“Mary’s Voice”

Luke 1:46-56

A sermon preached by the Rev. Douglas M. Donley

December 21, 2003

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            Today, we hear the voice of sister Mary.  She sang the most important song of all of Christianity. But who did she sing it to?  Did she sing it to Gabriel?  Did she sing it to Elizabeth?  Did she sing it to Joseph?  I told you last year that I don’t think she sang it while she was pregnant.  I think she sang it later, looking back on what her life meant and what Jesus’ life meant.  But look at it again; it doesn’t talk about Jesus’ life at all, at least not in specific.  It talks about God.  It speaks about how God has considered Mary’s state and has shown that Mary or someone like Mary could be a favored one.  It set the stage for what was about to take place in the form of this child.  I think this song is for us. 

            Let’s look at it again.  It has four parts. And it tells us about the God we worship and the God we seek this Christmas. 

As a bit of background, it closely resembles the Hebrew Bible song of Hannah which she sang as she was pregnant with the prophet Samuel.  There are some who say that Elizabeth sang the song instead of Mary.  It would fit since we have a song from Zechariah later in the chapter.  But that’s not so important for today.  For now, let’s look at the words the Biblical writers or editors put into Mary’s mouth.  For in them show the priorities of God.

I.

Mary starts out by saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior who has regarded the low estate of God’s handmaiden.  For henceforth all generations will call me blessed.”

She did not say this is the way God told me God is. 

She did not say this is the way that God feels.  It was bigger than that.  God had become a part of her, a part of her soul.

Mary had been transformed.  She was singing a song of her soul.  She was saying who she was.  She recognized that she was in sync. with God and her soul was knit with God's soul.  Therefore she sang, "this is what comes from the deepest part of my being."  In a moment of self-awareness, she sang, "My Soul magnifies the Lord."

Mary sings that her soul magnifies God.  Her soul is expanded because she is aware of God’s presence within her.  She looks at God with a magnifying glass.  She sees God for who God is and at the same time notices something she never saw before.  God recognized her.  All generations will call her blessed because God noticed her in her status as an outcast—this unwed teenager from a hated area.  This is where God chose to come and incarnate God’s self. 

Mary was not transformed so much by her encounter with God.  Rather, she was augmented.  She was still the person she was, with her own stories, her own journey, her own soul.  What happened, is that she for once became aware of her soul.  As Elizabeth taught her to sing, she also taught her how to recognize the efficacy of her soul. 

Elizabeth taught Mary how to be present, how to be aware of the miraculous in her, how to recognize her inner power and harness it into her own soul work.  Therefore she could sing "My Soul Magnifies the Lord."

If you have ever felt that God has no time for you. 

If you have ever felt that God doesn’t care about you. 

If you have ever felt ignored by God, then this passage is for you. 

God remembered Mary and even though she was considered lowly, maybe even considered herself lowly, God chose her.  When she looked at God with a magnifying glass, she realized this about God’s character.  God always looks out for those the world considers lowly.  When Mary saw this, her soul was renewed.

II.

Mary then augments the thought with her next phrase:

“For the mighty one has done great things for me.  Holy is God’s name.  Mercy is on those who fear God from generation to generation.”  Mary realizes that this blessedness is not hers alone.  God shows mercy to everyone who fears God from generation to generation.  This is extremely good news for those of us who feel left out and forgotten.

One of the benefits and liabilities of having young children is that we watch Disney movies.  I am reminded as I reflect on this portion of the magnificat, the movie Lilo and Stitch.  Throughout the story, the characters remind us of the Hawaiian word Ohana: “Ohana means family.  Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”  That’s the sentiment of Mary’s declaration about God.  God does not leave any of us behind.

This is not a god of vengeance.  This is a God of mercy.  This is a departure from other depictions of God.  This is not the warrior.  This is God the merciful.  How easy it is for us to forget this about God.  So much of popular Christianity shows us a God of vengeance and military might.  That’s not the God of the magnificat.  God is merciful.  All that is needed is respect for the power of God. 

