Magnify!

"My soul doth magnify the Lord

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior

For he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden

For behold from henceforth

All generations shall call me blessed

For he that is mighty hath magnified me

And holy is his Name

And his mercy is on them that fear him

Throughout all generations

He hath showed strength with his arm

He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts

He hath put down the mighty from their seats

And hath exalted the humble and meek

He hath filled the hungry with good things

And the rich he hath sent empty away

He remembering his mercy hath holpen his servant Israel

As he promised to our forefathers, Abraham and his seed forever."

--The Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55; BCP Rite I translation)

There has been an awakening.  Have you felt  it?  OK, that line was from Star Wars, but can you feel it?  Can you feel Jesus stirring, ready to be born into this fragile world?  We have reached the pinnacle of our Advent journey, as we move from John the Baptist out in the desert and head to the hill country of Ein Karen, where a young girl named Mary is paying a visit to her cousin Elizabeth. 

Here in this visitation we hear Mary sing the great hymn of the Church, the Magnificat, which, for my money, sums up the entirety of the gospels in just 10 elegant verses.  So majestic is this hymn that we not only proclaim it together this morning, but we hear it a second time, with a different translation, from Mary herself.  In these few verses is, what one of my seminary professors called, the most revolutionary document in the world. 

Statues depicting Mary & Elizabeth, just outside the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karen.

Why is it so revolutionary?  Because it proclaims with magnificence God's own revolutions, the manners in which God has turned the world upside down through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

There is the moral revolution.  He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  In Christianity is the death of our own pride.  As St. Paul said, it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me.  All that we are is Christ's.  Washed in the waters of baptism, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked as Christ's own forever.  All of our faults, our sins, our shortcomings, crucified with Jesus; we are dead to sin and from that death is resurrection, the promise of something new and better.  When we let those sins be nailed to that cross and let a new self be raised, it is the deathblow to our pride and arrogance and personal shame and the beginning of a moral revolution. 

There is an economic revolution.  He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.  There are no haves and have nots in a truly Christian society.  Look at the early Church:  no one dared to have too much while others had so little.  They got only so that they could give away.  We Christians are crazy enough to believe that there can be a world where such a revolution is possible, where one is not measured by an economic status, where someone who is poor is actually given real hope,   To be a Christian is to put Christ first, and to put Christ first is to put our fellow human beings and their needs ahead of our own.  And in that is the economic revolution.

And then there is the social revolution.  He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek.  Christianity puts an end to the world's labels and prestige.  I'm gonna go back to Star Wars because, why not.  In the original Star Wars Luke Skywalker was nothing more than a poor moisture farmer on the desert planet of Tatooine.  In the newest installment Rey is a scavenger on the barren world of Jakku, and Finn is a stormtrooper of the First Order.  None of them have any right being heroes.  But through the power of the Force, all three rise to become more than they were before.  The labels they gave themselves and that others gave them no longer matter.  And the same is true for any of us who dare to claim the Lord Jesus as our Savior.  Labels mean nothing! The world had no business being saved by a poor carpenter turned rabbi who ended up dead on a cross like a criminal.  But God ignited a social revolution in Jesus and flipped the world on its head.  Now the labels that we give ourselves are meaningless.  Again St. Paul nails it:  there is no longer rich or poor, slave or free, male or female.  Today we could add to those:  there is no longer Episcopalian or Baptist, republican or democrat, gay or straight, black or white.  For we are all one in Christ Jesus.  Our labels disappear.  What the world once found to be worthless is now exalted.  Being disciples of Jesus begets such a revolution in each of us and in the world. 

Every night when I was in seminary we sang Evensong, the office of Evening Prayer set to music.  And each and every evening we sang the Magnificat.  We sang it until we didn't need the words in front of us anymore, sang it until those of us who weren't even musically inclined could effortlessly hit every note, every cadence.  It got in our bones.  And that's what it's there for.  Mary's Song is your song!  It's my song!  It's the song of the Christian hope;  hope that the way we experience this world now is not all that there is. Hope that we are more than our social status, more than the worst thing we have ever done, more than the best or worst job we have ever held, more than our material possessions, or lack thereof.  Hope that that God does ,God is, and God will, transform this world, set it on fire with justice, wipe away every tear, break down every human-made barrier, and turn us all around.  In this poor nobody of a girl, who said yes to God, is the beginning of a new world. 

Can you feel it?  Can you feel Christ stirring in you as he stirred in his mother?  Can you hear  God whispering to you, as God whispered to Mary?  Will you say yes?  Yes to a world transformed, to a world that has known the moral, economic, and social revolutions of God?  Will you say yes to whatever it is God is doing in your life right this minute?  Will you magnify God and prepare the way of the Lord?