“Prophetic
Voices”
Luke
1:39-56
December 20, 2009
Fresh from her encounter
with the angel, “Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill
country” to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, herself swelling with a pregnancy in her
old age. Filled with the Spirit, both women
burst into glorious speech: Elizabeth salutes Mary, who in turn sings out a prophetic song
of praise to God; known as the Magnificat from its opening word in the Latin translation,
this song can barely contain Mary’s joy over the liberation coming to fruition in
herself and the world through the creative power of the Holy Spirit.1
Please listen for how the
word of God comes to us this morning through the prophetic voices of Elizabeth and Mary
found on pages 53-54 of the New Testament section of your pew Bibles from the Gospel of
Luke chapter one verses thirty-nine to fifty-five…
39In those days Mary set out and
went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the
house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s
greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and
exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of
your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes
to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my
womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a
fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
46And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47and my spirit rejoices in God my
Savior,
48for he has looked with favor on
the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call
me blessed;
49for the Mighty One has done great
things for me,
and holy is his name.
50His mercy is for those who fear
him
from generation to generation.
51He has shown strength with his
arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of
their hearts.
52He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
53he has filled the hungry with
good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
54He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55according to the promise he made
to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
This
is God’s word to us….
Pregnancy: pregnant women
are not the usual people we have in mind when we think of prophecy and yet here we have
two such spirit-filled pregnant prophets crying out in joy, warning, and hope for the
future. Clearly this picture of two pregnant
women huddled together against all of the expectations of their culture and society is far
from the vision we usually have of these two women who inhabit our Advent Gospel reading
today.2
Have you ever noticed that
although we fully anticipate the celebration of the birth of Jesus we spend little time
thinking and talking about the pregnancy that preceded the birth? I mean, neither John nor Jesus could arrive in the
Biblical narrative without a pregnancy. And if
there is anything we know about pregnancies, they are full of emotions: emotions like the
ones we experience throughout the Advent season; feelings of joy, warning, and hope for
the future.
Living as we do, in an age
of abundant information through the internet it is possible for anyone to get a sense of
what pregnancy is like even if we’ve never had a child of our own. Thinking of Elizabeth’s and Mary’s
pregnancies I visited the website pregnancy.com which has a section titled “pregnancy
week by week.” You can view diagrams of
how babies develop from week two all the way through delivery. There are also articles about how the pregnant
woman’s body changes and suggestions for regular activities that make for a healthy
pregnancy experience for everyone involved.
Living as they did, several
millennia before the advent of the computer, Mary and Elizabeth sought each other out to
do what many women are able to do through the internet and social media today. In her book Just
a Sister Away, African American biblical scholar Renita Weems notes how pregnant women
of any age have an almost physical need for the company of others in the same condition to
share their fears, find courage, express hopes, and learn practical wisdom about how their
bodies are changing.3 Whether it’s
the first century or the twenty-first century, pregnancy causes people to come together
and envision the future in a whole new way.
So too during Advent do we come together and envision a new way of
seeing the world. If not for nine months then
for at least four weeks we make preparations and change the way we live if for only a
little while. And on this fourth Sunday of
Advent we listen to two women, both pregnant with significance about how they see the
world unfolding in front of them and within the babies developing within their wombs.
Although Luke does not give
Elizabeth the title of prophet, filled with the Holy
Spirit, she functions like one. When she hears
Mary’s greeting she blesses her first as a woman and then the child growing within
her and finally Elizabeth blesses her young cousin’s faith. Elizabeth’s words echo the praise addressed to
other famous women of the Bible who delivered God’s people from oppression and trial. For instance, in the book of Judges, when Jael
dispatched the enemy general Sisera the prophet Deborah declared, “Most blessed be
Jael among women” (Judg.
5:24). And in the apocryphal book of Judith, after Judith’s
spectacular defeat of another enemy of Israel, Uzziah praises her by saying, “O
daughter, you are blessed by the Most High God above all other women of the earth” (Judith 13:18).4
Elizabeth’s prophetic
words to Mary’s faith and her acknowledgement
that the baby in her cousin’s womb comes about after six months of near solitude:
imagine being pregnant and being married to a mute husband.
Even though we might laugh at the thought, for Elizabeth it would have been
a difficult trial for at her age many would have asked her how it was possible that she
was pregnant and the only person who could corroborate her story couldn’t speak. And so she turned to God in prayer and made ready
for the birth to come. So when she hears Mary’s
greeting; not only does she proclaim the greatness of her young relative, but the baby
within her leaps for joy.
Of all the things that
happen during pregnancy, a kicking baby is one of those things that draws out our hopes
and fears of years to come. Abstract visions
of who the little one is become tangible in that moment.
With a kick, all of the planning and preparations take on a deeper meaning:
meaning that can be felt and seen and lived. How
many of you remember what it was like to feel life growing within you or someone you love? Can there be any other reaction to a child leaping
within a womb but to dream of a future filled with hope and joy?
