Do we want the world to change???

Luke paints a much larger picture of Mary than Matthew does.  Luke, tells us about the conversation between Gabriel and Mary, the journey to Elizabeth in the hill country and the wonderful song of praise that Mary sings. Luke also includes the Shepherds. Luke’s nativity story is much more focussed on the poor, the lowly, the female and the powerless.

I’ll come back to the song, but to touch on a few other points,

©       This passage resonates with female solidarity, these two women who are pregnant, one older than usual and one younger. At a time when Elizabeth’s husband was unable to speak, she had someone to share her excitement with, and Mary had someone to confide in.

©       The place of extended family, and the support that family can offer in times when we need breathing and thinking space.

©       God communicated with Mary. I wonder how we hear God speak to us today. While Mary was perplexed and shocked at what the angel told her, we have nothing to suggest she doubted that this was a messenger from God. How do we hear God speaking to us today?

©       And when we do sense God speaking to us, in whatever form that is, how do we respond? Do we respond as Mary did, trusting in God as she embraced the message of the angel?

Back to Mary’s song

Mary sings of a world changed,

• a world where people are not poor,
• a world where people are not oppressed,
• a world where God’s mercy is evident.

Mary’s song is a protest song.

a song that speaks of Gods faithfulness

a song that speaks of a new future

and the new future is spoken of as if it already exists.

I wondered about other protest songs, growing up in the seventies there were lots of them.

Songs like:  “Little boxes on the hillside” about the rise of suburbia

“Blowin’ in the wind” about peace and war and freedom

“And the band played Waltzing Matilda” about war

Songs of protest against war, police brutality, environmental destruction

Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Yothu Yindi’s Treaty (1991)

Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody’s From Little Things Big Things Grow (1991)

Redgum I Was Only Nineteen - Vietnam

Here is an African American song:

Ella’s Song

Composed by Bernice Johnson Reagon, copyright: Songtalk Publishing Co.

Refrain:

We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

http://www.bernicejohnsonreagon.com/ella.shtml

There is a saying that seeing is believing, a very western, rational saying. Seeing is believing. There are people who ask me how I can believe in a God I can’t see. It is easy to believe that this is a piano, we can see it, touch it and make a sound with it.

Seeing is believing.

Well I think Mary’s song reminds us that in matters of faith,
believing is seeing.

Mary didn’t wait for the world to change before she sang.
She sang about how blessed she is, blessed to be an unmarried pregnant girl, at a time when she could be stoned to death – Yeah!?
she sang of the way that God was making the world a more just place: “ he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” Had that happened before Mary sang – I don’t think so; has it happened yet, no!

Mary sang a song of faith.

Believing is seeing.

Mary sang from the depths of her being, sang about the world as God dreamed it to be, sang about a new world where justice and righteousness and mercy reign, not power and wealth.

Believing is seeing, -- we see what we look for.

At times we talk about God transforming the world, and Mary sang of that transformation.

When we look at our families,
when we look at the local community,
when we look at the nation and the world,
and it can be easy to see places where things are not the way God intended.  

Self-interest, broken relationships, pushing and shoving at national borders, a reliance on shame to control people, oppression, slavery, addictions.

But I wonder:

Do we really want a new world?

Do we really want the kingdom of God to reign?

What would it mean to us, who are by world standards privileged?

What would it mean if workers in clothing factories in Bangladesh and other places were paid fairly and had safe working conditions? Would we be prepared to pay extra for our clothes?

There are countries where children are not in school because they are working – are we prepared to pay more for coffee, chocolate and tea, so that workers are paid fairly and their children can get an education?

Mary’s sings of a world where people matter,
a world where a young pregnant woman can sing of being blessed,
a world where all are fed,
all are treated with dignity and no-one is left out,
a world of justice and mercy.

......

What does it mean to sing Mary’s song today?

Mary’s song is about the world being turned right-side-up. What in your life needs to be turned right-side-up?

If you have some space in your life this week: rewrite Mary’s song for modern times. I would love to see what you write.