Monday, December 22

Scripture: He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:53).

Observation: Mary is singing the Magnificat, her song of praise to God. The angel Gabriel has interrupted her quiet small-town life and announced that she, a peasant nobody, will give birth to God’s Son, the Messiah, King of Israel and Lord of all creation. Mary consents to carrying God to term, but she’s not thrilled about it. Gabriel has put her in a proverbial pickle. There’s not a soul in Nazareth who will believe her when she says, “Surprise! I’m pregnant and there’s no father.” Let’s not kid ourselves: would anyone reading this devotional believe her? Mary knows she can stay in Nazareth and plead her case, that she has not been unfaithful to Joseph or done anything scandalous, or she can face the music: innocence is irrelevant if no one believes you. 

So, Mary runs for it. She’s a teenaged pregnant runaway. Mary flees to the one person on earth who might believe her: her cousin, Elizabeth, who is also pregnant under strange circumstances. 

Elizabeth believes Mary. Period. Elizabeth confirms what Gabriel told Mary in the first place, that the baby in Mary’s womb is Lord. Now Mary can rejoice. Now Mary can see her pregnancy as good news rather than tragedy. Mary doesn’t rejoice when Gabriel shows up. Mary rejoices when someone’s kindness reverses her story. Mary thought her story would end with shame, rejection, going into labor alone, and an extra mouth to feed without a husband or family to help her. But Elizabeth’s kindness reveals that sadness doesn’t have to be the final edition of our stories, only the first draft. Kindness can make for a happier ending.

Mary’s Magnificat is her song of celebration, and what a surprising song it is. She sings of God’s Great Reversal. As God is reversing Mary’s story, so is God reversing the story of the poor, the needy, and the endangered. God is lifting up the lowly and filling the lowly with good things, while simultaneously “scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts,” pulling down the powerful from their thrones, and sending the rich away empty (Luke 1:51-53). Mary’s song doesn’t sound like a Christmas carol. There’s no sweet music from a choir of angels, no bliss of a baby’s face, no twinkle of a star. Mary’s song is the anthem of a revolutionary. This revolution isn’t fought with weapons, nor is it fought at all; it is to be accepted. In the birth of Christ the King, God is flipping the tables on humanity. The hungry will be filled, the poor comforted, the lowly made leaders, while the rich and the powerful will be emptied and humbled, not as punishment or in retribution, but so that their resources and influence would be put to God’s purposes: for peace on earth and goodwill to all.

Application: The Great Reversal has already happened. It’s up to me to accept it and live into it. Where I am proud, I need to practice self less and others more. Where I am rich, I need to empty myself so that others may be filled up. Where I am strong, I need to deploy my strength in kindness toward God and people, and go to sleep weaker for it. Where I am powerful, I need to unleash my power for the benefit of the lowly and become a friend of the lowly. I need to be the kind of friend Mary would run to if she were running from home today.

Prayer:

Everlasting and Ever-loving God, you became

Poor, needy, endangered,

Showing the poor are on your mind and

The needy know something about you that I don’t and

Endangered humans are where you are hiding in plain sight.

You know better than me my good intentions for the

Poor, needy, endangered.

I pray for them. In my heart I yearn for a better world for them.

For the poor I pray they would be filled with good things.

For the needy I pray their suffering and sorrow would cease.

For the endangered I pray for your protection and peace.

But the song you are singing in the cries of the 

Poor, needy, endangered

Deserves more than my good intentions and 

Demands that I would dance alongside you

Where you are: cloaked in the skin of the

Poor, needy, endangered.

Where I am rich, empty me with concrete love for actual humans.

Where I am powerful, lower me so I might be a true friend with the broken-hearted.

Where I am strong, weaken me with the tried-and-true exercise program of

Mercy.

Bless me with a life pointed in the direction of your answers

To my prayers for the

Poor, needy, endangered. 

Make me the kind of friend you would look to

When the love well of others runs dry.