Luke 1. 39-56 - Mary's Song (Advent 2, 2011)

I wonder what Mary was feeling as she went off to visit Elisabeth in the hill country?  The angel Gabriel had told her she was to have a son called Jesus, who would be the Messiah and saviour of the world. Maybe she could feel the earliest stirrings of her pregnancy, in her body. She had God's word in her mind: attendance at the synagogue and participation in family worship meant she was soaked in the Old testament scriptures (her song, as yet unsung, is almost completely made up of Old Testament quotes: it's even structured like one of the psalms with parallelism, one line repeating what the previous line said) But still she doesn't sing.  Maybe it was too much for her to process. Maybe she didn't know what to do with this. But then, in the secure presence of an older woman, childless up to that point but now six months pregnant, she is able to get her head around it all. When that older woman believes her, honours her, and encourages her (v 42-45) her spirit is set free: she can sing!

The Kingdom, and You... 
Mary sings about the promises God has made - promises for her and promises for the world. It begins in her own experience, (the Lord has looked at, noticed and cared about a lowly person like me) but it very quickly moves on to see her experience as the first fruits of the upside down kingdom of God impacting the earth. Her song isn't just about herself; it is about the Kingdom that is coming with the coming birth of the Messiah.  The Kingdom incorporates our experience, what God does in our lives. We are always challenged and called to encounter the Kingdom of God in the things that happen to us.

The Kingdom and the King... 
He who is mighty has done great things.  Mary rattles off three important truths about God.

1. He who is mighty: literally meaning he who has the power, he who is able. (cf. v 37 "nothing is impossible for God". Our God, the King, is the God of the impossible, the God of possibilities.
2. His Name is holy. He is totally other. The word doesn't so much mean morally holy, as separate, different, exalted. Holy and awesome is His name. (Ps 111.9)
3. He is merciful.  (Mercy implies compassion to the unfortunate, and also covenant love: it is the "Steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases" (Lam 3. 22) 

That all adds up to a pretty good summary of who God is and what God is like. The way the Kingdom is will be a reflection of he way the king is. In the Kingdom, we are engaged in a wonderful journey of discovery, a journey into the character of the King himself.

The Upside-down Kingdom. 
This Kingdom of God involves a number of reverses. It brings salvation to broken lives, sick bodies and minds and communities.  Things are turned upside down when the kingdom of God touches earth.

• v. 51 Scattering His enemies: Salvation also involves judgement.
• v. 52 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones.  Literally dynasties are removed, swept away like rubbish when someone is tidying the house.  And he has exalted to a place of prosperity the humble, the lowly. (cf v 48)
• v. 53 He has filled the hungry (not only physical hunger but those suffering want in every way) with good things...   and sent the rich away empty.

The Kingdom involves the forgiveness of sin, the healing of disease, the reconciliation of enemies and the liberation of the oppressed.  It's about turning the world upside down. It's a great reversal of the injustices we see in the world around us today. Yes, that happens in the spiritual realms. But it also happens in the practical realm of economics and politics. "The kingdom of God... bringing the ordinary life of mankind into line with the will of God." (Marshall) But wait a minute...

Kingdom faith
Mary says all this in the past tense. He has scattered his enemies; he has brought down the mighty and exalted the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. (v. 51-54) It doesn't look like this reversal has happened. But Mary already knows herself to be pregnant with Jesus, pregnant with the Kingdom of God. God has already done something absolutely amazing. He has taken decisive action already.  Mary sees the results that will follow from Jesus' mission as an accomplished fact already, just as certain as the historically recorded events of God's actions in the Old Testament "God has already taken decisive action in the promised sending of his son and she foresees as an accomplished fact the results that will follow his mission" (G B Caird)

That was faith.   And faith is hopeful... Elisabeth said "Blessed is she who has believed...(v 45)  Luke later recorded how someone got all sentimental with Jesus and said "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you"(11. 27f.)  But Elisabeth isn't sentimental.  She says, "Blessed is she who believed. The Kingdom community is a community of faith; and it is a community of hope. We look forward to the fulfilment of God's plan, the final triumph of Gods Kingdom, as certain as the events of recorded and documented history.  That is faith. And it enables us to be hopeful.

"Hope" by George Frederick Watts.  Public Domain

 The Victorian painter G F Watts painted this picture called "Hope". Pastor J A Wright, Jr (who gained notoriety as Barack Obama's outspoken Pastor) was deeply moved when he attended a lecture on the work. He describes it thus:  "Hope - with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God ..." And in the midst of a tough world, like Mary, we carry the Kingdom of God within us, and we dare to sing the song of the Kingdom, as an accomplished reality, even if we have only one string left.

The Kingdom community. 
And like Mary we do that in community: the last line of Mary's poem says God has remembered his mercy (again: compassion and covenant, keeping his promises) to Israel his servant-lad v. 54f.  There is a kingdom community.  God has always chosen to work through a relationship with a covenant community of people.  And that community - today the Church - is a sign of hope, a sign of the certain coming of the Kingdom of God. It is the community of courage, that dares to say, "this Kingdom has triumphed". And it is the community of encouragement, where we can help other people to sing.  We can equip other people as we honour them, believe in them, and encourage them: what a joy and privilege to watch other people begin to sing!

 © Gilmour Lilly December 2011