You know that I
often pick on the way our culture depicts angels – usually cute little cherubs
with wings – when the Bible depicts them as fearsome warriors who strike fear
into all who encounter them. I also take
issue with the way we depict Jesus’ mother Mary. She’s always portrayed as an absolute vision
of feminine perfection – sweet, flawlessly beautiful, kind, and
submissive. She’s often wearing either
white or blue and she’s always spotlessly clean; as if she is so pure that dirt
can’t even cling to her. But again, look
at what the Bible really says about her.
She’s never physically described, but you get a bit of her attitude from
the Magnificat, which we read in our gospel reading.
Us First World
people read this as a sweet poem of an innocent and immature teenage girl. But look at the words carefully. “[God] 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.”
These are the
words of a faith-filled person, but they are not words of meek
submissiveness. And who are the rich and
the powerful and the proud?
When I was in
seminary I had a class called “The Bible from the Underside.” It was studying scripture from a Third World
perspective. It was very helpful to
study the Bible from the perspective of scholars and theologians living in the
Third World. It was also very
unnerving. To them the proud and rich
and powerful was us.
Their portrayal
of us was not at all flattering. I like
to think of the United States as the place where people from all over the world
like to come. You get the feeling these
days that there are hordes of people wanting to cross the border each and every
day looking for opportunities and freedom.
I like the way my one friend from the Czech Republic describes the way
people there imagine the United States.
She says they imagine that in the United States life is so easy that cooked
pigeons just fall from the sky and into your mouth.
But that is not
the Third World. Their perspective of us
is that we are a global bully exerting imperial oppression over all. They see our economic policies leading to
their exploitation and perpetual impoverishment. To them the best thing that could happen to
the United States is for us to be crushed an annihilated. I
think they’re perspective is inaccurate, and it surely misses the complexity of
life in the United States and our global policies. Still, they probably do have a better handle
on what Mary is talking about.
They do not
picture Mary as a sweet teenage girl with an interesting poem. They see Mary as a fearsome prophet
proclaiming God’s guaranteed doom upon people whose lives are the way they
perceive ours to be. To some extent they
are wrong. But they’re also somewhat
right, and from that perspective these are not words we like to hear. We’re going to find a lot that we do not want
to hear in Luke’s gospel.
We tell ourselves
we are not rich. We are not
powerful. We are not exploitative or
oppressive. We can point to people and
leaders who are rich and powerful and oppressive, and they are not us.
But consider the
Third World perspective. And let’s
remember just how powerless many people in the world are. We don’t even realize the luxuries we have,
they are so basic to us. There are
basics that are obvious, like food and dependable clean water and heat and air
conditioning and that sort of thing. But
how about the even more basic?
I think we forget
just how rich you have to be in this world today in order to have a say in
where you live. Have you ever considered
that you are wealthy enough to afford a choice in where you live? I’m not talking about living in a mansion in
a gated community, I mean that you have the money and the freedom to determine
where you live. If the neighborhood
becomes violent or goes down the tubes you can afford to move elsewhere. You have options. If you own a house you may not want to move
if the neighborhood goes down the tubes because you’ll lose a bundle in the
sale, but you can still do it. Many
people in the world do not have such an option.
They live where they live because they have to. Moving away to a different or better area is
not an option.
If you’re working
and you lose your job you have options for another job. It might mean a pay cut or moving or a lower
standard of living, but you have options.
That makes you rich. Many people
don’t.
Consider the life
of Jesus’ mother Mary. She’s living in
Judea, an okay place to live but not a great place. She’s living under the economic and military
oppression of the Roman Empire. In
Chapter 2 we’ll read the well-known birth story of Jesus. We meet Mary and Joseph again, and this time
Mary’s on the point of delivering a child.
Why are they on a long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in such a
state? Because the Romans told them they
have to.
This is
abuse. This is oppression. This is being an occupied country under
imperial rule. This is life without
choices. If you know The Hunger Games
books and movies they give you a perspective of someone powerless living under
oppression. The people in the districts
are exploited so the people in the capitol can live in ease.
Now consider
Mary’s words: God will lower the proud, and powerful, and rich. God will raise up the lowly and the poor and
the oppressed. Things are being
reversed. The rich will now be
hungry. Mary is not a sweet teenager
with innocent desires who is so pure that not even dirt can attach itself to
her perfect clothes. This is a hopping
mad teenager looking forward to the vengeance God will deliver. It is not hers to deliver. It is God’s to deliver, and she is looking
forward to seeing it happen.
All of this could
make us feel very guilty. Perhaps we
should feel guilty when we consider how much we consume. But it is also a reminder to us of just how
privileged we are and how much freedom we have.
By privilege I’m not talking about money and luxuries and that sort of
thing. By privilege I mean things like
we have a justice system we can basically count on. We can go through daily life without having
to go through endless police checkpoints, or have to always have cash on hand
to pay bribes.
I’ll never forget
my dad’s stories about traveling around Zimbabwe. There were many police checkpoints where they
were stopped and questioned. But the
local my father was traveling with knew how to get through them. He always kept a stock of bottled water in
his car. Simply offer the police a
bottle of water in the middle of a hot summer day and they’ll usually let you
go through unquestioned.
Being free enough
and wealthy enough to choose where we want to live and who our neighbors are is
a privilege. We do have racial
inequality and gender inequality in our country, and they are things we have to
work on. But at least a woman is not a
piece of property to be possessed as in many other countries. At least if a woman is in an abuse marriage
she has options available to her. They
may not be easy, but they are options.
That was not the case for Mary as she speaks the words we read today.
Our thoughts and
prayers should be both thankfulness for what we do have, but also for those who
do not have. Those who live trapped in
this country or in others. Those who
have no hope. Those whose lives are so
bad that they turn to hatred and cruelty because it is the only thing they
have.
Mary’s words are
a promise of God’s action, but they are also a plea for all humanity to be
treated as such.
As agent of God’s
kingdom in this world we should not allow ourselves the luxury of sitting back
and letting others suffer. We should be
informed. We should keep our eyes open. We should act. I don’t mean protests and civil disobedience
and all that stuff, although if you feel moved to do it that is perfectly
fine. I mean being aware and caring and
knowing what you buy and what our leaders are doing. We do have power and we should use it. It is a blessing that God has given us. There is no greater joy and satisfaction than
using what you have in order to build and contribute to the lives of God’s
people. May you see ways that you can
enact the words of Mary and know the satisfaction of bringing God’s reign into
reality.
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