Micah 5: 2-5a; For
the Psalm: Canticle 3; Hebrews
10: 5-10; Luke
1: 39-55
This is a homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, offered
to St. John’s Church, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, December 20, 2015.
“THE
WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN”
(Homily text: Luke 1: 39-55)
When the British Army surrendered to
the Americans after the Battle of Yorktown in October, 1781, the British Army’s
band (a fife and drum corps) paraded past the Americans playing a tune entitled
“The World Turned Upside Down”.
The tune’s title was an apt one for
the occasion, for how could an army of the most powerful military in existence
at that time manage to be defeated by an upstart colonial band? How was that possible?
Today’s gospel, in which we hear
Mary’s Song (better known by its Latin title, the Magnificat), is all about the “world turned upside down”.
Notice the “downs” that contrast
with the “ups” in Mary’s words (I will highlight the highs and the lows in the
text using italics):
- “My soul doth magnify the Lord (up)…. for he hath regarded the lowliness (down) of his handmaiden.”
- “For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for he that is mighty hath magnified (up) me…”
- “He hath put down the mighty (high) from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek (low).”
- “He hath filled the hungry (low) with good things, and the rich (high) he hath sent empty away.”
What,
then, is the basis for Mary’s exaltation?
Quite simply, she is called “blessed” (as in the Ever-blessed Virgin
Mary) because she was willing to set her own welfare and plans for her life
aside in order to place herself at God’s invitation to be the bearer of the
only-begotten Son of God. Her words are
these (spoken to the Angel Gabriel): “Behold,
I am the servant of the Lord, be it to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:
38a)
If
we think about Mary’s station in life, we can easily imagine that she is pretty
low on the world’s measure of power and status:
She is a young, (probably) poor, woman (living in a man’s world), in a
country whose people are living under an oppressive military occupation. By all these standards, she doesn’t have much
standing or much power. She’s pretty much at the bottom – the low end – of the
economic, social and influential markers of the time.
And
yet, God uses just this very unique servant to be the vessel, the carrier, of
God’s grace and mercy.
The
world doesn’t work this way.
The
19th-century scientist, Charles Darwin, summed up the ways of the
world in his statement “The Survival of the Fittest”. It was his contention that the stronger ones
in nature will overpower the weaker ones, and that, eventually, only the strong
will survive.
If
we look at the course of human affairs, it’s plain to see that much of human
history reflects just such an hierarchy:
- The ones with the most clout will
overpower and exploit the defenseless and the weak.
- The ones with the biggest or the best army will invade and conquer their weaker neighbors (at least most of the time…the American victory at Yorktown is an exception), and so forth.
But God’s way is a different way.
Mary’s willingness to become the
Lord’s servant proves that God’s way is different.
So does the experience of Mary’s Son, Jesus, show
that God’s way is a different way….For Jesus comes to serve, not to be served. He comes to show that – in the apparent
weakness of the cross – that that seeming defeat leads only to the victory of
Easter Sunday morning. He comes as a
helpless baby, born in the lowliness of a cow’s stall, but reigns as King of
kings and Lord of lords.
Luke’s gospel bears out this theme, for Luke takes
deliberate steps to show that Jesus’ concern was, principally, with the poor,
the sick, the lowly and the sinners. He
came to welcome them into fellowship with God, offering them an opportunity to
overcome their estrangement from God, and offering them a new life, a redeemed
life, in God. Those that the Lord
deliberately sought out have a lot in common with the rest of us, for in truth,
Jesus always finds us in the lowest circumstances of our lives, as helpless
people who are enslaved to sin, and He moves us from where He finds us into a
new and higher place with God.
The Lord’s model is our model. We, too, are called to proclaim that the Lord
who has rescued us from our lowly estate offers to all people the chance to
move up into a close and enduring relationship with God. The Lord never leaves anyone where He finds
them.
Thanks be to God, that God’s way has everything to
do with the lowly and the powerless, and everything to do with an upward sweep
into God’s embrace.
AMEN.
