Sermon for December 22, Fourth Sunday of Advent

Sermon for December 22, 2024 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Luke 1 Mary’s Magnificat

If I asked you to name some of the most famous revolutionary figures of all time, who might you name as famous revolutionaries??? We might start with our own revolution in 1775 and General George Washington. Here’s a couple good quotes from our revolutionary leader, George Washington, “Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.” And my favorite George Washington quote in light of today’s politics, “Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” Ha, good stuff! Or perhaps you can see in your head the portrait of famed revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban revolution. He’s got some good quotes too, “If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.” Or this beauty, “At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.” There is of course Maximilien Robespierre who lead the French revolution in 1789, “Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.” Having fun yet? The list could go on and on, Gandhi, MLK, Nelson Mandela…but would you have ever come up for your list of most famous revolutionary leaders…Mary, mother of our Lord?

After the responsive reading we did this morning of Mary’s Magnificat, I would have to put Mary’s quotes right up there with these other great revolutionaries, “You have cast the mighty down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” Or again, “You have filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.” We may lose the revolutionary tone of Mary’s words when we set it to music and sing all pretty, “My soul proclaims your goodness O Lord and my spirit rejoices in you.” I love the Holden Evening Prayer, but there is an artist named Ben Wildflower who really nails Mary’s revolutionary spirit. Arnie and Rita, you’ll like this he is a woodcut artist. He also does cut pieces of art in linoleum which I’d never heard of before (they’re called linocuts). His portrait of Mary the revolutionary is featured on the back of today’s bulletin: fist in the air, fierce expression on her face that rivals Ernesto Che Guevara, I love that her foot is triumphant over the devil and death, and of course the words from her Magnificat encircle her, “Cast down the mighty, send the rich away, fill the hungry, lift the lowly.” A little different than the Mary on our bulletin cover, all serene and peaceful. Do you have a favorite? Either way, you cannot escape that the words of Mary in her Magnificat upend and unmask the ways of this world, a new and different way of God’s kingdom is proclaimed and even experienced. And into the argument of the “reason for the season” one author writes that this shocking scope of what God has done in the birth of Christ, that in this pregnancy oppressors will no longer eat at the expense of the oppressed and the powerful will no longer show the lowly contempt, this, this revolutionary spirit is the real Christmas magic this time of year.

Martin Luther wrote a whole commentary on this text, Mary’s Magnificat. But he did so in a letter to Prince John Fredrick, seventeen year old Duke of Saxony and nephew of the famed Frederick the Wise (if you follow Luther history!). It may seem odd to write about mother Mary and the significance of this birth in a letter to a 17 year old prince, but Luther is using Mary’s revolutionary words as both a warning and a guide for the young prince, quote:

For while the earth remaineth, authority, rule, power and seats must needs remain. But God will not long suffer men to abuse them and turn them against him, inflict injustice and violence on the godly, and take pleasure therein, boast of them and fail to use them in the fear of God, to His praise and in defense of righteousness.

There is indeed something revolutionary about Mary’s song, this promise that the oppressor will be upended, that the birth of this child means the hungry poor will be fed while the rich are sent away. Before Jesus is even born we get a glimpse of what is coming in the Kingdom of God through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Amen?

But interestingly, Luther calls this work, of God putting down the mighty, “God’s third work.” It’s not even God’s second work, Luther argues, which is breaking spiritual pride. What, you might ask, is God’s first work? What is God’s work of primacy? This is important, because, like Ernesto Che Guevara argues, a revolutionary devoid of love is just another violent tyrant. God’s first work, therefore, is God’s work of mercy. God does not overturn injustice and overthrow the tyrant because God is our violent redeemer, but God institutes a new kingdom where the lowly are lifted because God loves the lowly and the hungry are fed because God loves the hungry. God’s first work is always mercy. Regarding God’s first work of mercy Luther states:

This, then, is the first work of God — that He is merciful to all who are ready to do without their own opinion, right, wisdom, and all spiritual goods, and willing to be poor in spirit. These are they who truly fear God, who count themselves not worthy of anything, be it never so small, and are glad to be naked and bare before God and man; who ascribe whatever they have to His pure grace, bestowed on the unworthy; who use it with praise and fear and thanksgiving, as though it belonged to another, and who seek not their own will, desire or honor, but His alone to Whom it belongs.

We see this first work of God’s mercy right away in the text; Mary has just arrived to visit her Aunt Elizabeth in her own miraculous pregnancy with John (remember when baby John leapt in the womb at Mary’s arrival?). Elizabeth exclaims, “Blessed are you among women!” And Mary bursts into song, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…for you Lord have looked with favor on your lowly servant…you have done great things for me…you have mercy on those who fear you.” Do you hear God’s first work all over the words of Mary’s song? God looks with favor on your lowliness. God has done great things for you. God has shown you mercy. Luther, rightly, calls this work of mercy God’s first work.

So yes, while our faith has a revolutionary spirit, even a call to throw down tyrants, upend the system so that the poor are fed and the rich are turned away, this spirit is never in hatred or violence, the spirit of our faith is always love and mercy. This is God’s first work; it is therefore our first work. Amen.