Lectionary Reflection — Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year C)
39Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. 40She entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. 43Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.”
[46Mary said, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! 47In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior. 48He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored 49because the mighty one has done great things for me. Holy is God’s name. 50God shows mercy to everyone, from one generation to the next, who honors him as God. 51He’s shown strength with his arm. He’s scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. 52He’s pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. 53He’s filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed. 54He’s come to the aid of his servant Israel, remembering his mercy, 55just as he promised to our ancestors, to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.”]
Collect
Purify our conscience, All-Loving God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus the Christ, at his coming, may find in us a place prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
On this Fourth Sunday of Advent, we’ve come to one of my favorite passages in the Bible — the Magnificat, the Ode of the Theotokos.2 It’s a subversive passage, too, when read in churches that don’t allow women to teach or preach or be leaders of men.3 In our Lesson today we have a woman — the woman! — teaching all of us about God’s faithfulness. But not only Mary; Elizabeth has something to teach us, too. In today’s Lesson we have the privilege of being taught by two women. What do the women of God have to say to us today?
The Gospel today tells us that Elizabeth was “filled with the Holy Spirit” at just the sound of Mary’s voice. What might that mean for us? In the Lindisfarne Community, our community prayer is, “To be as Christ to those we meet; to find Christ within them.” I take this to mean that we should look and listen for Christ in all people. Elizabeth teaches us to be open and sensitive to the movements of God, not only within ourselves, but within the lives of others. I find myself in a constant state of movement. It seems that the smallest gesture of kindness can move me to tears. I can see a story about a firefighter rescuing and resuscitating a dog from a fire4 or watching It’s A Wonderful Life5 or witness a young woman’s moving adaptation to a beloved song6 — all of these, and so many more, touch me deeply. Have you ever been moved by God’s Spirit because of something someone else has said or done? Has your own soul ever leapt inside you when you hear someone else’s story?
Also, there’s the key verse that I didn’t grasp a long time ago and I’m sure others have missed it, too. In verse 43, Elizabeth called Mary, “the mother of my Lord.” This is a very telling confession. We know from earlier in the chapter that Elizabeth was “righteous before God” and “blameless in [her] observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations” (Luke 1.6). This let’s us know that Elizabeth only worshipped Yahweh as her God and Lord (Exodus 20.1-6). But here, she recognizes that the child Mary carries is more than just a human child; somehow, it’s the embodiment of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in human form.
In the Orthodox Study Bible, they note —
“Mary is confessed as ‘the mother of my Lord.’ This confession, and others like it within the Church (“Theotokos,” “Mother of God,” etc.), confirm that the One in the womb of Mary is both human and divine — the very Son of God … . At Vespers of Annunciation we declare, ‘It is the Word of God who dwells within her.’ Note that even though His physical body was not yet fully formed, Jesus is nevertheless fully and truly the Son of God incarnate, and Mary is already recognized as being His mother.”
For a lot of us, the idea that Mary is the “Mother of God” can be quite off-putting. But it’s been the “official” stance of the Church since the 5th century.7 Elizabeth doesn’t seem to bothered by the thought. Perhaps we should reevaluate Mary’s role, not only during the Advent and Christmas seasons, but in our daily lives, too. What would it mean for you to see and understand Mary as the “Mother of God”? How would that confession change your perspective of Mary? How would that affect your faith?
In our next passage, we have the Magnificat proper. After Elizabeth’s greeting, it seems Mary spontaneously erupts into praise and adoration. She starts off by simply proclaiming, “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.” It seems Mary, moved by her cousin’s proclamation, can’t contain her own declaration. How about us? Has anything so moved us that we can’t contain our adoration for God?
Next, Mary realizes that God has truly called on her, a servant with “low status” (verse 48) to fulfill God’s purposes and that everyone everywhere will tell her story and call her blessed (verse 49; cf. 11.27). Do we find this to be true? How often in our places of worship do we recognize Mary and call her “blessed”? What would that mean to us if we started including Mary in our times of worship?8
The main part of Mary’s declaration (vv. 50-53) is about a shift in power. God “has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations … pulled the powerful down from their thrones and lifted up the lowly.” God “has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty-handed.” God has accomplished all of this through the “strength of [God’s] arm.” This is a Jewish idiom that refers to someone’s power. It’s used several times in the Jewish scriptures — e.g., creation (Jeremiah 27.4-5) and the Exodus (Exodus 6.6; Psalm 136.11-12). Mary uses it here to indicate that it’s God and God alone who brings one person down and exalts another.9 Like so often in the Bible, it’s the promise of the world “put right.” What can we learn here from Mary?
What I see is Mary’s recognition that when people with “low status” are given their proper status — lifted to a place of dignity and respect, afforded the same rights and privileges as others, justice for mistreatment — that’s where God is putting things right. When we see the greedy being stripped of their power and the needy being lifted up to fill those places of power, we need to recognize that it’s God’s Realm breaking into our world. Even the birth of a child should be seen as God’s Realm being implemented in our realm. With each child born, there is another person with the potential to change the world for the better. Each little victory won — no matter how small — is another step towards God’s Realm and our realm becoming One (Revelation 21.1-4).
So, on this last Sunday of Advent, let’s reflect on the small things, the lowly things, even the birth of a child, that bring peace and good will to all people.
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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1. Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
2. Theotokos is the title ascribed to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, at the Third Ecumenical Council held in Ephesus in 431 CE.
4. It was an Instagram story from photographer Billy Fernando. In the series of pictures, he documented a firefighter from Santa Monica reviving a dog he pulled from a burning apartment. After roughly 20 minutes of mouth-to-muzzle resuscitation, the dog revived. “Failure was not an option,” the firefighter said.
5. This is probably my favorite Christmas movie of all time.
6. A few weeks ago, I watched and listened to Kennedy Holmes sing “Greatest Love of All” on America’s Got Talent. This young lady is only 13 years old and she brought tears to my eyes — even when I viewed it a second time while showing it to my daughter.
7. See note 2 above.
8. These questions shouldn’t be understood as worshipping Mary but recognizing the special place she had in redemptive history.
9. While we might not agree with Mary’s assessment, that’s the way she and a lot of her contemporaries understand it. See 1 Samuel 2.7-10; Psalm 75.7; etc and cross references.
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