Advent 4C, 2024

Text: Luke 1:39-56

Title: Two Old People and a Little Girl

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Two old people and a little girl.

That’s all the Lord has to work with.

Two old people and a little girl.

First, there’s Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Nice people, a faithful priest and his wife. They still pray, he still serves at the altar, but they won’t be around much longer, of course, and they’ve got no kids.  What good are these two old people?

And then there’s little Mary, a teenager from a country town who’s engaged to be married.  She doesn’t have a husband, she doesn’t have any kids, she’s still under the authority of her parents.  What good is a little girl going to do?

Two old people and a little girl.  That’s all the Lord has to work with.

But He’s worked with less before.

There was Old Abraham and Sarah wandering homeless and childless, as good as dead.

There was Joseph, a slave rotting away in Pharaoh’s prison.

There was Moses, a baby in a basket floating down the Nile, and later a murderer on the run from the law, an 80-year-old shepherd living in a foreign land.

There was Samson, a blind slave of the Philistines, who liked the ladies a little too much.

There was David, a shepherd boy with a sling and a few rocks.

There was Jonah, a runaway who jumped ship.

Over and over and over again God takes the old and the weak, the young and the inexperienced, the poor and the helpless and the slaves and uses them for His great acts of salvation.

He brings children to the childless.

He sets the prisoners and the slaves free.

He gives strength to the weak, and a voice to the timid.

Today he takes old Zechariah, who doesn’t have enough sense to believe the angel, and makes him the father of the forerunner of Jesus Christ.

Today he takes old Elizabeth, who felt like such a failure for not bearing a child, and makes her John’s mother.

Today, the Lord takes little Mary, trembling in fear, and makes her the mother of God.

It’s incredible, it’s miraculous, and it’s God’s way of doing things.

That’s what Mary is singing about in the Magnificat.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has exalted the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away.

Here God takes two old people and little girl and uses them to start the greatest story of all time.

And then there’s Mary’s baby.  You remember Him, don’t you? 

What good could God do with a baby?

That baby grew up to be a man, a poor and weak man, a wandering preacher, with a rag-tag bunch of disciples at his heals.

A man who rode on donkeys.  A man who was sold out by one friend and abandoned by the others.  A man who was forsaken by His people and His God.  A man who died a criminal’s death outside the city wall.

And what can God do with one dead man?

Everything.

That moment of death and weakness and helplessness, that one moment brought salvation to us all.  That one moment broke the curse of sin and death forever.

One dead man.

Two old people, and a little girl.

And then there’s us.

We’ve got a few old people, a couple of kids, and a handful in-betweens.

We’re poor.  We’re weak.  We’re helpless.  Not the most impressive group. 

What good can God do with the lot of us?

Everything.

We are exactly the kind of people that God loves to use to do His work.  You are just like Zachariah, Elizabeth, and Mary.  You are just like Abraham and Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Samson, David, and Jonah.

Don’t say, “God can’t use me, I’m too young.” Or “God can’t use me, I’m too old,” or “I’m too poor,” or “I’m too weak,” or “I’m not smart enough,” or any other excuse that you can think up.

You are just the kind of person that our Lord has used over and over again for His purpose, and that He will continue to use today.

If there’s anything good that happens here, anything at all, it’s not because of anything good in us, it has to be because the Lord is the one doing it.

On our own, we can’t do anything.  That goes for me, too.

In my office, there’s a plaque on the wall with a prayer that Martin Luther wrote.  This is how it goes:

Lord God, you have placed me in Your church as bishop and pastor.

You see how unfit I am to administer this great and difficult office.

Had I been without help from You, I would have ruined everything long ago.

Therefore, I call on You.

I gladly offer my mouth and heart to Your service.

I would teach the people, and I myself would continue to learn.

To this end I will meditate diligently on Your Word.

Use me, dear Lord, as Your instrument.

Only do not forsake me; for if I were to continue alone, I would quickly ruin everything.  Amen.

That’s my prayer, and that’s your prayer, too.

On your own, you can do nothing.

Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary did nothing.  These stories we heard this morning were not about how great they were, but how great God is.  It was all about the Lord working through them.

The Lord works through you, too.

It begins with you hearing His word, receiving His body and blood.

Again, this seems so weak.  Why don’t we do something more useful or exciting here?  Why not train you in the latest business techniques?  Why not put together the biggest, flashiest, most extravagant show on earth?

All He gives you is a few words from a man in a dress, a splash of water, a crumb of bread, and a sip of wine.

It seems so weak, so useless.  But this is what God uses to forgive your sins, to give you eternal life, and to fill you with His Holy Spirit.  The world thinks that what we do here week after week is pointless and silly.  But this is the most important hour each week, as here the Lord meets with you and speaks with you, just as He did with Zachariah and with Mary.  He chooses you to be His instruments, to do His work in bringing salvation to the world.

He sends you out there to do some good.

You may look at yourself and think, “Me? What can I do?”

But remember Zechariah, Elizabeth, and Mary. Two old people and a little girl.

And Jesus, too, don’t forget Jesus.

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