The World Is About To Turn
This
is a version of my sermon text for the Fourth
Sunday in Advent, December 23, 2018.
The text for my message was Luke 1:39-55. The references to hymns being sung were
completely applicable at St. Mark, for Ascension and Redeemer, your mileage may
vary.
The audio recording of this message from St. Mark is here, as is a video recording of the message from Ascension. The audio isn't great on the video, but not horrible for the first attempt. + pBRC
May you always know how much God loves &
treasures you. AMEN.
If you believe that you have
never heard of the Virgin Mary’s revolutionary song of praise known as the Magnificat and have attended any of our
Sunday or Wednesday Advent services this year, I hope you enjoyed your
collective naps.
Each Sunday during Advent,
our Call to Worship and Greeting, as well as parts of our prayers and communion
liturgy have quoted or alluded to the Magnificat.
Each Wednesday, the focal hymn and the preceding Gospel reading were from the Magnificat. We read it twice today, both
as the Psalm and as part of the Gospel. Also two hymns we will sing today quote
or paraphrases the Magnificat.
If it has all just flown by
without making a difference, I have about fifteen minutes to explain to you why
the words of an unmarried, poor pregnant teenage girl from God-only-knows-where
are the proof that God is calling and demanding us to work for social justice
and to take care of the least, the last, the lost, those who alone and the
little ones.
If you think of the Virgin
Mary as being meek and mild, then, to quote Nadia Bolz-Weber, You never listed to the original cast album.
One of the unfortunate side
effects of the Reformation is the rejection of Mary the Mother of Christ. We
have pushed her aside as much as our brothers and sisters in the Roman
tradition have embraced her. Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with
thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb
Jesus.
That first half of the Hail
Mary prayer comes from today’s Gospel lesson. These are the greeting that
Mary’s older cousin Elizabeth speaks when she meets her now-pregnant teenage
cousin. We do not view Mary as Holy,
although she is to be admired and lifted up as an example of a faithful
servant. We do not pray to Mary, or ask her to pray on our behalf because we do
not believe we need an intercessor when we can pray directly to her Son.
Mary’s response to Elizabeth,
the part that we read as the Psalm, Luke 1:46-55, is called the Magnificat because, when read in Latin, the
first word of her speech is Magnificat,
which means magnify. Her first sentence, 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, that I have tattooed on my left
shoulder. I’ll explain why a little later.
Mary knows she has been
called by God to have a special place in God’s plans for the universe. She was
asked to be the Mother to the Word made Flesh, to the Son of God. She is
entrusted with the force that spoke creation into being, and changing his
diapers. What she would do magnifies and glorifies God’s actions because God
uses simple common people to do divine work. Part of her work is to prepare for
the world to turn upside down.
It is the work of turning the
world upside down that God is going to do that makes me love the Magnificat. In the song following my
sermon (The Canticle of the Turning), this is what is meant by the world is
about to turn. This is a dangerous message. The Magnificat is part of daily worship services in the Roman Catholic
church and in other churches.
But the words of the teenage
Virgin Mary are so dangerous and revolutionary the British colonial governors
of India in the 1800’s banned the public reading of the Magnificat. It was one of the passages removed by
slaveholders in Bibles they let their slaves use. It was banned in Argentina in
the 1970’s after the Mothers of the Disappeared, those who were taken by the
secret police in the middle of the night, would gather in cities streets to recite
it. During the 1980’s the military junta of Guatemala banned the public reading
or speaking of the Magnificat as “incitement to rebellion and a danger to the
state.”
Jesus’ call for the world to
turn is to stop society becoming more fractured and favoring of those who were
already rich and powerful comes from the love of God the Creator for all of
God’s creation. But his passion for such social justice comes from his mother
Mary, whose soul magnifies the Lord.
If you like the Christmas
carol, Mary, Did You Know, please rest assured, Mary knew, and was
leading the charge for the revolution.
If you are wondering what is
so revolutionary, let me read (again) to you Mary’s manifesto. The heart of the
world turning revolution begins in the middle of verse 51. 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.
This is a total upheaval of
society. This is the world about to turn upside down. The rich and powerful who
have not shared their blessings will be thrown or pulled down and those who
have been lowly, hungry and weak will be lifted up. This is a call for rebellion.
This is a call for revolution.
This is the mindset of the
mother of Jesus Christ, whose soul magnifies the
Lord, because God is going to turn the world around through
people. This is the call of the Good News of Great Joy that we celebrate at Christmas.
Because of the timey-wimey
nature of our Lectionary, this call for the world to turn we heard last week,
will be what John the Baptizer proclaims as he prepares the way for the Lord,
calling upon those whom he baptizes to treat each other fairly, honestly,
charitably and respectfully less they face the Messiah’s wrath.
This is call to justice,
fairness and restoration we will hear from Jesus in his teaching. The parables
where the rich or powerful who don’t share their blessings are brought down like
the parables of the Wedding Guests, the unjust steward, and Lazarus and the
rich man come from this Gospel, and Luke’s understanding that God’s will is for
there to be justice in this world. But it also speaks of grace and mercy and
forgiveness as well, which we will hear again in the parables of loss from Luke
15. This is the world about to turn.
God shows the upside down
nature of the world that is about to turn in these two women, both carrying
remarkable children conceived in unconventional means. Rather than having God’s
Son be carried and born by Elizabeth, the wife of the Chief Priest of Israel,
and to be born at the top of society, God chose her young cousin, Mary. It is
not in spite of her lowliness that
she has found favor with God; it is because
of it. God chose Mary, and with that choice, God shows partiality for the
marginalized members of society.
This upside-down,
revolutionary world turning description of what God is going to do through the
baby Mary is carrying is a threat to those in power and leadership who are not
taking care of those on whose behalf the world is about to turn.
How do Mary’s words, 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 sound here and now? How would Mary’s words sound
in a country with historic economic inequality? How would Mary’s words sound to
a government limiting access and opportunities for those at the bottom of
society so the top 1% can get more and more? How would the words of a woman who
will be a political refugee shortly after giving birth to the Son of God sound
to a country that is separating and caging refugee families at the border and
whose government is closed over funding to build a spiked border wall?
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of
the Magnificat, It is … the most
revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. It … is a hard, strong, inexorable song
about collapsing thrones and humbled lords of this world. That is why I
have placed it in front of you all of this Advent. Because, like all things
that come from God, it comes with a role for us.
Mary’s
Magnificat comes with the call for us
to do the scattering, and the bringing down and the lifting up, and the filling
and the sending away, because we are the Body of Christ. It is through us that
God brings God’s justice and righteousness. It also comes with the warning,
that if it is not through us, then we will be among those scattered, brought
down and sent away.
In
choosing Mary to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, in her proclamation of on whose
side God is on, God tells us to make a choice. Whose side are you going to be
on? And God warns, If you choose that side, I’m going to be over here and that
side is going to be brought down.
So,
what side are you going to choose?
If
you say you want a revolution, you can count me in.
My
choice is to be on the side where God is and to call to those on the other side
to repent of their narrow sighted selfish ways and to share their blessings
with the least, the last, the lost, those who are alone and the little ones.
Because by being on that side, I, like Mary, can say 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.
Fasten your seatbelts and put
your tray tables in their full upright position. The world is about to turn.
Choose wisely. AMEN.
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