97 101 Marys Thoughts

Glad to have you with us this morning for a visitor. Hope you'll enjoy singing this particular carol. Let's all stand and sing it enthusiastically.

When these souls will receive Him still, The dear Christ enters in. All Bethlehem, listen to us we pray, The sounds of sin and anger ring In all in us today. He will praise God's angels forever.

Please do sit down. Let's pray together. Father, thank you that it is still true, even 2,000 years further on, that where meek souls will receive your Son, we have the right to become children of God.

We pray, Lord, that even if we think we've made it and we're saved and we know the Lord, we'll still remain meek and grateful, we'll still rely on your mercy, we'll still hate sin and do our best to shun it. Father, we've given money towards your work and I pray you will enable your people to use it for the benefit of others so they can meet the Lord Jesus for themselves. Bless those dear children who put on such a wonderful expression of the Christian faith to us a few minutes ago.

Bless their lives. Let them grow up into wonderful men and women of the living God. Amen, Lord.

Thanks, Dick. We've so many mince pies that if anyone's feeling a bit peckish during the address this morning, just nip out and help yourself. They're all in the kitchen.

Feel very free, informal service, family service, when we ought to be thanking God like Mary thanked God. Turn to the back of Notes and News and there's a modern expression of what the Episcopal churches have named for down the centuries the Magnificat, which is the Latin of magnifico, the Italian, and in English, of course, magnificent. If Mary was anything, she certainly was a lady who rejoiced.

Let's read together that emphasized writing which contains Mary's great song of delight before the Lord. Everyone, I'm bursting with God news. I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.

God took one look at me, and look what happened. I'm the most fortunate woman on earth. What God has done for me will never be forgotten.

The God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before Him. He bared His arm and showed His strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts.

He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet. The callous rich were left out in the cold.

He embraced His chosen child, Israel. He remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It's exactly what He promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Isn't that a lovely expression about God's mercies? He piled them, piled them on, piled them high. Do you remember one of our little boys singing last year about Christmas pudding, Christmas pudding? And eat a lot, eat a lot, pour on all the custard, pour on all the custard. And so it went on.

The idea of pouring on, of piling up your plate so that you've got a great heap of Christmas pud, those of you who like it, with custard to help it to go down, to slip down the throat. Well, it's perhaps too familiar a metaphor, perhaps not the most sacred one, and yet it has got the idea of God doling out, giving, and giving in such a magnificent way. The grace of God, the mercy of God, that's what you find so often in the New Testament when you come across the character of God.

He's the God of incredible surprises. And no one was more surprised than Mary, this lady who lived in the obscure part of what was then known as Palestine. Today we would prefer perhaps to call it Israel, in Galilee, known as Galilee of the Gentiles because few Jews had actually penetrated that area and it was largely given over to Arab stock.

They domiciled it. That's where their homes were. But there were a few people who came from the house of David, that is his ancestors, but time had gone on, and rather his descendants, time had gone on and on.

And the esteem that was there of being a relative of David that had got lost. And so in the backwoods of Galilee, a bit of a scrubland, you found a handful of Jews. Amongst those Jewish folk was a woman, probably no more than a teenage girl, and her name, well, Miriam actually in the Hebrew, Mary as she's become famously known throughout the world.

Do you remember Chairman Mao? Did a lot of damage, that man. And at one time he produced a book which seemed to be outselling the Bible simply because of the population in China, a third of the world's population tucked up into that vast tract of land. The thoughts of Chairman Mao, the little red book held up by lots of Chinese boys and girls in their schools and soldiers in Mao's army.

The thoughts of Mao. There have been people who've left their thoughts for men and women to read over and think about after they were dead and buried. Not only Mao, there's a man, a French philosopher called Pascal.

That's one of the greatest minds that the French ever produced, a mathematician, a man who was good at reasoning and logic and so forth. And one day he had a remarkable encounter, the grace of God. He became a Christian.

