Sermon Title: The Symphony of Christmas: The Sound of Joy

Date: December 13th, 2020

Text: Luke 1:47-55

Introduction:

You really can’t hear that song without smiling without it bringing a sense of joy to your life. It puts you in a place where you know it’s Christmas right? Interestingly enough when Vince Guaraldi scored this Christmas classic titled Linus and Lucy, it wasn’t for Christmas at all. In fact Linus and Lucy was originally written for a Jazz Impressions album Guaraldi was creating and it in fact ended up on the B-side of a single called Good Grief. Parents your homework is to go home and explain to your kids what the b-side is.

It wasn’t until a few years later that Linus and Lucy was used as the theme song for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special and from there it became a Christmas classic.

If you hear this song, you are immediately in the presence of Christmas and when you hear it it brings joy.

As we continue in the Symphony of Christmas and we continue through these movements, these agreements of sound as we tell the story of Christmas, the third movement of the symphony is often the Scherzo, a fun lighthearted dance romp moving us closer to the finale, and our dancers this morning helped us to picture the physical representation of joy attached to Linus and Lucy, to Christmas, but also gave us a framework for understanding the Sound of Joy.

Transition:

Turn in your Bible with me to Luke 1 starting at verse 47. As we’ve moved from the crisis and God’s response with the sound of grace, as we’ve moved closer to the coming of the King with the triumphal sound of prophecy we find ourselves in Luke’s gospel at the doorstep of the biblical reality of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us and as we look at Luke’s gospel briefly this morning we find ourselves with a young woman named Mary, a woman who receives the life altering news of God’s call on her life to carry the Christ child. And her response reveals what our response should be, the sound of joy.

Passage: Luke 1:47-55

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Teaching:

As we consider the circumstances of this young mother, consider for a moment the whole range of what has been given to her. She is a simple woman, living a simple life and is planning to marry a simple man and out of the blue comes what we would consider a massive disruption to life.

The joyful disruption is given previously in Mary’s encounter with the angel in Luke 1:30-31 (ESV) 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

You would think that for such a young woman with little life experience that this type of news would incite something other than what we see in our passage for this morning.

But there is a reason that Mary’s response is what it is according to what we’ve seen so far.

Move 1: The Sound of Joy Begins with the Holiness of God

The anchor to this passage is found at the very beginning in verse 47:

My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Luke 1:47

Mary’s spirit rejoices, there is joy, there is an exceeding joy at the news of the Christ child coming in the flesh, coming by means of this young Israelite woman, but note very closely where she is re