An Upside Down Christmas
Luke 1:39-56
You can’t get much closer to Christmas than what we are today. If you are all ready, today can be a good breather day before all of the fun and excitement begins. Isn’t it interesting how much time and energy we expend to make sure that Christmas turns out just right. We may try to duplicate Christmas celebrations of the past to help us relive the good old days. We may want to start some new traditions but they have to be well thought out and planned very carefully. We plan, organize, decorate, cook and clean so that everything turns out just perfect. There is no room for surprises. In a perfect world that might work. We know that too often there are things that happen that we never expected or that we hoped would not happen. When they do, they turn our world upside down. No one wants to have an upside down Christmas.
Our Gospel lesson for today picks up the story of Mary right after the angel Gabriel appeared to her to announce that she would be the mother of the Promised One, the Messiah. That news certainly turned her world upside down. She was planning to settle down with Joseph as soon as the wedding celebration could be held. She probably wanted to have everything turn out just right, just the way she always dreamed it would be when she and Joseph would begin their life together as husband and wife. Now the angel told her that she would be with child, a miracle of the Holy Spirit. She then travelled to Judea to visit her relative Elizabeth
Imagine being well beyond child-bearing years, resigned to the fact that you would never have children, and then being told that you would have a son. That just doesn’t happen. But it happened to Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah. Talk about having your world turned upside down. There was a close relationship between these two miraculous events. The child that would be born to Zechariah and Elizabeth would be John, who would be the fulfillment of the prophecies regarding the one who would prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah, the child that Mary was carrying. The conversation that we find in our Gospel lesson between Mary and Elizabeth shows us that the Holy Spirit had revealed to both of them the impact that their children would have on the world. The baby in Elizabeth Elizabeth
It is then in the text that we hear Mary’s song of praise, which we call the Magnificat from the first words of the song. In this song of praise, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Mary speaks of the significance of the recent events in her life that turned her world upside down. Think about some of the lines in that song. Verse 51 says, “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” Often it is the proud who like to show their strength. Yet the true Mighty One who has done great things for Mary, has scattered the proud. Mary, whom the world would look down upon as a humble servant, will be called blessed and the proud would be scattered. What a surprising turn of events. In the next verse she presents another example of the world being turned upside down. The Lord, “has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.” She could be referring to her own situation but the implications of that statement go way beyond Mary and her circumstances. The mighty of the world would be brought down when they stand before the Lord. The humble will be exalted to the bliss of heaven through faith in the Messiah who would come.
She continues this line of thinking with the next couplet, “He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He has sent empty away.” Once again the coming of the Messiah in the person of Mary’s child would turn the world upside down. Instead of the rich receiving all the good things, it will be the poor who will be blessed. When you think about what these passages say, you have to notice the similarity between these words spoken by Mary and the words of Jesus in the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5. In the section that we call the Beatitudes or the Blessed statements, Jesus’ words touched on some of the same themes. “Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart.” It is no coincidence that Mary would praise the Lord for the way in which he works in a way that turns the world upside down. That is what her son, the Son of God, was going to do when he would begin his earthly ministry. His coming was the fulfillment of the Old Covenant, a covenant that pointed ahead to the Messiah in everything that the people were required to do under the Law. When He came into the world, He established the New Covenant, a covenant based on faith in His perfect life and His suffering, death and resurrection as our substitute. He turned the religious establishment upside down. They weren’t ready for that kind of change, even though their prophets had foretold His coming for centuries. They had become comfortable in their way of doing things. The temple establishment was making good profits from their money changing and sale of sacrificial animals. A change in their routine would mean a great change in their life-style and no one wants to do that. Power, prestige, and pride, along with profit can be hard to set aside in favor of a new way of thinking that stresses humility, meekness, hunger for God’s Word and mercy. When it seems like your world is being turned upside down, people will fight against it as hard as they can. That is what the leaders of the religious establishment did. They fought against Jesus until that had Him put to death on a cross. Even when they thought they had put a stop to His teaching, He still turned the world upside down.
We can be thankful that He did. His true Church has been proclaiming that Good News ever since. There have been a few bumps along the road but the Word of God endures forever and the message of salvation by grace for Christ’s sake through faith is still being taught and believed by people throughout the world. Each year we celebrate the coming of Jesus with our Christmas observances. Each year we have another great opportunity to tell more and more people about the love of God shown forth through His only begotten Son who came into the world as a tiny baby and gave His life as the sacrifice for our sins. In view of the fact that there are millions and millions of people who either have never heard that message or have chosen to ignore it, we still have the opportunity to turn the world upside down with the Gospel. Imagine some of the things that we could do in our world today. Imagine in our secularized world being able to draw people’s attention to Christ at Christmas. You might be tempted to say that we do that all the time. But do we? Is our celebration of Christmas centered on Christ or have we drifted just far enough that Christ has become an add-on to our Christmas celebrations. Are we leading the world to Christ or are we allowing the world to lead us away from Him at this time of the year?
We can turn things upside down. With the power of the Holy Spirit, who works mightily through God’s Word, we can start in our own families to influence them to put Christ first in all of our celebrations. We have the opportunity to also have an influence on our businesses, and our neighborhoods and our community. Our example may be just the thing that helps turn our world upside down at Christmas time. It’s not as hard as you might think. A greeting here or there that emphasizes the Christ in Christmas can become contagious. It could go viral. Before you know it we just might have an upside down Christmas. Amen.
And the peace which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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