He said from that point on all his previous reasoning really counted for very little. He left his scientific studies and he became, well, almost a religious recluse. But a man who had found something of the salvation of Jesus Christ and wanted to spend his life just working out the implications of that.

And he left a book in the French called Pense. His thoughts. The thoughts of Pascal.

The thoughts of Chairman Mao. I'll come back to that in a moment. Do some of you elderly or middle-aged folk remember Dr. Finlay's casebook? I can tell you do.

Finlay, for the uninitiated, Finlay was a GP in Scotland. He was your typical GP-friendly doctor with a bedside manner and avuncular style. Finlay would get alongside his patients and they'd talk to him.

And as good doctors to this day will do, he'd win their confidence and they'd share something about their problems. You know, the noble office of a doctor is not a modern one, though there have been a lot of breakthroughs in modern medical practice because of the discoveries in medicines in these last 50 years or so. We're very fortunate, in one sense, to live in this day and age.

But you can find the history of doctors going back almost to the beginning of time. People who were gifted in the heart of medications and healing and so forth. Did you ever ask yourself, what happened to Mary when she was an old woman? And John, to whom Jesus had entrusted her for care, was imprisoned.

Who looked after Mary then? I can't prove this, but it seems to me, despite what the Daily Telegraph was saying in their rubbishy article yesterday, which was really an utter disgrace, it was a disgrace academically, let alone in terms of being an unfortunate article to put out at this time of the year, questioning the whole historicity of Christmas. A. N. Wilson was revealing, I think, his own lack of scholarship, but that by the by. It seems to me that, from what I can gather from various records that are available and the history of the first century church, that Mary went to Caesarea.

And Luke, who was a doctor and gives us the third gospel, came to Mary because, well, Luke is a great historian. And whatever Wilson had to say yesterday, one of the things that have stood out paramountly in the history of history is that the fifth book of the Bible, the Acts of the Apostles, which comes from the pen of Luke, has been extremely well researched. Now, not only did Luke write the fifth book of the Bible, he wrote also the third book, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the four gospels, Luke writing the third one.

Now, when you get to the opening chapters of Luke's gospel, what you discover, you find that it's given over largely to information that could only come from one source, and the source is Mary. Now, we know that Luke was a companion of Paul. He used to wander around Asia Minor.

And in his researches, it seems as though he came to Caesarea where Mary was then living. And here is a lady who must have been fairly elderly, and here is her GP. And maybe he's got a bedside manner.

Here I'm just speculating. And he asks Mary to tell him what's on her heart. The Bible says that Mary had treasured off all that had happened in terms of the birth of Jesus and the consequent events.

She treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. You get that in the 19th verse of Luke's second chapter. And then you also get it later on in the same chapter.

His mother treasured all these things, verse 51, in her heart. So I want to speak to you, not that long, on the thoughts of Mary. Pascal's thoughts are worth reading.

Chairman Mao, I give them a pass. But Mary's reflections, Mary's cogitations, well worth having a look at. I've just listed one or two points that have cracked open.

Bob Brown spoke this morning about taking a little implement and tapping a text, and it springs open to three points. It's amazing how he does that. Absolutely amazing.

Well, let's think of Mary and this particular idea that I'm suggesting to you of her telling her family doctor, telling Luke about the thoughts that had occupied her down the years of her life. Mary, who had been used by God to bring into this world his son. First of all, who she was and what she had become.

Who she was? Do you know what happened on Friday? The leader of the Conservative Party took the tremendous step of getting married, and he said it was more exacting to give out his wedding vows than to confront Tony Blair at question time in the House of Commons. Who did he marry? A beautiful girl, Vivian Llewellyn Jenkins. Comes from Wales.

But they didn't marry in their Methodist chapel. He didn't take her back to Rwanda or Cardiff. They opted for a crypt in Westminster, in the Houses of Parliament in Westminster.

It was a deliberate decision, and immediately this young lady lost her anonymity because the world's press was there, and her views will be sought, and her picture you probably saw on the newspaper that you bought perhaps yesterday. Her views will be sought, and she will no longer have a private life. But that's a deliberate choice.

