December 23, 2018
Luke 1. 39-55
We proclaim and we rejoice, because god looks with favor!
I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but this year, Advent’s been a time for Mary’s song. A time for the Magnificat. As the story goes, the angel tells Mary that she’s going to give birth to a king – give birth to THE king! And at the same time, the angel tells her that Elizabeth is now pregnant, a well! So Mary goes and visits Elizabeth. And the moment she says, “Hello,” Elizabeth’s child jumps for joy! “Blessed are you,” Elizabeth cries out, “and blessed is your baby!” And Mary responds with her song. “Magnificat anima mea Dominum!” “My soul magnifies, proclaims the greatness, of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Anyway, we spoke that song, again, this morning, as we usually do this time of year. We listened to it as a part of the gospel reading. We’ll sing it, one more time, as soon as this sermon is over. We’ve sung it Wednesday evenings in the evening prayer. And the song with which we’ve begun worship, these last four weeks? The Canticle of Turning? That, too, is a reworking, a rewording, of Mary’s song. So, you see, it’s been a big part of the season. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
But I guess that’s what needs to be done for the truth to break through! Break though all the half-truths! Break through all the misconceptions. Because until this past week, I’d never realized that there was a reason why Mary sang her song! Why she magnified the Lord! Why she rejoiced in God! I’ve, always, thought it was enough, only to do what she did! Proclaim the greatness! Rejoice! And by extension, we do the same! But after singing it and reading it, again and again, over and over, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. . . well. . . I, finally, realized there’s not a period at the end of the phrase, but a comma! The sentence doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t end. But it continues! It’s not “My spirit rejoices,” period. End of sentence. It’s “My spirit rejoices,” comma, “because you, Lord, have looked with favor on my lowliness!”
“Because you have looked with favor on my lowliness!”
Mary’s proclaiming the greatness of, Mary’s rejoicing in, the good news that god isn’t a god of just the high and mighty. But god is a god of the needy and poor! God isn’t a god of the movers and shakers alone. But god is a god of the powerless and weak! Vulnerable and exposed! Cast off and forgotten! God isn’t the kind of god who’s concerned with those worth the time or the trouble. God’s the kind of god who’s concerned with those who need god! Who need a Savior! Who need a rescuer! Who need a redeemer! Just like Mary! Just like Elizabeth! Just like, even, John, in the wilderness!
That’s what caught Mary off guard, right from the start. It wasn’t the part about bearing, about conceiving a child without a husband. It’s when the angel told her that she’d found favor with god! “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” That’s when she was perplexed, when she pondered! She heard the words and, no doubt, looked around to see to whom the angel was talking! Looked around to see if anyone else was there! The thing Mary just couldn’t get her mind around was that god noticed her! That god came to her! That god made her god’s own! Her a nothing! Her a nobody! Lowly! Common! Unimportant! Of no consequence! And yet, here it is! First, the angel! Then, Elizabeth!
Mary, like everyone else, thought god was a king-maker. That god set the powerful on their thrones. But here was god, lifting up the lowly, instead! She’d believed that the “haves” had and the “have nots” didn’t, because god filled the rich with good things and sent the hungry empty away. But now, god does the complete opposite. Things were different! The world was changing! And Mary sang! Mary sings! She magnifies! She proclaims the greatness! She rejoices!
God, she sings, doesn’t trickle down from heaven to earth. God bubbles up from the lowest and least! God doesn’t appear in Temples but is born in stables! God begins not with crowns but with crosses! God doesn’t choose emperors or kings. God doesn’t claim priests or princes. Instead, god comes to a young Palestinian girl who doesn’t look all that different from a girl from Guatemala who’s living, this morning, in a tent city outside a small West Texas town not all that far from here. At first, she is perplexed. And she ponders. But then, she proclaims the greatness and she rejoices! The world is about to turn! The world is about to be turned! Inside-out! Upside-down! The angel says, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you!”
We – you and I – hear the words. And we’re, still, perplexed. We, still, ponder. We can’t figure out why. But it’s not about the size of the tree or the number of presents under it. It’s about the love! And it’s about the choosing! God says, “It’s you! Each of you! All of you!” And because of that! Because of that! Because of that, we, too, rejoice! And proclaim the greatness! And magnify! That’s the magic, the miracle, of this time! It’s discovered not in the stars, but on the straw! Not in palaces, but stables! Not temples, but in fields, by night! It’s those places, those people, become the holy things of god! “My soul magnifies, my spirit rejoices, because god has looked with favor on my lowliness!”
Think about it! Earth becomes heaven! Human becomes divine! Weakness becomes power! Poverty becomes wealth! And servants – servants and slaves – become queens and kings! And in the end, we do what Mary has done! We, too, magnify! We, too, proclaim the greatness! We, too, rejoice! Because of what god has done! Because of what god is doing! We don’t have to become bigger! Or brighter! Or better! All we have to become is who we, already, are! “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. . . because god has looked with favor on me! Because the lord has looked with favor even on me!” And my friends, that’s how god looks on us! Looks even on us!