For Sunday
Advent 4C
Collect
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
The gospel of Luke opens with an interwoven story of two women: one too young to wear a crown, the other too old. And yet they are both called by God to serve humanity—unexpectedly and incredibly.
I suspect we take the remarkable for granted—the part in which God has recruited this family, we totally get. And the incredible ask, yes, and certainly the whole Jesus mission is big. All of that we are down for. Heck, there’s a popular song, “Mary did you know?” about the enormity of all of this, so I think we do hold this all in an appropriate level of tension. But the part of this remarkable act that I think we tend to take for granted is the substance of that enormity—what that actually means, looks like, and how it impacts how we might see our world.
When Mary visits her cousin and Elizabeth reports how her son, in utero, responded to the presence of Mary and of his cousin-to-be, what is her response? To sing a song we call the Magnificat. A song about the transforming of the world’s order. We should consider this against the easier frame of transforming the world’s spirit. That it isn’t only about a heart change, but a systemic change.
Mary describes this vision as good news, worthy of God’s grace, a blessing upon her, and something for which she is totally unworthy. But that isn’t going to stop her from accepting the call. There’s bravery there alongside the humility. Something beautiful and full of great hope. Not merely for herself, but for the world.