She could have gone back to Wales and done it much more in a family fashion. I'm not criticizing her. I'm making a point.

But what I am saying is this, that as far as Mary was concerned, there was an anonymity that she lost. The birth of Jesus. Here she was, this girl living in this largely unpopulated, as far as Jews were concerned, area of Israel.

She tells us in the Magnificat that she was a humble person of working class stock, and any claims to be great had long been lost. The idea of her being able to trace her pedigree back to David. But when she has the intelligence given to her that she will bring into this world the most remarkable man that ever lived, that she is pregnant, and her pregnancy will be engineered, so to speak, miraculously, Mary will lose her anonymity.

And the reason why she lost it was this. Because she found favor with God. Now, three times you find, once in the first chapter and twice in Luke's second chapter, that Mary has found favor.

She is the one. This is why in the Magnificat it's emphasized this unusual, this unique experience that Mary herself has. She is the one who glorifies the Lord.

Her spirit rejoices in God, her Savior. Why? Verse 48 of Luke 1, he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. And on Mary, the favor of God has rested.

Do you know the concept of the favor of God resting on people is as old as the book of Genesis. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. David tells us in one of the Psalms that he wrote that he too found favor in the eyes of God.

Listen to this, Psalm 119, verse 59. I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statute. Verse 58, I have sought your face with all my heart.

Be gracious to me according to your promise. What does to find favor with God mean? It's to seek God's face and to find an audience. Now that's what happened to Mary.

An audience was granted to her by God. Now, forget just for a moment the idea of the virgin birth. Just take the concept of someone finding favor with God.

And let me ask you the question. Have you done that? See, if you were to distinguish a Christian from a non-Christian or someone for whom Christmas really makes sense as opposed to those for whom it's just an excuse for festivities, it largely spins around this. The Christian has found favor with God.

He has made real to them the message behind Christmas. And this is what Mary received. She had been anonymous, and God in his grace took her and used her to bring his son into the world.

And she who was just there in the obscurity of Palestine becomes the most famous woman of all time. Now, a cult has grown up around Mary, and I was suggesting to you that this really has no scriptural support. The idea of Mary being queen of heaven, the Immaculate Conception, the assumption of Mary that she never died, the perpetual virginity of Mary, all this is entirely without scriptural foundation.

And I think no one would be more surprised than Mary herself to find that this sort of a cult philosophy had been built on her. But pushing that all to one side, you're still left with the most remarkable woman, someone who is anonymous. But you know, in God's sight, there is no one who is unknown and anonymous because he knows you.

And the most important thing in life is for you to respond to God's love and have an intimate relationship with him. And as Mary, in a remarkable way, helped to further the purposes of God on earth, so for you to do in similar fashion, in principle, cooperate with the Lord. Mary, she considers all these things, she stores them up in her mind.

Me, I was anonymous, and I have been used by the Lord. What I was, what I have become. Did she talk to Dr. Luke about that? A surprise, a surprise.

But not only what she was and who she had become, but what she had learned and who had been her teachers. What she had learned and who had been her teachers. You see, Mary probably never went to school.

And yet she did have some tutors. Some who stepped into her life and gave her information the like of which she was ignorant of up to that point. If you're a teacher, what's your staff like? I mean, on God's staff, so to speak, in terms of being educators of Mary, there was an angel.

And God will always go from one extreme to another, then brings in an auntie. And then a group of ordinary men who were so smelly they couldn't go into the temple. And then as far as Mary's concerned, there was an old man who was past it as a clergyman.

He'd been pensioned off. And yet some people who have been pensioned off have a great deal to teach us who are of more tender years. What she had learned and who had been the teachers, well, what did she learn from the angel Gabriel? This being who stands in the presence of God.

I was reading in the Independent yesterday about Al-Fayyad, the guy who owns Harrods. I think I would be so righteous to say, in one sense, it's almost providential that Diana met the death that she did. God bless her memory.

