Mary Song Ps 80:1-7 Mic 5:2-5a Heb 10:1-10 Luke 1:39-55
Introduction https://youtu.be/zFJ5DcuWd0M
The intense spirituality of today’s Gospel reading has been diminished because of two unhealthy trends in Protestant culture, the suspicion of the spirituality of women, especially their emotions, and reaction to the excessive veneration of Mary in Catholicism. Leaving these problems behind, the words of Elizabeth and the song of Mary burst forth with life because they are women filled with the Spirit as the Word himself is progressively being made flesh in their midst[1]. There is a dynamic to the expression of the divine life in human life which must be honoured if it is to be experienced.
In pleading to heaven for the divine favour the psalmist is unashamed to be, “O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?” (Ps 80:4). In prophesying fo the birthplace of the coming great Messiah Micah tells us he will be born in a “nowhere town”[2] “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” (Mic 5:2). This theme of God coming to the lowest saturates our section of Luke. It explains why the song of Mary was banned from being sung or read in India under British rule, banned during the period of dictatorship in Guatemala in the 1980’s, and outlawed from public display by the military junta of Argentina[3]. At one level these responses to the inspired words of the Mother of God-in the-flesh[4] are the paranoid confusions of those wishing to preserve political power[5], but at another level the Word of God through Mary is a challenge to every assertion of human strength. We should all love that the coming of Jesus is God’s descent to share the poverty of fallen humanity (2 Cor 8:9), but Mary’s Song uncomfortably testifies that the Lord came to liberate people from the social, economic, and political poverty which is rarely our experience.
Mary Visits Elizabeth
Luke 1:39-45 is more than a straightforward story of two pregnant women blessing one another. By cultural reckoning Elizabeth is the superior. She is older[6], the wife of a priest and a descendant of Aaron herself. Nevertheless, through the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41), she places herself in the servant role. When the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, the miraculously conceived John the Baptist, leaps for joy this the fulfilment of what the angel Gabriel had earlier prophesied[7] and a sign of the coming of God’s ecstatic final salvation[8]. It is Mary’s presence carrying the Word of God in herself that imparts the Spirit to his prophetic forerunner. Elizabeth submits to Jesus by calling Mary the mother of “my Lord” (v.45). Mary is called “blessed”[9] she has been granted a share in God’s gift of salvation. When we see the socially greater greeting the lesser and the more highly esteemed travelling to the less important we know the world of social convention has been turned upside down[10].
Song of Mary
Mary’s song pours out of her heart[11] as she spontaneously gives glory to God for his miraculous intervention in lost human history.
46 “My soul magnifies[12] the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
The entire inner being[13] of Mary burst forth with exalting the saving God as she joyfully experiences his deliverances since the final salvation of the Lord has begun to break through in the coming of Jesus in her[14], Mary is spiritually united with God’s own rejoicing on behalf of his oppressed children[15].
48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
In describing her own “lowliness”, of Mary identifies her with generations of Israelites who had experienced oppression by foreign powers[16]. Mary is the embodiment of the of the weak and oppressed “poor of the Lord” who look solely to him for deliverance and refuge (Ps. 33:9; 50:9; 68:34; 73:21; 149:4). I was talking to my fiend in Myanmar the other day about the intensity of the COVID crisis, military rule and the civil war there. Things are so bad that the Christians are coming together to pray across all denominational/theological lines because under such circumstances only God can deliver! Is some generations have not called Mary “blessed” as a model of faith/faithfulness it is because faith we have allowed the devil to use postbiblical Catholic, and Orthodox teaching[17] to mislead us.
49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
The unity of power, holiness and the all-reliable mercy of God towards those who reverently fear him is a theme that permeates the Magnificat[18]. The lack of a genuine holy fear for the Lord in the Church is one of the most tragic features of contemporary Christian spirituality. Mary’s Song however testifies of her as an image of those for whom God has come to fight[19].
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
What do you notice about the tenses of the verbs in this Song….? (God…has…has…) They are all past tenses; not because we already see a world where the lowly are triumphing, but as a Spirit-filled woman of faith Mary speaks with certainty of what God will complete[20]. She is a prophetess who knows by revelation that God the warrior[21] has come to take up the cause of the lowly, the hungry and the oppressed. The proud, mighty, powerful and rich he opposes are scattered, brought down and sent away empty because they advance their positions through oppressing the needy[22]. Mary’s Song speaks of the Lord showing the “strength of his arm” as he had done in the creation, preservation, and salvation of his old covenant people[23]. The Messiah is not coming for the privileged but for the underprivileged whose hope is set purely on God[24]. Jesus didn’t simply overturn the tables of the money changers and traders (Matt 2:12), he turned upside down a whole way of understanding piety as a way to personal gain[25]. The apostles preaching identified them as “men who have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The “Mighty God” of our Christmas Day readings (Isa 9:6) has come down to lift up the lowly and oppose the proud. Mary prophetically understands the action begun in sending Jesus, first to her and then to those in Israel like her, to be the fulfilment of every act of mercy ever promised to the descendants of Abraham[26]. With Christ in her she had become the concentration point of all the saving acts of God[27]. Mary’s testimony teaches that all who grasp for social, political or power advantage are on the wrong side of saving history.
