Magnificat, a celebration of hope - Andrew Deuchar

St Mary's Church, Advent 4 Evensong, 18th December 2005 - (Zecharaiah 2: 10-end; Luke 1: 39-55)

But the church, and by that I mean you and me, and the others, however many hundreds, or thousands or millions who will gather to celebrate the feast in this church, this city or anywhere across the world, must first wrestle with Magnificat. And I mean wrestle. It is a text so familiar that we don't really think about it. We sing it or hear it sung every week at this service of evensong. And very beautiful it is too; but whether we sing it to Anglican chant, or hear it sung to Murrill or whoever, its teeth have been removed. And if that is true of the song which Mary sings, it is probably true of Mary herself, who has transmuted from being the single teenage mum, weary from travel, rejected by all but one, who allows her to bed down in a cave, an animal shelter – pretty much as many do today in this city – in order that she may give birth to the one who is to come, Emmanuel, God with us, into a christmas card, a stained glass window, a plaster statue on a pedestal in a plaster church, who carries the burden of centuries of pietistic sublimation in adjectives such as immaculate, dearest, purest, gentle and chaste, spotless rose, virgin of all virgins. So she becomes not the assurance of God made man, but the impossible, inaccessible model of humanity made perfect who glows in our night and floats away on a cloud of glory into the heavenly realms, abandoning us with no more than a whiff of what might have been, and what might still be if only we Christian children all might be mild, obedient, good as he.

Sermon: The Rev. Margaret Schultz-Akerson, pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church, Pasadena. Calif.

When I shared with my friend Jan that I’d been invited to preach on the Magnificat, Sue Monk Kidd’s best-selling novel, “The Secret Life of Bees,” came to mind immediately for her, and on that hint I found it and set out to read it. If you haven’t read it yet, it’s a novel set in the South in the 1960s in a Black community for whom Mary mattered. The main character in the book, Lily Owens, hopes, or asks, a recently-deceased friend to take a message up to heaven, to clue Mary in on their efforts. “Tell Mary,” Lily says, “we know Jesus is the main one down here, but we’re doing our best to keep her memory going.”

That comment by Lily Owens reminded me of an article that I wrote several years ago on Mary for The Lutheran magazine. See, you need to get those subscriptions in for it. But in that article I began it this way: “‘We don’t need Mary,’ I was told as a child, ‘we address God directly. Too much Mary takes away from Jesus.’ I didn’t argue; I focused on Christ crucified and risen, and I still do. Yet I find myself also drawn to Mary.”

Mary Through the Centuries
Her Place in the History of Culture
By Jaroslav Pelikan

Chapter One: Miriam of Nazareth in the New Testament

And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God
unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin
espoused to a man named Joseph, of the house of David;
and the virgin's name was Mary.--Luke 1:26-27

Because this book is not an inquiry into who Mary was in the first century but into what "through the centuries" she has been experienced and understood to be, biblical materials dealing with her have an essentially retrospective function here. In light of the subsequent development of devotion and doctrine, what did the Bible contribute to the portrait of the Virgin? That perspective applies with particular force to the subject of the next chapter, the allegorical and typological use of a Christianized Old Testament for its bearing on the question of Mary, where the problem of the original meaning of a passage, including the precise translation of the Hebrew text, will have to be quite secondary to the meaning that the passage acquired in Christian history through translation and exegesis. But the New Testament, certainly no less than the Old, has continually taken on new meanings in the course of the history of its interpretation, meanings that have sometimes been the consequence of what it did not say as much as of what it did. For to both Testaments we may apply the sage comment of a scholar of the Hebrew Bible who has illumined some special chapters in the history of its interpretation. "Just as a pearl results from a stimulus in the shell of a mollusk," Louis Ginzberg observed, "so also a legend may arise from an irritant in the scripture." Whether as stimulus or irritant or inspiration, Scripture has dominated attention to the Virgin Mary though it has not always controlled it.

SERMONS THAT WORK - Selected Sermons

FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT, YEAR C  
Micah 5:2-4; Psalm 80 or 80:1-7; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-49 (50-56)

by the Rev. James Liggett

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The Gospel today, like the date, brings Christmas very near. As our attention turns to Mary and the birth, we are back in step with the world. Life out there is reaching its own peak of anticipation for Christmas; and those haggard and glassy-eyed faces of the determined shoppers are easier to find every day. (Sometimes we need look no farther than a mirror.) The big day is almost here.

