“Magnify”

“Magnify”

Text: Micah 5:2-5

© December 24, 2006 by C. Edward Bowen

Over in Sweden, a hospital made a rather unusual request of one of its male nurses. The hospital asked if instead of calling him by his first name, if the doctors and other staff members could call him by his middle name. You see, the reason for that request was because that nurse’s first name was Jesus. And apparently some of the patients were getting freaked out when the doctors would look at them say, “Just lie there quietly. Jesus is coming soon.” Apparently some of the patients took that to mean that they were dying, and that the real Jesus was coming for them to take them to heaven.[1]

It’s Christmas Eve. And the message that we hear today is: Jesus is coming. But what does that message mean for us? What does it mean that Jesus is coming into the world? Well, as we read the Bible, one of the things that we find is that when Jesus comes, we can expect surprising things to happen.

It’s like a man who went into the appliance section at a department store on Christmas Eve. After looking around for a few minutes, he picked up a toaster from the shelf and took it over to the cashier. The man asked, “Could I get this wrapped? It’s for my wife. It’s her Christmas present.” The cashier asked, “Oh, is it a surprise?” The man said, “I’ll say! She thinks she’s getting a diamond necklace.”

It’s Christmas Eve. Jesus is coming. Are you ready to be surprised?

The reading that we just heard from the Old Testament was from the prophet Micah, someone who lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. And in that passage, Micah said, “Get ready to be surprised. Because one day a new kind of ruler, a new kind of king, is going to come into the world. But you won’t find that king in the capital city of Jerusalem, or in Rome, or in one of the other great cities of the world, like you might expect. No, the surprise is that that ruler, that king who will bring peace, is going to be born in the lowly little town of Bethlehem.”

Or as we remember the Christmas story, we need to realize what a surprise it was that Mary was chosen to be Jesus’ mother. If it had been up to us to choose who should have been the mother of the Son of God, we quite possibly would have selected someone who was famous, someone who was rich, someone who had power and prestige. But instead God chose Mary – a virtual nobody. Mary didn’t have any impressive family tree – the Bible doesn’t even tell us who her parents were. And on top of it all, Mary wasn’t even married yet, but here was God asking her to have a baby. At that time in history, that would have been a huge scandal. It’s something that she could have been put to death for. Was that any way for the Son of God to come into the world? But that was the surprising way that God wanted it to be.

Or when Jesus was born, how was the news first announced? If it had been up to us, we probably would have sent out special delivery telegrams to all the kings and queens and presidents. We would have called up the TV stations so that they could have aired a breaking news alert. But instead, God chose to make the first announcement of the birth of the Savior in a far-off, dark and lonely field, to some shepherds – to a bunch of smelly, dirty outcasts. Was that any way to introduce Jesus to the world? But that was the surprising way that God wanted it to be.

When Jesus came into the world, all kinds of surprising and amazing things happened. But some people are left to wonder: “How come God never does surprising and amazing things in life? If Christianity is so great, how come God isn’t surprising or amazing me?”

It’s been said that the problem is not that people have tried Christianity and have found it to come up short. The problem is not that people have tried Christianity and have found it to be a disappointment. No, the problem is that so few people ever really try Christianity. The problem is that so few people ever really try and live the kind of life that Christianity is all about. If the truth be told, that’s why so many people don’t see God doing surprising or amazing things in their lives.

For instance, they recently did a survey of about 1,500 elementary school students. And they asked the kids to identify what the best thing in the world is. What do you think those kids said? At the very top of their list, in the #1 position, was “being a celebrity.” As far as those kids were concerned, the best thing that can happen to you in life is to become a celebrity, to become someone who everyone talks about and idolizes.

And ranking right behind “being a celebrity,” those elementary school kids said that the next two most important things in the world are being good-looking and having lots of money. Do you notice a trend there? All of those top three choices about what’s most important in the world are very self-centered. Being a celebrity, being good-looking, having lots of money – those are all things that put “me” front and center.

And in that survey, what was even more troubling to note was that what those kids ranked dead last was God. When they were asked to name what’s the best thing, what’s the most important thing in the world, they put God at the very bottom of the list.[2] Yes, that survey was done among elementary school kids. But if adults were asked to respond to that same survey, I’m not so sure that the results would be all that different. But then, at the same time, people wonder why God isn’t doing surprising and amazing things in their lives. Could it be that it’s because so many people make God only a minor, insignificant part of their lives?

In the reading that we listened to today from the New Testament, from the Gospel of Luke, that passage is commonly known as the Magnificat. It’s a song that Mary sings after the angel Gabriel announces to her that God has chosen her to be the mother of the Son of God. And the song begins with Mary saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” And I have to admit, that until this past week, I don’t think I had ever given too much consideration to what those words really mean: My soul magnifies the Lord. What does it mean for our souls to magnify the Lord?

As a child, did you ever take a magnifying glass and a piece of paper outside on a bright sunny summer day? If you take the magnifying glass in your hand and constantly move it around, nothing much happens. The beam of light just keeps moving. But if you hold the magnifying glass still over that piece of paper for a while, what happens? Eventually you can catch that piece of paper on fire. Eventually you can bring those beams of light into such focus, by magnifying them, that great and surprising power is unleashed.

That’s basically what Mary was singing about when she said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She was singing about the way that she had focused herself on God, by accepting the invitation that the angel had offered to her to be Jesus’ mother. And as she focused on God, and allowed God to shine on her, she could sense something surprising and amazing happening in her life. She could sense that as she magnified God in her life, God was in turn magnifying her, that God was doing something wonderful and great in her life.

What would it take for us to be surprised and amazed like Mary was? What would it take for us to magnify God in our lives like Mary did? Here we are on Christmas Eve, an exciting time, a time when many people are open and ready to see what God might want to do in their lives. But all too soon, Christmas is over. The tree gets taken down, the decorations get put away, and that excited feeling we have right now often begins to fade somewhat. And so what would it take for us to magnify God in our lives not just on Christmas Eve, but to magnify God in our lives all the time? What would it take for us to magnify God in our lives so that we might experience firsthand those surprising and amazing things that God wants to do through us?

Of course, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to that question. Instead, each of us needs to take a look at ourselves and figure out what it would mean for us to magnify the role that God plays in our lives. Maybe it would involve taking part in Sunday worship on a more regular basis. Maybe it would involve setting apart more time each day to pray. Maybe it would involve taking part in a Sunday school class or a covenant group. Maybe it would involve taking part in one of the many community outreach or service project opportunities that the church sponsors. In your life, what would it take? What would it take to magnify the role that God plays in your life?

In the Bible, we see God doing surprising and amazing things in people’s lives, like what God did in Mary’s life. But too often we’re tempted to think: “Oh, God would never do anything surprising or amazing in my life. Who am I? I’m no spiritual giant. I don’t have any particularly wonderful talent or ability.”

But the simple truth is that no matter who we are, no matter whether we think we have a lot of talent or whether we think we have no talent, no matter whether we think we’re a saint or whether we think we’re a sinner, if we focus ourselves on God, if we magnify the role that God plays in our lives, in time surprising and amazing things are sure to happen.