I'm reading a book about the Magnificat, Mary's song of praise for the work God was doing through her, delivered in the presence of her cousin Elizabeth. It's been a decent read in general, but what brought it to mind during today's reading is the chapter devoted to the way Mary worships God in this moment.

The Magnificat nearly perfectly meets the sort of worship being described by Isaiah above. While Mary does not describe God as angry with her at any point, she does acknowledge her own unworthiness to receive His grace and work in her life and leans on Him for comfort while she looked ahead to what was absolutely going to be a socially trying situation.

I do not think we should revere Mary in any way that exceeds that of others who have put their faith in Christ. She had a special job to do, but that did not make her a higher kind of Christian any more than a career missionary would be to a Christian working as a line cook. If both are serving the same God with the same heart in their own vocations and settings, they are on the same ultimate task. I mention this because I do think that we who do not revere Mary have done a great disservice to her and to ourselves by hardly acknowledging her at all. There are things we can learn from her, just as there are things we can learn from each other; and as we draw close to Christmas, the Magnificat is one very important and relevant example.

I would encourage you to read this passage from Isaiah and see what kind of worship God says will fill the hearts of those who know Him and have seen His great works. Then read the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) with that framework in mind, and see what this kind of worship looks like. Let us ask ourselves today if our hearts pour out that kind of worship to God; and if not, let us set our hearts on Him and our minds on His great work in our lives.

Advent is not just about waiting. I mean, that's basically what's on the label, waiting for Christ's second coming, waiting for Christmas, understanding a bit of Israel waiting for her messiah. Advent looks backward and forward, and not only acknowledges the importance of waiting, but the importance of understanding that God fulfills His promises.

God promised that He would send a redeemer through the line of Eve, that the world would be blessed through Abraham's seed, that He would make a covering for sin. Christmas is a celebration of God fulfilling His promises. During Advent, we remember that He has been faithful in all things so far, and will continue to be faithful to see all His words come to pass.

We must take seriously what it means that He will judge the world, that all we know will pass away, but those of us who trust in His salvation shall be secure. This Advent, we must look at the people around us and know that they will either be with God or they will face true, comprehensive judgement. We are so used to fighting over the commercialization of Christmas that we don't even argue in the public square anymore whether or not it should be commercialized, but that it isn't being commercialized properly. The Christmas cups are written wrong, the cashier said "happy holidays" to me instead of "merry Christmas" while I was out putting myself into debt to meet our culture's demands. Our culture is so far removed from looking at Christ during Advent that we think these little battles we've picked are more important than loving that cashier, than helping a barista bear the weight of their life, than asking how we can use this season to show the world that the empty promises of Black Friday sales and Hallmark Christmas movies pale in comparison to the God who really will do exactly what He says.

People around us are hurting this season. Some people reading this may be hurting this season. They are hurting from broken promises, from the curse of death on this world, from families who cannot or will not see the pain they've caused and seek restoration. How would the world around us change if we made this season about sitting with them in their pain, entering into their mess like Christ entered ours, and pointing them to the God who keeps His promises and conquers death and loves with an everlasting and unconditional love?

Christ came into the world to redeem us from sin and death, and will return to finish making all things new and setting the world right. Consider how glorious God is, that He should even care about saving us, that He should have any desire to connect with us and take on the effort to bring us to Himself! He who was above all things, who had never had need of anything, who sat on the throne of glory, reaches out to the hurt, the despised, the servants and the forgotten and the poor. He who fashioned the world with a word and with a breath gives life to all mankind, humbled Himself to be born among animals and was greeted by shepherds.

And why should He do all this? Let us not assume that it is because we are so great and deserving of His attention that even the least of us deserve such effort. This is all for His glory; Christ coming into the world deserves more than a manger in a flyover district of the Roman Empire. It is too small of a thing that He should be the savior of one people only, the Lord of just one nation. Yet we see how His glory is manifested, that it should be by inviting us to taste of it. His glory is not something that is revealed to break us down or shame us, but something revealed to invite us in and help us know His goodness. Let us be in awe this season, not only of His glory that is revealed, but the fact that that glory makes God humble and loving rather than aloof and distant.

I commented a year or so ago, on a different platform, that I enjoyed the Advent season for a variety of reasons, but one of those was the hymns, and my favorite of those hymns was "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." In that comment, I noted that I felt there was quite a lot of the Christian life that can be summarized simply by singing "rejoice, rejoice!" in a minor key, so often a style choice made to express despair. This has apparently resonated well with at least one friend of mine; I think of it now because she quoted me on it earlier this week on Facebook.

One of the most fascinating things that happens in scripture is the commands to rejoice in the Lord. Not that it is odd that we should be expected to worship, but that we would need to be told. Consider these blind men. Now, Jesus had His reasons for telling them not to tell people about their healing at that time, and we don't need to deal with the sequential nature of His plan at this time. But even when Christ Himself told them to keep quiet about the blessing that had come into their lives, they couldn't contain their joy. Can we? What is blindness compared to spiritual death, that we would react more stoically to His work in our lives than they did?

But rejoicing does get hard in this long, dark season, when the world seems cold and unforgiving, when the light is so slow to appear and quick to vanish. I understand that Christ was probably not born in December, but it feels hard to consider it a mistake or coincidence that we celebrate the season of Advent in this season, in this age. I have been hanging heavy here on the idea that Advent is important lately, at least partly because of how few churches I've been involved with that honor it. But remember that the point of remembering the waiting, the point of coming to a place of eager anticipation, is to restore a heart of worship in us. After all, consider in the Old Testament, how often the promises that Israel would rejoice appear alongside promises that the nation would wait, in distress or turmoil or anguish, longing for the deliverance of God. And how greatly they would rejoice when it comes!

Let is be a people of rejoicing, for the great deliverance that has come! And let us be a people, even if only for a season, who will look forward to the final day of deliverance and find in our waiting an eager joy to last us through the year.

Why do we do Advent? To dwell on the waiting of Israel and our waiting for the return of Christ. But why should we dwell on waiting?

There is a certain degree to which we cannot spend all our time waiting. If we only look forward, if we only ponder the future, if we only consider what God has yet to do, we will never be able to appreciate what God has already done and the period in which we already live. We have salvation, a sure heritage in Christ, and we should spend time celebrating that and giving glory to God for His mighty works and faithful deliverance.

We wait so that we can give praise more earnestly. We appreciate that which is coming more when we experience a period of anticipation. And we are really in that period, because death is still among us, sin is still in our bodies, we still have days of trouble. Advent is a period of honesty about the hope that is yet to come, that allows our worship to be more honest as we see what we have received and the assurance that the long-awaited hope is coming and will come. Do not speed through this season, or ignore it, or treat it lightly. Honestly dwell on the anticipation, let yourself feel the fullness of waiting for our final deliverance, and let that guide your praise in the new year.