Luke 1:39-55
The Focus of Worship

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

And Mary said:
	"My soul glorifies the Lord
		and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
	for he has been mindful
		of the humble state of his servant.
	From now on all generations will call me blessed,
		for the Mighty One has done great things for me--
		holy is his name.
	His mercy extends to those who fear him,
		from generation to generation.
	He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
		he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
	He has brought down rulers from their thrones
		but has lifted up the humble.
	He has filled the hungry with good things
		but has sent the rich away empty.
	He has helped his servant Israel,
		remembering to be merciful
	to Abraham and his descendants forever,
		even as he said to our fathers."

New International Version

One of the most beautiful acts of worship in the Bible is recorded in this passage, as Elizabeth and Mary praise God for the Christ child that would be born. Elizabeth, well past child-bearing years, will soon give birth to John the Baptist; Mary, in her teen years, has just been told she is pregnant with the Son of God. We are invited to savor this passage, enjoy the beauty of this praise, and sing with Mary at the wonders that God is doing today in our presence.

It is also beneficial for us to examine this song and see how the Spirit guided these two in worship. It is much too easy for us to lose focus in our regular worship events; in contrast, we have here spontaneous, divinely-led worship, with no time for people to interfere with what God was doing.

How do we interfere in worship? Let's start with an easy topic--think objectively about the language you use in your worship experience, then think about it as if you had never been in a church before. When I was growing up, most of the adult leaders in my church thought they needed to pray in King James English, although they would never refer to me as "thou." It sometimes was confusing, even misused, but it sounded "holy"...

Archaic English sounds odd to us now, but when you think about it carefully, you will notice we have unique subsets of the language in our worship settings. Think about the word "praise," which has about a dozen different meanings, some of which are points of divisive contention in some church congregations, and a few of which still are true to what God wants from us. As I'm thumbing through a stack of chorus music, I notice words like "anointed," "awe," "bow," "exalt", "glory", "lord," "mercy," "righteousness," and "worthy," which I rarely use outside of church. There are other words with notably different meanings inside our worship spaces, like "faithful," "glorified," "high," "hope," "lift," "lost," "ruler," "shine," "valley," and even "worship." One risk in using these words is that those outside the church will be as lost (using the secular meaning) with these words as they would with King James English. The more serious danger is that we, too, will find ourselves astray from our intent in worship, lost in an intricate maze of weary words, vaguely defined terms, and empty, rote phrases, going through motions that disengage the power of the Spirit.

Elizabeth and Mary sang in simple, familiar terms and normal language. Elizabeth tells Mary how everyone will recognize God's blessing on her, and excitedly praises the Lord that will be born. Still, notice that Mary borrows both format and content from the Psalms as the Spirit leads her in praise to God. She makes the familiar structures and words fit her need to praise, rather than constrict her personal praise to fit familiar phrases. In many churches today, we use liturgies and congregational prayers in a similar way as part of our worship experiences.

The important point is how, individually, we use the liturgies, familiar terms, even the King James English! We can hide behind them, go through the motions, saying enough of these special phrases so that we create the right appearance--and avoid engaging in worship altogether. In contrast, we can use the same words to focus us, guiding our attention to God in a deeply personal worship experience. One of those adult church leaders from when I was growing up explained that using King James English in his prayers humbled him, reminding him that he was talking to Almighty God, not a next-door neighbor. He used the language to worship, rather than fitting his worship to the language.

Another way we interfere with worship is to place a distracting amount of our focus on ourselves--and we do that far too often in modern worship. Going back to my same stack of chorus music, I counted 25 titles out of 52 pieces of music in the stack with the words "I", "we", or "our" in just the title of the piece. Once I made myself notice this pattern, I cringed at titles like "Nothing Pleases Me More... than to Worship You" (for worship is not about "my" pleasure), and "You are Worthy of My Praise" (which was never in doubt, but begs the infinitely more important question of why my praise is worthy of being offered to God!) See how easy it is to make worship about us!

Mary started her song referring to herself--"my soul", "my spirit"--but quickly moved into couplet after couplet about God's mercy, justice, assistance, and goodness. She gave herself to worship, diverting Elizabeth's praise of her to praise of God, so that focus on God became the entirety of this brief time of worship. In our prayer times, in our private worship, and in our corporate worship experiences, we should do the same.

Start listening for those church clichés, and test them to make sure you know what they mean. Don't let them slide past without an examination, for our worship of God deserves all our mind and all our focus. Check yourself when you rely on tired phrases in church contexts, and push yourself to use more descriptive, vibrant language that will engage those listening to you, rather than lull them into old habits with overused terms.

This week, take time during your personal meditation to reflect on and even pray and worship with the song Mary sung. Take one phrase at a time and linger on it, thinking how that thought fits in your life and your spiritual walk, and offering that personal meditation to God until your whole focus, too, is on God's love and goodness.