But I mean, Al-Fayyad and what he stands for, he's your father-in-law. I mean, the obscenities that this man is recorded as having part of his general vocabulary. And the fear, according to the Independent and other newspapers carrying the story, I'm not scandalizing, this is public knowledge, that he seems to inject into Harrods amongst his staff and the court cases that are reigned up against him and the reason why the British government won't give him citizenship.

Stand in his presence and you're either his servant or it seems you're his enemy. I, Gabriel, come from the presence of God. That's what it says in Luke 1. Someone who comes from the presence of God, the awesome presence of God, and makes himself known, communicating a message from the immaculate deity himself.

And what does he have to say, Mary? Well, he speaks about her impending pregnancy. With language that is unmatched in delicacy, he speaks of the principle of the Holy Spirit working upon Mary's womb. And how from her womb will come a child who will impact not only Israel, but the world.

And if that's not enough tuition for this last to take in and reflect on, she goes off to her auntie down in the south because, well, you know, this business of pregnancy and no father, people are as scandalous then, or were as scandalous then as now. So she's pushed off to the southern part of Palestine, of Israel, and there she meets up with her auntie. And when her auntie actually encounters Mary, you read in this first chapter how her auntie, who is somewhat geriatric, but has conceived a child, there is a response not only from her auntie, but the child within her to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the child that's growing within Mary.

If ever the abortionist lobby wanted to find the scriptural teaching on cavalier abortion, it's there. The children are not referred to as fetuses or feti. They can even respond.

An incredible piece of narrative, written, remember, by a doctor. And what does Auntie Elizabeth have to say to niece Mary? Well, she responds in a quite remarkable fashion. She says, Verse 42, chapter 1. Those of you who have been with child, which obviously excludes 50% of us, you know what Mary and Elizabeth are referring to.

And Mary gathers from Elizabeth that there is something indeed very special. So she reaffirms what Mary's already learned from the angel her auntie supplies a bit more information. What she had learned, who had been the teachers, an angel, an auntie.

The shepherds, they sort of hit the lowest leg or the lowest rung of the ladder socially in the days of our Lord. It wasn't always the case. The office of shepherd had been a very good one.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, Psalm 23. But, you know, culture changes and habits change and achievements and what you want to do, goals change in the passing of the years. And shepherds, well, they draw the short straw.

Smelly men, not allowed in the temple, even though probably they were looking after the flocks that were owned by the priests of the temple. Now, I think it's part of the largesse, the generosity of God, that when he's looking for someone to tell what's happening in Bethlehem, he takes the shepherds. He goes right down the rung.

He goes, with respect, I speak carefully, read my heart if you don't listen to me too accurately. The night shelter, the gentlemen of the road, the people who perhaps are not so attractive. And God reveals to these shepherds and gets them to move to Bethlehem that born in David's town is a savior and they come along and Mary is again being tutored by these men.

They tell her what's happened and not only do they tell her, they go back and tell the whole locality that born in Bethlehem is someone who is really quite unique. And then, and I spin on the clock a little while. I take off some of the pages from the calendar.

Here's Mary and it's some weeks later and in her arms is the infant Jesus and there's this old man of whom you'll be hearing this evening. Do come, it's brilliant. It's a tremendous presentation of the nativity through the eyes of an old man, this musical Simeon, which is part of our evening service.

And there is Simeon and he takes the infant child in his arms and he gives out what the liturgical element of the church is called the nunc dimittis. Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, why will mine eyes have seen thy salvation? But what does he say to Mary? Well, he has something particular to say to Mary. He says about this little boy that is in his arms, Mary, this child is destined, chapter two and verse 34, this child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too.

Mary, he's gonna be a stumbling block. And you know, to this day, Jesus is a stumbling block. He's either a stepping stone into the presence of God or he's a stumbling block that prevents you from getting through because he's the only way.

To many Jewish people, he's a stumbling block. To three quarters of the English population who will not be in church on Christmas Day or Christmas Sunday, to some degree, Jesus Christ is an enigma. They celebrate his birthday without even realizing why he came into the world.

