Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46-55)

by Joseph Chen

“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.”

Luke 1:51-52

An excerpt from this week’s reading: the Virgin Mary’s iconic declaration, spoken soon after receiving the unlikely news that she was to bear a child. As I write this I’m preparing to lead the congregation in the song based on this—Mary’s Magnificat. And true to it’s name, it magnificently reflects her deep reverence for the Lord, and the upside-down way that He approaches the powerful and the humble, the rich and the poor.

Looking at both the song and the source material, I wonder how she could have come up with such beautiful writing so quickly. The scriptures tell us that the only time she could have composed the Magnificat was as she hurried to Zechariah’s house. It’s not long after she arrives that she blurts out to Elizabeth some of the most famous and often repeated words in Christian history. This past summer, Serena and I resolved to write an Advent song together, as a gift to the church. We took three months, and it’s, like, not even close to as good as what Mary came up with.

Speaking of gifted songwriters, Zechariah is also one of the main characters in this week’s readings. His very underrated song comes at the circumcision and naming of his son, John the Baptist. Perhaps the reason we don’t have as many worship songs based on his song is because of his strange back story: a righteous priest whose rendered mute because he had some doubt about an angel’s promise that his very old wife would become pregnant. Why is it that Zechariah’s voice is taken away for asking a question, when Mary asks a very similar, understandably skeptical, question of the angel Gabriel?

Anyway, a line sticks out to me from Zechariah’s song. “And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.” Though obviously the child Zechariah refers to is John the Baptist, the one who literally prepared the way for Jesus by preaching about him in the desert and baptizing him, I can’t help but hear that calling directed to the church too. During Advent, we’re again faced with the reality that Jesus has not yet made all things right. This year we’ve heard creation’s groaning in roaring wildfires, political unrest, and mass shootings, to name a few. In this day and age what does it mean for us, the church, to prepare the way for the King who scatters the proud and lifts up the humble? How is it that we can make known salvation through the forgiveness of sins to a world that seems to only know salvation through power and might?

For Mary and Zechariah, in that moment, their answer was to write elegant prose. But we are not all poets or songwriters. Just as the Spirit came upon Mary and Zechariah, may we too be filled with Spirit as we spend these precious few days of Advent preparing: for the coming of Jesus, and for the world, ourselves included, to be ready for his arrival.

artwork: The Annunciation, Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 – 1937)