Capitol Hill & Sellwood United Methodist Churches

Rev. David Weekley, Pastor

December 12, 2010

Luke 1:46b-55

Who, or What Do You Magnify?

When I was a child I loved magnifying glasses.
I thought the magnifying glass was about the greatest invention ever: I loved
looking at all different types of things under them: grass and flowers and leaves,
rocks, water, letters of the alphabet, human hair and feathers.
School was the best place to look through magnifying glass because the largest
ones were at school, and they created the best magnification.
As I read the passage from the gospel of Luke, known as The Magnificat.
I really was drawn to verse 47: “My soul magnifies the Lord” and I thought about
how I used to look at things under childhood magnifying glasses, how different-
how expansive and amplified and clear everything looked magnified.
I am not certain how this word, “magnify” is intended to be understood in the
context of Luke’s gospel, but thinking of my childhood experiences of
magnification helps me think about what it might mean in the context of life and
culture today.
How does Mary’s soul magnify God? How does Mary’s response to God’s
presence in her life lead her to amplify, to expand and make clearer who/ what
God is?
1. She sees all that God is doing in her life as a gift
2. She is willing to endure whatever it takes to live into this gift
3. She understands and declares God’s values: scatters the proud, lifts up the
lowly
There were other choices.
Joseph nearly made a different choice: he almost sent Mary away, divorcing her
quietly to save his pride.
Instead, to quote Robert Frost’s classic poem, they “took the road less traveled
by”, the more difficult and less socially acceptable or advantageous way.
I cannot imagine what Christmas would be like today had Mary or Joseph made a
decision other than to magnify the Lord with their lives; can you?
As I pondered this over during the week it occurred to me the same remains true
today.
Just as every person caught up in the nativity story is faced with a choice to either
magnify God or amplify human despair, we are faced with a similar choice in life.
As we move ever closer to Christmas morning, and everything this means today in
our cultural world, let’s explore together for a few moments what choices we are
faced with in our spiritual world, and how the two intersect.
The truth is that Christmas is both a spiritual time and a celebration of stuff.
For many Americans the celebration of stuff aspect begins on Black Friday, the
day after Thanksgiving, when more than 100 million of us participate in this
shopping rush.
The pace only accelerates through Advent, finally reaching a crescendo on
Christmas Eve, as last minute shopper’s check off the final items on their lists- if
they can find anything left!
Retailers depend upon this holiday season for their financial health, or even
survival because this quarter of the financial year produces most- and sometimes
all- of their profits.
It has always seemed odd to me that stuff plays such an important part in the way
we celebrate Christmas; especially given that the people closest to Jesus had little
interest in material things.
Mary’s soul does not magnify the Lord, and she does not consider herself blessed
because she has a big house filled with valuable stuff, the type of things
Americans generally count as signs of being blessed.
No, Mary says she is blessed, and she wants her life to glorify God, because God
has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, lifted up the lowly,
filled the hungry, and sent the rich away. (vv. 51-53)
Sure, presents are fun, and I am not trying to be a scrooge or Grinch.
Still, we know the gifts we acquire at Christmas do not provide us with lasting
happiness.
Most of our new stuff ends up with our old stuff in closets, bookshelves, cabinets,
garages, cupboards or attics sooner or later.
DeNeen Brown, writing in the Washington Post last March commented, “We are
in a stuff crisis. We are either consuming it, acquiring it, complaining about it,
cleaning it, moving it from store to car to house to garage to a POD parked in the
driveway. We are worried about it….Our stuff has become our baggage.

Who needs more baggage?

Mary’s song begins with desire to magnify the Lord and to rejoice in God, her
savior.
Mary is talking about the stuff of salvation.
Her song is one of thanksgiving, thanking God for saving her from a life of
insignificance, meaninglessness, and despair.
In Mary we see someone who clearly knows that stuff cannot save her or make
her happy; we see someone who understands the illusiveness of earthly power or
material riches.
Mary knows the truth: “The mighty one has done great things for me, and holy is
God’s name”-
Mary declares that God alone can give our lives purpose and hope.
For Mary this is the gift of the baby Jesus; for us it will be something else, but it
will be something- unconditional acceptance in Christian community, an
opportunity for service in the community or larger world around us, a way to
express life through music and other arts, an opportunity to make a real
difference in another persons’ life.
God works through gifts such as these, and so many more, to save us from lives of
insignificance, meaninglessness and despair.
In her book, Fresh-Brewed Coffee Nicole Johnson puts it like this: “Surrendering to
God is the key that unlocks the door to the life you want. A bigger spiritual “to do”
list or a calendar full of church activities will not change our lives. When we give
ourselves to God- mind, body, soul, and spirit- (God) changes us…And we are
different because of it. Stronger, richer. As different as instant coffee is from
fresh-brewed. We become a full cup of steaming, inviting life.”
Or, in other words, we magnify the Lord!
Mary’s song continues in Jesus, who spent his life forgiving, healing the sick,
seeking the outcasts and building a community of love, grace, and equality.
New Testament scholar Alan Culpepper says, “The joy of the mother will be the
job of the son”, and he is certainly right.
Everything Mary included in her joyful song becomes part of Jesus’ work and
ministry in the world.
Jesus launches his ministry announcing that the spirit of the Lord is upon him to
bring good news to the poor (4:18).
He warns people about the dangers of greed and too much wealth, “Be on your
guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of
possessions.” (12:15)
The basic teaching about how to magnify God through our lives is simple: When
we are rich toward God, we are filled with good things, no matter our apparent
circumstance. But when our wealth is concentrated in banks, brokerage firms,
and material possession we worry about, we find ourselves really empty.
So, how can you and I choose to magnify God through our lives today?
Here’s one story:
Back in 1999 a United Methodist minister named Mike Slaughter was reading
through the local paper when an ad for a BMW caught his eye.
Then his eyes wandered across the page to a story about famine in Sudan.
He began playing with the words in his head: “sedan”, “Sudan” and he became
irritated with himself that he knew a lot about sedans but almost nothing about
the famine in Sudan.
That Christmas, Rev. Slaughter announced an offering called, “Christmas is Jesus’
birthday, not yours.”
He challenged church members to give to Sudan an amount equal to what they
spent on themselves for Christmas.
The idea was to help people turn away from a consumer culture and spend
money in ways that helped bring God’s reign to people here on earth.
Some members split their holiday budgets in half, spending half on themselves
and half on Sudan.
Others began to work more; for example one cleaning lady took on more jobs at
night to earn money for the Sudan project.
According to Faith & Leadership magazine (May 25, 2010) the initial offering
raised $317,000.
The following year the congregation raised over $500,000.
To date, the Ginhamsburgh United Methodist Church in Tipp City, Ohio, has raised
$4.4 million for the Sudan Project.

In the midst of this, the congregation’s local mission has continued to thrive.
Church members are simply trying to be the hands and feet of Jesus- serving the
poor, relieving suffering, planting seeds of hope.
Rev. Slaughter concluded: “The key is for the church to really take seriously the
call of Christ. If it’s not good news to the poor, it’s not the gospel.”
Prayer: Gracious God, giver of all good gifts, in this season of Advent, in the
approaching season of Christmas, and in every season help us to magnify you-
your grace and love- in everything we say and do.
Amen.