The Light of the World-Praising with Joy
Can we choose to be happy and joyful or do we have to have hope first?
We have a new dynamic with Monday Morning With Jesus. It’s going to take me at least two days to get this out each week. However, what I am likely to do is publish what I can get done each day on that day and move on to the next until it all gets done. Depending on how much writing it takes, that could stretch into Wednesday. For now, that’s how it has to be.
This Sunday’s sermon is exactly one week away from Christmas 2023. Pastor Lee began her sermon by announcing she did not have a warning this week. In the previous two messages, she had what she called an “Apocalyptic Christmas” message. This week was just a “straight Christmas message.” Let’s start with the scripture.
46And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord,
47And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed.
49“For the Mighty One has done great things for me; And holy is His name.
50“And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him.
51“He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart.
52“He has brought down rulers from their thrones, And has exalted those who were humble.
53“He has filled the hungry with good things; And sent away the rich empty-handed.
54“He has given help to Israel His servant, In remembrance of His mercy,
55As He spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and his descendants forever.”
Luke 1:46–55 (NASB95)
I’m beginning with something Pastor Lee said much later in the sermon. I was not aware this section of scripture has a title, the Magnificat. I knew nothing about this title or what it meant. So, I looked it up. I won’t include much of it here. If you want to read more about the Magnificat, type that question into DuckDuckGo or start HERE. After you’ve read the Wikipedia entry, head over to Biblehub and read a much older entry, which you can find HERE.
The first word that struck me was “soul” in verse 46. This comes from the Greek word psyche, which is rooted in psucho or breath. I find it most interesting that the Jews would tie our immortal souls with our breath. However, this passage opens with Mary saying her breath/soul “…doth magnify the Lord.” I love that idea.
We can take from that her words, as well as thoughts, are on God making Him great, magnifying Him, and extolling His virtues rather than hers. This statement becomes even more poignant when we look at the word behind “low estate,” which the King James uses in verse 48, but the NASB uses “humble state.” The Greek word is tapeinosis, which has a root in tapeinoo. That matters because it is first connected to the words “depression” and “humiliation.” That matters greatly, given Mary’s state as an unwed pregnant woman. That provides a reason for her “depression” and “low estate,” which is far, far different from “humble servant.” I think the NASB has done a disservice to Mary in their wording here.
Mary is not “humble.” She is humiliated publicly. She cannot hide the fact that she is pregnant, and everyone knows she is not married. This is scandalous for the time. I suggest the reason for her visit to Elizabeth in the hill country is to get away from the scandal to a place that doesn’t know her. It must have been very hard on the young woman. However, Elizabeth is on her side, as we will see later.
All of verse 50 got highlighted. When scripture uses the term “fear Him,” it is frequently misused or confused. People cannot reconcile a church message of a “loving God” who requires people to “fear Him.” I contend it is one of the disservices the modern church does to its members when they preach only a “loving God.”
I’m not suggesting God does not love us or that He is not loving. Not at all. What I am suggesting is that the Modern Church has moved away from the other side of that coin. God has the power of all creation. He set the rules and laws of the world in motion. He put in place reactions to every action that are equal and opposite. We would call them the consequences of our choices. Some consequences have eternal effects, like Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey God, removing humanity from the Garden of Eden. Or our choice to profess Jesus Christ as our Savior. He is the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father but through the Son. By definition, that means those who do not profess Jesus as their Savior do not end up in Heaven. It is sad and unfortunate, but it is the consequence of the choice as set up by the loving God who sent His Son to die on the cross for those who believe in Him.
That ties in to “fear him” from the scripture in the idea that we should recognize when God says things are a certain way; that’s how they are. When God’s Word outlines what happens to people who make bad choices, that’s what happens. These are the rules under which all creation operates, and we should respect them because that’s how they are. God, who is all-powerful, can do anything He wants including create or destroy His rules. That level of power should put the “fear of God” in us to understand we have the opportunity to believe and follow His ways. Not doing that has consequences.
I also took a note to investigate the second half of verse 50, meaning “from generation to generation.” I didn’t understand why that was in there or what it meant. The Greek word behind it, genea, means exactly what it says, a generation of people, but it has the added meaning of an age or period of time or nation. So, God’s mercy is on those who follow His ways in a generation, an age, a period of time, or as a nation. I think this covers all of them, not just a single one. I think God’s point in speaking this through Luke is to communicate that everyone is always under this rule or idea. If we honor God, regardless of when we are born, He will honor us.
Verse 51 got half highlighted and the second half only. “…He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.” This simple statement has more meaning than I can put into words right now. I may have to dig into it further, but I might also forget about that one. I took a note to do that, but I’m putting it aside as it will completely derail the rest of the passage right now.
