What I’m Thinking: Real World Reversal

The Christmas gift is so precious to the spirit, to the heart, that we may forget that it has power for events in the broader world. Mary’s Song reminds us that God’s grace may reverse the places of powerful and powerless, rich and poor.

Here’s a transcript:

It’s tempting to not think this week, because the young people at Church of the Holy Cross have charge of the message this coming Sunday. It’s time for the annual Christmas Pageant, to bring out the shepherds and the angels and all the animals and, of course, the child in the manger.

Nevertheless I am thinking, at least a little bit, this week about the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, found in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel (Luke 1:39-55). This young woman, who was in the midst of such wondrous events, managed to put the words together in a way that has come down over the centuries and continues to echo in our minds and our hearts:

• About a reversal of the world,
• About the rich being sent away empty, and
• About the hungry being filled.

It is so easy to make Christmas into an overly spiritualized observance, to see this child as somehow or other coming to make us feel better. But Mary knew – his mother knew – before he was even born, that God is interested in the hard and the fast, the physical realities of our world. And so it is well to think about the better world that Mary thought.

It is well to think about it, and to work toward seeing it come to be.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear about what you’re thinking. Leave your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.