A Song In The Air 12/12/43

Scripture: (Read John 1: 1-14)

Scripture basis: “The Magnificat” - Luke 1: 46-55

Today is Universal Bible Sunday, the observance of which is sponsored by the American Bible Society and supported by the churches of more than 50 Christian denominations. The occasion of the observance is a good time to pause long enough to point out two or three significant facts. Last year, the American Bible Society printed more than 8 million Scripture volumes - a record for its 127 years of service. Over 3 million of these Scripture volumes have gone since 1940 to men in the service of our country. And so many of the men are reading the Testaments. A few have arranged to read simultaneously with mother, or wife, or sweetheart at home.

Speaking of the copies used by men in service, Chaplain Jones told me last week that the testaments furnished by the Gideons are the most satisfactory, in certain respects, of all testaments available for service men. (of interest since Gideons spoke here)

The entire Bible is now printed, read and used in 184 different languages; the New Testament in 230 more, and certain parts of the Bible in 644 more - a total of 1058 languages and dialects. And the expansion continues.

Out of this Bible, now read in over a thousand tongues, I would direct your attention for a few minutes this morning to a song. This song is found in the book of Luke. We read it in the first part of today’s responsive reading. It is often called “The Magnificat.”

If the florists’ slogan is: “say it with flowers,” St. Luke’s purpose as he wrote the Christmas story must have been to: “say it with music.” For so much of his account is in musical form - there is the “Ave Maria” of the Angel Gabriel as he announces the divine purpose to Mary. There is the “Benedictus” of Elizabeth; Mary’s “Magnificat;” and the “Gloria in Excelsis” of the angels.

It seems that music carries the heart of the Advent message better than any other medium. What sermon could do it as well as Handel’s mighty oratorio, “The Messiah;” or as the singing of the lovely, familiar Christmas carols? Through melody, the meaning and message of Christmas lingers in our hearts long after exhortations may be forgotten.

Mary’s “Magnificat” is one of the great songs of Christian worship. When the angel of annunciation saluted Mary with the original “Hail Mary,” he promised her that she should bear a child whose name should be “Jesus,” for he was to be the “son of the Most High,” and “of his kingdom there should be no end.”

Mary had hastened to tell the good news to her cousin, Elizabeth, Elizabeth herself soon to become the mother of another child of promise, John the Baptist. The meeting of the two women was a tender and rapturous moment. When Elizabeth saw Mary, she began her “Benedictus” which begins “Blessed art thou among women.” And Mary responded with her “Magnificat,” one of the grand songs of Christmas. The name comes from the opening line of the song in the Vulgate or Latin Bible. All of these Christmas songs mentioned here are named from their first words in Latin because that is the language in which they were sung in the early liturgy of the church.

Mary’s “Magnificat” is a poem in four stanzas which various great composers have further immortalized in noble musical setting.

Let us look at the song now, stanza by stanza. (1) The first gives joyful recognition of God as Savior:

My soul doth magnify the Lord

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he hath looked upon the low estate of his handmaid,

For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

We use the term “Savior” so often that we seldom remember what a tremendous thing it is to call God by that name. We revere God as Creator; we respect and fear Him as Judge; we trust Him as Heavenly Father. But as Savior, He includes all His other attributes with a strengthening appeal to the helplessness of the human spirit.

Rickenbacker’s party knew what “savior” meant when at last they saw a navy plane flying over their helpless raft. We honor the fireman who rescues someone from a flaming building, or the doctor who saves the life of our loved one, or the motorist who takes the ditch to save the life of a child. The savior of physical life is held in high esteem.

But Mary sang her praises to the Savior of the soul. He redeems us from our evil dispositions, from our destructive hatreds; from our corrosive fears. More than just temporary or temporal salvation, He bestows the gift of life eternal.

The Savior is not always recognized - or even wanted. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick points out that “saviors have not been lacking - not in science, not in music, not in spiritual faith and life. The tragedy of mankind,” he says, “is its impassive, obdurate refusal to welcome the saviors of the world.” The saviors “have come, but whether it be Galileo or Wagner or our Lord himself, with what impenetrable inhospitality has the race refused them!”

“This puts the world’s salvation squarely up to us, the common men and women. The saviors come - God sends them; it is we, the masses of tthe people, who cry, ‘No room.’”

