Mary's Protest Song

Luke 1: 39-56

December 20, 2015

Mother and Child
Pablo Picasso, 1902

I think for the time,

this would have been pretty amazing story

some because of its content,

but mostly because its only characters are two women:

Mary and Elizabeth.

The angel Gabriel had gone to

Zachariah, Elizabeth’s husband, first

to tell him about Elizabeth’s pregnancy with

John the Baptist and Mary’s with Jesus

But Zachariah didn’t believe Gabriel

so Gabriel took his voice away and

decided to go directly to the women.

The men don’t talk too much

in Jesus birth story after that.

When Gabriel visits Mary,

he purposely tells her that Elizabeth

is pregnant with a special child from God

then the two women could share in

their experience.

Two pregnant women.

They both know that the babies

they will give birth to are extraordinary.

They both know that God is using

each of them for a wonderful purpose.

And so they travel to see each other

and share their joy and hope

probably their fears and concerns.

And when they get together,

Mary sings:

“My soul proclaims your greatness O God,

and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”

Actually the first couple of chapters of Luke

kind of seem like a musical.

Now some people have characterized Mary

as shy, reserved, passive, helpless even.

Maybe it’s the stereotypical view or hope of a mother.

And maybe the song that she sings

this very melodic song like an ingénue

at the beginning of a musical,

 lends to that  feeling.

But songs and music are not the

for the passive and helpless.

Songs can be brave and defiant too.

People of all times and places

have sung songs when things get desperate.

When there is tragedy, people sing.

Ad before great changes, people sing.

Slaves sang spiritual songs while they were working

they were songs of faith in God’s deliverance for them

They talked of hope during their unbearable situation.

In 1989 before the fall of the

Berlin wall, people gathered together

at St. Nicholas Church in Lepzig to pray and sing –

nothing more. And their numbers grew

from the tens to the hundreds to the thousands,

finally with 300 thousand people were singing

“We shall overcome” and things started changing.

Songs of protest against war, against aparthide,

against segregation, for freedom,

for peace, for hope, for a better future,

they stem from the people and

they exist in every country and civilization

from the earliest of times.

Oppressors know the strength of these songs,

and they often try to ban these songs

but they always seem to leak out and last.

These songs unite people, we share

our struggles and worries,

and also our hope for the future.

And that is what Mary’s song does.

Mary is a poor woman in a particularly unjust time.

And she is carrying a heavy responsibility:

she will bring God’s child into

a place where the people of her religion

live at the whim of an often brutal government.

But her song is of hope.

Not the hope that some brave man

will help the damsel in distress,

but hope in God, and with God leading,

she will see this task through:

“for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed”

And hope in God to right the wrongs that

plague her people and this world:

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.”

If the emperor knew about it,

this song would be banned in Rome.

Mary is not a demure, passive, ingénue

she is a strong willed prophet.

And she is gaining her strength in numbers

by visiting the other woman who would

understand and collaborate with her

who could rejoice with her and share in her song.

Like humans,  birds sing

and other animals share sounds

back and forth to bond and communicate,

but other animals, when they get scared,

they stop singing.

Humans continue to sing

when we’re scared,

we sing louder when there is danger,

we sing in defiance and in solidarity and in hope.

- When death breaks our heart

we sing “It is well with my soul”

- When there is war and violence

all around, we sing “Silent Night.”

-When all seems lost, we sing,

“Rejoice, rejoice, Oh come, Oh Come Emmanuel”

When everything seems hopeless,

we sing “Joy to the World.”

Not because we don’t notice what’s going on,

but we sing in faith that God has acted, God is acting,

and God will act again in our world.

As we get ready for the coming of our savior,

let us join Mary in her song of hope and community,

and of security in God’s ways and presence.

Even as we struggle in this time and place,

let our souls magnify the Lord

and spirits rejoice in God our savior.