A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

magnificent magnificat

Luke 1:39-56, Preached  at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, December 20, 2009

Words are fun to play with. How do crazy people go through the forest? They take the psycho path. What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long? Polaroids. What do you call cheese that isn't yours? Nacho Cheese. What do you call four bullfighters in quicksand? Quatro sinko. What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic? Sanka. Where do you find a dog with no legs? Right where you left him. Why do gorillas have big nostrils? Because they have big fingers. What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back? A stick. Why does a pilgrim's pants always fall down? Because they wear their belt buckle on their hat. What's the difference between a bad golfer and a bad skydiver? A bad golfer goes, WHACK! "Darn." A bad skydiver goes, "Darn." WHACK!

Words also have great power. Magnificat anima mea Dominum: "My soul magnifies the Lord." The magnificent Magnificat refers to the song Mary sings in Luke 1. There are several reasons why it is magnificent. First, because of its history in the Christian Church, as music and prayer. Perhaps the best known Magnificat settings are those from Claudio Monteverdi's Vespers for the Blessed Virgin, 1610 or the extended setting by Johann Sebastian Bach, BWV 243. In the same vein, many other "classical" composers such as Vivaldi and Rachmaninoff and more recently John Rutter have set extended versions for orchestra, chorus, and solos. And as prayer, Mary’s Magnificat has been integrated into the Church’s liturgy from at least the time of St. Benedict and St. Caesarius (5th-6th Centuries CE). This Canticle, or song, has been utilized in the weekly Morning Office by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Western Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches use it as a daily Hymn for Vespers of Evening Prayer.

Let's take a moment and consider Mary's plight, as we know it from Luke. She is a teenager. She is a devout Jewish girl who doesn't "play with the boys." She is visited by a stranger and is told by this bright, frightful stranger that she will have a baby, God's baby! How would you respond? At one time in our societal history "wayward" girls often went out of town to visit an "aunt." This was a euphemism that she was pregnant and left to get away from society's eyes and gossiping tongues. When the child was born and placed for adoption, the young lady returned home with dignity, if not conscience, intact.

So where could Mary go? Her marriage to Joseph hadn't been formally tied in a marriage ceremony. Very likely Joseph was still working on their home, a home that had to be approved by his father before the marriage could take place! Add to that the Mosaic Law's decree that one caught in adultery should be stoned. Now, granted, Roman occupation meant the Jews had no control over capital punishment, but who would raise questions if a young, "sullied" lady from a small town in backwoods Galilee went missing?

But the angel gives Mary a clue that the message he bears is true and valid. He directs Mary to her cousin, the older Elizabeth who is past the age of child-bearing. The angel states that this Elizabeth is also pregnant. Thus Mary has someone she can turn to and stay with. So Mary goes not to be with an "aunt" but to be with her cousin. When Mary arrives at the Zechariah residence, her doubts are silenced, the angel's message confirmed. And the child within Elizabeth, moved by the Spirit, leaps with joy in the presence of the Savior.

I know this sounds holy, mythical, fantastic, miraculous, high falootin'. We tend to see Mary through the lens of this angelic vision and message. Do you know to whom the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception refers? First of all, what is the immaculate conception? It's the idea that there was a sinless conception, an immaculate conception. Why is this necessary? Because for millennia Christians have thought that sin entered the human individual at conception. Therefore in order to be sinless as a person, conception itself has to be miraculously immaculate. I don't have a clue as to how that might have happened. Now, again, to whom does the Immaculate Conception refer? Many people think this refers to Jesus' birth. It doesn't. It refers to Mary. Mary was conceived without sin, immaculately, which made her a perfect vessel for Christ's birth. This obviously puts Mary on a very high pedestal, if not in the clouds itself.

But here's the thing. The famous Mary, Mother of God, the God-bearer or the Virgin Mary, who angelically and virtuously bears Jesus, is not really who we are looking at this morning. This is the second reason why the Magnificat is magnificent. This Mary is not larger than human life; scripture's Mary isn't unconcerned with the rigors and troubles of life in occupied Israel; she isn't an apolitical Church lady whose only thought is obedience to the Church and praying the rosary, not that there is anything wrong with this. Rather, this Mary is invested in real human struggles and activities; this Mary knows the difference betweens the winners and the losers in her neighborhood, country, and world; this Mary wants to give birth to a Savior who will make a difference in real human terms, serving a God who works for justice and peace in real human time.

Why do I say this? In verses 52-53, Mary expresses what has been called a classical statement of God’s activity: the lowly are raised and the lofty are brought low. Mary sings of the God who brings down the mighty and exalts those of low degree, who fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty. This is why the Magnificat is called the song of reversals. Mary knows what God is like. She knows that God always looks out for and helps the humiliated, the low, the hungry ones who fear him, who respect him, who honor him. He doesn't go for the proud, the powerful, the rich; if anything, the Lord brings down those who are cocky and uncaring. So make yourself useful to others. Make yourself valuable at the time of other's needs. Let us be confident enough to believe we have something to offer, yet humble enough to realize we are to be in service. For it is the servants of the Lord who receive the blessings of our God.

In this song, Mary praises God because God has noticed her, even though she's nothing. Actually, she doesn't even mention herself again in the song, but points out that when God chose her, the Lord had just done what he's always been doing, and Mary knew this. God didn't choose his people because they were great. He chose them because he is a loving God. He loved them because he loved them, and he made promises to them because he wanted to. Find favor in God's sight. Seek the goodness of the Lord's heart. Let a new tenderness enter your life. Turn to the Lord in affectionate prayer. Study God's word. It is through scripture that God's Holy Spirit touches and claims us.

One stormy night many years ago, an older man and his wife entered the lobby of a hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. "Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked. The manager, a friendly man with a kind smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," he said. "But I can't send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o'clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It's not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night." When the couple declined, the manager pressed on. "Don't worry about it. My family and I will make out just fine," he told them. So the couple agreed.
        As he paid his bill the next morning, the man said, "You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States." The manager looked at them and smiled. As they drove away, the couple agreed that the kind person was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn't easy.
        Two years passed when the manager received a letter. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to New York, asking him to pay them a visit. The man met him and they walked to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a pale reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky. "That," he said, "is the hotel I have just built and you are to manage." "You must be joking," the man said. "I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.  The older man's name was William Waldorf-Aster, and that magnificent structure was the original Waldorf Hotel, and the first manager was George C. Boldt, who never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become manager of one of the world's most glamorous hotels.

Suppose you had to pick a woman to change the world. Who would you choose? Someone famous, a pop star, an actress, a celebrity, a TV presenter? Someone influential, a politician, a top lawyer, or a doctor or an academic? Or maybe you'd go for someone spectacularly bad who could be turned around, a criminal. God is going to change the world, and he starts with Nazareth, a town so obscure that no-one had ever written about it, in Galilee, a provincial backwater that most people ignored, and he starts with Mary, probably a teenage girl who's engaged to a guy whose only claim to fame is that 1000 years before, he'd had a famous ancestor. Lets face it, she's not the obvious choice for the job. But that's not the way God does things. God chooses Mary. God doesn't choose the "best" people; he chooses whoever he wants.

Maybe you're feeling weak. Maybe you're feeling out of sorts. Well if so, Mary would say that's great, because God chooses people just like this. If you respect God; wait, let me say that better, if you fear the Lord and know God is the one to whom we must prove ourselves, then the Lord can do something really good with you. Let God show you kindness. Let the Lord lift you up. Let God fill you with good things.

God chose Mary. And when he did that, he did exactly what he always does, and what he's promised he'll keep on doing. He chooses those who are kind, those who love, those who serve, those who believe, people just like you.

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