Living in an upside down world

Read the Rev. Camille Josey’s column, and check out the church calendar.

There’s a meme currently circulating on Facebook that shows an icon of Mary, the mother of Jesus, with these words superimposed on the image: “Did you know? Seriously? Have you read the Magnificat?”

When was the last time you read Mary’s Magnificat? Really read it?

When Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 2), baby John leaps in his mother’s womb. Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, embraces the astounding realization that Mary will bear God into the world and offers prayers of blessing for Mary.

Mary’s reaction is to burst into a spokenword prayer poem:

“My soul magnifies the Lord …”

Mary’s ecstatic outburst reveals that when Jesus breaks into the world it is to turn things upside down from the way we have ordered them.

The Lord enters the world through a lowly maidservant rather than through someone of power, influence and social standing.

The Lord dethrones the powerful, gives favor to the lowly, hosts the starving at banquets while leaving those who are callous with their riches out in the cold.

For 12 centuries Mary’s Magnificat has been the evening prayer of the church as it gathers.

At the end of the day when the world has preached the message of power and money and influence as the way to the top, the way to get things done, this prayer is a reminder that that is not God’s way.

And yet … we in the church are still drawn to the strong, the powerful, the rich, the influential.

Jesus’ brother James points out that we are prone to give the best seat to the best dressed while seating the ragged and the homeless near the door so we can get them out quickly.

The Magnificat is not Mary’s first prayer. In response to the Angel Gabriel’s announcement, Mary responds, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Instead of bargaining for a quid pro quo or trying to consolidate this unexpected position of privilege, Mary’s response was to submit herself to serving the Lord, to responding to God’s word. Word, not will.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer pondered, “Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger; whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high; whoever looks at the child in the manger and sees the glory of God precisely in his lowliness.”

God’s word turns our world upside down.