Do you ever get sick and fed up of all those Christmas songs? I googled ’songs for Christmas’ and it gave me millions of possible places to go. All the old favourites were there – Christmas carols old and new; Christmas songs (Frosty the snowman, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth); and some more serious ones like Ave Maria and the Messiah. There was even a song titled ’Grandma got run over by a reindeer.’ It was American needless to say and was quite funny but I can’t repeat it in polite company. Some Christmas songs are downright silly, others are funny but some have the capacity to transform hearts and minds.
One song that comes from a transformed heart is the one that we heard earlier – the Magnificat, sung by Mary. The song is a tremendous outpouring of joy from her heart knowing that she had been chosen to play a part in God’s plan for the world.
Mary – the Person and the Situation
I think that, to see and appreciate the significance of the song we need to understand a little of Mary’s background which is not easy because we actually know little about her. And it’s hard for us today to fully appreciate what life would have been like for Mary and others like her 2000 years ago.
Mary, like those around her would have been brought up ;living in Roman occupied territory, she would have been told stories from the nation’s and her people’s past – how God had brought them out of slavery in Egypt; tales of the great prophets, the exploits of King David, the expectation that, someday God would send someone to bring the kingdom to fruition.
Mary would have been very familiar with poverty; with the insecurity of living in a land that had been fought over for generations. She would have endured her fair share of hardship, she would have seen the struggles of her people and would, I’m sure, have wondered about God’s promise to his chosen people.
Mary is betrothed, sort of engaged to a man called Joseph. The two families would have met to agree that there would be a wedding and a wedding contract would have been prepared and a bride-price named. Then there would have been a time of waiting, at least a year, before the marriage took place. Mary would have been in this time when we meet her.
Mary – the Call
So this young Jewish girl, aged somewhere between 13 and 16 was no doubt thinking about the future, dreaming of married life with Joseph, and getting on with all the activities of living. When, all of a sudden, to this unassuming, ordinary peasant girl, comes the angel Gabriel with a message that was to turn her life upside down. The angel tells Mary that God loves her and he has found favour with her. When she reacts with fear she’s told not to be afraid but simply to listen to what she’s being told. God is going to do something wonderful through her. She is going to have a son, he will be the promised king, the saviour, the Messiah.
The promise of God, made years ago, and repeated often, was going to be fulfilled through her. The promise of everlasting peace, hope, joy, love; the promise of a King who would rule with justice and truth; the promise of someone who would be on the side of the poor – all of this, all the hopes and the dreams of a nation’s history was now to rest on a young girl engaged to a carpenter in Israel. So she was under no pressure!
Mary’s response was predictable – how? How can I give birth to the Messiah? But Gabriel persisted – the power of God will be at work. Mary was totally free to say ’No.’ She was quite at liberty to turn down the offer. But, eventually, after careful thought Mary agreed and said ’I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.’ No compulsion, no coercion.
Mary obeyed. But that wasn’t the end of it. For Mary obedience meant tremendous difficulties – she was a single women who was to become pregnant; she would be subject to gossip by those who stood around on street corners; she would have suffered the indignity of people talking about her behind her back but just loud enough so that she knew what they were saying. She would suffer all the stigma. Mary faced great difficulties. But, despite those difficulties, deep down in her heart she praised God ’My soul glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.’
The Magnificat – the Promise fulfilled
Mary’s immediate response was one of joy. One of the reasons for her joy was that she realised, in a way that she never had before, that God was real; that his promises in the past, to Israel, to Abraham and his children, would come true. Mary’s soul magnified the Lord and God gave her joy, peace, hope, love that our gifts, carols, gatherings and celebrations can only hint at.
And the same is true for us because, when we come to the point of, like Mary, saying ’Yes’ to God, submitting ourselves to him, then we too can be released into great joy, freed to praise. God will grow in us and move us on and give us the joy, peace, hope and love we need for ourselves and which we need to be a light to the world.
Magnificat – humble people used by God
But there’s another reason for Mary’s joy. It’s not just that the promises of God are now being fulfilled but that it’s happening through her, through Mary. And who was this person God was using? A humble, poor, struggling woman. God didn’t choose the mighty and powerful. He didn’t pick those in authority, with great wealth and influence. God didn’t choose some high class woman who had all the designer gear but an ordinary girl called Mary.
When Mary was chosen by God her first reaction was – how? Why me? Little me, insignificant me, inadequate me, unimportant me. God can’t use me. God wouldn’t want to us me. God couldn’t use me. I’m just a poor girl, from a poor family (to misquote a phrase from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody).
I think that we’ve done a great disservice to Mary in some parts of the church. Some parts of the Christian church have embellished Mary, made her out to be something she never was intended to be. Some have made Mary god-like, something that I firmly believe wasn’t meant and certainly isn’t the intention of the Bible.
