Micah 5:2-4 Song of Mary
Heb.10:5-10 Luke 1:39-56
Lectionary Link
If one of the Gospels were to be made into a musical, the obvious choice would be the Gospel of Luke. Why? Because three famous songs are included within it. The songs of Zachariah, Mary, and Simeon. These all occur in the Infancy Narratives of Luke's Gospel and they continue the song tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures, the well known Song of Miriam or Song of Moses, extolling the great intervention of God at the Red Sea on Israel's behalf, and the Song of Hannah, after she is has a marvelous conception to bear her child Samuel.
The Song traditions in the Bible are songs which extol the recognition of an uncanny event for which only God can be given credit.
And today's song for the Fourth Sunday of Advent is the Magnificat or the song of Mary on her visit to her relative Elizabeth who is so far along in her pregnancy with John the Baptist, that John becomes a gestational gymnast and leaps when he is in the presence of Mary, who is bearing the Christ child.
The elements of the Song of Mary includes the basic themes of the song tradition. It is a song of praise for something incredibly wonderful which has happened in a mysterious way to Mary who is a person of very humble conditions. "How can God's regard for me be so special? I can hardly believe it. I can only spontaneously break out in a song of praise."
Such would be wonderful musical theatre, even as it adds an aesthetic and musical dimension to the presentation of the Gospel story. One could imagine it being sung as a hymn within the early Jesus Movement around the year 80 or later.
As amazing as the great happening which is extolled in the Song of Mary is, this song is like so much of the Bible, which is a literature of hope. Why is the Bible a literature of hope? Because it was composed in time, and time is not finished; there is always the future.
The famous songs reveal that the fantastic work of God is not yet done; it still has more to complete in the future. And the future is what the Lord is going to inspire to get completed.
From the song of Mary, what does the Lord yet need to complete in time?
There are still proud people who need to be scattered in their conceit. The proud need to be minimized and be defeated because when they are unified they wreak havoc upon people. All the proud dictatorial leaders of empires need to be scattered and minimized because of their conceit. God's work is not yet done as long as the proud use their power to exploit.
What else needs to be done? The mighty need to be cast down from their thrones. I don't imagine the Caesars of Rome would like to hear this. And yet the songs of prayer of the early church were boldly taking on the tyrants of the world. And how many tyrants have been in the world since the Caesars? Many, many, and so the song prayer continue for us, and we who think that we have eliminated the mighty on their thrones because of our democracy, have simply dressed the mighty in the robes of economic and exploitive greed. So the mighty in greed still need to be cast down; God's work is not yet done and so we continue with our songful prayer.
What else is not yet finished in time? There are lowly who are still low. There are hungry who are still hungry. So there needs to be the continual justice of better distribution of power and resources in our world to fulfill God's will for us on earth. And we cannot think that God will directly intervene for the lowly and the hungry, except by inspiring people to care for each other enough to share the goods and resources of what God has given to us in our world. If people of the world can be inspired and persuaded to lift up the lowly and to distribute so that all can have enough then the moral and spiritual progress of us as people is still open for a better future. If life were a continuous hocus pocus of an outside intervening of God to make it so that we didn't have lowly and hungry people, then we'd live in a giant machine of the oneness of goodness where there would be no moral significance because there would be no choice. The lowly and the hungry are with us like a tiny babe forcing us with a choice: do we neglect the baby and the vulnerable or do we tend the vulnerable with care?
In Mary's song, she sang that God helped and helps the people of Israel. In the Jesus Movement, the New Israel was the open invitation to all people in the world to know God's help and favor. God helps particular people as a way, a strategy of bringing help to all people. Remember if we are given much, then much is required in sharing what's been given with others.
In our confession and song of being helped by God, let us also pass that help on to the people who need the good news of help in their lives.
Let us adopt the poetic song of Mary as our rule of life. We need to be God's hands and hearts and voice in lifting up the lowly and the hungry, and Christmas time is as good as any to get on with the work of the Song of Mary. Amen.
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