Balance by Faith - December 8, 2019 - Luke 1:46-55

Theme: Balance by Faith

Luke 1:46-55: And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷ And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. ⁴⁸ For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. ⁴⁹ For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name. ⁵⁰ And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation. ⁵¹ He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. ⁵² He has put down the mighty from their thrones, And exalted the lowly. ⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things, And the rich He has sent away empty. ⁵⁴ He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, ⁵⁵ As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever." 

How do you stay balanced in life? One of the features of maturing into adulthood is having the ability to cope with the ups and downs of life and stay balanced, or keeping an even keel. Even that phrase, “even keel” gives us a picture of what it means to stay balanced. It comes from the picture of a boat staying afloat on the waters. To be “even keel” means that despite the tossing of the waves, the ship remains right side up and functioning.

So how do you successfully stay balanced? Much ink has been spilled by people to answer that question. In order to stay balanced you must first know what puts you out of balance. Some major contributors to an unbalanced life are: stress, anger, negativity, and evil. It’s a difficult, life-long task in keeping these threats at bay. And no matter what one believes, all people know the difficulty in staying balanced.

As believers, it’s entirely appropriate that we look first and foremost to God in helping us stay balanced. But what exactly does God tell us?

First, God’s Word clearly tells why there are so many options out there. The reason is the natural knowledge of God’s Law that all people have in their hearts. The Spirit tells us in Romans 2: For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them (Romans 2:14-15 – ESV). In this context the word “Gentiles” means those who do not believe in God and do not have His Word. Even unbelievers have a basic knowledge of right and wrong because God has put that in their heart. Therefore, it’s only natural that people would seek principles and teachings for doing good and keeping that inward law in their hearts. And so, by nature we seek many different ways to satisfy that inner feeling of God’s law. We gravitate toward self-help methods, counseling techniques, and moral philosophies. These are not bad things but they cannot keep up perfectly balanced. Because there’s an ever greater problem that we face than evil, anger, hostility, and stress. It’s our own personal sin and unrighteousness before God. We can’t keep ourselves perfectly balanced because we’re at the core of the problem.

This is precisely the point that we enter with the thoughts of our text for today. We need help from outside of ourselves, and it comes through Jesus – the child born of Mary. As we talk about keeping balance, think of all that was going on in Mary’s life at the point of our text! An angel has recently appeared to her announcing that she would give birth to the Savior of all people. We’re familiar with the happiness and joy of this scenario because we have portray it that way. But this message was highly scandalous to Mary. It meant she would be judged as an adulteress by her culture, even though she wasn’t. It meant that her relationship with Joseph, her husband by all intents and purposes under Jewish law, was now in serious jeopardy. She was confronted with a situation that would cause great pain for her life – both physically and mentally. Talk about losing balance in life; Mary had plenty of reasons to be stressed! Yet in this song of praise the main theme she speaks about is balance and the peace that comes from it.  

The key thought from Mary’s song comes in verse 48: “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.” The question that naturally comes forth is what it means that Mary is “blessed,” particularly when it says that all generations will know this and acknowledge it. The phrase “all generations” conveys both chronological aspect of generations and the topical aspect of nations. Mary’s blessedness is known by the entire world and throughout all of history. We certainly can see the fulfillment of this thought today. Mary is highly regarded by all Christians and the Christian faith has indeed spread throughout the entire world. So, given the fact that this statement has come true, how should be understand Mary’s blessedness? We know well that many Christians take this blessedness beyond the rest of Scripture, going so far as to say that Mary has become a greater person than others and that she is even to be worshipped and prayed to. 

But a simple reading of Mary’s song takes those false beliefs away. Not only does Mary categorize herself as “lowly” she also goes above and beyond to emphasize the power of God. Nine times she uses the phrase “God has…” And each of these statements helps explain why the blessedness of Mary was a gift, not something she earned. Mary confesses that:

1) God has regarded her lowly state

2) God has done great things for her.

3) God has shown strength with His arm.

4) God has scattered the proud.

5) God has put down the mighty from their thrones.

6) God has exalted the lowly.

7) God has filled the hungry.

8) God has sent the rich away empty.

9) God has helped Israel by showing His mercy.

There was nothing special in Mary that she should be chosen by the Lord to give birth to Jesus. But equally important, there was nothing she would face or be subjected to that God could not overcome for her. And so, Mary “rejoiced in God, her Savior, the very child who would be born through her. The child that received his flesh and blood from Mary, would use His very body to rescue her, and us, from our sins. And restore balance. How did this awesome miracle take place? Well, the easy response is by God’s power. After all, all things are possible with God, not just those things that we can understand and compartmentalize in our minds.

The tougher question is how did Mary believe this. Because, her faith was the most fragile aspect of this story. It’s not that the birth of Jesus hung upon Mary’s intuition or spiritual insight. Rather, it was the same way it is with all of God’s promises – did Mary believe it? The same pattern plays out over and over again in our lives. God speaks – we hear – but do we listen and believe? God makes His Word clear as it can possibly be – despite the many arguments to the contrary in our culture. It’s not a problem with the Word, or with God who speaks it, but with our unwillingness to believe it.

To see how great the difference can be, consider another situation that was similar to Mary’s. Another woman in Scripture, confronted by an angel, albeit in a different way to a much different result. It was Eve, when tempted by Satan, who made the decision not to believe what God had said. Instead of heeding God’s warning not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Eve believed the lie and made a piece fruit more important than God. She chose to worship and serve the creature, rather than the Creator because she didn’t believe God’s Words to her.

It might not seem like it, but the same temptation was present for Mary that day when Gabriel called. The power to make the virgin birth possible was not in Mary’s faith – the word of God was already in effect. Faith simply receives God’s power. But Mary had the opportunity to trust more in her thoughts, in her concerns, in her worries, in her power, than God’s. She was at the same crossroads as Eve, the mother of all the living and the first one to allow death into world. And as hard as it was, as unbelievable as it was, as uncertain as it was, Mary believed God. Verse 38 records her reply, And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word."

Faith is not a complicated thing. It’s a simple as that one passage. Mary believed – and all the power, all the work, all the sacrifice, all the glory – was God’s. Mary’s faith simple received the salvation that Jesus won for her. But the other special part of this story, and the reason why we remember it at Advent, it because Mary’s faith impacted yours as well. When she relied on God even though her life was being tipped upside down, it meant that your Savior and Lord would be born as God had said. It was one more step along God’s fulfilled promises of sending a Redeemer for the whole world.

So, take time to be thankful for Mary and her faith. Appreciate it, learn from it, keep telling the story. As God said, so it is, All generations will call her blessed. But more important, find your balance in life in the same place Mary found it – in Jesus. He is God, your Savior, too. He is able to take whatever you’re going through and turn it into a blessing for you. He can repair any heartache. He can heal any wound. He has covered all sin.

When Jesus calls to your life through His Word, it probably won’t be through an angel, and it definitely won’t be as a serpent in disguise. But when He calls, and He will often, whenever your Bible is opened in fact – listen and believe. Faith is not complicated. It is simple trust in God’s Words and His Words are clear and plain to us. Mary was a humble and lowly teenager who had just been confronted with the greatest biological impossibility that mankind has ever witnessed. Instead of fleeing to lesser idols of human imagination, wisdom, or intellect – the low-hanging fruit – she responded in faith and trust in her Savior – “Let it be done according to Your Word.” That’s what staying balanced looks like and it’s a gift from God’s power and mercy in His Son, Jesus. Amen.