Saturday, December 22, 2007

God has helped the servant Israel
in remembrance of God’s mercy.
Luke 1: 54

I love reading the Magnificat when I’m feeling the effects of powerful people abusing their power.

God has scattered the proud
in the thoughts of their hearts.
God has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly.
God has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.

Oh yeah, that feels goooood.  I like thinking that God will knock down those who have knocked me down.  I like thinking that God will swoop in to tip the balance, scooping privilege out of a satisfied hand and dumping it into a needy one.  This brings me divine satisfaction in my lowest moments when I think God has forgotten me.

But in my highest moments, Mary’s song terrifies me.  While there are surely ways in which I am rendered a second-class citizen both in church and society, I also know that I have a fair measure of power, I’m almost never hungry and I am rich by most of the world’s standards.

What a contradiction young Mary creates in me.  If life were fair and just, I would have a lot to gain. If life were fair and just, I would have a lot to lose.

When I’m feeling like a failure at the bottom of the humanity heap, when I’m feeling small, left behind, put down and of no-account, then this song’s for me.  Mary’s tune reminds me that God is working in profound ways to upend the status quo and to make sure that justice comes and oppression ends.

When I’m feeling on top of the world, when I’m feeling larger-than-life, proud, powerful and deserving, then this song’s for me, too.  Mary’s tune reminds me that God’s wants everyone to have enough and I just might need to give something up in order for that to happen.