Mary's Song (Courtney Clark)

TRANSCRIPT: MARY’S SONG

The Christmas after I had James, I was deep in the throughs of postpartum depression with a colicky newborn. I spent the entire month of December that year (and really every year following) feeling deeply connected to Mary. Was her newborn experience like this? Was Jesus perfect as a baby? What even is a perfect baby? Babies are supposed to cry, but surely, he didn’t cry for 24 hours on end. Surely, she didn’t feel useless for anything other than a milk machine. Or did she? Being in the newborn phase at Christmas put an entirely different perspective on the humanity of Jesus and his mother Mary. Now not only was I supposed to be celebrating this God who seemed distant and perfect, but I was seeing the reality of Jesus coming into a body in every capacity just like ours. He did cry as a baby; he did need his mother just like James needed me. Sinless didn’t mean his human needs were null and void. And having a newborn brought this realization into my life like a wrecking ball, totally shattering the picture I had of Jesus and Christmas. But even with this realization it wasn’t Jesus I was drawn to in his embodiment. It was Mary. This woman we so often discredit and even ignore. Her part of this wasn’t just as a womb, she actually RAISED Jesus. She taught him how to live in this world, she taught him her theology which would grow to become part of his own.   

Before we can get into Mary and this powerful song, we must first talk about Elizabeth. Mary has just been visited by a messenger who tells her she is going to be pregnant and not just with any baby, but the baby that all of Israel has been waiting for. In this message/pregnancy announcement the messenger includes that a relative of Mary’s is pregnant as well. Likely as a way to encourage Mary and remind her that she’s not in this alone. She immediately runs to Elizabeth for probably a lot of reasons, I’m sure partly to see if it’s true that she’s pregnant but more than likely she was seeking comfort for this thing that is going to change her life. Mary is probably thinking of all the ways this could go wrong, she could be outcast, her husband could leave her. She is likely expecting at best to be shamed and ostracized. But instead before Mary even has a chance to tell Elizabeth about the situation, Elizabeth already knows and calls out to her, calling her blessed. The language she uses here is a reference to a song from Deborah in the book of Judges. In using this reference, she is essentially calling Mary a blessed warrior. As someone who has lived a life of shame, being unable to have children when that was the primary purpose of being a woman in this culture, she sees the pain and the shame Mary is afraid of and counters it with God’s grace.

Saying in Luke 1:25,

“This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people”.

Essentially saying, God has changed my social status I’m no longer the barren woman, so he can do the same for you. You will not be recognized as the pregnant unmarried teenager. God can redeem me; he has redeemed your position too before this even gets started. There is an interesting juxtaposition between these two stories. The village is celebrating the barren womb being filled in Elizabeth while mourning the womb of Mary being filled in the wrong circumstances. Elizabeth’s admonition of Mary is acknowledging this and sweeping it aside to welcome Mary as one of her own, as beloved and important.

In response to hearing Elizabeth’s encouragement Mary breaks out into song, a song of praise, hope, and excitement. She’s realizing that what the messenger said is true, Elizabeth is pregnant, SHE is pregnant and they’re facing something powerfully larger than themselves. Let’s take a look!

Turn to Luke 1:46-55.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for He has looked with favor on His humble servant.

From this day all generations will call me blessed,

the Almighty has done great things for me,

and holy is His Name.

He has mercy on those who fear Him

in every generation.

He has shown the strength of his arm,

He has scattered the proud in their conceit.

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,

and has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel

for He has remembered his promise of mercy,

the promise He made to our fathers,

to Abraham and his children for ever.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.

Amen, Alleluia

This song, which is commonly referred to as The Magnificat, is prophetic in nature. She’s proclaiming the message and the mission that Jesus will go on to live. Proclaiming that God is bringing peace, justice, and hope for those who are oppressed. The marginalized, the poor. It’s important to note here that the book, Luke where this song is found was written several years after the death of Jesus. Luke could be relaying a verbal account of exactly what happened, but he could very well be artistically setting up the story of Jesus that follows. We see the themes of hope from this song throughout the books attributed to Luke, Luke and Acts.  In either case the song holds a lot of powerful language and paints Mary as not just the body who housed Jesus for 9 months outside of her will, but as a powerful woman who was determined to see this thing through. Who knew what it was like to be lowly and powerless. Who wanted different for her family and was doing everything she could with what little power she had to see that change through.