Verse 52 in the NASB uses “humble,” whereas the KJV uses “low degree.” However, the Greek behind it is once again the same word that has the connotation of depression and humiliation. I find this to be interesting, considering the end time scripture tells us Christians will be persecuted unjustly. I would think that being punished for things we didn’t do would be a good way to drive someone into depression. This has both historic and potentially future implications, I think.
Verse 53, I think, may have a spiritual component rather than an earthly one. I think the “hungry” that gets filled may be those who hunger for the truth of reality and existence. When we come to Jesus and realize He is the way, the truth, and the light, we become filled as though having eaten a substantial meal; we are filled with “good things.” Conversely, those who are “rich” in their own hearts and minds are sent away empty because they neither believe the truth nor have room for it in their hearts.
My last entry on the scripture is a word used in the King James Version, which is translated as “help” in the NASB. That word is “holpen.” Dictionary.com says that is the past participle of the word help. The Greek behind it is far more interesting and is where I will end for today. Tomorrow, I will go into my notes for the sermon.
Greek Strong’s Number: 482
Greek Word: ἀντιλαμβάνω
Transliteration: antilambanō
Phonetic Pronunciation: an-tee-lam-ban’-om-ahee
Root: from <G473> and the middle voice of <G2983>
Cross Reference: TDNT - 1:375,62
Part of Speech: v
Vine’s Words: Help, Holpen, Partake, Partaker
Usage Notes:
English Words used in KJV:
help 1
support 1
partaker 1
[Total Count: 3]
from <G473> (anti) and the middle of <G2983> (lambano); to take hold of in turn, i.e. succor; also to participate:- help, partaker, support.
James Strong, “Ἀντιλαμβάνω,” Strong’s Talking Greek and Hebrew Dictionary (WORDsearch, 2020).
It is Tuesday and we start with my notes. I wrote down The Sunday of Joy because, in the Advent roster of themes, this Sunday was Joy for the United Methodist Church. I mix it up in my Advent lessons. For my lesson, this Sunday was Love.
Pastor Lee opened by talking about the Magnificat. This is where I heard that name first and took a note about it. I’ve already written about that and provided a link above, so I won’t go into it further other than to say this. Elizabeth’s baby jumped for joy when the two women met.
41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
43“And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?
44“For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy.
45“And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord.”
Luke 1:41–45 (NASB95)
These verses directly precede the passage for this last Sunday’s sermon. Clearly, baby John in the womb knew what was happening around him to an even greater level than humans on a day-to-day basis. I wonder how much more closely children in vitro are connected to God? It seems from this that they are. If that’s true, and I have no scripture at the moment to support the idea, it would have tremendous implications for supporters of abortion.
Pastor Lee did not bring any of that up. That was all that occurred to me. Any harsh words should come my way, not hers, because she said nothing of the kind.
What Pastor Lee did say was that unwed women pregnant in those days faced a stigma. To make matters worse, Mary claims she is pregnant with the Son of God. That was an outlandish claim of any woman with child. In Mary’s case, I suspect it only made matters worse.
30The 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 name Him Jesus.
32“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;
33and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”
34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”
35The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
36“And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.
37“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
38And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:30–38 (NASB95)
Mary is clearly willing to be obedient to the calling put on her. I’m certain she knew what this would mean because she was not yet wed to Joseph, though those intentions were openly and publicly known. That brings up an interesting point that gets overlooked.
Everyone knew Mary and Joseph were to be wed. Everyone knew this, and when Mary was found to be with child, Mary wasn’t the only one carrying shame. As soon as Mary was discovered to be pregnant, all eyes undoubtedly shifted to look at Joseph.
18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
19And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.
20But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.
21“She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
22Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23“Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”
24And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife,
25but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.
Matthew 1:18–25 (NASB95)
We focus on Mary because it is the virgin birth, but Joseph also had a part to play. As the intended husband, everyone assumed the child was his. However, Joseph was a righteous man and an obedient man. To ensure there was no question whose child was born, Joseph married Mary and did not take her to his bed.
We in modern times overlook this small but significant fact. It is a factual statement that identifying a woman who has not slept with a man, a virgin, is a simple matter based on the first time she had sex, especially back in those days. I won’t go into all the details, but there are visible signs of that act to confirm it, which is typically unpleasant for the woman. Joseph would have known with 100% certainty his new wife hadn’t lied to him unquestionably. Those who knew Joseph closely would also know. Anyone who witnessed the laundry being done after that night would also know. You could absolutely fake that to everyone except Joseph, and as a righteous and devout man, he would have known he had been lied to the entire time. The outcome would not be the one we read about in scripture by any stretch had Mary actually been lying about the source of her pregnancy.
What you look for, you will find. If you want to believe the virgin birth, you will. If you want to find conspiracies, doubts, and lies, you will find them. I’m not here to convince you one way or the other. I’m here to tell you what occurs to me as I sit in the pew.