But the Gospel also speaks to more going on out there than just the nearness of Christmas Day. The story of Mary and Elizabeth is a story of hope and of joy -- of ancient longings for redemption and security finally fulfilled; of a future that can be faced with confidence and with excitement. Those two impossibly pregnant women-the barren wife of an aging priest, and an unknown virgin with neither royal blood nor an important family-began a song of praise that has continued through twenty centuries: "My soul magnifies the Lord," Mary sings, "and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior." Wonderful words-there is no Christmas music blaring through the hallways of the Mall that can even get close.

December 17, 2003 - Magnifying the Lord

Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)

Here are a few miscellaneous comments on the story of Mary & Elizabeth & their baby boys.

Willimon and the stuff that's really hard to believe.

My favorite comment on Luke 1 comes from Will Willimon. He tells the story of a college student talking to him about how the virgin birth was just too incredible to believe. Willimon responded, "You think that's incredible, come back next week. Then, we will tell you that 'God has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly.' We'll talk about the hungry having enough to eat and the rich being sent away empty. The virgin birth? If you think you have trouble with the Christian faith now, just wait. The virgin birth is just a little miracle; the really incredible stuff is coming next week."

Mary’s Song -- and Ours (Lk. 1:39-55) -by James F. Kay

James F. Kay teaches homiletics and liturgies at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is coeditor (with Jane Dempsey Douglass) of Women, Gender, and Christian Community (Westminster John Knox). This article appeared in the Christian Century, Dec. 10, 1997, p. 1157, copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

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That Luke fashioned or preserved traditions regarding Mary was inspired, considering how infrequently she otherwise appears in the New Testament outside of John. Mark, of course, skips the birth of Jesus altogether, and Mark’s Jesus seems indifferent to his mother when she shows up with his brothers in chapter three. As for Matthew, his Mary is mute. Not a word leaves her lips. She is present, but silent as the night in a certain beloved carol. For his part, Paul thinks it worth remarking that God’s Son was "born of a woman," but he never bothers to mention her name. But Luke remembers her name, and his Mary does not keep silence in our churches -- at least, in this year’s Advent lection. Luke’s Mary has something, and Someone, to sing about.

In Mary’s song, the magnificent Magnificat, she tells of her Savior who has "looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant." Lowliness. The Greek behind our English word is not talking simply about humility, but about poverty. Mary is poor -- dirt poor. She is poor and pregnant and unmarried. She is in a mess. But she sings! Why? Because Luke knows -- from the vantage of the end -- that this lowly one, this wretched one, this woman, God raises up. Mary, despised and rejected, is favored by God and will bring the Messiah to birth. And so, she sings.

“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary sings. Here is a girl who is unmarried and impoverished, and who has recently been visited by an angel with a very peculiar message. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” Mary had every reason to run screaming from this angel, every cause to consider him an Angel of Darkness, not a messenger of the Lord. For having a child out of wedlock, she could be stoned for adultery. At the very least, she could be rejected by Joseph, her parents, her village. She could spend the rest of her days in even deeper poverty, struggling to keep herself and her child fed outside the safety of a marriage and community. But she doesn’t reject God’s ridiculous plan to inhabit her womb. She hurries to see her cousin Elizabeth and breaks into song: “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.” (NRSV)

This great hymn of praise has empowered the oppressed and unnerved oppressors for millennia. Mary, who knows our Creator so intimately she carries the Son of God, sings of a God who reaches down and touches the pain of his people. This God lifts up the victims of economic poverty and political violence and draws them into his gentle arms, the way a mother hen gathers her chicks beneath her wings. And this God sends the proud packing. The powerful and corrupt kings who are fluent in the ways of violence and domination are deposed. The rich, who have hoarded the stuff of Creation for their own purposes, are sent away with nothing to show for their greed

Resources -ELLC Texts: Magnificat

MAGNIFICAT 
The Song of Mary, Luke 1:46-55

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for you, Lord, have looked with favor on your lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
        you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
        and holy is your name.
        You have mercy on those who fear you
        from generation to generation.
You have shown strength with your arm
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
You have come to the aid of your servant Israel,
to remember your promise of mercy,
the promise made to our forebears,
to Abraham and his children forever.

English translation of the Magnificat copyright © 1988, by the English Language Liturgical Consultation. Used by permission.

