|
From the Pastor
Sunday we’ll be looking at Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 and Luke 1:46-55—better known as Mary’s Magnificat, or song of praise.
Both Scripture passages speak about the deep joy of the Lord coming into our lives. That may not be the way we think about joy. Too often I’m afraid we see joy as something we have to create or even purchase our way to in this holiday season.
But Mary’s joy comes as she is sent away from home as a 14-year-old who is pregnant and unwed (according to Jewish law she could be stoned for committing adultery). She goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant. When they meet, Elizabeth’s child leaps in her womb. When Elizabeth describes Mary as the “mother of my Lord,” Mary breaks out in a song that has been described as revolutionary.
Mary was a socially and politically marginalized Jewish girl in a region occupied by the Roman Empire—and women at that time were not considered full citizens. Throughout the centuries, her words have been a threat to those in power.
Did you know that before the end of the British rule in India, Mary’s Magnificat was prohibited from being sung in churches? Or that before he was executed by the Nazis, German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called the Magnificat “the most passionate, the wildest—one might even say the most revolutionary—Advent hymn ever sung”?
This Sunday we’ll find out where else the Magnificat was banned by political leaders in power—and how these words were the basis for Jesus’ first sermon in Luke as Jesus, like his mother, sided with the poor and oppressed.
See you in church!
Paul
| 
