20 Dec 2009
Advent 4 2009
Micah 5:2-5a Hebrews 10:5-10 Luke 1:39-45 [46-55]
The Song of Mary
The Song of Mary or the Magnificat (taken from the first word of the Latin translation) is one of the most famous pieces of Scripture:
My soul magnifies the Lord,And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.For he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant...
It is a summary of many themes commonly reappearing the story, of God's relationship with the people of Israel. Mary's song brings to mind the first text from OT Prophet Micah. Micah speaks to the "insignificant" town of Bethlehem:
But you O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah...
And yet, Micah continues,
from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule over Israel.
The "insignificant" town produced the righteous ruler. We may remember similar comments made later on about the town of Nazareth; "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" people asked, in the face of the possibility that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Chosen One of God, the Messiah and Saviour, no less!
Mary's song says similarly that God has "looked with favour on the lowliness of God's servant." Both the Hebrew word for the "little ones and the Greek word for "lowly ones" refers to one "who is of no account in the eyes of the world." But Micah and this song of Mary tell us that these very "lowly ones" stand in the strength of the Lord. Thus, it is "the Mighty One [who] has done great things for [Mary]."
This whole passage is a great testimony to the way God chooses "what is low and despised in this world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are" (1 Cor 1:26-31). In other words, we who get down, who feel insignificant - God's favour is upon us; God's favour is not dependent on our exalted social status. Experiencing God's favour does not require us to at first succeed, or to be a popular person, or to be the most fashionable of people, or to be an extroverted, party going, good looking crowd pleaser and so on! In fact it would appear to be the very opposite. God meets us as we are.
Mary is the great example for us all: no false humility here, just Mary being herself. As a sixteen year old peasant woman she glorified, not in being ‘lowly.' No doubt as her initial encounter with the angel tells us, she was surprised, delighted and full of fear for what it all meant. But as her song suggested, she gloried in the fact that God had looked upon her "with favour" (v. 48). It would be one step at time from now on!
What might it mean for a community like St Clements to take this kind of Gospel spirituality, the kind we hear told here in the song of Mary, to heart? What does it mean for us to strive to be "God bearers" as Mary has been called by the church tradition?
On Becoming "God Bearers"
To begin with, it seems to me that we must work at our fear. Like Mary, when approached with the vision of what God meant in her life, we are instantly fearful of the ramifications: this way of God seems very different to many of society's values or expectations of our time calling us to be grateful and forgiving, gracious and open handed. In this way God challenges aspects of my own identity, what I have thought about myself until confronted by this new vision. And if this new vision of God in my life is not yet complete, as it often isn't, I have no idea where it will lead; yet it is hopeful, even exciting.
Do you think Mary knew what was going to happen to her child as she celebrated with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist? Had she known the full story would she have consented? Michelangelo's "pieta," for example, tells us of her coming grief at the foot of the cross. Along the way she no doubt needed to recall the angel's words "Do not fear!" It is the same for us; again and again we have to hear these words of the angel, "Do not fear, do not fear!" and of the song of Mary, "God has looked with favour on the lowliness of God's servant."But what is the vision of "God bearing" that comes from Mary's example and God favouring of the lowly?
It is part of our long faith tradition that we believe we human beings are made in "the image and likeness of God" as we read in the book of Genesis. For this reason we value every human life, and recognise also our only source of grace.
In the early part of the twentieth century a German Jewish philosopher, Martin Buber, began to reflect about human relationships from this perspective of this "image of God" and how it shapes the way we see each other and so how we envision our relationships. Buber wrote about viewing other people as "thou", not as an "it" nor just "he" or "she" but "Thou." This old English word is strange to us, but it holds that sense of honour, respect, of mutuality and of being joined together as God's, and of self-giving.
So come to others not as objects in isolation from myself, as if only fleetingly and to gain what I need. Rather, when I see the other person as Thou, I see them "as if... everything else lives in [this persons] light." I therefore stand in mutual, respectful relation with this person when I see her or address her as Thou - "as soon as we touch a Thou we are touched by a breath of eternal life" (I and Thou, pp.59, 113). When we meet people as thou we sense God in our midst.
I recall something like this as an experience of my own. I attended a "Street Retreat" run by Sister Marne Kennedy out of the RC Church in Kings Cross in Sydney. We began each day with a meditation on "the Word made flesh" and on the words of the Magnificat, the song of Mary. We daily reminded ourselves of the presence of God to the lowly, and to the God who chooses "what is low and despised in this world" (1 Cor 1:26) and to bear life to the world.
For several days we simply walked around observing and increasingly chatting with those we saw: the shopkeepers, newsagents, street fruitiers, drug takers, prostitutes, police and other neighbours. Slowly we got over our fear and saw in them all their true potential: God bearers one and all. Most interesting of all, these "lowly ones" became God bearers for us! And we sang, each night songs reminiscent of the song of Mary:
My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour. For God has looked with favour on the lowliness of God's servant...
A Rule of Life for God-bearers
I have suggested each week that you might consider undertaking a small exercise each week, a "rule of life." We have reflected first of all on practicing giving thanks for the ordinary small (and yet really not small) gifts we daily receive from God. Then last week I suggested that each day we think back over the previous twenty-four hours and write down up to five things in your life you are grateful or thankful for.
This week I invite you to walk through each day beginning with the knowledge that you live with God's favour. Dwell upon this reality of your life for some moments, even minutes at a time. I then invite you to look to the people you meet during the passage of your day, or who come to mind through the day. These are also the "lowly ones" whom God looks upon in favour! See them as thou, not an it or a he or a she, but thou (bearing that sense of honour, respect, of mutuality and of being joined together as God's, and of self-giving).
Then join with Mary to "magnify the Lord", who has lifted up the lowly.
Don Saines
20 December 2009