Mary's Magnificat

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices"

by Daniel W. Casey

"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" (Luke 1:46b-47; NRSV).

In this exultant verse from the opening chapter of Luke's Gospel, Mary joyfully responds to God's favoring her. And through Mary, God honors us, as all "those who fear him from generation to generation" (Luke 1:50).

The title "Magnificat" derives from the opening line of the Latin Vulgate's translation: "Magnificat anima mea Dominum," which means "my soul magnifies the Lord." In this issue of Scripture From Scratch we will look at this magnificent canticle of thanksgiving and liberation through three different metaphors: as a tapestry; as a song; as a journey.

Mary's song is the "magna charta" of any and all authentic faith experience. It is a description of the two columns upon which rests the weight of God's grace in this world; it pictures the two wings on which the soul is elevated toward her final encounter with God. Whenever God chooses to establish his dwelling-place in a human heart, he stamps it with two of His own characteristic features, that is with the attitudes of thanksgiving and sharing. The first feature--thanksgiving--refers back to God in praise for His gift; the second feature helps us to reach out and share this gift with other human beings.

God does send the rich away empty By FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi In her recent book For The Time Being, Annie Dillard, although herself a woman of mature faith, raises a series of hard questions about faith. For example, at one point, she asks whether what is expressed in Mary's Magnificat is in fact true: "Many times in Christian churches I have heard the pastor say to God, All your actions show your wisdom and love. Each time, I reach in vain for the courage to rise and shout, that's a lie! - just to put things on a solid footing. "He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty! . . . (Yes, but) I have seen the rich sit secure on their thrones and send the hungry away empty. "If God's escape clause is that he gives only spiritual things, then we might hope that the poor and suffering are rich in spiritual gifts, as some certainly are, but as some of the comfortable are too. In a soup kitchen, I see suffering. Deus otiosus: do-nothing God, who, if he has power, abuses it" (pp. 85-86). Dillard herself, as is evident from the rest of this book and her writings in general, does not have a problem in understanding or accepting that God's blessings flow into us mainly through our poverty (so don't let this one quote put you off her excellent book). Her protest is precisely in view of, as she says, putting "things on a solid footing." We believe that all God's actions show forth wisdom and love, but that is not, as she points out, immediately and everywhere evident - which is not quite the same thing as saying that it is not everywhere true. It is. How so? If in fact we do see people who are materially comfortable and also spiritually rich (and the reverse) then how is God sending the rich away empty and filling the hungry?

Biblical Sources of Miryam's Hymn

This chart paralleling Luke 1: 46-51 to texts in the Psalms and elsewhere in the Old Testament is illuminating. It contains contains a sampling of passages that are either quoted directly or possibly alluded to in Mary's hymn of praise in Luke 1:46-55. (In PDF format)

MARY SINGS THE PRAISES OF GOD’S MERCY

Pope John Paul II

In the ‘Magnificat’, the Blessed Virgin proclaims the greatness of God who called her, his humble handmaid, to be the Mother of his Incarnate Son At the General Audience of Wednesday, 6 November, the Holy Father returned to his catechesis on the Virgin Mary with a reflection on her song known as the Magnificat. "With her wise reading of history, Mary leads us to discover the criteria of God's mysterious action. Overturning the judgements of the world, he comes to the aid of the poor and lowly", the Pope said, pointing out that it is humility of heart which the Lord finds especially attractive. Here is a translation of the Holy Father's catechesis, which was the 35th in the series on the Blessed Virgin and was given in Italian. 1. Inspired by the Old Testament tradition, with the song of the Magnificat Mary celebrates the marvels God worked in her. This song is the Virgin's response to the mystery of the Annunciation: the angel had invited her to rejoice and Mary now expresses the exultation of her spirit in God her Saviour. Her joy flows from the personal experience of God's looking with kindness upon her, a poor creature with no historical influence.

Let's look briefly at what she says in her praise to God. I see three distinct sections in the Magnificat. First, there is Mary's expression of what she feels in her heart (verses 46 and 47), namely, joy. Second, she mentions what God has done specifically for her as an individual (verses 48 and 49): regarded her lowliness, did great things for her, and thus gave her an enduring reputation for blessedness. Third, she spends most of the time describing the way God is in general. This general character of God accounts for why he has treated her the way he has in her lowliness and thus leads her to rejoice and magnify the Lord. We'll look at these three sections in reverse order.

