Progressive Bible Study, Better Late than Never Edition: Luke 1: 47- 55
Wed Dec 12, 2007 at 09:40:57 AM PDT
Promoted by PD. As Rose notes, I had asked her to sit in this week while I was away at training.
My excuse for tardiness is in this image, which may or may not load. 
If it doesn't, you can see it here.
Thank you, Pastor Dan, for giving me the chair this week. I’ve chosen the alternative text, Luke 1:47-55, to think about this week. However, when I clicked the link to Oremus, it included verses before and after, which I didn't immediately recognize as not part of the assignment. Tonight I'm going to stick to the actual text, but tomorrow--that is, in the near future--I'll expand to the other verses. That's the part I wrote first. I suffered for my art, and now it's your turn.
INVITATION AND INTRODUCTION
Take what you like and leave the rest. (Twelve Step meeting exhortation)
"...warn them before God that they are to avoid wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening." 2 Timothy 2.14
I’m going to accept the events described as recorded. Scholars debate about the historical accuracy of the various Biblical events. I’m not qualified to join that discussion, but I think we can glean spiritual instruction from the stories as they stand.
I ached as a child to read about women and girls in the Bible, to see myself somewhere. When I first read through the Bible at age 13, I was disappointed with that aspect. Jane Austen's critique of histories ("The quarrels of...kings, with wars or pestilences, in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all") seemed to apply to the Bible as well.
Even fewer than stories about a woman are stories of women together. Some of these few stories are unpleasant:
The tender stories of Mary and Elizabeth, as well as that of Ruth and Naomi shine in bright contrast.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor 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 forever."
And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
The bold text is the portion from the lectionary. Known as the "Magnificat," this love song to God has been set to music many times. Composers include J. S. Bach, Orlando Gibbons, Felix Mendelssohn, and John Rutter. The scene has been often illustrated as well. Links to music and art work are shown in the Supplementary Materials section.
Taken together, all the lectionary texts for this day construct a bipolar antiphon, flopping between the despair of the imprisoned John and the discouragement of James’ audience, and the raptures ofMatthew's Jesus, Isaiah, the Psalmist, and Mary. (James, I admit, is not rapturous, though he is strong and courageous.) I find much of that kind of contrast in my life, and I need to see it in my scriptures. Otherwise, they leave parts of me unaddressed.
Mary, who also will know both the depths and heights, begins her song with the personal and enlarges to the universal, spanning forwards and backwards in time on both topics. She is lowly, and has just become lower by becoming pregnant outside of marriage, but God has done great things for her. God is merciful to those in awe (a contemporary translation of "fear"). God lifts up and meets the needs of the society's forgotten while overthrowing the rich, the proud, and the worldly powerful. She strums the Bible's ostinato of God’s help and promise to Israel forever, .
Scholars puzzle over her use of the past tense, even when speaking possible prophecy. Perhaps she is describing a vision, where she is looking down on time and losing her sense of before, now, and after. Ecstatic visions can do that to you.
She echoes the scriptures: Moses and Miriam’s song (Exodus 15), Hannah’s song (Samuel 2), many Psalms (including this day's #146), Micah 3:12, even though her education would have focused mostly on keeping a proper Jewish home rather than scripture study. Her lyrical words earn her a place with the Bible’s poets.
While I’ve felt that the unsung hero Joseph influenced Jesus to call on God as a father, I hadn’t previously considered that his mother might have informed his social conscience. His notions that God personally cares for all of us, that worldly status does not translate to heavenly place, that God is eternally faithful are all present in his mother’s song.
In this season of hope and despair, peace and anxiety, let’s finish our Why I Hate Christmas entries and our pleas on the prayer list and then join in Mary’s joyous outburst--
Because God does shine through us.
Because we have felt God’s mercy, strength, and love.
Because we at times have been the hungry who have been filled as well as the proud who have been cast down.
Because we should always snatch chances to be joyful; we can be assurred of many chances for sorrow.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
See notes here.
For a musical accompaniment, listen to Bach's Magnificat. Don't forget the other movements in the related videos.
John Rutter has a more contemporary Magnificat.
I couldn't find an online recording of Mendelssohn's "My Soul Doth Magnify the Lord," but it's worth buying the CD.
And while you're listening, enjoy ten artists' renditions of Mary and Elizabeth's meeting.
Art in the Christian Tradition has more depictions of this occasion.
The Mary Page offers its own Advent Calendar, with two weeks of meditations on women from the Hebrew Bible and thereafter meditations on Mary and Jesus. The Street Prophets search feature never works for me, or I would link to the writer who posted writings on the women of the Bible.
Mary's Flowers
Flowers of Our Lady
I expect many cookies (or cheezburgers) for not using this version of the scripture. May God/Ceiling Cat have mercy on us all anyway. We need it.
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