Listening to Mary - Sermon for the 4th Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21^st, Year of Our + Lord 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, SD
Listening to Mary     Luke 1:39-56

Audio of this sermon is available HERE.

     Listen to Mary, as she teaches us about her Savior, and yours.  Proclaiming the child in her womb to be the fulfillment of God’s ancient promises, Mary rejoices in the stupendous good news that the Lord has done all these things, for her!  “The Mighty One has done great things for me.  My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.”  The fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham and all the fathers of old is delivered to Mary, and to all who trust in the tender mercies of the Holy One, the Lord God almighty.  Mary rejoices and sings because that Holy One, the Lord God, has taken on human flesh, and humbled Himself to be growing in her womb, in order to bless and lift up all the humble offspring of Abraham, all who share His faith in the Promised Seed.  The Seed of the woman, who grew in Mary’s womb, come to crush the ancient serpent’s head.

     Listen to how Mary’s Song is firmly grounded in God’s Holy Word.  Go check out 1^st Samuel, chapter 2, and you will see that Mary’s song finds its roots in the joyful song of another mother, Hannah, who for years had been unable to conceive.  But the Lord heard her prayers, and she gave birth to Samuel, the great prophet and leader of Israel, who would anoint Saul to be king of Israel.  Then, after Saul’s fall from grace, Samuel anointed David to be king, a man after God’s own heart.  Mary’s song builds on Hannah’s, and surpasses it, because her pregnancy is a far greater miracle.  For her Son is the greatest leader, the greatest prophet, the greatest gift God has ever given to mankind.

    Sadly, frustratingly, Christians have always struggled to understand Mary correctly.  Most blessed among women indeed, as her cousin Elizabeth sang, for being chosen to give birth to Jesus.  We do not ignore Mary, but celebrate her and give thanks to God for using her to deliver to us our Savior. 

   But Mary is not a sinless mediator between common Christians and God, nor a source of super-abundant good works that she can share with sinners, and so help them work their way into God’s favor.  Mary is not the proper object of Christian prayers.  No, rather she is a prime example of a faithful, forgiven sinner, who trusts completely in the promises of God. 

   This is what the Bible teaches us about Mary.  Don’t listen to any other voice that tells you differently.  For all of misunderstandings and misconstruals of Mary’s place in the work of salvation come from the same source, the failure to listen closely to God’s Word.  Already during Jesus’ earthly ministry, a woman in the crowd, amazed at His teaching and miracles, cried out: “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts at which you nursed.”  Jesus gently corrects and redirects this praise: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”  (Luke 11:27-28).  Which is what His mother Mary did; she knew and stuck to the Word.  Because it is such Good News!  Mary rejoiced and sang “Magnificat,” because she knew that God had taken onto His own shoulders 100% of the work of salvation, in order to grant it as a free gift to all, through faith in Her Son, the only mediator between God and man. 

    A good way to think about Mary and her unique and wonderful role is as a temporary Temple of God.  The Temple of Israel, first the tent temple, the moveable Tabernacle Moses built in the wilderness, and then the great stone and cedar temple of Solomon, these both were the dwelling place of God with His people.  God’s promise to be present, to dwell with His people, was first fulfilled inside the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, and then again the hidden center space of the Temple, where the glory of the Lord descended, in order to bless His people.  God’s glory was veiled there, hidden away, necessarily, because the direct glory of God is death to sinners. 

     Israel never handled the presence of God in His Temple very well, not for very long.  Trusting in God’s real presence and acting accordingly, in their worship and in their lives, was always a big problem, a recurring failure, for Israel.  God even allowed the enemies of Israel to desecrate the Tabernacle and Temple again and again, because Israel’s faithlessness was the real desecration that God wanted to wipe out.  But the Lord always restored the Temple, eventually, despite Israel’s sins, because He had made a promise.   God had promised to dwell with and rescue His people, despite their unfaithfulness.  The Temple in Jerusalem would not be abandoned completely until after the New Temple was established. 

     After the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary, after her miraculous conception of the Son of God, now there was for nine months a new Temple, a new, and better dwelling place of God with Israel, hidden within the womb of Mary.  Most blessed of all women indeed!  Mary was the flesh and blood Temple of God, the Temple with a voice and a song.  A new Holy of Holies, inside this young woman, chosen by God to serve in this absolutely unique way, enduring the doubts and whispered accusations of family and neighbors, pondering the Word Gabriel had spoken, carrying her Savior for nine months. 

