First songs have special meanings.  It might be the first song you heard on the radio in the morning, the first song you danced with someone, the theme song of the first movie you went to together, and the list goes one.  Or, in an opera or musical, all of the action stops as the aria or feature song sums up everything that is happening.

 

            The Magnificat is Mary’s song.  It is the first song of the New Testament.  Today we celebrate the first day of Advent, the new year of our lives anticipating the coming Savior.  It is the first song of that new year in our lives.  It is the first song in new lives in Christ.  This song stops in the middle of the action and sums up the entire account of God’s plan for salvation.  Mary’s song, the Magnificat is not her song, it is the church’s song, it is our song that God has given us through Mary to remember his great work to us and in us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

            A most important word in this account is the word “blessed.”  It is the first time this word is used in Luke.  Chronologically, it is the first time the word “blessed” is used in the New Testament.  Elizabeth proclaims that Mary is blessed.  Mary sings that she is blessed.  Elizabeth states the reason Mary is blessed is because she believes what the Lord has said.  [v. 45]  There is no blessing from God without faith, trusting completely in what he has said.  There is no blessing except what God gives.  Being blessed is having favor with God.  In our natural state, there is no favor with God.  Only God can make someone to be in favor with him again.  Blessedness is a gift from God and a work done to you by God.  Being blessed is being given all of God’s goodness.  As your pastor I do not bless you, but announce God’s blessings to you.  Elizabeth did not bless Mary but announced what had already happened, God had blessed Mary.  Mary did not say that she would be blessed by all generations, but that all generations would call her blessed because of the great things “the Mighty One”  had done to her.

 

            Mary sings this great song as a faithful child of God.  This song is the testimony of a faithful Old Testament believer who lived and moved in the Scriptures.  This song is an echo of the entire Old Testament, God’s plan to save his people.  This song is Scripture as it references no less than fifteen Old Testament passages.  This song is the beginning of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the child Mary now carries, the Messiah, the Christ/anointed one, the son of a virgin, the Son of David, the Son of God, the lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

 

            There are two parts to this song.  The first part Mary expresses her joy, her humbleness being chosen as she was, and her praises to God for his act of grace to her and to all people.  The second part tells God’s plan through this Christ who is now to be born of her.  In this song, through Mary God presents the future that now is present.  You and I cannot wait for the moment when all sin is removed from these mortal bodies.  In Christ, through faith and in the waters of your baptism in faith in Christ, those sins are forgiven.  In that act of God you are blessed having been given all the goodness of Christ.

 

            Mary sings of her humble state.  She does not deserve to receive this great gift of a Savior, let alone be the one to carry him into the world.  Mary did not run around seeking this honor.  She didn’t compete with a dozen other gals considered to be good candidates.  It wasn’t a tough decision for God either.  He knew from before time how and through whom he would bring the son into the world.  He made Mary who she is by the gift of faith through hearing his word and believing it by the power of the Holy Spirit working in her heart.  Mary had no active part of her own in making the miracle.  Mary, by God’s grace, received the miracle by God’s word manifested in her and through her by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The miracle happened no different in Mary than it did in Adam, in Abel, in Noah, Abraham, Ruth, David, Joseph, Peter, Paul, Lydia, or you or me.

 

            Luther quoted, “Mary rejoiced in the giver more than the gift.”  She recognized it is God alone who is maker, redeemer, and sanctifier.  Verse 51, “He has performed mighty deeds with his arm.”  Jesus, his son, his word, is his arm.  God gives all things through his son, his word, and by the power of that word as his arm that stretches out and delivers all good things and destroys all evil.

 

            Mary’s song puts these gifts that God delivers all in the present tense.  He no longer delivered his people as at the Red Sea, at Jericho, through David’s conquests or from the captivities.  His mercy now extends to all generations, past, present and future.  He has already scattered the proud and filled the hungry with good things.  He has remembered his servant Abraham and his descendents not just today, but forever.

 

            Mary’s song, The Magnificat, is the perfect example of a song of praise for us today.  So often we focus those songs of praise on the “me,” how I feel, how I am lifted up.  Mary’s song focuses on the “thee.”  Who really has control, gives all of his graces and gifts, and lifts one up, restores one, and puts the words of praise in one’s heart and throat and mouth.

 

            The Magnificat.  It is the first song of the New Testament.  It is the first song of praise to God as he fulfills his promise to save his people in earthly time.  It is the first song of faith as it glorifies God in all things and humbly accepts his gifts from hearts that do not deserve his goodness.  It is the first song of the great reversal as Satan and the ways of the world are now defeated, disarmed of the most threatening weapon, death.  The new life of God made man conquers all and ends all, and begins all things new, “even has he has said to our fathers.”  [v. 55]  Amen.