He Has Lifted Up the Lowly

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML ... “downtrodden” in your own community—how might these worship resources encourage your ... Mary’s Magnificat is a literary quilt that stitches together ...

The Protestant Mary?
Reflections on the TIME Cover Story by Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts

Copyright © 2005 by Mark D. Roberts

Luke 1:46-55, Justice . . .Magnificat

It is probably not news to you that the Bible is a complicated book. It tells a long and varied tale of people's struggles and joys in their relationship with God. It speaks to our minds and hearts, notoriously fickle organs. We are not just recipients of the word, we are participants in its understanding.

For that reason, it is important to trust our intuitions about scripture. We have all sorts of analytical tools we can apply to readings. Historical research, study of narrative, word studies in Greek and Hebrew, centuries of scholarship. But the Bible is nourishment to the soul. It's a hearty meal, not to be thinned by too much pretension. We need to pay attention to how it feels when we read or hear a passage. That feeling is important information. The weird stuff, the scary stuff, the comforting stuff, and the joyful stuff. That's what rightly hooks our attention.

So we are hooked by the song of Mary, the Magnificat, that makes up today's Gospel reading, a song of scary, comforting, joyful words.

Though the church favors Mary with a feast day, it does not give her much news space in scripture. She has a major role but small mention in the Gospel lives of Jesus. We don't know much about her. By every measure of status and power of her day-family heritage, property ownership, gender, vocation, income, education, age-Mary was at the bottom. She was an odd pick, people would have thought, to be the mother of a king, a messiah, a savior. The notion that Jesus' mother was a virgin would have raised few eyebrows then. Stories of virgin birth were common. The notion, though, that an insignificant young girl from an insignificant tiny town was the mother of God would have been shocking.

Yet who better to sing about the problems of privilege than someone deprived of privilege? Who better to sing about justice than someone who is a victim of injustice?

Turning the world upside down

University Sermon at Great St Mary’s,

9th May 2004, given by Patricia Jones

Luke 1:46-56

The Magnificat story and song give us some of the most beautiful images and texts in the Gospels;

a young woman expecting a child greets her older cousin, who is also pregnant for the first time,

with a song of exultant rejoicing and deep challenge, a song for the whole world to hear. It’s a song

that should delight and disturb us profoundly; it also asks a question about how we view our world

and our own lives. Could we too sing a Magnificat today in an unequal world?

Sermon on the Magnificat

This is lightly adapted from a sermon I wrote last week for preaching class. The passage is Luke 1:46-55.

Suppose you had to pick a woman to change the world. Who would you choose? Someone famous - a pop star, an actress, a celebrity, a TV presenter? Someone influential - A politician, a top lawyer, maybe a teacher or a doctor or an academic? Or maybe you'd go for someone spectacularly bad who could be turned around – a prostitute maybe or a criminal?

Chances are you wouldn't do what God did in v27 of Luke 1. God is going to change the world, and he starts with Nazareth - a town so obscure that no-one had ever written about it - in Galilee - a provincial backwater that most people ignored, and he starts with Mary, probably a teenage girl who's never even had sex and is engaged to be married to a guy whose only claim to fame is that 1000 years before, he'd had a famous ancestor. Lets face it, she's not the obvious choice for the job. At least get someone with maybe some influence, or useful life experience or at least from somewhere people have heard of! But that's not the way God does things. God chooses Mary.

Luke places the Magnificat in the mouth of Mary, although some ancient manuscripts ascribe the poem to Elizabeth, her cousin. The circumstances of Elizabeth's conception of John the Baptist fits closer with the Hannah story than does the imaginative virginal conception of Mary, so it is possible that the Magnificat also was intended as a song of Elizabeth. It is in no sense historical, but an act of creative myth-making. In the Magnificat, like the Song of Hannah, the poor are promised just desserts, and the rich will be sent away empty. The Magnificat is a crystallization of Luke's theology -- the theology which we might call, anachronistically, Marxist Christianity. It is the heart of the Christian witness of such people as Daniel and Philip Berrigan as well as Ernesto Cardinal of Nicaragua, and the martyred Jesuits of the University of Central America in El Salvador.

