“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.”
This morning’s Gospel reading is known as the Gospel before the Gospel.
It’s commonly known as The Magnificat; Mary’s song of praise.
It’s a fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, thirty years before Calvary and Easter.
It’s all about God, it’s all about revolution; and it’s all because of Jesus.
And it comes from the mouth, it comes from the heart, of a 14-year-old girl.
This young girl, this ordinary human being was chosen to the Theotokos; the God bearer.
This ordinary human being was given an extraordinary task of carrying God Himself into the human world.
Mary, a young girl with fears and hopes, with dreams and worries, just like any fourteen-year-old girl is destined to become the Mother of the Church.
Notice I say, ‘Mother of the Church’ and not Mother of God.
Our Creed states that God was begotten, not made; God was already in existence and so was not born.
But Mary was chosen to be the God bearer; Theotokos.
Even Mary knew, and acknowledged, that she was just a lowly servant.
But despite her lowliness, God has faith in her and knows that she is the one to do His bidding.
Isn’t it extraordinary that God has faith in us lowly human beings; and yet He knows that if we have faith, then we can still serve Him?
And we can all serve Him, in whatever capacity, whoever we are.
None of us are lowly enough not to serve the Lord.
None of us are high enough, not to serve the Lord
All of us, with all our faults, with all our misgivings, with all our emotional baggage, with all our worries and fears and perhaps anger or more;
All of us, no matter who we are, are able to serve the Lord.
For any person that professes Christ as Lord; there are no excuses that we can possibly come up with that exempt us from serving the Lord.
That whoever we are, however we feel, God will always welcome us as His servant. He turns no one away
He welcomes us, He uses us for who we are, just like He welcomed and used Mary.
This fourteen-year-old girl, with all the insecurities and doubts and fears of a teenager, was chosen to be God’s bearer on earth.
So never, every fear that you are not worthy for be of use to God.
In our lowliness, God still loves us.
Mary became the Mother of the Church, and she leaves us with the beautiful Magnificat as evidence of her joy at being able to be of service to the Lord.
We celebrate that today, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
We celebrate the joy that can be found in serving the Lord.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.”
Amen