A World Turned Upside Down: Sermon Luke 1:46-55

Lord Jesus, help us to see you more clearly, to love you more dearly, to follow you more nearly day by day. Open our eyes, Lord, help us to see you. Amen.

When Alice tumbled down the rabbit-hole and into Wonderland she found herself in a world turned upside down. She thought she tumbled right through to the other side of the earth where the people would be upside down. Alice was a stranger in a strange land and nothing made sense. She could not get her bearings, she did not know which way was up or down, left or right. Alice’s story is, of course, a work of fiction, a fantasy dreamed up by Lewis Carroll. However, when we are struck by sudden, sometimes tragic news, we might fell a lot like Alice. We feel as though our world turned upside down. We might feel as though we have tumbled down the rabbit-hole wondering when we will hit rock bottom. We do not like thinking about these things and we are never prepared for them when they happen so what do we do?

Let us look at the example of Mary, the mother of Jesus. She certainly felt as though her world turned upside down when the angel Gabriel visited her and told her the news that she would give birth to the Christ child. Imagine that for a moment. Mary, by tradition, was a teenager 14 or 15 years old. She was preparing for her marriage to Joseph. She was to leave her parents house and enter into her husband’s house. That was the way things were done in those days. She was to be pure for her husband, a virgin. Now she was going to have a baby, not just a baby, but God’s baby. Who would believe her? It is a crazy story. An angel appeared and said you will have God’s child. Yeah, right. Most people would think that she went off and got knocked up by some guy. This was more than an embarrassment, by law and tradition she could be stoned to death for adultery. This could cost her life or at the very least she would be shunned and exiled from her family and community. Her world was turned upside down. What could she do? What did she do? In spite of all that stacked against her, she trusted God. I am sure she did not know how it would all work out, but she had faith that it would work out. Not only does Mary accept her role in this story despite its potential hardships and dangers, but she praises God for the opportunity. Our lesson from Luke this morning is Mary’s song of praise called the Magnificat. She begins by saying that her soul magnifies the Lord because the Mighty One has done great things for her. She trusts that although she cannot see it now this event will be a great thing and that through her God’s glory will shine brighter. God’s glory will be shone through her obedience and trust. What would we do in a situation like this? I don’t think I would be near as trusting as Mary is in this story. I might be doing a lot more questioning and worrying. In reality, God is calling us to service everyday, it is not in the same way that he called Mary, but if we are faithful and trustworthy then we, like Mary, will glorify God through our actions.

Mary is part of a beautiful story, one that most of us know by heart. Just as Mary’s world would never be the same after her visit from Gabriel, the birth of her child would change the whole world forever. Through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of that child in her womb the world would be turned upside down.

Mary gives us a glimpse into the changes that will take place because of her son. She is so confident in those changes that she speaks of them in the past tense, as if they have already happened. We saw then, see now, and will see a reversal, literally a world turned upside down. Mary sings that the “[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” In that moment, she is the lowly that is raised up. God could have chosen a queen or a princess, a woman of status and power to bear his child, but instead he chooses a servant girl, a peasant, a nobody. This is the beginning of a reversal that Jesus continues to speak about in his ministry. He teaches the disciples that the greatest in the kingdom of God will be the servant of all. The greatest will be the least of all. Mary sings that God has filled the poor with good things and sent the rich away empty. She is the poor that is filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus feds the multitude of poor and the rich young ruler leaves because he does not want to part with his money. Jesus makes a clear distinction that a person cannot serve both God and money. There has to be a choice made. Mary sings about God remembering his mercy to his people, a promise that was made through the prophets. We read some of those promises last week. In Christ those promises are fulfilled not just in that moment 2,000 years ago, but in every moment for all eternity. Christ is the embodiment of God’s love and all of this begins when Mary said “Yes God, I trust you.” The world is turned upside down. The rich are now poor, the poor are rich, the powerful are brought low and the humble are exalted.

This change, these reversals should not be anything new to us, because everyone who is truly touched by Christ is never the same again. Mary is never the same. The disciples are never the same. The blind, the lame, the leper, the tax collector, the prostitute, the sinner is never the same. Pilate is never the same. The Roman soldier who nailed him to the cross is never the same. Paul is never the same. We are never the same again. In Christ our world is turned upside down. It is such a change that Paul calls those in Christ “new creations” with the old gone and new brought in. Our priorities change. We no longer search for riches that will rust and the thief can steal, but we search for treasures in the kingdom of God. We no longer seek for ourselves first, but we work to help others. We seek first the kingdom of God and all other things will be added to us.

Advent is a time for us to examine our hearts and our lives to see whether or not we have been truly changed by the Christ child. Has your life been touched by Christ? Is your world turned upside down? How much have we changed and how much more to we need to change? Remember that the change is not instantaneous. It takes time to change our ways and repent from our wrongdoings, but progress must be made. We have to show some progress in our lives. We must always be moving forward.

You see change is a funny things because as we change those around us change. As we change we can change the world. We do this by practicing the teachings of Jesus, by embodying the change that is going on the inside. We cannot keep our lights hidden. We have to shine upon the world. We do it by the power of God and for the glory of God just as Mary did.

There is a far better way of living in the world, and on this Fourth Sunday of Advent we stand at its threshold. The question, however, is: Are we willing to step forward? Or are we afraid to have our world turned upside down? Are we the poor who will hear the good news of reversal, or are we the ones responsible for their poverty? Are we the brokenhearted who will be healed, or have we broken their hearts? Are we the captives who will be freed, or are we the captors who have restrained them? On what side of the reversals do we find ourselves?
Advent is a time to search our hearts, to discover where, both individually and as a community, we need to change. It is a time of expectation, for we are told that there is one who has the power to heal our personal brokenness, to heal our fractured families, to heal our troubled church, to heal our bleeding world. Paul tells us that he is coming; John tells us that he is already in our midst. His presence among us should make us rejoice; the saving power that he brings should give us confidence. If we open our hearts to this saving power, we can indeed transform our society; we can renew our church, we can work toward peace in the world—we can turn our world upside down.
Let us pray…
Grant, O Lord,
that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,
and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;
through Jesus Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.