Throughout Advent we leap
with joy at what is about to happen in our lives as
well. We envision how the new life represented
by so many nativity sets will make a difference in the way we go about living and relating
to those around us. Our faith moves from the
abstract to something that can be experienced and felt as we reach out to those less
fortunate than us and reconnect with loved ones who have been separated from us across the
miles and by coming together to worship God by singing praises to God and pausing in
prayer amid the chaos of December.
If Elizabeth’s pregnant
prophecy teaches us what it means to leap with joy then
Mary’s song teaches us what it means to love God and how God’s mercy compels us
to love others. Mary magnifies God her Savior,
which in formal Elizabethan English means she celebrates the greatness, or sings and
dances in praise to the goodness of God.5
Mary’s magnification of God has a firm
foundation throughout the Biblical tradition. The
psalmist sings: “Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, exulting in his deliverance”
(Ps. 35:9) while the prophet Isaiah encourages: “This
is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Isa. 25:9); and even the creation itself joins in
celebrating the wonder of God when the psalmist intones: “Let all the earth cry out
to God with joy” (Ps. 66:1).
Mary’s celebratory song bursts forth
because of how overawed and joyful she is that she is pregnant with God. Her praise is due to the wonder caused by carrying
the divine within her own flesh. This praise
that pours forth from Mary is not a onetime event; something only Mary gets to experience. Through the waters of Baptism and the faith that
grows within us we too are pregnant with God. Men
and women, young and old; as people of faith we too join with Mary in singing praises to
God as we find ways to birth God’s love in our lives.
To sing the Magnificat then: is not only to
sing God’s praises alone, but also to work for a vision of the world made new. Much like a parent prays and hopes that their
developing child will be born into a world where war, poverty, and heartache won’t
touch their child, so too does Mary articulate the great biblical theme of reversal where
the lowly are defended by God while those at the top who exploit the lowly are brought
into line.
Twentieth century Christian martyr Dietrich
Bonhoeffer said of this song of Mary: “It is at once the most passionate, the
wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung. This is not the gentle, tender, dreamy Mary we
sometimes see in paintings; this is the passionate, surrendered, proud, enthusiastic Mary
who speaks out here.” Much like all of
those mothers we are warned about crossing, the great German theologian goes on to say
that Mary’s song “is a hard, strong, inexorable song about collapsing thrones
and humbled lords of this world, about the power of God and the powerlessness of
humankind. These are the tones of the women
prophets of the Old Testament that now come to life in Mary’s mouth.”6
That we may be unaccustomed to such strong
words about meek and mild Mary may be due to us never really thinking about the power of
pregnancy; the power of bringing children into this world with all of its urgency and pain
and strength. Pregnancy reminds us of a mother’s
impulse for a world that is as just and right as God’s prophets proclaim. But in thinking of justice from God’s
perspective we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions of who wins and loses in our more
worldly view of things. This song of Mary is
not meant to throw those in power out and place the lowly in their positions. Instead it is a song about a new reality where
generosity reigns; where those with less are given more and those with more now have less.
Now if that sounds a little too radical for
you, think about the generosity that has been lived by so many in this room over the last
several weeks. If you talk with Darlene Annen
or Phyllis Fletcher or any one of the Deacons of this church you will discover how this
congregation of privileged people has lived the generosity of the Magnificat. We have done so in our collective generosity toward
the students of the Magic Valley High School and many others. Nearly a ton of food and gifts were delivered
earlier this week to ensure that young mothers facing situations as challenging as those
faced by Mary the mother of our Lord might also experience true Christmas joy.
In our cultural climate of winners and losers
Mary’s Magnificat can be used as a threat. But
if we remember that she was pregnant when she uttered her prophetic words then we might
hear them as more of a challenge. Mary’s
words spoken so long ago that we hear this day prompt us to consider how our faith in a
just and loving God leads us toward generosity; of living our love of God in real and
tangible ways of giving and sharing so that the lowly may be lifted up and the hungry
filled with good things.
How will you live a right Magnificat? In what ways will you celebrate the goodness of God
who calls us to look with favor upon all of God’s servants? Where is joy kicking us into ministries with and
for those in need? To answer such questions
requires prayer and time so I’d like to offer you at least a minute or two to reflect
on how you might live out the Magnificat. In
the quiet of this sanctuary take the next minute or two to listen for God’s word to
you and our congregation before we all join in saying the O Antiphons…
Amen.
SOURCES:
1.
Johnson,
Elizabeth. Truly Our Sister. Page 258
2.
“”
“”
Page 260
3.
Ibid.
4.
Johnson, Elizabeth. Truly Our Sister. Page 262
5.
“”
“”
Page 265
6.
“”
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Page 267
