Sermon 12/11
Luke 1:26-55
Sing We Now of Christmas: Mary’s Song
Today
our scripture brings us three vignettes, woven together. First, Mary is visited
by God's messenger Gabriel, who tells her that she is favored, and that she
will give birth to a son, a child conceived by the Holy Spirit, who is the Son
of the Most High. He tells her nothing is impossible with God. Mary has a
couple of questions, naturally, but ends by saying, ʺI am God's servant – let
it be with me as you have said.ʺ Next, we see Mary travel to visit her cousin
Elizabeth, an older woman who is also pregnant. Elizabeth is pregnant with
John, who we know as John the Baptist. Mary visits her, and when Elizabeth sees
her, John in her womb seems to leap for joy, and Elizabeth calls Mary and the
child she carries blessed. And, she concludes, blessed is she who believes that
there will be a fulfillment of God's promises. Finally, we find Mary’s song,
what we call the Magnificat, a joyful response at what God has chosen to do,
through her, for all people.
You
know, of course, that I love music, but I must admit that the books of the
Bible that are considered song – like the Psalms – are really not my favorite.
The poetry, Psalms and Proverbs and Song of Songs, and the poems and hymns sprinkled
throughout the scriptures – most books of the Bible contain some hymns or
poetry – Paul’s letters, the law, the prophets, the gospels. So I love music,
and it’s not that I don’t like poetry. I do, I really like poetry. I even went
through some angsty times in junior high where I tried to write poetry! Bad
poetry, that you could probably use to blackmail me with rather than me let
someone read it, but poetry nonetheless.
It’s
just that, frankly, I don’t usually find the poetry of the scriptures particularly
moving. I know that many people love the Psalms in particular, and I do have a
couple of favorites, but if I were in charge, I might have cut the collection
down to about 25 instead of a hefty 150 entries. My tendency when reading
poetry in the Bible is to skim – quickly glance over the words. But I’m not
sure poetry is meant to be read this way. Poetry is meant to be savored, word
by carefully chosen word.
But one
song in the Bible I love – Mary’s song – this Magnificat – the first song in
the New Testament – the first justice song of the gospel. I love Mary’s song. Mary
responds to her visit with Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s words about Mary being
blessed among women with a song – a song that today we call “The Magnificat”
because Mary begins by saying that her soul magnifies the Lord. She sings about
rejoicing in God because God has chosen her, even though she is lowly. She
believes she will be called blessed by all generations because of what God is
doing for her. Mary goes on to describe God as merciful and strong. She talks
about God scattering those who are proud and powerful and rich in earthly
things, and instead favoring those who are without all these earthly things.
And she finishes her song by saying that God is helping her because God remembers
the promise made to her people, the promise that lasts forever.
“My soul
magnifies the Lord.” That is how Mary begins her song. The word in this context
means to make great, to exalt, but we most often use the word ‘magnify’ when
we’re talking about making something bigger. We use a magnifying glass to help
us better see something that’s otherwise too small. Something magnified is
something that has been enlarged, made bigger, easier to see. In Mary’s case,
she is saying that her soul magnifies God. In other words, Mary, her soul, her
spirit, is making God larger, more visible. I think these are pretty daring
things for Mary to sing about. She can clearly see herself, even though she is
a woman in a male-centered society, even though she is very young, even though
she is unwed, even though she is pregnant and in a risky situation, she can
clearly see herself as a powerful person – made powerful by God’s action in her
life and her willingness to respond – and a person who has the power then to
magnify God for others, to make God more visible by serving as a vessel for
God, a disciple for God.
Mary
trusts that God would choose someone like her because she sees that God is
always using unlikely people. Throughout Mary’s song, she makes reference to
God being a God who cherishes the weak, the lowly, the hungry, the otherwise
overlooked. In fact, her song is similar to another song in the scriptures: the
song that Hannah sings to thank God after she finally gives birth to Samuel in
the Old Testament. Hannah was barren, and prayed for a child. When she finally had
Samuel, she delivered him to the temple to serve God, and she sang a song of thanks
where she talked about God lifting up the lowly and overlooked. Mary, like
Hannah, understands that God who is her Savior is a God who turns the tables, who
looks out for the weak first, giving power to those who are powerless, and
humbling those who would exalt themselves. Mary believes that God has looked at
her and seen faithfulness, looked at her, and seen a servant, looked at her,
and given favor and blessing. Mary believes, trusts, that in her, God is
fulfilling a promise long-spoken, a promise that God would redeem God’s people.
Because Mary believes this, she doesn’t shrink or cower from the great,
mysterious, practically unbelievable news that Gabriel brings to her. Instead,
she rejoices in the news. She lives the news – sings it. Mary’s soul will
magnify God – her actions, her carrying of the Christ child will make it easier
for the whole world to see God, because through Mary, the whole world will have
access to a God who is this close to us, close enough to touch, close enough to
carry in our hearts. Mary magnifies God for us, and so we can see this
larger-than-life God, contained in a tiny baby.
We, too,
are meant to magnify God with our souls. By our lives, by our witness, by our
response to our experience of God, we are called to make God more visible to
the world. That means that like Mary, we must understand the power that we have
as human beings. A bit of prose from author Marianne Williamson: She writes,
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we
are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most
frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented
and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your
playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to
make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us;
it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give
other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.” We’re created in God’s image,
born to “make manifest the glory of God that is within us.”
That’s a
powerful task we have in our hands. The question isn’t whether or not we have
power, but what we’ll do with it. When God calls us, we should boldly respond,
because God knows us, and knows how very much we are capable of, and we have
responsibility and power given to us. Others, by our actions, can learn
something about who God is, what kind of God we serve. What will people learn
about God from you? You have the ability to magnify God – to make God larger
for others, easier for others to know and see and draw near to. How big can you
make God? How much can you let your life work to make God visible to others?
Finally,
it means that we must learn something about what can happen to the world if we
really take Mary’s song to heart. As I was reading about the Magnificat, I discovered
that during the 1980s, the dictators of Guatemala actually outlawed the public
reading of the Magnificat because of its “revolutionary tones” – indeed, Mary
talks about a change in the world order that would certainly upset the way
things work. The words of a pregnant young woman, spoken two-thousand years
ago, banned, because of the power, revolutionary power in them. What might happen
if we speak the truths that we know with boldness? When we work together with
God, when we let God use us, and when we trust that in us, God can fulfill
promises, even in us – when we let others see God more clearly because of us,
we can actually change the world.
How big
can we make God? My soul magnifies the Lord! Amen.
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