A distinguished Scottish preacher, James S. Stewart, gives some understanding of what a Savior of the soul means, when he describes in common terms our need of spiritual help: “Take any gathered company of people,” says Stewart, “think of the troubled spirits that are among them, baffled and bewildered because life has treated them unkindly, and yet keeping their heads up, and making no complaint; some worried about their health, wondering how long they will be able to keep going, and what will happen to their dear ones when they finally have to give in; men out in the world, bearing the burden and heat of the day, and strained almost to the limit of their endurance by the fierce competition of this modern age; fathers and mothers anxious about children whose characters seem subtly changing, losing some of the frankness and fineness and tenderness that once was there; young people grappling with temptations which they have never been able to tell to anyone; souls that have gone down defeated in the fight, despising themselves for their defeat, eager for some secret that will turn defeat to victory; lives that have had their hour of thrilling joy and springtime, and then it has vanished, and the world has grown gray and chill and wintry, and weary all life’s journey now, on to the very end; conflicts which none can understand except the one who has to face them; loneliness that hurts; disabilities that handicap; renunciations that are a crown of thorns; memories that bless, memories that burn, and memories that are a crucifixion.”

I do not know into what category of need each of us falls. Perhaps each of us is in several, or in other unmentioned categories. But whatever the need of the soul, the message of this Christmas “song of the air” is that God is the Savior.

(2) The second stanza is in praise of the power of God.

For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is unto generations and generations

of them that fear him.

Some men express their power by their cruelty. Mary had discovered that God shows his might in grace and mercy. A small person often tries to show his superiority by making others feel inferior; but a great soul is so sure of himself that he can treat all men as equals.

Dr. Fosdick once preached a Christmas sermon on “The Decisive Babies of the World.” The wise can see that babies are often more decisive than battles. While military dictator Napoleon had his heel firmly upon Europe, Nancy Hanks Lincoln bore a son in an American frontier cabin. She called him Abraham, and he made a more permanent and powerful difference to the world than the mighty man of cannon.

The power of true greatness may be wrapped at this moment, in the tiny hands of some babe. It was of a mere babe that it has been forever said:

Yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting light;

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

(3) The third stanza of Mary’s song celebrates the promise of deliverance for all oppressed people.

He hath showed strength with his arm;

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.

He hath put down princes from their thrones,

And hath exalted them of low degree.

The hungry he hath filed with good things,

And the rich he hath sent empty away.

It is not surprising that Dr. Luke, friend of poor folk, should have saved such a treasure as this song of Mary, with its message of deliverance; or the sermon of Jesus announcing deliverance to oppressed people. St. Luke has helped to make Christmas both a time of joy for children and of hope for the poor. Jesus had no grudge against the rich; but he had great moral indignation for anyone who exploited children for profit or who exploited men and women for greed.

There are cynics today who despair that humanity shall ever obey the Christian laws of life in social relations. The splendid quality of Mary’s faith is that she believed that society can be saved, and is being saved by Christ!

(4) The fourth stanza of Mary’s song affirms the promised deliverance of the nation.

He hath given help to Israel his servant,

That he might remember mercy

(As he spake unto our fathers)

Toward Abraham and his seed forever.

What would this peasant woman know about God’s promise to a nation? Why should she care? More than once in our time, we have heard the despairing cry that “nothing but a miracle can save civilization.” Mary knew that the miracle that could save Israel, and all nations of the world, had already happened.

The miracle was not her conception of the Christ-child who was to be born, but that the dream of prophecy for the nation was fulfilled.

In a time of national danger, we now hear much about a “second front,” by which we mean another military offensive against “fortress Europe.” We are in a time when we are forced to use physical means to gain spiritual ends. Our people do not work because they want to live by guns, nor fight because they believe that war is noble or right. We struggle because a physical victory seems necessary to put down a brutish force of evil which intends to rule the world.

What does Christmas this year have to say to our lives? Simply this, that though physical victory can never be decisive of great issues, nevertheless spiritual victory has already been won in Christ. Civilization is not doomed. Humanity is not caught in a blind alley. A world of brothers is not just a forlorn hope.

Disillusioned peoples are fighting rearguard actions against the impact of divine redemption. But we have been redeemed at God’s own price!

A foreign missionary’s little son was sent home to America for his education. He always kept his father’s picture on his desk. Visiting him over Christmas, his teacher asked him, “What do you want most this year for Christmas?” Looking at the beloved face, he replied, “I want my father to step out of that frame.”

A song in the air promises that relief for the oppressed and redemption for the nations can “step out” of the lovely Christmas frame and move again among us to victory.

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Dates and places delivered:

Wisconsin Rapids, December 12, 1943