Why do we pay attention to Jesus? I think there are many good reasons people do—some not so good reasons, too, I suppose.  I am choosing to focus on the good reasons.  But I think that whatever reason we might have for paying attention to Jesus, we benefit from looking carefully at what the Bible tells us about him.

This morning, I preached the second of what I hope will be a 13-part series of sermons on Jesus.  I called it, “Singing Down Mercy.” My purpose was to set the story of Jesus in its biblical context.  I did that by looking at the song of Mary in Luke 1:46-55 in relation to earlier songs in the Bible—Moses’ song (Exodus 15), Hanna’s song (1 Samuel 2), and one of Isaiah’s Servant Songs (Isaiah 49).

I suggest that Mary’s song gives us three important reasons to pay attention to Jesus: he questions authority, he brings healing to the “lowly,” and he calls all who would follow him to find their identity in a vocation of bringing healing to all the families of the earth.

The story of Jesus is a story of good news, a story of hope that speaks to profound human aspirations and needs.  Though we all know a lot about this story, we also all need to keep thinking about it and finding ways to understand and apply it better.  So, to be better able to do that, I am putting together a series of sermons on Jesus.  I began this morning with a sermon called, “Why We Pay Attention to Jesus.”