This vulnerable young woman was thrown out in the desire to make Mary sound as important as some of the mythical goddesses, some of whom were said to have had virgin births. Christians seem to have wanted to give Mary more god-like qualities and she became far removed from real life. She eventually became sinless, taken into heaven where she prays for us and through whom we offer our prayers.
That’s not Mary. Mary was a real, down to earth, humble young woman with no sense of any importance other than she was chosen by God. How else can we ever try to make sense of the incarnation, of God become flesh and blood, real life, human? Mary had to be real so that Jesus became real man, flesh and bone like us.
And if Mary is real and down to earth, and gritty, and vulnerable, and poor and struggling, then we can relate to her. It makes much more sense to me that Mary was ordinary and vulnerable like us. It makes sense to me that she grew old and had to be cared for. We don’t need, and it’s not helpful, to have an other-worldly image of Mary. Mary suffered like us. After all, she stood and watched as her own son was cruelly nailed to a cross and died there in front of her.
Christianity has always had a message in times of disaster, in difficult times, because we believe, that, in taking on human flesh, Jesus went through what we go through. When we read of disasters, earthquakes, floods, oppression, poverty, murder – it’s because of the earthly Mary and Jesus that our faith has something real to say.
I want to see Mary not as a goddess but as a human being, a woman, a young girl. I don’t for one minute believe that she was sinless. And that says something to us about our faith if God can use this poor young girl. He chose her and brought her great joy.
Read the list of the ancestors of Jesus that you find in the 1st chapter of Matthew’s gospel. We looked at it at the Friendship Guild at the beginning of Advent. There are some real rogues there in the family line of Jesus – prostitutes, bigamists, murderers, adulterers, cheats – you name it and they’re there.
I wonder what our response is when God calls us to a task for him? Do we answer like Mary – me, how, why? Little insignificant me, inadequate me, unimportant me? How can God work through me. But, if God can use Mary he can use us – weak, vulnerable, sinful at times people. People who say one thing and do the opposite; people who do and say wrong things, people who open our mouths before putting our brain in gear; who mess things up, get things wrong, who constantly have to keep coming back to him for forgiveness. God can and does us you and me, people like us. You’re not insignificant and unimportant. God loves you, cares for you and thinks you are just who he needs and wants to work for him.
Magnificat – Changing the World
And thirdly, Mary sang with a heart of joy because, if God was for her, in her situation, she realised that he was on the side of the poor, those who suffer across the world. She sang ’scatter those who are proud, brought down the rulers, lifted the humble, filled the hungry, sent the rich empty away.’
Mary realised that what was going on with her and in her and through her was none other than a God revolution. God was going to confront the powers of evil in society and bring about a tremendous transformation of the world order. And that made Mary’s heart glad. She had suffered but now there was hope for her and for all people in her situation.
What she saw in the coming of the Messiah, her son, was a revolution. God was going to challenge the ways of the world. And what she saw gladdened her heart.
She saw a moral revolution that was to take place in society through the life and example and power of Christ. There was to be a moral revolution where standards in society were to be challenged, sleaze countered, injustice in courts stopped. There was to be a social revolution where the humble would be raised, those who bowed down under terror of force or oppression, those who thought only of themselves and thought themselves nothing will be seen important in God’s eyes. And that’s what Jesus did by associating with those people. There was to be an end to prestige and labels, an end to the pull of the old school tie . And there was to be an economic revolution where no-one dared to have have too much while others had too little.
That was a promise of upturned values, promise of a real revolution. And that made Mary sing for joy from the very depths of heart. Mary saw this radical agenda for social change. And all of this was like dynamite. The magnificat is a lovely song. But behind it is real dynamite. And it’s all the more powerful because it’s sung by an ordinary young woman, Mary.
And how much we need that message in society today, how much we need that same truth to be proclaimed today. And when it’s sung the weak and the poor, the humble can and will sing for joy.
God is active in the world today, with it’s senseless violence and suffering, where whole nations are affected through poverty and oppression, a world where catastrophes always affect the weakest and poorest. God is active today with those who dare to believe, who dare to say ’yes’ to God. We can play our part in bringing the kingdom. We need to become visionaries, dreamers of a better life for all. It needs us to have courage, like Mary, the courage of our convictions.
Summary
What we know about Mary makes her instantly likeable. Here is a woman who symbolises so much of humanity. A young girl, travelling away from home, giving birth in a stable, pursued by an evil king, becoming a refugee.
You can feel for the real Mary because people experience those same things today. Mary accepts God’s will and God’s plan despite what it means and the difficulties it will cause her and she is filled with deep joy when she realises What it all means. Maybe she can encourage us in our faith, not by being raised on a pedestal but being the real, down to earth, human Mary.
