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Luke 1:46-55 – New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord,

47  and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for God has looked with favor on the lowly state of this servant.    Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed,

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is God’s name;

50 indeed, God’s mercy is for those who fear God from generation to generation.

51 God has shown strength with their arm;    God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

52 God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly;

53 God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

54 God has come to the aid of their child Israel, in remembrance of God’s mercy,

55 according to the promise God made to our ancestors, to [Hagar and Sarah and] Abraham and to God’s descendants forever.”

A BLESSING OF THE ANGELS

May the Angels in their beauty bless you.

May they turn toward you streams of blessing.

May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart

To come alive to the eternal within you,

To all the invitations that quietly surround you.

May the Angel of Healing turn your wounds

Into sources of refreshment.

May the Angel of the Imagination enable you

To stand on the true thresholds,

At ease with your ambivalence

And drawn in new directions

Through the glow of your contradictions.

May the Angel of Compassion open your eyes

To the unseen suffering around you.

May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places

Where your life is domesticated and safe,

Take you to the territories of true otherness

Where all that is awkward in you

Can fall into its own rhythm.

May the Angel of Eros introduce you

To the beauty of your senses

To celebrate your inheritance

As a temple of the holy spirit.

May the Angel of Justice disturb you

To take the side of the poor and the wronged.

May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you

In worth and self-respect,

That you may live with the dignity

That presides in your soul.

May the Angel of Death arrive only

When your life is complete

And you have brought every given gift

To the threshold where its infinity can shine.

May all the Angels be your sheltering

And joyful guardians.

~ John O’Donohue

For those reading that did not attend the service, the underlined quote below was read for our Peace & Justice Candle Lighting ~ Dag Hammarskjöld (1905 – 1961, Swedish) worked tirelessly for peace, most notably as a delegate and then as Secretary – General of the United Nations. 

In 1961 he was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize for developing the UN into an effective and constructive international organization, capable of giving life to the principles and aims expressed in the UN Charter.

Sometime after his death in a plane crash in 1961 his personal journals were made public. He wrote: “I don’t know Who –  or what – put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

I quoted Dag Hammarskjöld when we lit our Peace and Justice Candle. I won’t presume to know how or if  he practiced a formal faith but his statement indicates he was deeply connected to The Source of All Being and was committed to working toward the greater good, even at the expense of his own comfort or safety. He understood the importance of embracing the sometimes inexplicable, sometimes inconvenient, sometimes dangerous “yes” to the cosmic good.

Dag Hammarskjöld’s “yes” is akin to Mary’s “yes”. An indication that Mary’s song praising the magnificent nature of God is truly meant to be an expansive, universal experience. 

In fact, our Biblical scribes also understood it as a universal experience. Some ancient texts attribute the Magnificat (Latin for magnify) to Elizabeth. And whether credited to Elizabeth or Mary, the verses in Luke’s gospel were modeled upon Hannah’s song of praise in the Second Book of Samuel, when she learned she was to give birth to the prophet Samuel. 

This song belongs, rightly, on all of our lips. All of our souls are to magnify God. This song is to include all genders from all times and places, to include the economically deprived, to include the socially excluded, to include the vulnerable, to include the abused, to include the oppressed, to include those with broken spirits or broken bodies. This song is a celebration, a magnification, of the wonders and powers of God’s love. And yes, we should all be singing it every day of our lives. 

Mary’s song, Mary’s life, magnifies the Lord. How? By saying “yes” when approached with a life altering question. And of course, by following through with the promise. Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord by letting God’s goodness and love shine through her. 

And how do our lives magnify God? I look around this sanctuary, on our Zoom screen, in our community and I see individuals who have said “yes” to God’s bold and brazen requests on their lives and are following through on their promises. 

So often our poets are our prophets. Much of what John O’Donohue wrote in “A Blessing of the Angels” echoes these verses from Luke that we know as The Magnificat. Poet O’Donohue makes it personal. As scripture, as life, is meant to be. John O’Donohue’s poetic prayer suggests ways that we can live into the call of this scripture. 

Yes, our souls are made to magnify the Lord! 

O’Donohue wrote: “May the Angel of Awakening stir your heart / To come alive to the eternal within you, / To all the invitations that quietly surround you.” May we awaken to the invitations and be brave enough, humble enough, to say “yes.” 

Yes, God favors the humble in spirit!

O’Donohue wrote: “May the Angel of Encouragement confirm you / In worth and self-respect, / That you may live with the dignity / That presides in your soul.” Being humble in spirit does not preclude self-respect. Humility is an attitude of respecting the inherent worth and dignity of all beings, beginning with ourselves and extending equally to all others.

Yes, God has made these promises of mercy to all generations; past, present, and future!

O’Donohue wrote: “May the Angel of Eros introduce you / To the beauty of your senses / To celebrate your inheritance / As a temple of the holy spirit.” And “May all the Angels be your sheltering /And joyful guardians.”

We need to be active participants in order for God’s mercy to be made manifest in this world. 

O’Donohue wrote: “May the Angel of Justice disturb [us] / To take the side of the poor and the wronged.” And “May the Angel of Wildness disturb the places / Where [our lives are] domesticated and safe, / Take [us] to the territories of true otherness.”

This song attributed to Mary mostly receives focus on her words of joy and praise. However, it also contains cautions. “God has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts… and will continue to do so. God has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly… and will continue to do so. God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty… and will continue to do so. 

In Luke’s theology Jesus came to reverse the status quo. The powerful fall. The lowly are lifted. God chooses unlikely saints when measured by mere mortal standards. Mary occupied a position of poverty and powerlessness in her society. As do so many women today. As do so many ethnic minorities, religious minorities, LGBTQ persons. Mary was chosen, empowered, lifted. The hope is that no matter one’s perceived status, they too will be lifted, chosen, empowered. Our hope, our prayer, our reality is that we will be, we are lifted by the love of God and the love of the community of Christ.

But wait, is this scripture only for the lowly or is this scripture for everyone? What about those higher in our fabricated statuses that we employ in society to divide the haves and the have nots? Yes, God’s love is for everyone. Accessing it, however, is best accomplished from the bottom up. First we must humble ourselves, empty ourselves of our ego-inflated self-worth.

Then and only then will there be room within us to be filled and lifted. We have work to do. All of us. Together. May the angel of justice disturb us. And may all the angels be our sheltering and joyful guardians. 

Amen

Rev. TJ Mack – December 22, 2024