This sermon is based on Mary's song in Luke 1. 46-55 also known as The Magnificat (after the opening word in Latin) and preached for the Feast of St Mary at two churches which bear her name. Our world is facing all sorts of crises’ at the moment isn’t it. We have the threat of global warming, we have war in Eastern Europe, we’re still suffering the results of the pandemic which sort of feels over but certainly isn’t. We have Monkeypox floating around on the side lines and we’re not sure what’s going to happen with that. And then we come closer to home and in our country we’re facing a cost of living crisis with rising fuel bills, rising petrol and diesel costs, rising food prices. Fears of shortages of those things. We have a government which feels rather paralysed as we await the results of the election of a new leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister. We have this rolling heatwave which we aren’t really set up for, and the risk of water shortages because of it. And that’s before we get to us personally and the challenges we face as families and individuals. Perhaps the costs are starting to bite. Perhaps you suffered a death or multiple deaths over the pandemic. Perhaps there’s something happening in your family at present or you’re feeling alone or everything is getting just a little bit too much. The world is a difficult place to be right now. And it’s not helped by the rolling news coverage of all of this and more, on the TV, on the radio, on Social Media, pinging right through to our phones and tablets. It’s all rather overwhelming and we can feel there’s no hope. That the good times are over, that all that’s ahead is spiralling misery and crisis after crisis. And into all of this, Mary sings. She doesn’t speak, she sings. And it’s not like her life is perfect. She lives in a corner of the Roman Empire that once was an independent Kingdom, that had been gifted a land promised to their ancestor Abraham. They’d had warrior kings, and wise kings. They’d enjoyed wealth and prosperity. All of that was gone now, a shadow of what had been. Instead they’re living under occupation from Roman forces, a puppet King and a foreign governor. And her own circumstances were fine, she wasn’t wealthy, but hardly poor, and she was engaged to a good man, the future seemed good. And then an angel shows up and announces she’s going to bear the Messiah and her world is turned upside down. Her yes is joyful, faithful, trusting, but it comes at a price. This song is sung when visiting her cousin Elizabeth, she’s hurried down there and will stay for 3 months, some theorise that she’s gone to escape the ridicule, the dirty looks of being pregnant outside of wedlock. Life for her was good, and it’s still good in many ways, but it’s not easy. And yet, in the midst of all of this, Mary erupts in praise, in worship. And it’s here we see the depth of her faith, her deep trust in God. The faith and trust which meant God chose her to be the one to bear his Son. She’s a woman steeped in the Scriptures, in her song you can find echoes of Psalms, of the songs of old Testament figures, principally Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel. She joins their chorus of praise. In the midst of difficulty, she erupts in praise for all God has done for her, for her personally, in seeing her lowly state and yet called her blessed, giving her one of the most important roles in history. In the midst of her troubles she declares how good God has been to her, the mighty things he has done in and for her. And then she goes on to praise God for all he has done for her people, and will do for her people. Showing his strength, scattering the proud, pulling down powerful rulers and raising up the lowly and weak, filling the hungry, and sending away the rich empty. This isn’t a manifesto of what she will do, a manifesto she gives us to accomplish (although working for a more equitable world is no bad thing), no it’s a song of praise to the one who has done these things, and, through her child, will do these things again. She looks to the past, drawing on her faith, her knowledge of what God has done in the Scriptures in ages past, and looks ahead with the eyes of faith to what is coming. And then boldly she declares that God has not forgotten his people. At a point in history where God has been silent for about 400 years. A deafening silence where the people struggled, where the people took matters into their own hands, in which the people despaired. And yet this young woman declares that God has not forgotten them, he has remembered them, he has remembered his promise to them. This child is the proof of that, this child is the fulfilment of the promise, God is on the move. In all the difficulties in and around her, when looking with human eyes it would have been easy for her to despair, and yet she looks with the eyes of faith, and see’s only hope, only good. In the difficulty of these days we need the hope of Mary, the faith and the trust of Mary. And you may be thinking that it’s easy for her to say these things, she is after all bearing the Messiah, carrying in her womb God himself. Of course she’s hopeful. But it’s not that the angel visited and suddenly she had this faith. No, first she had this faith and trust, and that is why Gabriel comes to her with the news that she will bear God’s Son. The faith was already there, and it’s that faith that God responded to. Through her Son we find ourselves, lowly though we are, faltering though we are, raised high. We haven’t climbed up to God, God has come down to us and lifted us up. We’re not sinners working to become saints as other religions do, instead we see God step down from glory into the mess of our world, in order that as he is raised, so we will be raised with him. And we as Christian’s have God dwelling within us too. Not in our womb, but dwelling within us by his Spirit, the promise of what is to come. We too carry God within us, the promise, the hope, the assurance of God’s goodness, his mercy, his faithfulness. And when we look around and see no human hope, when it all seems beyond us. When we look around and see the rich profiting as the poor get poorer. When we look around and see rulers treading down the weak, lording it over others whilst living it up for themselves. When we see the hungry go hungrier still whilst others feast. When we cry out in despair. Let us, with Mary, look with faith to God. Cry out to him, how long O Lord. And then join in her praise of the one who has dethroned the cruel rulers, who has fed the poor, brought in the outcast, healed the sick, brought back the sinner. For in her Son, in Jesus we see the God who does these things, and we see the God who will do these things again, perhaps in our day, perhaps not. But he has not forgotten us, and he has not forgotten his promises to us. Perhaps in these days you may find it helpful to write out what God has done for you individually, those times of grace, of goodness, of mercy. You may also find it helpful to write out what God has done for us as his people, his redeeming of us, his forgiveness of our sins, the gift of his Spirit to us, the work of his Spirit to make us more like Jesus day by day, his love for us, his adopting us as his children, I could go on. And in these days perhaps you may find it helpful to look through Scripture to find all his promises to us, that he will not leave us, but instead go with us, that he will strengthen us, that nothing can snatch us from his hand, that he will give us freedom from sin, that we will have peace, that he will answer our prayers, that we shall be with him where he is, that we shall be like him, that the world will once more be made right, that he will being us to eternity spotless and without blemish. Again, I could go on. As the people of God here, as we worship in this place dedicated to the mother of our Lord, let us, with her, be a people of hope. Not desperate hope, fleeting hope, grasping hope that somehow, by some miracle all will somehow work out in the end. Let us be a people rooted in the hope of Jesus, see in him the God who is worthy of faith, of trust, of devotion. See in his promises all we hope for. As we face down pandemics, despotic rulers, poverty, death, extreme weather, our inner demons. As we face all of this and more, may we sing of God’s faithfulness, of his goodness and mercy, knowing that we do so with Mary, and with our brothers and sisters down the ages. And let us place our faith, our hope, wholeheartedly in the one who raises up the humble, casts down the powerful, feeds the poor, and sends those who hoard their wealth away. The one who has done these things, and will again. Amen.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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