III.

Here comes the powerful statement.  This is the revolutionary language of Mary.  This sounds like John the Baptist which is why some scholars think Elizabeth was the singer of the song.

This is why people ought to fear God: “God has shown strength and has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts.  God has put down the mighty from their thrones, exalted those of low degree, filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”

This is very good news to those who are not rich.  It’s bad news for the rich.  But remember who is singing it.  The one singing it is an outcast who will shortly have to take a long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem while she’s extremely pregnant all to satisfy the whims of one of those mighty ones who sitteth upon a throne.  Mary says that all of this pomp and circumstance and all of this worldly power is an illusion, like you’re living inside the Matrix.  What is real is that God is in charge.  God has already sided with the poor and the lowly.  In due time, the powers of this world will implode just like it has with every empire.  When the smoke clears, we will see that God will endure forever and ever. 

These past few weeks, we have seen the mighty Saddam Hussein, the man who embodied an empire and instilled fear.  Even he fell down from his thrown and was seen as the fragile, pitiful disheveled weak person that he became as he crawled out of his hole.  His empire fell and he was exposed as a fragile individual.

How can you tell if your empire is from God?  The answer is in how the poor are treated.  Most empires don’t regard the lowest estate of God’s handmaid and call them blessed.  These empires will fall because the long arc of history bends toward justice. 

In that day, the poor will have power, the rich will be sent away empty, the hungry will be fed, maybe even those of us who are blind might one day see the light.  Mary has seen the light.  She’s singing to us so that we’ll see it too.

IV.

Finally she says “God has helped her servant Israel remembering the mercy God promised to our ancestors Abraham and Sarah.”

This fulfills the covenants God made so long ago and still makes today.  That’s the hope for the future.  That’s what we need to remember and focus on this season.

 

Mary sings this song so that we will remember who God is and what God does.

Remember the four parts:

1.                  God remembers one poor person and exalts them.

2.                  God‘s mercy is for everyone forever.

3.                  God’s plan is that all should be welcome at the table and no one is to be left out.

4.                  This is who God always was and who God always will be.

 

I hope this Christmas, as you reflect on the gifts you have and the state of our world, you will consider again the implications and power of Mary’s voice. She hardly says anything else in scripture.  What else is there to say, really?

Why not let our souls magnify God.  Why not integrate Mary's voice into our own voice.  If we do, we might see the world in a very different way, the way they saw it when God was smuggled in to the womb of Mary, an outsider with an insider’s perspective.

Let me close with a poetic interpretation of the Magnificat as penned by Baptist Peace Fellowship editor and liturgical poet Katie Cook:

 

An Interpretation of Magnificat By Katie Cook:

My soul overflows with songs

of the enormity

and power

and mystery

of God;

My Spirit is full of joy

Because God will be my redemption;

God has looked around the world of assorted humans

and found a poor woman,

a peasant,

a serf;

God has given that woman a noble, majestic quest--

to participate in the act of creation;

to bring a new life to humanity;

throughout history people will speak of this quest

and say,

What joy she must have felt!

God is holy and filled with power;

God has done wonderful things just for me;

I am overflowing with joyful words.

God does take care of those

who remember the original instructions;

God is sometimes overpowering

to confuse those

who think power is theirs,

who think they know what power is,

who think that people can be ranked according to worth.

Their own arrogance will cause them

to be scattered upon the earth.

God takes those in positions of earthly power

and watches them destroy their own structures,

their thrones,

and those things that they hoard;

they will be stripped of this earthly power,

and their toys of destruction and exclusion

will be useless.

Those who are now thought

to be of little worth

will be in power.

Thus the hungry will be fed at last,

and those who had been greedy

are sent away

without their material securities.

God never forgot the promises

made to Abraham and Sarah;

They have been kept

and will be forever.

Amen.