Paradoxically, the stepping stone becomes a stumbling block. And so Mary has all this teaching. These are her teachers, varied teachers.

What are they telling? Well, Jesus is the son of the most high God. He is the savior. He will be a stumbling block.

And Mary, though you're elated in one sense, you'll also be very pained as you follow the story of your son. Remember all this she's telling Dr. Luke because what you have here is a summary of the conversation. Didn't have a tape recorder, so you haven't got it all, but you've got the essence of his notes.

Mary treasured these things in her heart. Who she was, what she had become, what she'd learned, and who'd been her tutors. Whom she had born, what that child would achieve.

The fourth gospel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John says of Jesus, he was born not as a result of human passion. That's a sort of circumlocution. That means using a lot of words to back off coming completely to the point that you're trying to make because, well, you want to put it across with depth and with tact and with a degree of eloquence.

I mean, what John is saying, actually, is that no man was involved in the conception of Jesus. The Word became flesh, and it wasn't as a result of the sperm of Joseph or anyone else. Now, the virginity of Jesus, according to Ian Wilson, in his ill-written article yesterday, it has no historical basis.

I would say that the virginity of Mary is taken for granted throughout the whole of the New Testament. I would go so far, but I haven't time to unpack this reasoning. Perhaps one day I'll try and preach a sermon on it, that Mary could have saved Jesus from the cross.

You see, the one thing that Mary never did was to deny the concept of the uniqueness of the birth of Jesus Christ. You see, his parenthood was always a point of question. Is not this the carpenter's son? And there seems to be an implication that, you know, there's something a little bit, this upstart is just really the son of a carpenter.

And yet, on another occasion, they're saying in Jesus' presence, we're not bastards. And the implication being, we know about your death. We know about your birth.

Could not Mary, who on a number of occasions interrupted the ministry of Jesus, have gone to the high priest and say, well, he claims to be the son of God. He can't be the son of God. He's my son.

I know Joseph is his father. Let me, as his mother, speak about him. Let me tell you that he's a little demented.

He's gone into the position of being a religious freak. But I know the truth. But Mary kept quiet.

And the attendant evidence supports the original assertion of Dr. Luke. Mary was a virgin at the time of conceiving Jesus. Joseph packs Mary off, or seemingly so, to the southern part of Palestine, of Israel, to be with his, to be with her cousin.

And Joseph's attitude is very important. It needs to be borne in mind when you write articles on this. How does Joseph respond? Well, it seems as though he responds as a kind man, but as a righteous man.

He doesn't want to disgrace Mary, so he sends her off to somewhere where it's private for the confinement. Alexander White was a great Scottish preacher of last century, and he has a series of sermons which are incorporated into two volumes called Bible Characters. And White has Joseph going into the synagogue in Nazareth, and he's on his own.

I mean by that, Mary's away, and he's heartbroken. And then suddenly the reader of Scripture goes to Isaiah chapter 9, a virgin shall conceive and shall bear a son. And suddenly it flows into his mind, possibly what he's heard of Mary could be true.

And White says he takes a nocturnal trip, a trip at night, and he goes down to the place where Mary is, and he bumps into Zechariah, who also has had to be corrected by an angel. Zechariah's the wife of Elizabeth, and the two men get together. They have a conversation, not a proper one, because Zechariah's deaf.

And these men, who've both been disciplined by angels, come to a realization of the folly of not believing what God has said. And White has got Joseph apologizing to Mary, thinking that even dumbness and death itself would be but a light punishment for the unbelief and cruelty that he's meted out to her. Who has she born? She's born the Christ child into the world.

What would he achieve? Well, the aged Simeon will tell you, he has come into the world. Mine eyes have seen your salvation. He's speaking not to Mary.

He's speaking to God. My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all men. He's come for the benefit of the Jew.

He's come for the benefit of the Gentile. Again, Alexander White, he's got Simeon as one of the 70, one of the Sanhedrin. And you see, he's preaching, and he's doing some teaching, and he's doing some translation.

