Mary's Song --- Advent 4

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.”

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.

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.”

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?