Christ has come and Christ will come again - Day 5

Luke 1:46-55

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.”

God, according to Mary in this song of joy, is turning everything upside down. (The song is called the Magnificat – because of the opening words in Latin – “I magnify the Lord.”

Mary who was nothing and unimportant will be called blessed for generations to come. (Mary is one of the few women of the ancient world whose name we still know today.) This could have turned into a celebration of Mary, but she catches herself in vs. 49 as she remembers it is all about God. God is the one who is disrupting the world, who is re-writing history. And from this point on the song of praise reflects the actions of God in bringing about the transformation of the world. The proud, the powerful, the rich have all been overthrown – and the lowly and the hungry have been lifted up. God has been faithful to this path, to this way of acting through time.

Again and again in the history of Israel the lowly and the overlooked have been lifted up. Among those was Hannah, the mother of Samuel. Mary’s song echoes some of the ideas found in Hannah’s prayer found in I Samuel 2. God continues to be faithful to this pattern of disrupting the ways of human beings. We are invited to be among those who celebrate God’s disrupting the world. But all too often we resist the disruption, fighting against it. In this week of Christmas, we are invited to receive the disruptive gift of Christ coming to the world not just once, but twice.

PRAYER:

God of grace, you are overthrowing the powerful and the elite who in pride think they are in charge. You are lifting up the lowly and the downtrodden who know they have no one to hope in but you. We throw ourselves on your mercy for who do we have in heaven but you, who do we have to call on but you. Bring your kingdom we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.