3 rd Sunday in Advent 12/14/14 Canticle 15 - The Song of Mary Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55

Transcription

1 3 rd Sunday in Advent 12/14/14 Canticle 15 - The Song of Mary Magnificat, Luke 1:46-55 Wendell Berry is a fellow Kentuckian that I often turn to for inspiration when the world feels a little out of control, when I don t have a handle on things. Mr. Berry is a poet. I d like to read his poem, the Peace of Wild Things THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry Whenever I read Canticle 15, the Canticle we read this morning, otherwise known as the Magnificant, I always feel that there is a bit of despair and chaos surrounding it. 1

2 The Canticle we read this morning, which is also called the song of Mary or the Magnificat, is from the Gospel of Luke. It s in the first chapter and it is often called Mary s song of praise. Mary says her song of praise on a visit to see her cousin Elizabeth. We have already heard the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, they were John the Baptist s parents. We heard John the Baptist story last week from Alice. John the baptizer was the person that was baptizing and proclaiming that one who is greater than he is coming. John the baptizer is also the person that baptizes Jesus later on in Scripture, and the one that we heard about in today s reading from the Gospel of John. John the Baptist not only baptizes Jesus, but also, like we heard in today s Scripture spends his time telling others about the coming of Jesus and pointing towards the Messiah. The story surrounding the Song of Mary from the Gospel of Luke goes that the angel Gabriel comes to Mary to tell her she is pregnant, we will hear more about Gabriel next week, and then she immediately goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth. We don t see in this telling of the story that Mary talks to Joseph or does anything else, she meets the angel Gabriel and then according to 2

3 this version of the story, she just goes directly from hearing she is pregnant to traveling to Elizabeth s house and we are told she stays there for 3 months. When Mary gets to Elizabeth s house the scripture says that Mary entered Elizabeth s home and Mary greeted Elizabeth. Remember, Elizabeth was also pregnant at the same time Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptizer that I just talked about. I know this is a lot of details, but stick with me. Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptizer, the angel Gabriel has just told Mary that she is also pregnant with the Messiah, and now Mary is at Elizabeth s house. Are we all caught up? So what happens is that when Elizabeth hears Mary s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice Elizabeth exclaims: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you give birth to! 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! 3

4 After this greeting, Mary breaks into the song of Praise we read earlier. Right up until this song of praise, is where the despair and chaos live. Because I have often wondered if Mary bursts into this song because she is just so relieved. Put yourself into Mary s place for a second. Can you imagine being in her shoes? She is a teenager, yes, she is engaged, but she is visited by an angel of the Lord and she is told that she is pregnant. She must feel so alone and small. She has to be scared. She had her life planned she was going to marry this Joseph guy, who doesn t seem so bad he s got a good job, he can pay the bills, and they were going to live in their village and be a family. And then the rug gets completely pulled out from underneath her. Her safety net, her peace, her hopes and dreams vanish in the face of an angel of the Lord telling her that she is pregnant. She must feel alone, she must be scared, and I can t imagine that she feels safe. Her life has changed. Circumstances beyond her control have changed where she thought she was going and what she thought she was going to do. And then she meets a friend, her cousin Elizabeth, and she hears what must have been the first kind word she has heard in a while. 4

5 We never get to hear Mary s inner dialogue before this, but it has to be filled with doubt, with fear, with shame and so this greeting from Elizabeth - It must have been such a relief. Mary sings - My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. My soul proclaims and my spirit rejoices? The chaos that has entered into Mary s life couldn t have been good news. From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. Because of kindness Mary sees that she is blessed, that what she is doing is a good thing. That what God has done for her and what God will continue to do for her is something amazing. Elizabeth could have greeted Mary with oh my word you re pregnant what are you gonna do? What an awful thing. But she doesn t, she greets her with kindness and she first acknowledges that God is with her in this. 5

6 We probably won t have an angel of the Lord appear to us to tell us we are carrying the Messiah. But all of us have the things in our lives that seem to sweep the rug out from underneath us, when we do not feel safe, when we are afraid. They can be big things like chronic illness or feeling afraid of the police because you are black, but most often than not it is the small things. It is our own inner dialogues telling us that we are not enough, telling us that we should be afraid, telling us that we aren t good enough, that something is intrinsically wrong with us. These big and small things separate us from the love of God. But here s the thing Mary a poor, lonely, and afraid little girl is met with an acknowledgement that God is with her, she is met with kindness and she sings my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. And us what does it mean to be met with by someone acknowledging that God is with us, to be met with kindness? What does it mean to say to yourself that God is with me, to treat yourself with kindness? What does it mean to meet someone acknowledging that God is with them, to meet someone else with kindness? In the words of Wendell Berry when despair for the 6

7 word grows in you where can you rest in the grace of the world where can you be free? Mary was carrying something terrifying and scary, she was pregnant with Jesus. But all of us carry heavy things, all of us have hard and scary things inside of us that make us afraid, - all of us can put ourselves where Mary was. And so maybe as we spend these next two weeks getting ready for the birth of Jesus as we prepare ourselves again for the good news I encourage all of you to know that there is a little bit of what Mary was feeling in each of us. And so when we greet each other, when we meet someone else, or even when we spend time with ourselves we can by acknowledging that God is what that person, God is with us and that will help us begin with kindness. We can begin with grace, we can begin with love. Because when we begin by acknowledging that God is with that person or that God is with us we put God right in the middle of our lives. We bring God closer and we can begin to bring love closer, we can begin to bring grace closer, we can begin to find the places where we can rest in grace and be free. Even though Mary just had a visit from an angel of the Lord, Mary had every 7

8 reason to think that God was as far away from her as God could get she was a scared, alone, pregnant teenager. But God was with her and she proclaimed it because Elizabeth s greeting to her first acknowledged that God was with her. This is not easy work, but it s a start, it is a place to begin. God is with you all the time, God is all around you all the time. THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. Wendell Berry 8