Pastor Lee’s sermon wasn’t about Mary or Joseph’s sacrifice at all. The message was about joy and whether being joyful is a choice. In recounting the tale of Mary meeting with Elizabeth, she asked us if we could choose joy if Mary chose joy?
I did a word search and can’t find Mary’s name and joy anywhere in scripture. I did discover that Elisabeth’s name is not spelled with a ‘z’ as I thought. I also discovered baby John in her womb did not “leap for joy” as I thought. Instead, the scripture says the baby simply leaped in her womb, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. The implication is still the same as written above but the child is not the one making the connection, but rather the mother is.
Pastor Lee suggested Mary “chose joy” and that she “praised God” in her situation. We can tell she was obedient to the will of the Lord placed upon her. However, I’m not sure she was as confident as the sermon suggests. I would love to know or see the information I am missing to the contrary. If anyone knows scripture I’ve missed that reinforces Mary’s choices, I’d love to read them. Note, however, that Mary is absolutely obedient to the task given to her.
35The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.
36“And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.
37“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
38And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:35–38 (NASB95)
I don’t think the issue here is the presence or lack of Joy. I think the obedience is the issue. Mary is totally obedient to the path God placed her on. She does what is asked of her without hesitation, as we are told. I understand this is the lead-up to the birth of Jesus in the Advent series, and Joy is the word around which this sermon was preached. I can absolutely understand this message being worked into these passages. I just don’t find the supporting evidence for the strength of Mary’s conviction being founded in joy.
However, At this point in the sermon I took a note connected to the lesson from the 3rd Sunday of Advent I just did in class. I think joy is a choice in the midst of hardship. It becomes a choice based on how we perceive our difficulties and God’s involvement in them. In Mary’s case, she chose to follow God’s path for her life. Because she knew she was doing what God wanted, I’m fairly certain she was resolute in her convictions that she was doing the right thing. Was she happy about that? As I think through that, I’m almost certain if I were Joseph, I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I’d do it because God’s angel gave me instructions. Perhaps in hindsight, I would later say it was the right and good choice, but I don’t think I would be joyful taking the path of hardship and difficulty Joseph and Mary took on.
Pastor Lee then went into a story about a man named Michael who mistakenly turned a simple donation of $150 into a $15,000 donation through a typo. The story ends with the outcome being Michael’s mistake is corrected by the bank, and the cause ends up collecting over $100,000 when Michael was worried they would be mad at him for correcting the donation error.
The idea that occurs to me here is that God knew what would happen. God took that mistake and made it profitable for His cause. In the story, we learn about Michael being honest about making a mistake, and his willingness to embarrass himself by revealing his mistake is part of what spurs on the large level of donations later.
There was a nice turn of phrase in the message. She asked if we could choose to find places of joy in our lives. The way she phrased it was, “Can we be joyful when we fess up to our mess up?” I liked that.
Pastor Lee quoted Proverbs 17:22 here.
22A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: But a broken spirit drieth the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 (KJV 1900)
She focused on dried bones in the message, but it’s the idea that this passage provides hope that occurred to me. I wrote the question asking if hope leads to joy or joy leads to hope and is it a choice?
Again, what you look for, you will find.
Where you want to find hope, you can find hope. Where you don’t see any hope, seek others to help you find it. Be willing to listen to their ideas of where and how something might be hopeful and different than what you see. We can find hope and joy in things when we realize God is with us, Emmanuel. It is the spirit of this season of Advent and Christmas.
That was the spirit of the lesson in small group, too. Knowing we are on God’s path and He is with us as we walk it, we can find hope because we know we are doing what He wants us to do. When we are obedient to the task God placed upon us, we should know that He will provide all that is required to make that task exactly what He needs it to be. No lack will go without being supplied. No obstacle will prevail over our progress in going where God needs us to go. That realization should bring hope if not joy also.
Pastor Lee turned the message towards times of difficulties demonstrating we find joy in places we wouldn’t expect it. In the hospital, at someone’s bedside, we laugh at a joke. At a funeral, we recount a story about a joyful time with the one who has passed on. In those times of pain, we seek out happy things on purpose; we choose joy.
She went into recounting during the pandemic how, some chose to put out snacks for delivery drivers or write messages of encouragement in chalk at the tops of the driveway for those walking the neighborhood. These things were choosing joy and trying to spread that active choice to others. It was being obedient to God’s call and His path.
Pastor Lee tied it to the Advent wreath and the candles there. The lighting of the candle symbolizing joy, she said, was us actively choosing joy this Christmas season. The Christmas season is God choosing joy for the world as He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, to bring us the ultimate gift of salvation.
At this point, she recounted a few lines from a poem by Donna Ashworth, Joy Chose You. I found this poem on the author’s page and link to it HERE. It is worth a read, but the point that was made is that God chose you. Can we, in return, choose joy at this Christmas time to praise God at the celebration of His son's coming? We should because, in the birth of Christ, He chose us.
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3–6 (NASB95)