    After the first Christmas, Mary was no longer the Temple of God, but rather a worshiper at the True Temple, found at the feet of her Son.  She and Joseph fulfilled new roles after Jesus’ birth, as guardians of the New Temple, protectors, caretakers of the true and eternal dwelling place of God with mankind, in the flesh of their little boy, God’s Son, Jesus.  They watched and cared as He grew into His calling, to be the Savior of Israel, and Savior of the world.  Mary marveled at the worship of the shepherds and magi, and with Joseph she fled to Egypt, as Satan drove mad King Herod to seek to destroy her Child.  Joseph and Mary would lose track of twelve-year-old Jesus, spending three three-days searching Jerusalem for the Boy, who had of course remained behind in His Father’s house to speak with the wise men of Israel. 

     Many times, Satan sought to destroy Mary’s Son.  Throughout His life and ministry, He faced opposition and threats that Mary suffered to watch.  But the destruction of Jesus would not take place until the Lord determined it was time. 

    Listen to Mary, as her role in the salvation story shifted to that of a faithful follower, and to a wise friend to other sinners.  Listen as she teaches other sons of Abraham how to walk the pilgrimage of faith in Jesus.  At the wedding of Cana, as the wine ran out, she asks Jesus to bless the newlyweds.  Then she tells the servants, the deacons at the banquet, to “do whatever [Jesus] tells you,” (John 2:5).  They did, and miraculous bounty and blessing and joy and faith resulted.  Her advice to those servants remains faithful and true for us, today.  Listen to Mary, and so seek to do whatever her Son tells you to do.   

   And then, Mary’s Scriptural voice goes silent.  She is still Jesus’ beloved mother.  She is a faithful disciple.  She suffers a unique sorrow, a sword passing through her own soul as she watched her Son suffer and die.  No doubt prayers and lamentations and many words of wisdom passed over her lips.  But the Holy Spirit never led another New Testament writer to record any more of her words.  The few sentences and the glorious song she contributed to the Gospels was sufficient.  All along, Mary remained faithful, and so was blessed to see the Resurrection and the birth of Christ’s Church at Pentecost.  Rejoice always, with Mary, magnify the Lord, for her Son, her Savior, is your Savior, just the same.   

     Mary’s Song, the exultant voice of faith in Jesus and His forgiving love, should always be the voice of the New Temple, the New Israel, the Church of God.  Yes, in a very great mystery, the next iteration of the dwelling place of God with His people is you, you and every Christian.  You, the baptized believers in Christ, are being built up as a house of living stones, the New Israel, the New Temple, built on the foundation of the Apostles’, who have written down the teaching of Christ for us, (1^st Peter 2:4-7, Ephesians 2:10-22).  Indeed, by faith in Jesus, you yourself are a Temple of the Holy Spirit, (1 Corinthians 6:19), God Himself present within you to guide and guard and save.  As Mary was a temporary flesh and blood Temple for God, a Temple with a human voice, and as Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Father’s very best message to sinners, so also we, the Church of God, collectively the Bride of Christ, we too have a voice, a song to sing, a rejoicing that should never end, because God’s mercy, the saving sacrifice of Christ, has no end, no limit. 

    In this New Temple, this earthly dwelling place of God wherever His faithful people are, the theme of Mary’s Song predominates.  As Luther declared in the Large Catechism:

“Everything, therefore, in the Christian Church is ordered toward this goal: that we shall daily receive in the Church nothing but the forgiveness of sin through the Word and signs, to comfort and encourage our consciences as long as we live here.

   So, even though we have sins, the grace of the Holy Spirit does not allow them to harm us.  For we are in the Christian Church, where there is nothing but continuous, uninterrupted forgiveness of sin, both in that God forgives us, and in that we forgive, bear with, and help each other.”

     Grace is to abound in the Church.  To be sure, as was true for Mary and every believer in all of human history since the Fall, the Truth of God’s hatred of sin, the proclamation of the Law, is necessary as well, to keep us mindful of our need, and of the just condemnation we deserve for our sins and our sinfulness.  The Law of God is also necessary and useful for increasing discipline, right living, Christian good works.  Just as we would not know what it is to covet unless the law declared: Do not covet, so also we do not know how to love, except that the Holy Spirit in His Law teaches us, in general and in detail, how we are to love God and neighbor. 

    The Law of God is needful, to bring sinners into Christ’s Church, to keep believers firmly mortared into the wall of living stones, and to show us the good works that the Father has prepared for us, and desires to rejoice over.  And so, in every facet of Christian life, in all teaching and practice of the Church, the Law serves the Gospel, the Good News, the Word of Grace and forgiveness.  Forgiving love is the beating heart of the Church, and of each believer.  Grace is the motor without which, we can do no good thing.  So, as we listen to Mary, and as we listen to each other, as the various living Temples of the Lord exercise their voice, mercy and rejoicing rightly predominate.  God grant us always to hear and sing out this joyful song! 

