Voice Box: mary's song

Over the next six weeks I'm leading a prayer gathering on Wednesday mornings that is looking at the six songs of justice, compassion, and mercy for the poor in the first two chapters of Luke. This is the Christmas Mission. I love Christmas and Advent. It's my favorite time of year. It's not too early to start celebrating. So each Wednesday morning for the next six weeks, you can meet me hear to prayerfully walk this journey with the small group of us that are meeting each week in Colorado Springs....

Let’s listen to Mary’s song from Luke 1.

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,  for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;  for the Mighty One has done great things for me,  and holy is his name.  His mercy is for those who fear him  from generation to generation.  He has shown strength with his arm;  he 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.  He has helped his servant Israel,  in remembrance of his mercy,  according to the promise he made to our ancestors,  to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

A community responds.

One of the distinctives of Children’s HopeChest is that our faith communities here are linked with orphan communities overseas. This is not to limit or criticize the value of individuals connecting with individuals, but something remarkable and mysterious happens when communities journey together. This emerges also in the story of Mary and her coming child. When her pregnancy is announced, she responds simply and quietly. She was basically perplexed and said, ‘Whatever you say, Gabriel. I believe.’ But when this message was processed in community, with her family, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and in light of her heritage, the response is one of the greatest praise hymns in Judeo-Christianity. Interpreting and applying the good news in community brought about praise.

How has your community been transformed by caring for the poor and orphaned children? Are there communities you are connected with – families, neighborhoods, workplaces, churches, schools – that need to engage in ministry to the poor?

Bigger and bigger.

When I speak to churches, and in small groups, and even informally, one of the things I almost always mention is that in mission (and in relationships) we need bigger eyes. We need to really come face to face with the despairing and helpless needs in our world. Otherwise we are risk of being like the proud and powerful who are leveled in Mary’s song. And we also need bigger eyes to see that God’s Spirit is alive and active, hovering and covering, speaking life and light. In the Latin, Mary’s song starts with the word magnificat meaning I magnify. This simply means I give God a bigger place. Eugene Peterson, pastor, professor, and writer of the Message says, ‘Mary’s prayer takes us into a large, extensive world of God’s promised word in the process of fulfillment… prayer enlarges our imagination.’ Imagination is a building block of faith. And the faithful pray. To imagine the world as God intended it – ‘your kingdom come’ – will enable us to pray with bigger eyes and bigger hearts for the things most important to God.

In what way is God small in your life? How can God get bigger to you? Do you pray with imagination? What do you imagine for your ministry to the poor and orphaned?

Mercy and might.

My dad’s favorite word was balance. So much so that people in his Sunday school class would buy and make him gifts with this word on it. Now as an adult, I’m understanding the wisdom in this. There is balance in Mary’s song. It isn’t only about her, but it’s also about God’s people throughout history. It isn’t only about comfort and mercy, but it’s also about power and might. In ministry to the poor, mercy and might must meet. It’s important to receive and give compassion. Jesus gives us rest after all. But it’s also important to realize that the powers we are up against are brutal and cosmic. And so God, in power, steps in. Just as parents need to give discipline and direction, as well as forgiveness and grace, we need to be ready in our ministry to the poor to stand strong and fight, as well as to be tender and merciful.

Is their balance in your ministry, in your prayer? To whom do you show mercy? Against what do you need to stand up and fight?

Promise and action.

The cardinal sin in orphan ministry is to break a promise. Children who have been rejected, abandoned, and orphaned have difficulty in trust, as well they should. People have not come through for them. And in order to bring the God of hope to them, in order to be the hands and feet of Jesus, we must reflect God’s faithfulness. In Mary’s song, action explodes from the promises of God. The political, social, and spiritual dimensions of the song find their source in the promises of God from ages ago. The same must be true in our ministry to the poor. When we make a commitment, when we make a promise, it is so important to take action, to follow through. God comes through according to ‘the promise.’ It’s not our word that we must depend, but we are called to take action, in obedience to God’s word of promise. We become agents of God’s action. We become the messengers of God’s promise. And promise and action must live together. Just as faith and works must live together and mercy and might must live together.

What promises of God are you waiting to action in your life? What promises have you made that are ready for the next step?

Revolution and reversal.

What has been called the ‘Great Reversal’ finds lyric in Mary’s song. This is the message of the gospel and of the community of faith. First, God establishes his strength and disestablishes the proud. Second, God puts down the people at the top and lifts up the people at the bottom. And third, God fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty. It is so tempting to live by the standards of the world. But in Mary’s song we learn that God’s economy and God’s community are set to different standards. This is the glory and mystery of the life of Christ. That ordinary and simple things can carry the awesome life of God. We see this in the poor child born to the pregnant teenager. And we see this in the eyes of the poor and the orphaned child. Mother Theresa calls the poor Jesus in disguise for this reason. It’s a revolution, a revolution of hope. A brilliant theologian, Schurmann, notes that ‘the coming of the kingdom of God should bring about a political and social revolution, bringing the ordinary life of mankind into line with the will of God.’ And David Parker, a physical therapist from North Carolina who was just with me for 2 weeks in Russia, echoes this when he said on Friday night in a hotel in Moscow, ‘it ain’t right, it just ain’t right.’ He’s right. This is why we need a revolution of hope, with the weapons of mercy and might. It is not right that the orphaned child should live and die alone. God is drawing them into God’s family of promise and good things.

Have you joined God's revolution of hope?