Luke 1:46b-55

He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. (Luke 1:52-53, TM)

A young nobody of a girl named Mary had been told that she would conceive by the Spirit of God and bear a child who would be the Messiah.  In awe and joy she sings out the words of our full Scripture text for today:  The Song of Mary—The Magnificat.    It is a song about who God is, what God can do, and who He chooses to work with.   The things that God is about are the opposite of what garners the praise and respect of our current culture.  In our country today, people who are arrogant, powerful, and wealthy are the ones who make the big decisions, gain or control political office, and influence public policy.  Those who are vulnerable, powerless, and/or poor are marginalized.  It was so in Mary’s day as well.  Mary realized then that, in her, God was turning the world upside down (or maybe, at last, right side up?) and it would never be the same again.   She did not just sing her song for herself.  She sang it for us as well.

Magnificent God, give us ears to hear Mary’s song. Give us eyes to see who you see as important in our society. Make us part of your up-ending—or up-righting—our world. Amen.

– Fr. Larry Parrish, St. Thomas Episcopal Church