Luke portrays Mary not only as a meek vessel to be used for 9 months and tossed aside. But as intelligent, powerful, and courageous. Only someone profoundly familiar with Hebrew scripture and tradition, specifically Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel could have composed the Magnificat. Which is thematically dependent on Hannah’s song. I won’t read it but if you want to look for yourself it’s found in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. First century audiences who Luke is writing to would have been familiar to the parallels in the two songs. Mary is being established as a hero. Regardless of who composed the Magnificat by giving the song to Mary Luke’s point is clear; Mary is an educated young woman with vision and determination.

Here she is a young, pregnant, unmarried woman in a culture that prides itself on the control of women and their sexuality. She is facing a very uncertain future amidst the most humiliating circumstance possible for a woman in this time period. The book of Matthew’s recount of this story even mentions that her husband, or soon to be husband, Joseph plans to leave her quietly without pressing charges. Her song of praise and hope doesn’t exactly match her situation. She’s in a dark place from the outside looking in, yet she sings. And not just any song, but this song! This song that seems to be a theme song for the life of Jesus. This song that elevates the poor and ‘casts down the mighty’. She is not singing for joy because she has a baby in her womb, she’s singing for what this baby means for all of Israel, the world.

There is a famous Christmas song called Mary did you know? This passage clearly shows that she knew exactly what she was signing up for. She was the first to proclaim the message of Christ, before even he did so. Will Willimon puts it this way:

“As the pregnant young woman looks out across the Judean hills and sings, she thinks she hears kingdoms fall and the earth rock beneath her feet. She feels the child within her move, and so she hums a song of liberation.”

Liberation not for herself in the midst of a pretty terrible situation, but liberation for anyone who has ever felt like they could never get one step ahead, for anyone who has questioned their place in the world, for anyone who has ever felt like there was nothing left to hope for. She’s singing a song of liberation for a people who have known only oppression.

The coming of Jesus is a light at the end of a very dark tunnel for Israel. There was an expectation that the messiah was going to arrive and overthrow systems of power and oppression, level the playing field in a sense. This song plays into that idea, and Jesus absolutely bought into the idea over power for the powerless and hope for the hopeless. Not in an overthrowing of power to replace it with the powerless, but to overthrow imbalances of power all together and create a new system where all have what they need when they need it. I get the sense that Mary is expecting the violent overthrow that didn’t happen, but nevertheless Mary had an expectation. She knew she was signing up for something huge, something new. She likely was surprised that it wasn’t violent in nature, as many were. But in any sense, she knew that this was the start of a new chapter for Israel, the world.

Our modern image of Mary has morphed into this docile, quiet, virgin that is a character of the margins. There is even an argument that this story leaves no room for consent, that Mary is forced into the situation. But looking at the way Luke paints Mary here, I see a revolutionary woman who stands up for herself and knows her value in the story. She is often spoken of in terms of the ideal woman, being obedient and motherly. An impossible expectation for even Mary herself. This modern picture is dark in nature and sets women up for failure. The Mary who sings this song is a warrior fighting for the freedom of her people, no matter the cost, not a quiet character sitting helpless in the background.

In Mary we are taught what it looks like to hope in the midst of a hopeless situation. We are in the fourth week of advent, the four themes of which are Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. This year in particular, celebration of these things seems difficult. We’re going on year two of a never-ending pandemic, Rob announced his resignation and we’re moving forward as a church without the Carmacks, for the first time ever. Advent is a call for us to set aside the fear and uncertainty, not ignoring it or pretending like it doesn’t exist, but as a reminder that we’re not only in a season of change that is scary and difficult, but also a season of waiting for what is to come. Last week Megan talked of a hope that is shaped by sorrow, a hope that has lost its luster. Often when we think of hope we think of joy and longing in lieu of pain and suffering. But the reality is they often exist hand in hand. We can’t understand and appreciate hope in all of its battered beauty if we don’t know it’s opposite of pain and sorrow. Just as Mary was able to face her hopeless situation and still sing a song of hope and liberation, advent is a call for us to do the same. Join in and sing as we wait with expectation for what is to come.