It was not until I heard the Magificat preached on in El Salvador that I recognized the revolutionary import of Luke's theology. Luke describes a Jesus who is in full table fellowship with the poor and the outcast of society. His is the Jesus of the Good Samaritan parable, or the prodigal son. His is the story of Mary and Martha, and the inclusion of women into the heart of the kingdom. In Luke's gospel, when a disciple cuts off a servant's ear in Gethsemane, Jesus touches and heals the ear. In Luke, the centurion is amazed to shout not "Surely this was a son of God" but "Surely this man was innocent!" Luke is the humanist theologian, less concerned about the heavenly realm than justice on earth.

Jesus the Flip-Flopper A homily preached by Rev. Ginger Gaines-Cirelli at Capitol Hill UMC December 12, 2004, 3rd Sunday of Advent. Text: Luke 3:… One of the catchphrases we've heard in this election year is "flip-flopper." This phrase became an attack-phrase used and counter-used between the presidential campaigns. Today, we focus on Mary's song to God, the Magnificat. Our worship, through the music that we will experience together in just a few minutes, is an extended meditation on Mary and on her profound response of praise, humility and gratitude to God. The God whom she praises is the original flip-flopper. At the heart of the Magnificat, is the theme of a Great Reversal-the lowly are raised up and the proud are brought low. This theme of reversal runs throughout the Judeo-Christian Scriptures…rivers springing up where there was once only desert, sight to the blind, the lame dancing around, hope where there was once only despair, death where there was once only death.

Magnifying the Lord Wellesley Congregational Church December 12, 2004 Martin B. Copenhaver Luke 1:46-55 Before the crowded inn, before the chorus of angels, before the star, before the shepherds and the magi, even before the child, there was the mother, who was not much more than a child herself, receiving word that she is to give birth to a child, bring forth new life, and also receiving word that in some way through that child she is to give birth to the whole world and bring new life to all.

And she responds to this news, this enormous new reality, with a joyous hymn of praise: This hymn of praise is called "The Magnificat," the Latin word that is translated into English as "magnifies." "My soul magnifies the Lord." These words are so familiar to any who have heard the Christmas story year after year, but this year I have paused to wonder what the words mean, and particularly that one word, "magnify." In what sense does Mary’s soul magnify the Lord? The word magnify means to make something greater or larger. So how can Mary’s soul—or any soul, or anything at all for that matter—make the Lord greater or larger than the Lord already is? After all, our scriptures represent the Lord as greater than great and larger than large, greater and larger than words can capture or human imaginations ever envision. The psalmist declares, "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable" (Psalm 145:3). The words of praise that the psalmist enjoins us to make our own, stretch to encompass the dimensions of eternity and yet, surely, even these towering words fall short of the majesty of God.

It is at that point in the story of Luke, that Mary began to preach, the part you heard read by Christina (who, by the way, is about the same age Mary was). We call it the Magnificat, because it begins with “My Soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

She preached of utter dependence on God. She preached that the proud are scattered, the powerful are brought down. Why? Because they are so busy being full of themselves, multitasking and all, that it is not possible to be fully dependent upon God.

Ted Turner, creator of CNN and Turner Broadcasting, was quoted as saying, “Almost every religion talks about a savior coming. When you look in the mirror in the morning, you’re looking at the savior. Nobody else is going to save you but yourself.” 

Of course the way you save yourself, usually, is on the backs of other people. The way you save yourself is to get more and keep more, even if it means others don’t get any. And Mary said “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.”

Mary preached about a leveling of the ground when all of us recognize and live out our dependence on God. When we believe that we are not dependent, that is when we fall from hollow high places.

THE Magnificat: Reflective Notes

REFLECTIONS:   Rev. Alton Donsbach Reverend Alton Donsbach, retired pastor of St. Paul's Lutheran, former "home" of the Denton Bach Society, has been for many years; with his wife Roberta, a loyal supporter of DBS. He explained that in the Lutheran church, the Virgin Mary is frequently honored during Advent. The following excerpt is from an Advent sermon in 1994. ". . .Luke is always putting down the mighty from their thrones and elevating them of low degree. . .he is always filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich empty away. The point Luke is making isn't that the poor are better or more moral than the rich, or that the lower classes are more deserving than the upper crust. . .The point is the Holy Spirit. The point is Immanuel, the presence of God with us. He who receives the Spirit is the one who is elevated. He who shuns the Spirit is the one who is riding for a fall. What makes Christmas so wonderful is its picture of the grace of God shining down on us all like some huge gift of inexpressible, unconditional love, demanding nothing, giving all. What God gives cannot be earned. Elizabeth and Mary know that. . .They both know that they have been extremely blessed. God is doing wonderful things through them. They have been elevated, to use one of Luke's words for it.