Conclusion
How do we get on the right side of God’s saving history with its great deeds (Luke 1:49)? The answer is simple, if extremely difficult to put into practice, we simply need to share Mary’s “lowliness” (Luke 1:48, 52). When we do so we will find ourselves united with the dynamic, pulsating scriptural song line of salvation[28] of which the Song of Mary is one of the highest peaks. It is impossible to understand, from the inside, the worship life of the New Testament Church[29]. If we would become part of the fulfilment of the Song of Mary, we must our lives must prove evidence that the Lord does deliver the lowly, the hungry and those who fear him. Our lives must bring a testimony of God’s power to the multitude gripped/addicted to worldliness, the busyness of preoccupation with “things”, not necessarily bad things, that leave no room for the presence of God. This is a call to live Spirit-inspired prophetic lives today[30].
It is no accident that in in the very year Hitler came to power the man destined, through martyrdom, to become Germany’s most famous prophet (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) said about today’s passage. “The song of Mary is the oldest …most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary whom we sometimes see in paintings.…This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.” This is a powerlessness we can confess and a lowliness which we can pray for day after day. (This is one of my regular requests of God.). If we would be a prophetic Spirit-filled Church inspired as Elizabeth was to honour Mary, and moved as Mary was to prophesy the complete victory of God in the S/son of God over every self-centred oppressive power, then let’s choose today to submit to the Lord of mercy so his grace might flow through us to all who are oppressed yet open to the great salvation that has come in Jesus.
[1] The Incarnation of the eternal Word as a human being involves a process being unfolded, and internalised, as Jesus grows embryonically, and beyond (e.g. Luke 2:52; Heb 2:10; 5:9).
[2] Note how the wise men from the east were confused about such things, but the biblical scholars in Jerusalem understood them (Matt 2:1-6).
[3] During the Dirty War (1976-1983).
[4] The expression “Mother of God” without a proper recognition of the Incarnation is idolatrous. Ecumenically, the titles “Mother of God” and “Mother of Christ” interpret one another.
[5] Because the action verbs in every case in Mary’s song related to what God does in opposition to everyone, dictator or revolutionary, who would take power into their own hands
[6] I remember being in a queue in Asia and a younger man giving up his place for me, because the older have precedence there. I have experienced this repeatedly, in Myanmar the honourific “big brother” is reserved for older dignitaries.
[7] “he will be great before the Lord….and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” (Luke 1:15).
[8] “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.” (Mal 4:2).
[9] Like the recipients of the Beatitudes (Matt 5:2-12).
[10] “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles sexercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26 But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.” (Luke 22:24-27).
[11] “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt 12:34).
[12] This is the origin of the title Magnificat for the Song of Mary.
[13] “Soul” and “spirit” are in synonymous parallelism, a common device in Hebrew poetry (Prov 12:28; S of Sol 2:1), so that the two terms are to be identified rather than contrasted. For depths of being as soul and spirit see Ps 77:2-3; Isa 26:9.
[14] Compare the proclamation of John the Baptist and Jesus, “the kingdom of God is at hand/come near” (Matt 3:2; Mark 1:15).
[15] Isa 62:5; Jer 32:41; Zeph 3:17
[16] Egypt, Philistia, Assyria, Babylon, Rome. (Deut 26:7; 1 Sam 9:16; 2 Ki 14:26; Ps 136:23)
[17] Mary as Mediatrix, with her immaculate conception, her Assumption and/or Dormition come to mind.
[18] And is a reminder that worship is the sphere where the most profound theological insights come together. Hence the hymnic sections of Revelation, see especially 4:8, 10-11; 5:8-9, 11-12, 13-14; 7:9-10, 11-12.
[19] For God’s favour towards the poor in Luke see, 5:11, 28; 6:20; 7:22; 9:3; 16:20; 18:22; 21:3.
[20] Often called a prophetic aorist tense.
[21] Ps 24:7-10; Isa 42:17; Zech 3:17 engages in battle on behalf of his people
[22] In an affluent democracy like Australia, we find such things very uncomfortable. For example, everyone is concerned about homelessness, but no one entertains some form of universal tax levy to solve the problem.
[23] Ex 6:1, 6, 15:16; Deut 3:24; 7:19; 33:27; Pss 78:10; 88:10; 97:1; Isa 26:11; 40:10; 51:9-10; 52:10; 65:12
[24] Poverty as such isn’t a condition or advantage for salvation.
[25] Note how the Pharisees were “lovers of money” (Luke 16:14) and how Paul warns about those, “imagining that godliness is a means of gain” (1 Tim 6:6).
[26] The vocabulary of this part of the Magnificat, “servant”, “remember”, “mercy”, “promise”, “ancestors”, “Abraham”, interlaces her Song with the whole history of God’s interaction with the old covenant people.
[27] Cf. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you…was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.” (2 Cor 1:19-20)
[28] See the songs of deliverance when God intervened on behalf of his people as a background to Mary’s inspiration. Attributed to Moses (Ex 15:1-18), Miriam (Ex 1:19-21), Deborah (Judges 5:1-31); Asaph (1 Chron 16:8-36), and especially Hannah (1 Sam 2:1-10).
[29] See the “spiritual sings” of Paul’s letter (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16) and the songs in Revelation, footnote 18 above.
[30] In the 1970’s a communist dictatorship took over Ethiopia, at the same time there was a student revival in the universities. One mark of this mighty move of God was the writing of songs that counteracted the evils of the time much as the Magnificat did. When I first joined a Pentecostal congregation as a new Christian these on-the-spot songs were a regular part of Sunday worship. Tragically, excess professionalism and low expectations of what the Spirit can speak have effectively annihilated such immediately inspired songs from amongst the people of God today.