Luke 1:46-55 (NRSV)
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
This morning we focus on Mary and the beautiful song that
Luke shares with us in his Gospel.
Mary is an interesting character, especially for Protestant
Christians.
We don't want to make Mary into God --- or somebody we are
supposed to worship for intercession to God --- like some traditions seem to be
doing
But we also don't want to just ignore her.
It is almost as if there are two Mary's
There is the very familiar one that we know from paintings
and sculpture ----
The
"Blessed Virgin Mary"
The
mother of Jesus
The
one who calls us to quiet reflection
Then there is that other Mary
What some
have called the "Blessed Valorous Mary"
·
The one who wears peasant clothing
·
Who goes toe to toe with Herod the Great
·
Who reprimands her son for dallying at the
temple
·
who tells Jesus to make wine at a wedding
reception
·
the Mary who follows Jesus all the way to the
cross
While
the "Blessed Virgin Mary" calls us to quiet reflection during this
Christmas season ---- the "Blessed Valorous Mary" leads us toward a
Christmas filled with a call for justice and the desire to fight for it.
But
those aren't the Mary's we like to fight over.
We
prefer to fight over whether or not Mary was a virgin, and if she was a virgin
was she perpetually one.
Mary
becomes for many of us a delicate piece in the Christmas Crèche ---
One that we bring out after thanksgiving
--- without much thought
And then after Christmas we wrap her up and
put her gently away again until Advent comes around again.
So let us take a look at the Mary that is found in Luke's
"Song of Mary"
"The Magnificat" is called that because of the
first word of its Latin translation.
Songs play an important role in the Hebrew Bible ---
especially songs on the lips of some of the significant women of the Hebrew
Bible.
Often these women break out into songs when they are
confronted with the reality of God
Often when
they are facing overwhelming odds
Just think of:
Miriam
Deborah
Hannah
The songs that they sing --- are songs celebrating God's
faithfulness --- God keeping God's promises --- in the midst of overwhelming
odds.
Mary's song follows the same pattern
Mary celebrates God's grace impacting human history
This song of Mary can be broken into two parts.
The first is verses 46-49
“My soul magnifies
the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
Mary sings and rejoices over what the angel
had told her back in Nazareth and what Elizabeth had just confirmed to her.
Her child is of the linage of David, and will be the Messiah
and future king.
Like Hannah in the Hebrew Bible she is happy and excited
that she will be a mother.
But, she goes on and sings of something maybe even more
significant.
She sings that God's Messiah will finally bring justice to
the poor.
It is a song proclaiming a new order --- an order centered
on this Messiah that she is to bear.
Some would argue that these words that Mary sings are some
of the most revolutionary every written.
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, once warned his
missionaries in India that they were NEVER to read the Magnificat in public.
He was afraid that these words would cause an uprising if
the peasant class in India heard them.
Can you imagine how Herod the Great would have heard these
words?
Herod has been described as:
·
"a madman who murdered his own family and a
great many rabbis",
·
"the evil genius of the Judean
nation",
·
"prepared to commit any crime in order to
gratify his unbounded ambition"
·
and "the greatest builder in Jewish
history".
Herod, in order to become this great builder had imposed
heavy taxes on the people --- taxes that were felt by the many poor more than
anyone else.
Listen again to Mary's song, while thinking how Herod might
have heard it:
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
As Mary sings --- "He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;"
Can you
imagine who everyone thought she was singing about?
Herod
of course
And
maybe Caesar Augustus as well . . .
And, in noting that God "sent the rich away
empty," she pointed her finger at Herod the Great with his insatiable
appetite.
God "has lifted up the lowly" and "has filled
the hungry with good things" meant that Mary and the poor of Israel would
experience justice.
These words are fighting words to Herod and the powers that
be.
Subversive
words
Radical words
If you were a poor woman in the first century,
if you were
hungry,
if you had
experienced the injustices of Herod,
and if you stood up in Jerusalem and announced that God
would yank down the proud, the rulers, and the rich from their high places, you
likely would be tried for subversion.
If you were Herod, you would conclude that Mary was a rebel,
a revolutionary, a social protester.
And you would
be right!
Mary --- before anyone else --- sees and announces the
radical nature of Jesus' mission
Mary was a subversive and she was dangerous, first, because
she knew the identity of her son and, second, because she began to tell his
story
Remember, Gabriel told Mary her son would be:
·
"Jesus" --- in Hebrew the name Jesus
means God is salvation and "Son of the Most High God"
·
and that he would sit as a Davidic king on the
eternal throne.
Mary
was the only person in the world who could have told the stories that we now
have in Luke's Gospel.
·
She alone heard the potent words of Gabriel;
·
she alone was with Elizabeth;
·
perhaps she is the one who told Luke about
Zechariah's song;
·
only she and Joseph knew about the shepherds and
the magi.
Like Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in order to reveal the injustice of
slavery,
or Harper Lee, whose To Kill a Mockingbird
revealed the insidiousness of racial hypocrisy,
Mary also had a story to tell about her son.
She began to interpret who he was and what he was to do.
Mary's song tells us what God would do through Jesus to
subvert the injustices of Herod and the pretentiousness of Augustus.
She sings that somehow, some way, someday, God would
establish a kingdom of peace for the whole world.
She sings of a revolution more radical than what the world
had ever seen before or seen since.
A revolution, that she --- and Jesus --- are inviting us to
join.
A reporter who had covered Mother Teresa's visit to Boy's
Town was asked about her reaction.
He said:
They showed her all over the
grounds of Boys Town, the dormitories, the classrooms, the gymnasium, the
dining hall. At the end of the tour, she
turned to the head priest and said, "You have all this, but do you really
love them?"
Jesus loves us!
That is what Christmas is all about --- and Mary sets the
stage with her magnificent song.
Her life demonstrated what it means to be a servant of God.
Not some Crèche piece that we pull out once a year, and carefully
wrap up and put away until next Advent.
Mary is the siren call to the action that Jesus will
demonstrate.
A radical new
world filled with love and justice!
And if you are wondering what role you are to play, or if
now is the right time, Catherine of Siena gives us the answer!
To the true servant of God every place is the
right place and every time is the right time.
Jesus loves us ----
But do we
love God's children?