The Power of Christmas Music...

As of today, there are less than 3 weeks until Christmas. There are less than 3 weeks left to make sure that all of your Christmas shopping is done. Less than 3 weeks to prepare and plan for the big day that is Christmas Day. But you did not need me to remind you of that reality, did you. No, you did not need me to remind you that there are less than 3 weeks until Christmas, because for the last several months, as a culture, we have seen more and more reminders of Christmas. There are reminders in the forms of Christmas trees, Christmas sales, and Christmas sweaters.

And as we see those reminders of Christmas, many of those reminders provoke memories of Christmases past. I mean, just think of some of those Christmas sweaters that people will keep and keep on wearing. When you ask about those sweaters, there often is a story behind those sweaters, isn't there? And it is the story behind the sweater and the memory of that story, that will compel us to keep some of the ugliest sweaters imaginable.

I mean just think of a Christmas tree. When you look at a Christmas tree, there are Christmas trees are designed and adorned with matching ornaments, lights and ornaments that beautify whatever environment they are in. And then there are Christmas trees like the tree that decorates our home. The ornaments that cover our tree often clash and seem to be a total mismatch. For example, on our tree we have a ESPN ornament that makes the "da da da da da da da" sound next to a picture of me from second grade, next to a beautiful ornament that was an heirloom from Julie's family. However, while not ascetically coordinated, for us, the beauty of the tree is in the memories that each of those ornaments provokes.

You see, Christmas is a season filled with sights and sounds that provoke memories, hopes, and aspirations. And perhaps the most powerful aspect of the sights and sounds of Christmas in found in Christmas music. One of things we love most about Christmas is the music.  Whether it’s standing in line a store or listening to the radio on the way home from work, the music we hear reminds us that there is something unique about this time of year.  There is something powerful that occurs when you walk into a store and hear Christmas music, isn't there? There is something powerful when we hear a Christmas song and find ourselves transported back in time to a powerful memory of a Christmas past.

And Christmas music seems to be timeless, doesn't it? Christmas music has a staying power unlike any other. Christmas music has a staying power that can lead people to look forward to the day when they can access the playlist of their favorite Christmas music that they have created on Pandora, Spotify, or on their favorite apple device. But the idea of having a Christmas playlist is not new. Instead, there has been a "Christmas Playlist" since the first Christmas.

So, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, we are going to be spending our time together in a sermon series entitled the Original Christmas Playlist. During this series, we are going to spend our time together looking at the first Christmas Playlist that was composed by those who were involved in the very first Christmas. During this series, we are going to discover that the Christmas story is told through song as well and a recollection of events from history.  During this series, we are going to discover that each of these songs helps us discover something different, something important about the coming of Jesus into humanity.

And as we go through this series, our hope and prayer is that God would move by the power of the Holy Spirit in our heads, hearts, and hands in a way the enables us to learn several timeless truths that these songs teach us about the very first Christmas and it’s place the grand story of God's activity in history. This week I would like for us to spend our time together looking at a song that was a part of the original Christmas playlist that was written by a woman named Mary. We know Mary as the mother of Jesus.

However, it is in this song that Mary composed during the very first Christmas that we discover a timeless truth about Christmas and God's activity in history.  However, before we look at Mary's contribution to the original Christmas playlist, let's look at the circumstances the led to her song. We find these circumstances, and her song, in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. So, let's jump into this event from history together, beginning in Luke 1:26-27:

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth,  to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

Luke brings us into this section of his account of Jesus life by telling us that God sent the angel Gabriel to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, which was a small, rural town, located about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. Gabriel was sent to Nazareth in order to deliver a message from God to a woman named Mary, who was a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph. Mary was basically a Junior High age virgin who was engaged to be married to a slightly older teenager named Joseph, who Luke tells us was of the descendants of David.

That Joseph was a descendant of David was significant because God had promised the Jewish nations most famous king, King David, that one of his descendants would be the Messiah. So the Jewish people were looking for the descendant of Abraham, from the line of David that would be the promised Messiah who would bring the Jewish people back to God and back to prominence in the world. And Joseph was a descendant of Abraham from the line of David. Luke then gives us a front row seat as this story unfolds, beginning in Luke 1:28:

 And coming in, he said to her, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."

In other words, Gabriel basically said to Mary: “Rejoice Mary, for God is with you and is going to extend grace to you in a way that will transform your life”. We see Mary’s response to this greeting in verse 29:

  But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

When Luke states that Mary was perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was, he is revealing for us the reality that Mary was confused and was trying to process what this amazing greeting from this supernatural being meant. But not only was Mary confused; not only was Mary considering the significance of the angel Gabriel’s statement. There was something else going on in Mary, which we see revealed in verse 30a:

The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary;

To which Mary was probably thinking “that’s easy for you to say. You see, the reason why the Angel Gabriel said “do not be afraid” is because Mary was afraid. Luke then reveals the message that the Angel Gabriel delivered from the Lord to Mary in verse 30b-33:

 for you have found favor with God. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. "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; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end."

Now God’s message to Mary, if it was communicated in the language that we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Mary, the reason that you have nothing to be afraid of is because God is with you and is going to extend grace to you. God is going to reveal His transformational intervention and activity in your life in a miraculous way. You see, Mary you are going to have a child; and this child is not just any child. You are going to have a son and you are to name him Jesus, or Yahweh saves. And the reason that you are to name Him Jesus is because He is God in a bod. God is coming to the earth through you as the Lord God is sending His Son Jesus, who is God, to take on flesh and fulfill the promise that He had made to bring the Jewish people back to Him. The son that you will give birth to will rule and reign as He reveals and establishes the kingdom of Heaven for all eternity".

Now imagine yourself as Mary. Out of the blue, an angel of the Lord shows up to tell you that you are going to become pregnant and give birth to God: What would you be thinking? What would you be feeling at that point? How would you respond?

Tomorrow, we will see how Mary responded…