Listen to the Women

 Luke 1:39-56 Advent 4 December 22, 2024

 

Most of what we think about the

Christmas story

comes from the Gospel of Luke.

Some comes from Matthew, but Mark & John have nothing about

Jesus birth. Luke has the angels, the shepherds, the innkeeper, the manger

and most of the rest of the imagery we associate with Christmas.

 

One thing that stands out about the beginning of Luke’s story about the 

birth of Jesus is that the men are basically silent in it.

The story starts out with the Angel Gabriel announcing

John the Baptist’s birth to Zachariah, John’s soon-to-be father.

Zachariah asks the angel how this is going to happen

since he and his wife are very old.

The angel is annoyed by his doubt and Zachariah 

is silenced for several chapters, until John’s birth happens.

 

And Joseph has nothing to say in the entire gospel.

The story of Jesus birth really belongs to the women.

 

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy,

Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her she’s going to

have a child. She asks how this is going to happen

(basically the same question that Zachariah asked,

but the angel wasn’t annoyed by her question for some reason)

The angel explains it, and Mary says,

“here I am, I’m ready to do this thing”

 

Then Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth,

who was pregnant with  the baby who would be John the Baptist

and the baby jumps in her womb when Mary walks in the house.

Elizabeth gets the whole picture of what’s happened with them,

that both of their children have been specially created and

called by God. And then Mary sings this Song that we heard today.

What is called the Magnificat.

 

Now some people have characterized Mary

as shy, reserved, passive, helpless even.

Maybe it’s the stereotypical view of a woman,

or some people’s hope of what women should be.

 

But there is nothing shy or reserved about Mary’s song.

What these women talk and sing about is about how God

will completely overturn, the unjust society they live in.

 

She sings:

“God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

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.”

 

The Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez argued

 that any reading is fruitless that

"attempts to tone down what Mary's song tells us

about the preferential love of God for the lowly and the abused,

and about the transformation of history

that God's loving will implies."

 

The women are talking about the complete undoing

of the world which favors the rich and tramples the poor.

A world where, not only are the poor lifted out of their poverty,

but where the rich and powerful are relieved

of their wealth and power.

Kind of subversive of those women, wasn’t it?

And it’s been there in the bible the whole time.

  

Mary lived in a world where the rich had palaces

and servants and whatever their hearts dreamed of,

and where regular people – who did all of the useful work –

struggled to get food, and healthcare, and housing and

the basic necessities of life. Much like today’s world.

 

The wealthy and powerful in this world are constantly

tearing things down and remaking  structures

to be more profitable for themselves

and for other already wealthy people.

 

Mary’s song is saying that it’s God’s will to do the opposite:

to tear down the structures that

make just a few people wealthy and make it so that

the hungry are fed and the poor have good things.

And that the baby that she was carrying would

somehow start the process to make that happen.

It seems like, maybe, we still have to figure out how.

 

We’ve made Mary into the poster child for meek and mild,

for passive acquiescence. But she was really a revolutionary.

 

During the 1980’s, the corrupt government of Guatemala

banned the public recitation of Mary’s song.

People outside the faith can hear it.

They knew what it meant and how powerful it was.

 

What Mary’s song is saying is that God does not want

the rich to be rich while the poor stay poor.

God does not want grocery stores to make 

record profits while people scrounge around and struggle to afford food.

God does not want billionaire business owners

whose workers cannot afford basic necessities of life.

God does not want healthcare CEO’s to get million-dollar

salaries while people die from being denied cancer

treatments, or from rationing their insulin.

God does not want bankers who get rich from overdraft fees.

God does not want politicians who become millionaires

while cutting food stamps, military benefits, Medicaid,

and social security, and keeping the minimum wage at 7.25 an hour.

God does not want the mighty staying up on their thrones,

while the poor stay down in the dumps.

And God does not want women to stay silent.

 

We try to make this story about Jesus birth

so domesticated and sanitized.

Meek and submissive women, little happy babies,

sweet mangers and farm animals.

 

We try to cram the square peg of

Mary and Elizabeth, and God’s will, and the meaning

of Jesus birth into this round hole that we developed.

So that it doesn’t challenge anything in the world as it is.

So that it keeps up the status quo of our society.

 

But the truth is, this story does not fit into our

world comfortably at all.

Just like Jesus did not fit into this world comfortably at all.

It’s two women hoping for the time when

God would overthrow the structures

that make the rich richer and the poor poorer.

 

Is this bad news or good news?

I guess it depends on who you are

and where you stand on things.

 

But this is always the good news of Jesus birth:

God cares about us.

 

God cares about this world and the people in it.

Each and every one of us.

No matter what our status in life.

God cares about our politics and our relationships,

and our governments and how we treat each other.

God so loves this world.

 

Not in some airy fairy, kumbaya, greeting card way.

But God really, really cares about things here.

Enough to get buried deep in and get messy and dirty.

 

God loves us enough to be born into this

very complicated, hypocritical, messed up world.

God cares enough to live with us, and die for us.

And who wants to change this world

so it works for everyone.

So, listen to the women

as their soul proclaims the greatness of God.