Mary’s Song for All of Us.

Mary of old sings a song of praise for the things that God is about to do through her child. His name will be “Immanuel,” God with us. We do nothing to deserve his presence among us. We turn him away from our doorsteps. Yet it is for all of us that he comes, to be with us, though we ignore him. He comes to experience our lives, shameful though they may be; to suffer our injustices; to die an outcast. He comes to an estranged world, where rich and poor alike are trapped by the systems and the barriers we ourselves have erected.

But it is precisely the news of God’s coming, God’s advent, that gives Mary the courage to sing, and gives us, gives me the courage to BE once again. For he shatters not only the proud, but the system that allows us to divide ourselves and pretend we are other than one humanity united both in Sin and in Grace. God, in Jesus, gives hope to a failed people in a fallen world. He now hope that by the birth of a child, love and trust might exist in our lives again, for us and through us. For Jesus comes to break the mistrust by joining our pain, our alienation and our death on a cross that we have fashioned. Thus joined to our death, relationship with God and between people of a desperate planet becomes real for us again. It is to the same hope as Mary that I cling. It is for the same reason as Mary that I sing. It is this new reality that makes life more than existing from day to day: Immanuel, GOD WITH US!

What we call the Magnificat is the longest set of words placed on the lips of any woman in the whole New Testament.  Her song is a joyous prayer of thanksgiving to a God who knows the circumstances of the poor and lowly and reaches down to lift them up. A pregnant girl’s faith is validated and Mary ‘s spirit rejoices in God her savior. She sings of an exultant, covenantal vision, much like that we heard in Isaiah, where life is lived in mutuality, generosity, and community; where hierarchies disappear and in their place is a circle of relationships where everyone matters; where there is joy in the world.

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, “Yahweh who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name.”

Ah yes, that’s the song of Christmas -- God has done great things, and holy is God’s name. The song contains the essence of the Christmas faith, of Mary’s faith. For through her words she tells us that “faith” is not a magic wand or an abracadabra.  It   is a consuming trust in God’s justice, love, and mercy.  Faith is more than the acceptance of a body of beliefs, it is staking one's life on God’s promises. “Feed your faith,” says Mary, “and your doubts will starve to death.” Her song reminds us that Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, but Faith looks up “Faith is not merely your holding on to God,” Mary tells us, “it is God holding on to you. And God will not let you go!”

Mary: Prophet of the Poor
© by the Reverend Dr. Byron E. Shafer
A sermon preached at Rutgers Presbyterian Church
on December 21, 2003; Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C
Scripture Lessons: Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:39-56

Mary the Prophet! It’s not very often that we hear the title “prophet” being ascribed to the mother of Jesus, Christianity’s most celebrated woman. In fact, it was only as recently as three years ago that I for the very first time noticed this title being used for Mary.

Now over the centuries, this remarkable woman has been called many things: “Blessed Virgin,” “Highly Favored One,” “Handmaid of God,” “Mother Mild,” “Friend of God,” “First Disciple,” “Queen of Galilee,” “Mother of God,” even “Co-Creator.”

And, as noted by the Roman Catholic theologian Elizabeth Johnson, Mary’s image through the centuries has proven to be really quite pliable, “allowing the Christian imagination to create widely different … symbols and theologies in relation to [our varying] spiritual and social needs.” (Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., “Mary of Nazareth: Friend of God and Prophet,” in The Living Pulpit, October-December 2001, p. 12; reprinted from America, 6/17-24/2000.) Indeed, a 1996 book by Fr. George Tavard is entitled The Thousand Faces of the Virgin Mary.

So now it’s our turn to lift up an image—we, the multicultural, multi-denominational Church of the Twenty-first Century. It’s our turn to interpret and honor Mary in a way that is “theologically sound, ecumenically fruitful, spiritually empowering, ethically challenging, and socially liberating.” (Ibid., and Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,” U.S. Catholic, December, 2003, p. 12 [?]. I had access only to a printout of the website version of this article, so the page references for the magazine version are only approximate.)

Well, as the title of my sermon indicates, I am proposing this morning that for our era an interpretation of Mary that needs to be lifted up and emphasized is Mary as “Prophet of the Poor.” (I first encountered this title, in lower case, in Richard S. Ascough’s commentary on Lk. 1:39–55, New Proclamation: Year C, 2000–2001 [Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2000], p. 33.)

