For readers of the Bible, the Old Testament establishes a pattern of God acting through unexpected protagonists. This pattern finds its pinnacle in the New Testament accounts of Mary being chosen as the mother of Jesus. The Magnificat, Mary’s response to the angel’s divine announcement, captures this sentiment. God has humbled the high and mighty and lifted up the humble. In preparation for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Faith in Real Life discussed Luke’s account of The Magnificat, attempting to internalize the message of making the ordinary holy.
The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55)
46 And Mary said:
“My soul magnifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
There are two themes I want to highlight in this passage. The first is to point out that Christian spiritual life must always start with gratitude and end with service. And the second is to point out Luke’s foreshadowing of his entire Gospel in this passage.
If you can remember as a child standing, waiting to be chosen for game of dodge ball or basketball, it was no fun being the last chosen. Likewise, if you were used to being chosen early, it was no fun to be passed over. There is a predictable athletic order. The best are chosen first—the awkward and uncoordinated, last. In even the simplest of situations, we compare ourselves. But we are not content to identify differences among us, we turn them into statements about our worth. There is no crime in having wealth. The danger is that we invest our identify into what we have or what we have accomplished. We lose our reliance upon God.
And the reverse is true. If we have less—money, skill, intelligence, or power, we expect to be chosen last. Even if we don’t like it, it is the way of the world. The privileged rarely recognize their privilege. Sometimes it is subtle and sometimes it is blatant but in real life these value judgments are deeply embedded in our psyche.
God, in Jesus, turns us upside down. His care for us is independent of any human ranking. Especially if you have been the underdog, this is good news beyond measure. This was the source of Mary’s wonder. When it was time to look at all women, God chose unexpectedly. Instead of choosing by wealth, class, power, position or even religious fidelity, God chose a young unmarried girl of no particular standing. God chose Mary. This young woman was to birth, feed, bathe and change the Son of God. No wonder her soul magnifies the Lord and her spirit rejoice—”for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.”
When we tried to enter the story In FIRL, it was fairly easy to identify with Mary at the wonder of her call. People could identify with the amazement at being unexpectedly chosen but had trouble with the next line as it might apply to themselves—”From now on all generations will call me blessed”. That might be true of Mary but not so much us.
I asked each person to exchange these sentences with a partner;
First speaker: “From now on all generations will call me blessed, The Mighty One has done great things for me.”
Response: “Thanks be to God. He has made the ordinary Holy. You are his child for all time.”
The subtlety of our need to justify ourselves was revealed. Many people were notably uncomfortable claiming God’s grace. They might feel blest but not ‘blessed for all generations.” It felt presumptuous. Of course Mary would be remembered for all generations. She was the Holy Mother. But no one in FIRL had comparable credentials. But the whole point of Mary being chosen was that God’s choice is God’s choice. Human valuations and comparisons do not apply. The promise and the miracle of Christmas is that no matter how the world sees us, our value and worth rest with God—and God alone. God has done great things for us. It is hard to take in, but we all live in the promise that the most ordinary is Holy, —every one of us is precious to God. Whether first or last by secular standards, we are chosen. He has lifted us up. We are His forever.
51 has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
The experience of God knows no class. This a truth Luke emphasizes over and over. Almost anyone who has been on a mission trip learns this very quickly. “Poor” people are often far more likely to know and experience God’s choosing them. It is why we so often discover on these trips a depth of sharing we often do not see among the privileged. When we give up our explanations and claims of our own importance, we cannot ignore the ways these assumptions have been the agents of hurt and discrimination. When Jesus began his ministry, he announced his mission by quoting scripture (Isaiah 61):
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4)
This was good news until he made it clear that this message included gentiles. Then “all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.” Jesus was threatening the ‘proper’ order of the world and whom God favored. It didn’t mean much to be the chosen people if everyone is chosen.
There was a fundamental disconnect between the conventional understanding of God and the God who was manifested in Jesus. Over and over Jesus inverted expectations. Jesus’ mission was unexpected, upsetting and often opposed by the religious community of the day. Yet for the people ‘who had ears to hear,’ his good news was saving. It was true for Mary and it is true for us.
Grant us the courage to rely upon your promises. The ordinary is Holy. We are blessed. We are His forever. Thanks be to God.
