Sermon for St Edward’s, 22/12/24, Advent 4. Readings: Luke 1:39-55 and Hebrews 10:5-10
Is anyone playing Whamaggedon this year? I was got last Sunday watching the Holiday movie!
Around this time of year we hear lots of Christmas songs, some are better than others. I know a real fave is ‘Mary Did you know?’ and there are some wonderful versions of it. But something that always bugs me about it is the poor theology in it!
If you’ve not heard it, it’s essentially an imaginary conversation. The song writer, Mark Lowry who wrote it in 1984, said that he wanted to put into words the unfathomable. He started thinking of the questions he would ask Mary if he were to sit and have a coffee with her. Whilst the song has had lot of flack over the years, this guy was just a song writer expressing his thoughts, he was not writing a theological defence of Mary!
But the thing I find difficult though, is it portrays her as sweet and unassuming, a bit naïve, a bit clueless – which she was not. In Mary did you know, the song asks if she knows what her baby is going to be and do, and yet the angel has said to her:
You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
So yes she knew.
The song asks did she know he would walk on water, and calm a storm, and give sight to a blind man?
But at the wedding at Cana she told the servants to do whatever Jesus told them – she knew he could work miracles. (John 2:5). And Mary was a faithful Jew – that is why she was chosen to carry Jesus. She knew the scriptures. Like the OT prophecies that talk of when the Messiah comes:
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
She knew…
The song asks: Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
She called him Yeshua/ Jesus – his name means Yahweh saves. YES She knew!
Did you know: This sleeping child you’re holding is the Great I Am. This is literally what Elizabeth declared when she saw the pregnant Mary as we just read – But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
So yes she definitely knew!
I’m sorry to ruin the song for you if you like it! If you like the tune there have been written some better lyrics for it – I will put them on my website if anyone is interested!
So I’ve ruined one Xmas song, but the best Christmas song ever we have just heard in Luke – is The Magnificat. Magnificat – which is Latin for magnifies – as she says in the first line. It is Mary’s song. A piece of writing that has been part of church liturgy for centuries, since the earliest years of the church. It’s a fabulous song of faith, of trust, of power, and of justice. A song about the future of the nations in God’s hands. She explains God’s plan of salvation.
Mary sings this as she visits her cousin Elizabeth. Now at this point Mary has had Gabriel, the angel visit her and told her not only that she will bear God’s son but also that her cousin Elizabeth is pregnant miraculously too. We read that Mary’s response is one of faith:
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.”
And what is the first thing she does? We read that she went to visit Elizabeth, in fact she hurried to visit her.
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
She’s been given this absolutely unbelievable news, perhaps she just wants the comfort of being with someone who has also had some unbelievable news from an angel, I mean not exactly your every day occurrence! Perhaps there was even a little part of her that wanted to see if it was true, to reassure herself.
And even knowing that, it must have been a worry for her – what if she was wrong? What it Elizabeth and Zechariah (a priest!) shunned her? But no, Elizabeth says that Mary is blessed and that she herself is favoured to have Mary visit.
What a relief for Mary, what affirmation, what a recognition that Elizabeth, prompted by the HS, just knew Mary was carrying God’s son.
And so she sings. In faith, in joy, in praise, in declaration. This is a song about God.
She starts in worship: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour..
In thanksgiving – she knows God has seen how faithful she is:
for 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.
And she declares who God is:
God is merciful, from generation to generation.
God is miraculous and powerful – God has performed mighty deeds
God is a God of justice – God has humbled the proud and the rulers, bringing them down from their thrones
She sings of a future that is transformed. This is a prophecy of the future, spoken in past tense just as the prophets did. This is the future we long for – where there is justice done for the proud, the greedy, the arrogant, the exploiter, and where God looks out for the humble and feeds the hungry, they are given the things they deserve. He has cast down, some versions say, those how are full of themselves, and lifted up those who are empty.
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says of the Magnificat:
“The song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. 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 whom we sometimes see in paintings. . . .”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sermon 1932
The Magnificat was even banned in some places as it was thought to be too subversive and revolutionary. In Guatemala in the 1980s, and in India under British rule. And Argentine group ‘Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo’ who campaigned to find their missing children, thought to have been taken under military dictatorship used words from the Magnificat on their posters, and it was then banned.
Sister Elizabeth Johnson RC feminist theologian, wrote:
“The Magnificat is a revolutionary song of salvation whose political, economic, and social dimensions cannot be blunted. People in need in every society hear a blessing in this canticle. The battered woman, the single parent without resources, those without food on the table or without even a table, the homeless family, the young abandoned to their own devices, the old who are discarded: all are encompassed in the hope Mary proclaims.”
Sister Elizabeth Johnso
This is the kingdom of God, a wonderful vision so different from our own world and that which Mary was living in, where the poor and sick are ostracised, those deemed ‘different’ are marginalised and oppressed, enslaved. This is a vision of God’s world.
And Mary sings and prophesies all this in the context of the Jewish faith –
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”
A reminder of God’s promise to Abraham and his descendents. She knows, that the child she is carrying is part of that promise, that in him history comes together. That God’s son will bring salvation, that he will bring justice and freedom from oppression.
And it’s also a personal testimony – God has done amazing things for me she sings. Just as all the mainplayers in the Christmas story did – it wasn’t some far off God. they were deep in it as it happened, Zechariah seeing the angel and being struck dumb, Elizabeth carrying JtB the one who would point to Jesus herself, Joseph stepping in and stepping up, for the rest of this life, the shepherds who saw the angel and went and met Jesus for themselves, the wise men who came later went on the journey of their lives to find him. The Christmas story is personal. Perhaps the most personal of all for Mary who carried God in her womb.
So, Mary did you know?
In the reworked lyrics by Jennifer Henry let me finish:
Mary did you know, that your ancient words would still leap off our pages?
Mary did you know, that your spirit song would echo through the ages?
Did you know that your holy cry would be subversive word,
that the tyrants would be trembling when they know your truth is heard?
Mary did you know, that your song inspires the work of liberation?
Do you know, that we need your faith, the confidence of you,
May the God that you believe in, be so true.
Amen
Full lyrics for Jennifer Henry’s version are:
Mary did you know,
that your ancient words
would still leap off our pages?
Mary did you know,
that your spirit song
would echo through the ages?
Did you know that your holy cry
would be subversive word,
that the tyrants would be trembling
when they know your truth is heard?
Mary did you know,
that your lullaby
would stir your own Child’s passion?
Mary did you know,
that your song inspires
the work of liberation?
Did you know that your Jubilee
is hope within the heart
of all who dream of justice,
who yearn for it to start?
The truth will teach, the drum will sound, healing for the pain
The poor will rise, the rich will fall. Hope will live again.
Mary did you know,
that we hear your voice
for the healing of the nations?
Mary did you know,
your unsettling cry
can help renew creation?
Do you know, that we need your faith,
the confidence of you,
May the God that you believe in,
be so true.
Sources for research for this sermon were:
‘Songs for a Saviour’s birth’ by William Philip
No Comments