18 December 2011 at Salem Lutheran Church, Gretna, LA
Text: Luke 1:39-56
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
There is a belief about
Christianity among the unbelievers in Christianity that the first Christian was
St. Paul. What they mean by this is that
Paul invented the Christian religion, that the Jesus he preached was not the
“historical” Jesus, and that we are really more followers of Paul than of
Christ.
This is an interesting theory
that awkwardly tries to explain the origin of Christianity. But if we believe Christianity is true, the
question of who is the first Christian becomes interesting. Some might argue that the first disciple, St.
Andrew, was the first Christian. Others
might say that Abraham, as the first man called by God under the old covenant
would be the first Christian. We could
even argue that Adam was the first Christian, the first to see God face to
face.
It all depends on how you
want to define “Christian.”
The Blessed Virgin Mary was
the first human being to be in the physical presence of the fleshly incarnate Jesus,
and immediately, she confesses Him as both God and Savior. In that sense, Mary is the first
Christian. She is not only the beloved mother
of Jesus, but also the beloved elder sister of every Christian. And this young girl, a lay person: not a
rabbi or a priest, not an apostle or a pastor, not a deaconess or a
professional church worker – blazes a trail for all Christians in confessing
the Christ within her very body: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior.”
“God my Savior.”
Dear friends, this confession
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of God, is the beating heart of the
Christian faith. For the Christ child
within her is not only a savior, a prophet, a deliverer like Moses – but He is
also God. And equally important, she is
not merely worshipping a God who is afar off, but a God who has come into space
and time, becoming an embryo within the womb of His mother – even as have been every
one of billions of human beings ever born (with the exceptions of Adam and
Eve).
And notice also that the
Blessed Virgin confesses Jesus as not only “God” and as “Savior” – but also as
“My.” For even the devil has to confess
the truth that Jesus is God and that He is a Savior. But Christians also confess the “my”
part. Mary’s threefold confession is a
complete confession of Christ: Almighty God, humble human being, our Savior.
This “first Christian” is
utterly unique in all of human history.
For she is indeed as we confess in our Lutheran confessions and with the
Church of every age: “holy” and “pure.”
She is the mother of God. And yet
she too needs a “Savior” – a rescuer from sin.
Mary is pure because Jesus has made her so. Jesus is born because He came to our world
through His mother. God created Mary, the
God the Father called Mary, God the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary with His
presence, and Mary conceived God the Son within her womb. And from this created creature emerges the
uncreated Creator. From one descended
from sin comes One who is sinless. The
tiny embryonic Christ child conceived miraculously within the virgin is also
the Savior of the Virgin who created for Himself a pure portal into our impure
world.
Christians sometimes squabble
over how this can be. Such arguments
happen when fallen man attempts to impose reason on a miracle. Was Mary conceived without sin? God did not reveal this to us to be either
true or false. He did something to
protect His Son from inherited sin – beyond that, God is silent. But we know this much: Mary calls her Son her
Savior, and Jesus was born of a pure womb.
Rather than argue over dogma, we Christians, like the first Christian
herself, would do well to fight less and rejoice more!
“For He has looked upon the
humble estate of His servant… all generations will call me blessed.” Mary is not a goddess, but neither is she a
nobody. She is God’s mother. She is the first to confess the man Jesus as
God and as Savior. For she also
confesses: “He has done great things for me, and holy is His name.” Mary is holy because of the holy name of
Jesus, not the other way around.
There is also a lot of
squabbling over Christmas. Of course
unbelievers use Christmas as an excuse to try to control the free speech of
Christians, even to the point of firing people and expelling school children
for uttering the word “Christmas.” The
confession of the Christ child, of the one who is “God my Savior” divides
people to this very day.
The Lord continues to come to
us in His Word – which all Christians continue to confess, and also in His
sacraments – which causes Christians to fight among themselves. Indeed, the Lord’s coming in our midst in the
repeated weekly Christmas miracle of the Sacrament of the Altar also causes Christians
to squabble. Some mock by asking: “How
can God be a wafer?” The answer is, of
course to ask right back: “How can God be an embryo, an infant, a barefoot
preacher, and a condemned criminal”?
Some Christians even squabble
over the terminology of the sacrament. Is
it the Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, Holy
Communion, or the Mass? It is indeed all
of these. Christmas is a contraction of
two words: “Christ” and “Mass.”
Christmas is the coming of God to His people in the flesh – not only in
Word, not only in Spirit, not only in our hearts – but in all of these and
more: in His fleshly physical body, in the miracle of the Christ Mass.
This, dear friends, is the
beating heart of Christianity: Christ Himself, EmmanuelL God with us. Just as the Lord was present within the body
of Blessed Mary in the mystery of the Holy Incarnation, He is also with us in
our bodies in the mystery of Holy Communion.
Indeed, all generations will also call us blessed.
We are blessed by the coming
of Jesus at Christmas, in His Word, in the Sacrament of the Altar, in
absolution, in baptism, and in the proclamation of the Good News because “His
mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.” Again, dear friends, rather than squabble, we
Christians should confess and rejoice with St. Mary and with all the saints of
every time and place. For the Lord is
merciful!
He came into our world not to
make a show of force, not to do some parlor tricks, not to serve Himself – but
rather as a demonstration of mercy, to reveal the miracle of Himself, and to
serve us as our God and Savior.
He has “exalted those of
humble estate,” we who are humbled because of sin, because of sickness, because
of death, because of disappointment, because of sadness, because of anxieties
and addictions, because of pain and depression, because of the realization that
we are broken and headed to our own deaths, separated from God by our sins.
But, dear friends, this is
why He came! This is why Mary rejoices! He is God our Savior! He has come on a rescue mission to save us
from ourselves, from our iniquities, from our greed, from our wicked hearts,
and to pluck us out of this broken world and to place us in a perfect kingdom,
a paradise restored, a new heaven and earth.
This is what it means that Mary confesses her Son, God’s Son, as her
Savior – our Savior.
For He will indeed “fill the
hungry with good things” once and for all, and the rich – those who trust in
worldly possessions instead of the riches of the kingdom – will be “sent away
empty.”
Dear brothers and sisters,
let us squabble less and rejoice more.
Let us confess what we know and let us rejoice in the mystery of the
Incarnation and our Salvation. Let us
sing with Mary not only at Christmastime, but every time that our Lord
mysteriously comes to save us, both spiritually and physically, throughout the
year when He comes to us in both Word and Sacrament. Let us follow the lead of the first Christian
by also submitting and following the lead of the only Christ – our God and our
Savior. Let us never be too proud to confess
and sing with the Blessed Virgin Mary, with all the saints in heaven, and with
all of us here on earth who need rescued: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my
spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Amen.
In the name of the Father
and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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