Second Saturday of Advent
Scripture Reading for Today:
1 Samuel 2:1-8
Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. 2 “There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 3 “Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. 4 “The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. 5 Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away. 6 “The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. 7 The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. 8 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. “For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s; on them he has set the world.
Psalm 146:5-10
5 Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. 6 He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever. 7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, 8 the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. 10 The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.
Luke 1:39-45, 46-55
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
Mary’s Magnificat: Praise, Pain, Prophecy and Prayer
by Ellen Duffield
Ellen Duffield is the Coordinator for the Paul E Magnus Centre for Leadership Studies at Briercrest Seminary and an Affiliate for the Leader's Village at Southridge Community Church. She is a speaker, teacher and researcher and the author of A Theology of Thriving, The Brave Way and Brave Women and the founder of BRAVE Leadership: Thriving Together - all projects that grew out of seasons of brokenness and healing and culminated in her work creating spaces where men and women can thrive.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
or he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
For the Mighty One has done great things for me.
Holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him,
From generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm .”
Rich in majesty and mystery Mary’s Magnificat is written like a poetic doxology. A hymn of praise, it begins individually and ends communally as it spotlights God’s mercy and might, God’s holiness, and saving help. Singing it reminds us of who God is. Reminds us that God sees us. Helps us to see each other.
As I study this passage morning after morning, surrounded by comfort and the luxury of time, I am deeply aware that other women wake earlier than I, walk across fields or take subways to places of work where they are perhaps paid and respected less than I am, before travelling again, perhaps along unsafe roads, to second jobs or their second shifts at home. I, we, study, preach, and pray this hymn in solidarity with brothers and sisters around the world.
Whether taught by the Spirit, her community, or her family, when Mary opens her mouth, echoes of the prophets and Hannah’s Song, and Psalm 34 ring out, inviting us into the family of God and the stories of those who have gone before. The language encircles us like an Advent wreath with proclamations of praise, pain, prophetic hope, and soul wrenching prayer.
Mary’s Magnificat is a hymn of praise. It is also a hymn of pain. Consider her context – young, poor, pregnant out of wedlock in a culture hostile to this, and living in the shadow of Rome. In a 1933 Advent sermon, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “The song of Mary 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 whom we sometimes see in paintings.…This song has none of the sweet, nostalgic, or even playful tones of some of our Christmas carols. It is instead a hard, strong, inexorable song about the power of God and the powerlessness of humankind.”
Rev. Carolyn Sharp agrees, “Don’t envision Mary as the radiant woman peacefully composing the Magnificat.” Instead see her as “a girl who sings defiantly to her God through her tears, fists clenched against an unknown future.” Then, “Mary’s courageous song of praise [becomes] a radical resource for those seeking to honor the holy amid the suffering and conflicts of real life.”
Like Psalm 34, this poem defies the odds, choosing to exalt God’s Name in the depths of turmoil and broken heartedness, trusting that somehow God will move among the shards, crafting something beautiful even if we walk with a limp ever after. For as Tozer once said, “It is doubtful whether God can use a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
How can rejoicing and suffering live side by side? Perhaps because, as well as being a hymn of praise and pain, it is a hymn of prophetic hope - of justice and longing and Kingdom come. Mary sings:
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones,
But has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things
But has sent the rich away empty.
This series of what Carolyn Sharp calls “Great Reversals” is rooted within the context of a robust political and covenantal theology. As if from the womb, Jesus calls out with the liberating, humanizing message of the Gospel. It was considered so subversive, galvanizing and dangerously revolutionary that at least three times in recent history it has been banned by governments – during the British rule of India, in the 1980s in Guatemala, and during the Dirty War in Argentina when Las Madre de Plaza de Mayo took to the streets to protest their 30,000 missing family members.
Sung from the margins, The Magnificat is a courageous, defiant, and faith-filled song that calls to account the mighty, unmasks colonialism, exposes selfishness, patriarchy, and all abuses of power, and gives voice to the oppressed. It is meant to resonate down the halls of power and through the walls of our hearts. It is a call for hope turned to action, in alignment with God’s heart, will and ways. an invitation to engage in the work of justice and mercy as we partner to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. This song is about worldview, about rearranged societies and priorities, and about the prophetic call on God’s people.
Jan Richardson calls this section “Remembering Forward” saying, “Mary sings of the transformation of the world as if it has already happened. True hope starts as a seed. The impossible is possible. An elderly woman is pregnant. A virgin is with child.” God’s Kingdom has come, and everything has changed. “This kind of hope bends our understanding of tense and time. And this is the very place we are to inhabit – believing it is already done, engaging as if it is complete, remembering how God has transformed the world – while simultaneously working with God to see it come to pass.” Mary looks back to the promises found in Hannah’s song and forward to their culmination - telescoping them together in the tiny life growing within her.
Perhaps this is why, as well as being a hymn of praise, a lament of pain, and a proclamation of prophetic hope,this is also a hymn of convicting, inspiring prayer. These words are meant not to be read but prayed –prayed daily in some communities, sadly just at Christmas in others, prayed alone and together, prayed while we are celebrating and while we are grieving or doubting, passed down from generation to generation.
Praying it changes us – shaping our worship, theology, and service. Inviting us in to the heart of God, and out to a world in need of God’s kingdom come.
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