted with the brokenness and the hardships and the hurt and the pain of this world, you need a God who is mighty. He is there. Christy Harper: He is there for you and he will fill you. Can you kind of feel like the emotion and the energy coming with all of these actions that God has done? It reminds me of one of my favorite stories as probably for many of you, CS Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia and that first book, if you go in order, the first book, the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and the children get into Narnia and everything's cold, things are just not right and they run into this delightful character, Mr. Beaver. Christy Harper: And he starts telling them, this is what's wrong. Things are not right. We're in fear, we are oppressed, we can't the things that this is not the right kind of Narnia, and then he makes the statement. Aslan is on the move, maybe even already landed. Love that. But what I love even more is how Lewis will then tease out what does this mean for the children who hear this name of Aslan who hear this for three of them it invokes feelings of hope, of courage, of joy, of longing, of home, but for another, he's already tasted part of the power, part of the current rule, part of the authority. That's going on and he's attracted to it and he wants it. Christy Harper: For him, it makes him sick, makes him feel nauseous and actually repulses him and pushes them farther and farther away. I believe this is also what the Magnificat does for us as well today, doesn't it? It's good news, good hope. If you need a God who is mighty, that's also foolish if you don't need him, if you're self sufficient and full and satisfied. It's not rocket science. It's just kind of human nature, isn't it? Not much has changed from the time Mary burst forth with this beautiful song into what we see going on today. Christy Harper: We're well acquainted that our culture tells us you and what you can do, who you are. That's it. Invest yourself in yourself. Acquire all that you can for yourself. That's where your power lies. It doesn't lie in your family or your religion or any other other thing that can actually have something greater than you, your it. There are too many ways that we see injustice and oppression by different people, groups and countries being torn apart every single day. We can't even keep up with how evil is just running rampant and innocent people are used as pawns at the whim of powerful people. Christy Harper: Both inside and outside church culture. We've seen people who have created a beautiful platform. Do this like me and you can have success. Write a book like me and then you might have success. Be a pastor like me and then you'll be safe and secure. Don't worry about the small people. Don't go to the rural communities. Go ahead and go and go to their urban. Don't preach what is going to offend. Don't get in trouble with authority. Don't get in trouble with actually meddling how it is that God gets into the day to day affairs of our lives. Preach what's safe. Preach what's comfortable. Preach what's easy. Christy Harper: And haven't we seen time and time again. Yes, those voices might be loud, but they also come crashing down. We've seen them come and go. Seemingly five more take their place, but the word of God endures. Do you need a God who is mighty? Do you need his word to be mighty? How do you sing this song? How do you preach this when it looks like nothing has actually changed that much? While this song did come out of Mary and her heart in a very specific time, she also had to keep singing it to herself because there was still fears and unknowns that she didn't know how we're going to be answered because you notice what God does not promise her through Gabriel. Yes, Mary, you'll be the mother of the Messiah. He will do all these great things, but he doesn't promise her and you will live to see this happen. Christy Harper: He doesn't say you two will come into this kind of kingdom and you will never know hunger again. You will never be looked down on again. The stigma that will be on you for being this kind of mother that will be completely gone. He doesn't promise her that. She knew the risks of pregnancy and childbirth. She probably had friends who had died. She knew her whole self and her whole life. She wasn't guaranteed to actually see any of this take place. And yet she surrenders anyway and she has plenty of opportunities to keep reminding herself of the truth throughout the course of her life. It wasn't an easy go for Mary. Quite the opposite from what the gospels tell us. So she's with Elizabeth, she has to travel 70 miles back home where Joseph's waiting what's going to happen to her then? And then make a trip to Bethlehem. Christy Harper: She gives birth in very less than ideal situations. She and her son and Joseph have to flee as refugees because of an evil King. He uses innocent lives for his own gain and she gets to hold her son safe while she know other mothers can't. Joseph dies. Then the best we know he's not there. She has it plenty of times to look at this, to look at this word, to look at the scriptures and say, how are you going to make this right? Are you still actually mighty? But then she also gets to see her son literally take on the words of her song and scripture and give them life and give them meat. And give them words and give them action as he starts fulfilling what it is that she has longed and hoped for, you can actually hear the words of Jesus and seeing his life echos of this own song from Mary. Christy Harper: Maybe because he had heard her singing it around the house from time to time. His mercy is for those who fear him, blessed that are the merciful that they will receive mercy. He shows strength with his arm. When Peter starts to go crashing through their waves is his right strong arm that reaches down and pulls him back out. It's the same arm that can go to grieving parents who have just lost their daughter and he can reach out with an arm, pull this little girl back up and she starts to breathe. Christy