What if we sang the Magnificat in a way that we didn’t have winners and losers, but all at the same level of God’s grace and love, all fed, all sheltered, all whole?
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord
Texts: Luke 1:46-55, Isaiah 61:7-11
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
What if Mary’s not singing about winners and losers?
What if God’s reign isn’t a competition? What if the Magnificat is not a call to revolution that puts new people in positions of dominance and power-over, but something else?
Even for those of us who delight in Mary’s song, who on this Tuesday night have come to worship the Triune God and to remember and honor the young woman who bore God’s Son into the world, even for us, so much a part of our western culture’s addiction to success and winning at all costs, it’s a struggle to hear Mary in any other way than winning and losing.
So we hear Mary’s song as a blast against all who are on top. Turn the world upside down, God. Knock down the mighty. Throw away the rich. Let other people run the world, and punish those who get pushed off their high seats.
But what if that’s not what Mary’s singing? What if God’s reign isn’t about making new winners and new losers, but about something much more profound and beautiful and even a little scary?
Most western theologians see the Magnificat as revolutionary.
But some women theologians, many from oppressed and marginalized cultures, sing a different song when they sing with Mary. They remind us that oppression damages both the oppressed and the oppressors, and simply reversing those roles only continues the abuse and suffering. Just with different people doing it.
What we hear from these voices is that God is bringing through Mary and her son a new world where all are on the same level. All fed. All blessed. All secure. A world where the common good is the ideal. One female theologian has called Mary’s song the “Great Equalizing,” rather than the “Great Reversal.”
Maybe if we heard Mary this way, we might truly find the joy that vibrates through her song. The joy Isaiah gets from God causing righteousness and praise to spring up before all nations.
It turns out this is what Mary’s son taught, too. That should count for something.
Her boy said that all God’s law was fulfilled in loving God with all you have and loving your neighbor as you love yourself.
Loving your neighbor as you love yourself. If you live in a culture like ours which promotes and rewards selfishness and self-centeredness, do you see how radical such a call is? Whatever love you have for your status, your life, your world, your family – have that for your neighbor. (And who is my neighbor, you ask? Well, Mary’s son told you that pretty clearly, too.)
Mary sees a world shaped by love of neighbor, a love for each other like what you have for your own life. Where you can’t bear eating when someone you love is starving. You can’t stand living in a house when so many you love can’t afford one. You can’t stomach earning more than you need to live while others you love work their hands to the bone and still see their children suffer.
Everything Jesus teaches shows he’s not interested in shoving some people into the dirt and lifting up others. He feeds thousands with a few loaves and fish, regardless of their ability to pay. He offers God’s love to rich insiders and destitute outsiders. He saves his anger for those religious teachers who know God’s priorities, but crush God’s people, laying unfair and unshared burdens on them. And even those he invites to join the common good of love for all.
Those of us who are rich aren’t off the hook in this way of singing. But it’s different.
The dirty secret to hearing Mary’s song as overthrowing those on top is we conveniently ignore this overturning in our daily lives. There’s a dissociation between what we think Mary sings and how we actually live in the world and hope the world will be. That’s because most of us with privilege don’t like the idea of being cast to the ground. Singing Mary’s song this way becomes a lie, because if we’re honest, we don’t want that revolution.
Now, if God’s reign is truly a great equalizing instead, there’ll be changes, too. Changes we’ll feel and know and experience. So we might resist them, too. But if it’s not about winners and losers, what might happen if we let the common good, this dream of God, change us for the sake of all?
Take taxes. Even the most magnanimous of us are happy to take whatever tax breaks we can. And yes, government leaders need to spend tax dollars wisely and carefully and avoid corruption.
But what if we boldly proclaimed our support of our taxation, because it led to the good of all? Instead of complaining, or letting others dominate the nation’s stage declaring as an absolute truth that all taxes are bad, all government is bad, what if we said, “we’re glad to share. We’ll share more. And we need to work together.”
Because here’s a truth about Mary’s song. If every congregation in Minneapolis started a food bank, we’d still have starving people. If every congregation in Minneapolis bought a house and refurbished it and rented it out affordably, we’d still have thousands homeless.
But if we change a law that makes wages fair, or housing affordable, or school meals free, we can affect the lives of thousands, even millions. If we build housing and infrastructure with our taxes, if we support those who dismantle unfair housing practices and the embedded racism in our structures, if we insist that our cities not create gangs of armed soldiers to enforce our prejudice and ease our fear, but rather officers who truly protect all – starting with the most vulnerable – if we do all these things, it will cost us. Cost me. Cost you.
But I won’t be a loser. Neither will you. Those of us who have so much won’t be thrown away. We’ll come down to a level that’s sustainable for all, workable for all. A common good, no winners, no losers. Just a holy grace that Mary so beautifully sees.
But remember: Mary says God is doing this.
So does her son. We can hesitate and resist moving toward this reign of God. We can actively work against it. We can try our best to live into it. But God is doing it. God’s Spirit is moving in this world to make it happen.
Through those who teach us to listen and sing differently. Through all who live in the gracious “yes” that Mary modeled, and bear God’s life into the world. Through all who follow Mary’s Son in the path of love of God and love of neighbor. God’s promises are going to happen, Mary says. So, do you want to be a part of all this joy?
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