You see, I believe that Mary is, in this regard, very much like the woman whose namesake she is. For the name “Mary” is the English form of the Hebrew name “Miryam,” “Miriam.” And in the Old Testament, Miriam is not only the sister of the prophet Moses and of the priest Aaron but she is also one who bears the title “prophet” in her own right. And as a prophet she sings a song that celebrates her oppressed people’s deliverance from their bondage to the pharaoh of Egypt (Song of the Sea; Exodus 15:20–21 [and 1–17!]).

Listen to Elizabeth's greeting, "You are the most blessed of all women, and blessed is the child you will bear! Why should this great thing happen to me, that my Lord's mother comes to visit me?…" Yes, what a privilege for Mary to be the mother of Jesus! And what a temptation to think of divine blessing and assumed status among women!

Yet that wasn't Mary's attitude at all. "My heart praises the Lord; my soul is glad because of God my Saviour, for he has remembered me, his lowly servant!" In no sense was she accepting Elizabeth's words as praising her, as exalting her above others. Not only did she recognise herself as "his lowly servant", but she acknowledged herself as a sinner in need of the very work of salvation her Son would be bringing into the world. "From now on all people will call me happy, because of the great things the Mighty God has done for me." There was nothing of the getting, grasping attitude about her. Having humbled herself, having made herself available for the will of God, she was able to receive his great blessing and still know that it was his gift, not her assumed prerogative.

What has happened to me, she is saying, is simply demonstrates again God's character towards anyone who trusts him - "His name is holy; from one generation to another he shows mercy to those who honour him." Now, isn't that an important principle? What was happening to Mary was absolutely unique - to bear the Son of God. But the principle of divine favour towards Mary is the same as God's favour towards us who believe.

God's favouritism is so very different from ours. In fact the Bible says many times that God has no favourites - literally, he doesn't lift his face to anyone. So we don't have status with God and we cannot buy status with God. He doesn't lift his face to anyone. But he does show mercy to those who honour him.

I: -- According to Mary, mother of our Lord and spokesperson of his revolution, real revolution begins with the scattering of the proud in the imagination of their hearts. "Heart" is biblical shorthand for the innermost core of a person, the "nerve centre", the "control panel". "Heart" has to do with thinking, willing, feeling and discerning. In addition, "heart" means identity, who we really are underneath all cloaks, disguises and social conventions. The "imagination of our heart" is our fashioning a deity of our own making, a god after our own image and likeness, which deity we follow zealously. Through the prophet Isaiah God says, "I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations." Isaiah knows that first we disdain the Holy One of Israel and his claim upon us; then we fabricate whatever deity will legitimate and satisfy our craving, whether we crave wealth or recognition or ascendancy or anything else.

While Mary is customarily depicted as demure and dainty, naive to the nth degree, the picture she paints of human nature is anything but naive: it is stark. She tells us of proud people who are victimized by the imagination of their heart -- all of us; we are at this moment stumbling down paths "which are not good", certainly not godly. All of us are like the fool of whom the psalmist speaks, the fool who "said in his heart, 'There is no God'". He's a fool not because he doesn't believe God exists; he's a fool just because he believes God exists and yet maintains that there are no consequences to dismissing the Holy One of Israel while preferring and pursuing the imagination of the heart, no consequences to exchanging the deity we fancy for the God who claims our faithfulness. Blinded by and in love with the gods of our own making we are all alike fools whose folly is going to prove fatal.

Mary answered with a song and became the first hymn writer in the New Testament church. All these centuries later, we join her: We, Too, Sing Mary’s Song.

Mary sang the Magnificat because she was looking forward to the birth of her first child, our savior. We also can joyfully sing with her, because we are anticipating the joyful celebration of His birth, one of the greatest holidays of the year. As mothers eagerly await the end of their pregnancy, so the church anticipates and prepares for the celebration of Christmas. Since the sixth century, the church has observed the penitential season of Advent as a way of preparation for Christmas. Makes sense. Feasts are often preceded by fasts. An early custom was to fast on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This left Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday as nonfast days—plenty of time still for parties. You know, I have to wonder... as busy as December gets, with everyone wanting to have Christmas parties and so much activity, we might just be better off limiting the "party days" to four per week, and taking fast days as days that we can be with family and friends. The Small Catechism teaches us that before receiving Holy Communion, "fasting and bodily preparation are a good external discipline." The Catechism then adds, "but he is truly worthy and well prepared who believes these words: ‘for you,’ and ‘for the forgiveness of sins.’ " Of course, fasting is not something people do as a way of preparing devotionally for a big event. Not to mention that fasting in this season when there is so much in the way of food, candy and goodies can be really tough, can’t it? But no matter what you might think of fasting, by coming here and worshiping with us, you are preparing for the coming celebration of Christmas and remembering what it means that Jesus came to us.

