CHRISTMAS THROUGH THE EYES OF MARY (2 OF 3)
Scripture: Luke 1:26-38
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Christmas through the Eyes of Mary (2 of 3)
Series: Christmas Through Their Eyes
Dave Gustavsen
Luke 1:26-38
Good morning. We're taking these few weeks around Christmas to de-clutter our brains a little bit. Because for most of us, when we hear the word ''Christmas,'' our brain starts to chatter and buzz with songs and food and traditions and memories and smells and obligations and expectations and plans. Not that any of that is bad...but it can be distracting.
So for these three weeks, we're trying to rewind the clock and put ourselves in the shoes of people who never heard the word Christmas and never even heard the name ''Jesus.'' And we're asking the question: When they heard this news, how did it affect them...and what does that mean for us?
So last week we started with Joseph; today let's put ourselves in the shoes of Mary.
I always feel like we need to do some extra de-cluttering when it comes to Mary, because there are so many traditions connected to her. And I think the danger is you can go to one extreme or the other. One extreme is you can make Mary into something she was never meant to be. You can almost begin to worship her and put her on a level with Jesus. And not only is that approach against what you read in the Bible; Mary would be against that approach! Because everything in her life pointed to Jesus.
But the other extreme is that you can downplay Mary so much that you basically ignore her. Sometimes we non-Catholics feel a little threatened by Mary, right? (''Oh, you want to hear about Mary? You'll have to ask the priest about that. We don't talk about her.'')
But do you realize we know more about Mary than we know about just about any person in the New Testament, besides Jesus, Peter, Paul and John? Think about it: we know her husband, Joseph; we know her relatives, Zechariah and Elizabeth; we know a song she sang called the Magnificat; we know when she was pregnant, she traveled from Galilee to the hill country to vi ...
Series: Christmas Through Their Eyes
Dave Gustavsen
Luke 1:26-38
Good morning. We're taking these few weeks around Christmas to de-clutter our brains a little bit. Because for most of us, when we hear the word ''Christmas,'' our brain starts to chatter and buzz with songs and food and traditions and memories and smells and obligations and expectations and plans. Not that any of that is bad...but it can be distracting.
So for these three weeks, we're trying to rewind the clock and put ourselves in the shoes of people who never heard the word Christmas and never even heard the name ''Jesus.'' And we're asking the question: When they heard this news, how did it affect them...and what does that mean for us?
So last week we started with Joseph; today let's put ourselves in the shoes of Mary.
I always feel like we need to do some extra de-cluttering when it comes to Mary, because there are so many traditions connected to her. And I think the danger is you can go to one extreme or the other. One extreme is you can make Mary into something she was never meant to be. You can almost begin to worship her and put her on a level with Jesus. And not only is that approach against what you read in the Bible; Mary would be against that approach! Because everything in her life pointed to Jesus.
But the other extreme is that you can downplay Mary so much that you basically ignore her. Sometimes we non-Catholics feel a little threatened by Mary, right? (''Oh, you want to hear about Mary? You'll have to ask the priest about that. We don't talk about her.'')
But do you realize we know more about Mary than we know about just about any person in the New Testament, besides Jesus, Peter, Paul and John? Think about it: we know her husband, Joseph; we know her relatives, Zechariah and Elizabeth; we know a song she sang called the Magnificat; we know when she was pregnant, she traveled from Galilee to the hill country to vi ...
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