    On Thursday I drove to Sidney, Montana, to listen to the Church, to the cries of Trinity and St. John Lutheran Churches, the place of my first call into the Holy Ministry.  I traveled north to listen to the lamentations of the faithful who share Mary’s faith in Jesus, but who, for far too long, had not been hearing a Word of grace, so they could rejoice with her.  A pastor’s calling is to be the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit, speaking the Truth of Christ, always seeking to reach the joy of delivering the life-giving Gospel, the Good News of free and full forgiveness, won for all by Jesus on His Cross.  This is the forgiveness that is to be distributed daily in the Church through the Word and Signs, that is, the Preaching and the Sacraments.  Everything a pastor does, and all that a congregation does together, should be ordered to this holy and precious goal, because this is the will of God for His people.  God wants to deliver grace and joy to the little Holy Temples of the Spirit that He makes each believer to be, through the washing of water and the word. 

    I do not understand how the Good News of free forgiveness fell by the wayside in Sidney and Fairview.  I know that in my flesh, I could fall into similar errors.  I know that there were sin and error on all sides, for the souls I listened to at Trinity on Thursday evening all confessed the same, and the anger and lack of love on the part of their former pastor is recorded and posted for all to see on the internet.  I do not recommend you seek it out, it is very hard to watch, and will not be good for your soul.  Let my description serve as sufficient warning. 

    In Sidney and Fairview, a lack of proper balance between the Law and the Gospel, and the twisting of the Law into a hammer to beat God’s people, combined to cause, despite years of efforts by many people and pastors, a heart-breaking and ugly resignation of the pastor from the pulpit, last Sunday.  The resignation came with bitter accusations and denunciations of the flock he was supposed to be serving with the Gospel.  Lord have mercy, and grant repentance, forgiveness and healing to all involved.     

    I went to Sidney to listen to my friends that I left eleven years ago, and also to new members, all hurting and starving for the Gospel.  The Montana District President, my dear friend and faithful pastor, Ryan Wendt, had organized a joint service for Trinity and St John, bringing along eight pastors and two vicars, along with many members from surrounding congregations.  We all gathered to bear the burdens of fellow Christians, and to receive the forgiveness of sins through the Word and Signs.  I was privileged to help with the service, including Confession and Absolution and celebrating the Lord’s Supper.  Many tears were shed at the rail, both cathartic tears over past sorrows, and tears of joy as the Lord made Himself present yet again with His people, to deliver forgiveness, life and salvation into our mouths and hearts. 

    Why do I share this sad story with you?  First and foremost, to educate and edify you again concerning what the Church is and what we are always to be about.  District Presidents and Circuit Visitors can and do try their best to walk together with every pastor and congregation in their care, encouraging and admonishing all to be faithful to God’s Truth, His Law and Gospel, so that grace and forgiveness can predominate.  But they can’t see everything or be everywhere.  You, the hearers, are realistically the first line of defense against a preacher who loses his way.  And every preacher is a sinner who can lose his way.  Part of the reason to know the Small Catechism and the whole Bible is so that if, God forbid, this preacher or any other preacher begins to twist God’s Word, you will know and be equipped to ask the needed questions.  And those questions must be answered from the Word of God, not hand-waved away or rejected under the guise of a false understanding of “pastoral authority.” 

    You do, when you call a pastor, give Him an authority to exercise, Christ’s authority, to teach His Truth, to confront sin, and even from time to time to bind the sins of the unrepentant.  But the goal of all ministry is always the same: that sinners would be turned by the Holy Spirit and receive the forgiveness that Jesus has won for all sin.  Every member has a calling to support this most precious and noble goal, with prayer, and humble questions, and a firm commitment to God’s Truth, which always aims at love.  

   When the beautiful song of Christ’s Church, the Song of Mary, the Song of Salvation, is denied, to some or all of God’s people, great hurt and ugliness are always the result.  So, read your Bible, know your Catechism.  Pray for your pastor and your congregation, and trust.  Trust in the One who took up our flesh and became our loving Big Brother.  Trust in the One who sustained Mary through her difficult service.  Trust in the One who turned Paul from persecutor of Christians into a preacher of the Gospel and His greatest Missionary. 

   I also tell you this story to encourage you.  God is faithful.  Though we may pass through dark nights of the soul, struggles that feel like walking through the valley of the shadow of death, your Savior, your Good Shepherd, will not give up on you.

   Trust the One who fled to Egypt with Joseph and Mary, so that in God’s perfect timing, He could instead die on a Roman Cross, in order that we sinners not die forever. 

   Trust in the One who comes to you and all the gathered members of His Body, encouraging and building us up with His Word and Spirit, feeding us with His own Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of all our sins, the Good News that we are privileged to eat and drink. 

   Trust, and rejoice always.  I will say it again, rejoice!  Rejoice that Mary’s Savior and yours will not leave you or forsake you, not today, not ever. 

   And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, today, and forever and ever, Amen.