Why do we continue to sing Mary’s song in the church? We do so because it is not only Mary’s song. It is also our song. It is the church’s song—the entire church’s song. It reaches back to the prayerful needs and expectations of the Old Testament church. It reaches back and holds on to the divine promise of salvation given by God to his people through Abraham’s descendants. It reaches forward to us and to all generations born since Jesus came, to all who need mercy and forgiveness from God. To sing Mary’s song is to sing with Mary and with generation after generation of God’s people down through the centuries who fear the Lord and receive his mercy. To sing Mary’s song is to sing one of the most profound hymns ever written, a great Advent and Christmas hymn all rolled into one.

3. What can we learn from this song....and from this chapter in the story of that first Christmas?

a. Well first of all we can learn a very important principle of worship.

In Mary's song of worship there are at least 10 references to Old Testament scriptures.So obviously Mary was very familiar with God's word. She was a student of it. Remember she has traveled four days, probably alone, to reach the home of her cousin. She has had all this time to meditate, to review the hope found in Old Testament messianic prophecies. Four days to pray, perhaps to sing to herself the scriptural songs of her childhood. Four days of communion with her Lord. Four days of preparation for this spontaneous expression of devotion and adoration.

Mary did not sing in order to experience worship. Her song was an overflow of a life of worship, a day to day intimate communion with the Lord. Worship comes out of a life that is rightly related to the Lord. So if you want worship on Sunday to be meaningful to you, then be sure you worship on Monday through Saturday as well.

Study God's Word. Spend time talking to Him, listening to Him speak to the needs of your life. We can learn from Mary a very important principle of worship, but there is more that we can learn.

b. We can also learn a very important principle of the Christian life.

As I have studied Mary's song one dominant theme has kept surfacing in its words. In her song, Mary repeatedly refers to the principle of HUMILITY.  In Luke 1:50 she says that God's mercy is given to those who humbly "fear Him." In subsequent verses she sings that "God scatters the proud...brings down rulers...but has lifted up the humble.." And Mary's experience teaches us that the most important quality we can have as Christians is HUMILITY. In fact, God's selection of the place and people of this story: Galilee... Nazareth... Joseph and Mary, Zechariah, and Elizabeth...helps illustrate His reversal of human ideas about greatness and smallness, significance and insignificance. It is not the spiritually proud, the socially mighty, nor the materially prosperous who have the last word in God's kingdom. Arrogance and power and wealth are totally out of place here. Mary's song reminds us that God exalts those who fear Him, those of low degree, those who realize how much they need God in their lives...those who hunger for Him.

One commentator on Luke 1:46-55 said, “There is danger in trying to spiritualize the Magnificant. These are the most revolutionary words ever spoken.” (Bruce Larsen) Is that an overstatement?

William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, early 1900’s, warned his missionaries to India to never read the Magnificant in public. The Christians in India were already suspected of being inflammatory to the social system and these words of the lowly handmaiden were way too revolutionary to speak out loud.

Who doesn’t like hearing the poor are lifted up, the hungry fed, the powerless blessed, and the proud scattered, the powerful brought down and the rich sent empty away? Well the rich, powerful, proud of course!

Does this mean God’s not on the side of the rich and beautiful, the powerful and proud? That’s exactly what it means. Thus the warning not to over spiritualize Mary’s Magnificant to mean something besides what it says.

Turning the World Upsode Down   Luke 1:46-56

The Magnificat story and song give us some of the most beautiful images and texts in the Gospels; a young woman expecting a child greets her older cousin, who is also pregnant for the first time, with a song of exultant rejoicing and deep challenge, a song for the whole world to hear. It's a song that should delight and disturb us profoundly; it also asks a question about how we view our world and our own lives. Could we too sing a Magnificat today in an unequal world?

Our Magnificat