Magnificat
December 6, 2015
Luke 1:46-55
NRSV
46 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will
call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
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 powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
I’m changing the scripture for the morning, and the sermon. There is no more beautiful poem in the Bible
than the Song of Mary, known officially as The Magnificat, because that’s the first word of the poem in
Latin, which was the only Bible translation in the Western World for about a thousand years.
What leads into the poem is Gabriel finding Mary and offering her the opportunity to be the mother of the
Son of God. His last line is, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary’s response is not the Magnificat, but the phrase, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with
me according to your word.”
“Here am I” was uttered in the Old Testament by Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Isaiah, Moses and Samuel. It’s
one word in Hebrew, “Hineini.”
Is there a better response to a call from God? Mary didn’t have to think about it. She didn’t weigh her
options, the pros and cons of what the angel had suggested. The fact is that a pregnant, unmarried woman
could have faced stoning. She was engaged to Joseph, not yet married to Joseph. She was risking not only
her life, but also the respect and love of her fiancé. There was no earthly good that would come of her
agreeing to be the mother of the Son of God.
But, there is infinite good in being a willing collaborator with God in the salvation of the world. What
more could we imagine our lives being, other than co-creators with God of his Kingdom in this
world? If we, as Christians, don’t hear that call from God, we are not paying attention. Helping
God birth a new and better world built on mutual love and respect for all people is why there is The
Church.
Gabriel tells Mary to go visit her “relative Elizabeth” who in her old age has “also conceived a son.” In
fact, she is six months pregnant with John the Baptist. And it is when Mary arrives at the home of
Elizabeth and Zechariah that she sings her song. Let’s set it up:
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with
the Holy Spirit
42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb.
43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the
Lord."
It is at this moment that Mary is inspired to say or sing this beautiful poem. Here are a couple of
modern translations for us…
Can you imagine the young virgin and the old preacher’s wife sharing their profound sense of calling?
They probably had both felt very much alone in this new adventure of miraculous motherhood. But, now
they had found each other, and, while their decision to be obedient servants of the Most High would be
filled with sacrifice and responsibility as they give their lives over to full devotion for their sons, both of
whom were to be used by the Heavenly Father to change the world, and both of whom would be executed
by the authorities.
But, Mary’s song is more than a song of praise for being chosen to serve God in this unique way. It is
prophetic, just as Zechariah’s song for his son, John, is prophetic.
Mary’s song is about God turning everything upside down. A humble girl is going to be known as one
blessed by God for the rest of time. The proud are scattered, the powerful are knocked off their thrones,
the rich are emptied. On the other hand, the lowly are lifted up and the hungry eat their fill.
The way you and I are brought up and trained to see the way of the world is not just a little bit wrong, it is
completely wrong, and through Jesus Christ, God offers the world a chance to right itself, to redeem
itself, to recognize that all lives not only matter, but they matter equally.
The Apostle Paul makes a similar point in Galatians 3:28 –
28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female;
for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like that. And, as I never tire of mentioning, Jesus teaches us that the
Kingdom is within us and among us. It is here. We are its citizens. When we start working towards a
world that sees people as people, as God’s children, then we are good citizens of that kingdom. As long as
we support the status quo, which honors the rich and degrades the poor, we’ll be bad citizens of the
Kingdom of Heaven.
Mary, because of her openness to being God’s servant, and to the vulnerability that requires, is our role
model. Her song should be our song, the song that inspires us and gets our blood pumping as we cry to
God to show us what he wants us to do, the song that shows us our ultimate goal of making the Kingdom
visible to everyone who has eyes to see.
We can do this. God will fill us with courage. Mary’s greatest virtue was her obedience to God. Other
than that, she wasn’t anything special. Just a peasant girl engaged to a carpenter, in the middle of
nowhere. If someone that ordinary can be blessed for every generation to come, we can be blessed, if our
primary virtue becomes loving and enthusiastic obedience to God, and faith in his love for us, and his
loyalty to us. Can you even imagine what we can do?