Well, it is Christmas season, and we always want to remember the less well-off.

-Then I began to wonder, ”those whom we help, the less well-off, they are a great deal like Mary, Jesus’ mom.” Mary was a young woman, poor, and she might not be my first choice as far as who God can use, but remember, man looks at the outside, God looks at the heart.

She had these characteristics, yet God did indeed use her, and when she receives the news that she will be carrying this Christ child, she was no doubt scared, maybe a bit confused, yet her love for her Lord gave her the strength and will to say, “yes”.

We read in Luke’s gospel, Mary gets the announcement, goes and visits her relative Elizabeth, and then John the Baptist is born, and we don’t see Mary again until Jesus is born. Mary visits Elizabeth when Mary is only 3 months pregnant and right after that it is the story of going to Bethlehem for Jesus’ birth. So right there we have all these months not mentioned.

What was Mary going through during those 6 months before the birth? Because being an unwed teenage mother back then was huge taboo. Forbidden. Now, it is a bit less surprising, but then, oh boy! When Mary said yes to God, that was risky.

What was her family going to think, what was her friends going to think, what was Joseph, her fiancé going to think? You think Mary had to endure whispers behind her back, maybe people shunning her.

Mary was doing God’s will, but that does not mean it is easy. In fact, when she sang this song that we read in the second set of verses, we see this teenager thanking God for his justice of all things.

We see her giving praise to God who brings down the proud and uplifts the humble. The One who sends the rich away empty and yet fills the hungry with good things

-God is faithful to those who fear him, exalting low, bringing down high.

In Mary’s song, God is pictured as the champion of the outcast, the oppressed.

Mary is praising God for His justice. Now what does justice have to do with love. We think of love and justice as polar opposites.

We think of love as something done for the sake of the innocent, and justice as something done to the guilty. Yet justice, at least from what the Bible speaks about, is not simply about dishing out punishment. Rather, it is about harmony, it is about putting things right. God judges yes, but remember He judges with mercy.

Justice is about completeness-This same Mary has to trust that God is a god of both justice and love. We have all faced situations in our life where our hearts ache and cry out, “God where are you in this situation?”

“God we want you to make it right. We want you to show your love and your justice and right the wrong”

In this little baby soon to arrive. In this precious child, God does exactly that.

In Jesus, we have God’s divine reversal. God lowered Himself to raise us. He came down from paradise to lift us from the muddy pits of sin. In Jesus Christ, God suffers injustice, in order to bring about true justice. He suffers the brokenness, to give us the wholeness.

In this reversal, God became what we are (human) so that we might be what He is (eternal and perfect). It is a divine reversal, like the King who takes the torn, shredded rags of clothing from us and gives us his beautiful robes to now wear.

At a crime, you can punish the guilty, you can help the innocent, but until you can match those perfectly, you don’t have true justice.

God did just that. At the cross, God’s justice and God’s love met. When we look at the cross, we see God’s justice and love, are one & same.

God was reconciling the world to Himself, and He was not only forgiving our sins, but He shows that in His kingdom, we have the strength to love one another in true brotherhood, experiencing forgiveness when we have been wronged.

God is love. Let love, true-gospel defined love be the motivation for everything you do. God’s love is power, it is the life of the church.

Friends, have courage when doing the work God has called you to do. Mary’s life was not easy, and likewise you may be called to obey God and take up something that will not be easy either, but there is a reason we are still talking about Mary 2,000 years later.

Through her love for God, our Savior entered the world, and saved us all.

When we put our trust in this Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit transforms us, and gives us the love that we did not have as unsaved people.

Let love be your foundation. Love in action, in good deeds. Let love become a habit to you. Intentionally seek to practice it, prove your Christian faith by your love this Christmas season. Love as God loves, and love who God loves…and that is everybody, even the sinner…especially the sinner.

Here it is in a nutshell…Love God and do whatever you want!…because by loving God, you will eventually find yourself desiring the things God desires.

He is the great equalizer, the merciful judge, and found in a manager in Bethlehem so long ago this token of His love is the proof of his justice.

To have God’s justice and love is one and the same, to desire one is to desire the other. When you act in love toward God and toward others, you become a witness to His kingdom.

And in this kingdom, there is a mission of redemption, and You become a co-rescuer. Let love be your driving force. Amen