Harper: He scattered the proud and the thoughts of their hearts. Luke and the other gospel writers let us know. Jesus was well acquainted with the thoughts of the proud. Our friends, the Pharisees and the religious leaders. He knew every time they judged him for breaking one of their rules most poignantly later on in Luke seven as Jesus goes to the home of Simon the Pharisee, he knows that when a broken woman with a sexually broken past comes to Jesus for healing, for redemption, for forgiveness, he can hear Simon being disgusted. He can hear Simon saying, who is this? As Jesus gives her worth and dignity and healing. Christy Harper: He's filled the hungry with good things. He could feed thousands and send them away quite full. This is her son. This is Jesus. He is the Messiah. He is this one that she has sung about and she's seeing it come to life and yes, there are those that aren't so pleased with him. There's opposition along the way, but he can handle that because he's the Messiah. It's what he's supposed to do and yes, he starts saying things that he's going to be betrayed and he's going to die and then be raised up, but he speaks in parables all the time. Christy Harper: That's not actually going to happen to him. That's not what the Messiah is going to do. I believe there came a day when I don't think she could sing this song to herself at all because she had to watch him die. She had to stand there and know there was nothing she could do. Absolutely powerless to save him and so in that moment is God still mighty. Really? What kind of power let's God be falsely accused and slapped around and beaten and then put on a cross? Is he mighty? His arm is being held up by spikes. It's not strong at all. It's broken. Christy Harper: He scattered the proud. The only people who scattered are the people who were supposed to defend him and be near him and be closest to him. The proud are actually right over there and they're mocking him. You aren't actually the son of God. This actually isn't true. Save yourself, Caesar, Pilot, Herod, the priest, they're all very safe on their seats of power. Is God still mighty now? I know we know the answer to that question because we're here, but she didn't. She had to mourn and to grieve until lament and to wail. She had to bury her son. I believe it's in the darkest, most disorienting, most shattering places of our souls that we most need a God who is mighty. When all else seems to say did God, really say, is this really true? Christy Harper: When we have been brought so low and when our sin and our darkness overwhelms us, we need a God who is not dependent on our ability to believe in him. We need a God who is so mighty that he waits in the dark too. That's when God the father says, son, wake up and the Holy spirit rushes into his dead body. He gets back up and he walks with a bruised heel and scars on his hands and his feet and a brutal scar on his side, but he has finally crushed the head of that evil serpent. Did God really say yes? Yes he did. Is God really mighty? Yes. Yes he is. And this is the gospel. This is the Magnificat that we need to preach today, that we need to preach to our own souls today. Maybe your soul hasn't hit the breaking point yet. Christy Harper: Maybe you haven't experienced something that has been so terrible. Something so awful that it's been relatively easy. Like, sure you've had pain, but nothing that's made you question, did God really say, is he actually going to bring resurrection in life out of this? Maybe you haven't, but you're sitting next to people and you're always going to be ministering to people who are brokenhearted and who need to know that you worship and you live with a God who is mighty and that the words from your mouth and the actions of your heart, they point to a God who was far greater than anything this world has to offer. Christy Harper: Maybe the excitement of moving to Birmingham being at Beeson is wearing off and you're starting to kind of let those doubts creep in a little bit did God really tell me to do this? Was it worth leaving my family? Was it worth giving up a better career? Maybe as you're looking at graduation, you're saying, does anybody really want me with this degree? Is anybody actually going to hire me? What am I going to do? Like, are they going to make a mistake in hiring me because I know my own self? Am I really capable of serving God's people? Do you need a God who is mighty? Christy Harper: I believe this is a beautiful anthem for the broken, for the oppressed, for those that need a God who is powerful, who is Holy, who is just, and it's also a warning, isn't it? For anybody who says, I don't need you. Anybody who says myself and what I have to offer, that's all I need for anybody who sets him or herself up as an oppressor, as a participant in the ways against this kind of God who is mighty. No matter where God calls us or what our vocation, I believe we've all been given this song to take on for ourselves from the life of Mary and I would love to know. Christy Harper: I know we can't know, but I would just honestly love to know what she did and what she said when she saw her son for the first time back alive. What was going through her mind then as a much older, mid forties Jewish woman who had seen some things, she'd had a lot of years to walk, a lot of opportunities to question, see mighty is a true, but never so much as she had just experienced in the depths of her own darkness, and then she sees him. I can just hear her start to bring up these familiar words as she looks at him and says, my soul magnifies you, the Lord and my spirit, which voices in God my savior for he who is mighty has done great things for me. Kristen Padilla: You've been listening to the Beeson podcast. Our theme music is written and performed by Advent Birmingham at the Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama. Our engineer is Rob Willis. Our announcer is Mike Pasquerilla, our cohost are Doug Sweeney and myself, Kristen Padilla. Please subscribe to the Beeson podcast at beesondivinity.com/podcast or on iTunes.