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In order to expedite posting the worship services here on our website, we are reducing the transcript to just the scriptures used and the message. Holy Communion is offered every Sunday. If you are worshipping with us online whether during the live-cast or through on-demand viewing, you are encouraged to have bread and juice or wine available as you watch the service and to participate in communion just as if you are present with us.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
God, open us to hear and receive your scriptures today as you would have us hear them, understand them as you would have us understand them, and to act upon them as you would have us act upon them.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
*Scriptures this morning are from the NRSV.
Isaiah 35:1-10
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God.
Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
James 5:7-10
Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Luke 1:46b-55
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; 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. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
L: The scriptures of God for the people of God.
A: Thanks be to God.
Message – Mary’s Song
Rev. Val
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer, and may you see fit to use me as a vessel from which you pour out your Divine Word.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
You know, if it weren’t for women, we wouldn’t have Christmas. Think about it. Think about your own Christmas celebration. We all know who pulls it all together, right? And, after all, it was a female voice that begins the Jesus story. In Luke’s version, it’s a woman who decides all by herself which was a subversive thing to do in those days — whether the Jesus story will even happen. Mary’s “let it be” in Luke 1:38 gets everything started.
Mary’s role in the story is shocking considering that, in that time and place, only men were allowed to make the big decisions. Women were treated more like property than persons.
Luke’s version of the story tells how Mary went to visit her relative Elizabeth, uniting two strong women in a divine moment. It’s while she and Elizabeth are comparing notes that Mary speaks her song about God’s passion for justice in ways that her son would later repeat, which is no surprise considering it was his mom, Mary, who would teach Jesus and mold him. In other words, Jesus would first learn about God through a female voice.
A female voice that sang not only one of the most beautiful, liberating passages in the Bible, but also one of the most subversive. A female voice that sang, “I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
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.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.”
A woman, mere “property” as far as society and the religious leaders were concerned, dared to proclaim an ancient vision of God’s dream of a world restored to justice. A proclamation given voice by a young, pregnant Jewish teenager.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus was so persistent about ignoring and violating the rules in his society and his religion that tried to limit the role of women, why he was constantly interacting with women in ways the religious and social leaders found scandalous. He was the Son of God, for sure, but his mama was far more fierce than we give her credit for!
A courageous, hesitant, female voice brings God more fully into the world.
Then and now, female voices are too often widely ignored, marginalized, and muted by those who think that only males should be heard. The Jesus story turns all that upside-down. It places women front and center, right from the start. We really need to pay more attention to the women in the Bible. So, ladies, pat yourselves on the back. If it weren’t for a woman, there wouldn’t be Christmas.
Mary’s song joyfully foretold God’s plan – to come among us in the flesh, and to introduce us through stories and lessons and parables and his own actions of how to live, but he taught us something else, too.
Diana Butler Bass writes, “Last week, in response to these Advent posts, a reader said, “I’m sick of waiting. It has been so long and the Kingdom feels as far away as ever — justice doesn’t come. Nothing seems to get better.”
Advent is about waiting and justice. Advent asks us to wait and watch. Advent anticipates the certain arrival of God’s dream of mercy and justice. Waiting. Justice. Waiting.
On the third Sunday, Christians light a candle of joy. Today’s texts proclaim the “everlasting joy” that God promises — water in the desert, songs rising in Zion, the mighty cast down, and all people sated and satisfied in a garden of abundance. The words of Isaiah and Mary lift the heart. Their vision of justice enlarges our faith and hope for a world made right. Delight attends deliverance; exultation accompanies liberation. For a brief moment, the veil between this age and the age to come thins. Joy makes itself known, deeply and truly, here and now.
Then we remember. Never in human history has the gap between the rich and poor been so great. We live in the shadow of climate disaster and nuclear threat. Bigotry, injustice, and violence mark these days. Autocracy, oligarchy, and authoritarianism undermine fragile democracy and human rights. Isaiah’s vision and Mary’s song are beautiful, yes. We long for the joy of justice, even thirst for it. But are we deluding ourselves? Is it just a glorious impossible dream to help us humans make it through a world that will never be anything but cruel and brutal?
Is all this waiting for the Kingdom a taunt?
The twinning of Isaiah and Mary is helpful — both reveal truths about Advent waiting.
Isaiah unfolds the majestic vision of God’s salvation, the time in which the whole earth will be made whole, healed from the wounds and rifts of hatred and violence. This time is in the future. God’s people wait — not passively but with courageous certainty that God keeps God’s promises. It takes active faith to trust in the fullness of such salvation. As the prophets make clear in other texts, that spiritual trust is Israel’s social covenant to care for widows, give to the poor, feed the hungry, and provide hospitality to strangers. The ultimate promise may be far off, but the faithful can act on its behalf here and now. Vision, promise, action.
Mary’s song is not a vision of the future. It is a celebration of the present. God has done these marvelous things. The Magnificat echoes with certainty. Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Liberation is accomplished.
The Bible has five songs of deliverance sung by women: Miriam (Exodus 15), Deborah (Judges 5), Judith (Judith 16), Hannah (1 Samuel), and Mary (Luke). Indeed, Mary’s song directly quotes from Hannah’s:
My heart exults in the Lord;
my strength is exalted in my God.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in my victory. . .
The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry are fat with spoil.
Indeed, recent scholarship suggests that these texts are part of a distinctive women’s tradition in Israel — performances that involved drum, dance, and song. To reimagine the Magnificat as Mary’s joyful performance of God’s victory over injustice puts a new twist on Advent waiting.
Too often, Mary is depicted as the patient mother awaiting the birth of her son, the passive bearer of God-with-us. But can we imagine Mary as Miriam? Drum in hand, dancing justice, and singing of divine deliverance: I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. Or Mary like Judith?
Strike up a song to my God with tambourines,
sing to the Lord with cymbals;
Improvise for him a new song,
exalt and acclaim his name.
For the Lord is a God who crushes wars;
he sets his encampment among his people;
he delivered me from the hands of my pursuers. . .
Joy and justice. There’s no passive waiting here. The dance brings the future hope into the celebratory present. Dancing dissolves the boundaries of time. The women of Israel drummed, danced, and sang the Kingdom into being.
Advent waiting isn’t really about waiting. In Isaiah, it is about seeing God’s vision, trusting God’s promise, and acting on its reality. The prophets insist that we practice the Kingdom’s justice in our own time.
For Mary, the months of birthing the Kingdom aren’t about quiet confinement. She invites us to join the dance of deliverance, the whirl of justice that has been the spiraling hope of God since the beginning.
Maybe if we are tired of waiting, it is because we don’t really understand waiting. Waiting isn’t about looking for miracles to fall from the sky. It isn’t about magic fixes. Waiting entails acting. Waiting beckons us to jubilation. Waiting isn’t quiescence. In the biblical tradition, it means looking clearly into the broken world and caring for what is wounded. It means facing down the powers of injustice with drum and dance. It means living the promises that God’s people trust with all their hearts.
Waiting is one of the most creative things we can do.
Let’s pray:
Father, we ask that you fill us with Mary’s joy as we wait to celebrate the birth of your son. We ask that you fill is with the courage, wisdom, and spirit of the Miriam (Exodus 15), Deborah (Judges 5), Judith (Judith 16), Hannah (1 Samuel), and Mary (Luke). May we sing of justice and deliverance for the oppressed, and may we act to achieve justice and deliverance as joyfully as we sing.
In the name of your holy mother and in your holy name, Amen.
Credits:
- Unless listed below, all works cited within the text above.
- *Adapted in part or full from Preaching Notes, Discipleship Ministries Worship Planning Series.
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