The Promise: Then and Now

Luke 1: 39-56   Psalm 146:5-10

Today we lit the fourth candle representing love.  “we love because He first loved, “ we are told in 1 John 4:19.  In the New Testament loving Jesus is a risk – of being ostracized by one’s community and persecuted by the Roman government.

But love is always new. Regardless of whether we love once, twice, or a dozen times in our life, we always face a brand-new situation. Love can consign us to hell or to paradise, but it always takes us somewhere. We simply have to accept it, because it is what nourishes our existence. If we reject it, we die of hunger, because we lack the courage to stretch out a hand and pluck the fruit from the branches of the tree of life. We have to take love where we find it, even if that means hours, days, weeks of disappointment and sadness. The moment we begin to seek love, love begins to seek us. And to save us.

Again, We love because He first loved us.

Mary’s love for God shines through our scripture today.  We learn about Elizabeth and Mary, both of whom are pregnant. It portrays Elizabeth and her yet-to-be-born son John as recognizing the yet-to-be-born child of Mary as messiah, “Lord.”

This canticle spoken by Mary is called the Magnificat, taken from the opening line: “My soul/being magnifies the Lord.” Mary’s song draws heavily from the the Song of Hannah, from the Books of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1–10).

These songs of Hannah and Mary are one of the few texts in the Bible, written in an ancient patriarchal culture, where a woman is presented as the main character.  And she speaks almost as a prophet.  The end of this song, particular to Mary, she speaks to how salvation is a reversal from what is expected - the lowly are more easily God’s chosen, the sinners rather than priests model repentance, the poor shall inherit the earth.

This reversal begins with Mary herself. An ordinary Jewess who becomes the mother of God and is called blessed.    She sings about God bringing judgment on the proud and the powerful, sending the rich away empty, and lifting up the lowly and feeding the hungry (verses 51–53).

Mary is excited.  Elizabeth’s prophetic words to Mary confirm the angel’s promise.   Her son “will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David” (1:32). Her joyous song is a prophecy of what God will do through Christ.

Luke presents Jesus Christ as a nonviolent new King who resists Roman imperialism. Understanding the political environment of the gospel of Luke is crucial to understand Mary’s song of praise.  Preaching this brings the political overtones into our time, today.  The reign of God has arrived through Jesus, but as we look around our world we are hoping and praying for God’s rule to come fully on earth. This dichotomy is what we are living through during Advent.  Our reality is that Jesus has arrived but as we are beginning our Christian year  - waiting, preparing, and hoping for him to come again.

At the center of this is figuring out why Jesus came/is coming. We often talk about salvation in terms of individual redemption.  We are not to  think of individual salvation apart from Jesus, Mary explains, turning the power structures of the world on its head. Our salvation is part of saving the world.

Would it be surprising that God is still concerned with the spiritual, social, and political realities of the daily life of us two thousand years later?   Is it so shocking that I would preach this? This, suggests Mary, is why Jesus came and is coming.  Jesus.

We witness in our refugees, who like Jesus escaping to Egypt, are arriving here with hope of safety and acceptance but who now live in the real fear of deportation. Jesus’ presence can be felt in our efforts to feed our children, pay bills, and have health insurance. In other words, Jesus is concerned with our social realities.

This Song of Joy is the voice of a Jewish expectant mother, too modest to address God directly.  This is not the first time that I have asked you to ponder the actions of Mary.  Just think that without Mary, history would have been different.  Her story challenges us to consider emulating her song and her actions.  Take a risk for God! She allowed God to radically change her life.  She trusted God to be there for her.  She did not whine about what God asked of her.  She did not say I’d rather not be a pariah in my town.  She did not stop listening to Gabriel, saying, “I have to rush off to see my fiancé now.”   She did not cry that her wedding was ruined.

Mary, made her own independent decision of what should happen to her body, accepting God’s choice for her.  Remarkable.  Courageous.  Incredibly mature.  She is blessed for eternity among all women to be the mother of Jesus.  Thank you, Mary.

We have readied ourselves, for the birth of Christ and God’s Kingdom.  We are preparing for the incarnation of God in humanity.  God’s love now has skin and bones.  Jesus has become like us. Hope moves through our bones like oxygen.  Peace is our breath in and out.  Joy gets stronger every time we choose it.

We are commanded to love and we are the proof, the wonder of God’s love in the world! Let’s go out there and show it. Amen.