Advent 4B

 Obedience, courage, and defiance.

 

One of my favorite games to play in the car is one in which I offer a word, and one of my kids responds with the first word that comes to mind. In fact, we played last night. “Mary”, I offered; “Christmas”, Peter replied; “presents”, I shot back; “Christmas tree” came next; then woods, wolves, wild, animals…so on and so forth. 

 

It is always fascinating to me what comes to mind. I say “Church”; Peter says, “Saint Clement’s”; I picture our pine and respond with “tree”; Peter adds a “forest”…

 

And, I find myself thinking of the cathedral of trees of John Muir and the redwoods. I consider the sacred we have found outside of our beloved church building and the yearning we share for a return. 

 

And, I think of the hope. The hope that has accompanied us through Advent and brought us here. To the now of Mary and her words. Words enriched by the lectionaries pairing…annunciation and magnificat

 

A courageous “yes” and defiant song. The ode of Theotokos, the God bearer, a powerful reclamation of a woman’s power. 

 

A woman’s ability to speak truth to power, a woman’s ability to do hard things, a woman’s ability to change the world. 

 

Through a yes that becomes embodied power.

 

My soul magnifies the Lord! 

 

My soul, a woman’s soul, magnifies the Lord. 

 

My soul magnifies the Lord, she cries out. 

 

And I meet the word with another. 

 

Magnificat.

 

Magnify.

 

Magnifies.

 

And, the word becomes a story…

 

I remember playing with a magnifying glass when I was little. Using it to look more closely at objects that interested me. A blade of grass, a flower, an insect, even the dirt—brought closer, made larger, and clarified through a simple lens. A simple lens, magnifying a simple object. Magnifying it so that I could appreciate its complexity and its beauty in a way that I could not have seen on my own. 

 

It is her body that magnified the Lord. It is her lungs that leant power to her words. Her yes. Her courage. 

 

And through her magnification, she shows us something new. Something, that  we might never have seen without her vision. Something that we might never have uttered without her breath. 

 

An apocalyptic vision of a world upended by the might of God. God who will tear down the mighty and send the rich away empty. God who will destroy the systems and structures that oppress in favor of a new life that liberates. These are radical words, these are occupy Wall Street sentiments, these are raised fists and peaceful protest, and these are the words that scripture has given us. Words from the mouth of a poor, young, woman, who knew full well the power of a woman’s song—Miriam, Ruth, Esther, Judith. One name prompts another and then another, a powerful and prophetic lineage for the Theotokos, God bearer, we call Mary. These were her ancestors in the faith and in this moment she assumes their mantle. Assumes the mantle of women who spoke truth to power, prophesied greatly, and served God from outside the traditional structures of power. 

 

The forces Mary confronted were formidable. Roman rule, temple abuses, and the peasants of Palestine could expect more than 55% of their income to be taken in tithe and tax. In Mary’s time it is estimated that 2-3% of the population possessed the vast majority of the wealth. Mary was not part of this elite and her ode, this Magnificat, comes from the mouth of a peasant girl, a girl like hundreds of others, who lived in a society in which the rich had gotten richer and trickle down economics could more accurately be described as trickle up—as the Roman Empire leaned on the provinces for steady revenue. In fact, “the census that appears prominently in the Gospels during the reign of Augustus is fundamentally a tool of taxation: tying people to their land and counting them for purposes of tax collection.” https://www.elca.org/JLE/Articles/605 

How do her words preach now? How do they preach now, during the reign of the current president, in the midst of a pandemic, when the top 1% of Minnesotans account for 16.3% of all income in the state? (USA Today, “How much do you need to be in the top 1% in every state?”, July 1^st, 2020) How do her words preach now? When 8 months rent comes due, a years’ worth of student loan interest, suspended payroll taxes are collected, and those whose doubts led to deaths are first in line for vaccination. 

 

What do you hear in the Magnificat? Is it ominous warning or liberation from death, debt and despair? What do you hear in these words? Pastoral romanticism or the first steps towards a new creation?

 

During the reign of Emperor Quirinius…

 

Joseph harnesses the donkey.

 

And step by step, they make their way towards Bethlehem. 

 

Annunciation, Magnificat, magnify, see, apocalypse, liberation, women, empowerment, economy, Palestine, taxes, injustice, Mary, birth, hope, Christmas…

 

What word comes next? 

 

I invite you to reflect on this question as you listen to Dan Forrest’s choral setting of the Howard Thurman poem, “The Work of Christmas”. 

 

Mark, will you take us there?