And he gets to the bit in Isaiah which speaks about a virgin shall conceive. And Simeon just can't believe that this is right because, well, years have gone by and nothing like this has happened. And so he refuses to translate the Hebrew Alma into the Greek Parthenos.

And he goes home to his house in a bit of a tiff, and he won't preach anymore. Now, this is Alexander White with a little bit of imagination. And suddenly, the angel who stood in the presence of God makes himself known to Simeon and says, look, you will, before you die, see the fulfillment of that promise.

And the reason why Alexander White can make this particular piece of speculation is this, that when you get to the 25th chapter of Luke 2, you see Simeon being described there. There was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel.

It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until the fulfillment of that Isaiah prophecy came true. So maybe Gabriel did go from Joseph to Elizabeth to Mary to Simeon. And there you've got the old man, the pensioner, caressing the little child.

Now let us, thou thy servant, depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen your salvation. So, and I'm just about through, put all that together. It's a lot to think about, isn't it? And Mary treasured these things.

What she was, what she'd become, who taught her, what she had learned, whom she had born, and what he could achieve. She treasured these things, not just in her diary, not just in her memory, but in her heart, the seat of the affections. No rubber would ever erase them.

No delete button would ever cancel out the impressions that had been made in her heart where the dust of time will not be allowed to settle. The thoughts of Mary, what does she tell you? She tells you that born of her body was the Savior. But even more spectacularly, born into her heart came the salvation that her son would achieve, which takes us right back to my final point of last week.

Mary had a wonderful life. She was a unique woman. But the most remarkable thing that happened to Mary was she was given salvation through Jesus Christ.

And you too can accept that salvation and be as blessed by God as Mary was blessed by God. Forget the thoughts of Mao. Read the thoughts of Pascal if you've got French, or you can find the English translation.

It will do you good. But the best good would be done for you this Christmas time by reflecting upon the thoughts of Mary and responding as Mary responded to the magnificence of God entering time and space in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. Thank you for listening so well.

Let's sing about Him. Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown, 697, when thou camest to earth for me. But in Bethlehem's home was there found no room for thy holy nativity.

Come to my heart, Lord Jesus. There's room in my heart for the 697. Isn't that wonderful? It's not like slushy snow that's in the point of melting.

It's not sheer sentimentalism. It's the concentrated message of the New Testament. My heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus, when thou comest and callest for me.

Is yours going to be another Xmas, or will it be a Christmas? Will you recognize that you're special in the eyes of God as Mary was special, and that your eternal future depends on you receiving Jesus Christ into your heart, as your Lord and Savior? There's a little booklet written by a friend of mine, Nicky, and it's available as you leave the church in the foyer. Ask one of the stewards if you can't find it. Take it and read it.

Or maybe if you've responded in your heart to something I've said this morning, then give me a call. You've got my number. I'll leave a message on the answer phone, and we'll be in touch with you.

Do make this Christmas special. You can come this evening. We'll be glad to have your company.

Come early, because I think we'll be quite packed, and it really is worth seeing. I was hoping that Roger, the composer, would be present, but his mum is not very well, so it looks as though you may be saddled with me bringing the epilogue, but if he does make it, then he'll be speaking to us right at the end. Some of you have got Christmas cards to give and Christmas cards to receive.

Dick Gamage will need some help tomorrow for untaken cards, which we will try, but we're not guaranteeing to get out to worthy. Have a word with Dick and get into his favour by assisting him tomorrow and maybe some of our foyer team. Father, we thank you again for our Lord Jesus.

We praise you for yourself, God the Father, sending the Son, the Son sending the Holy Spirit, helping to make our blind eyes see and to unstop our deaf ears so that these things make sense. Be with those who control the media and sometimes put across absolute rubbish, and give the authentic message of Christmas a possibility of expression in some of the newspapers and on BBC and on ITV this year, this week. God bless all these dear people.

Send us on rejoicing, having a hearty, blessed, authentic, happy Christmas. Amen.