“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant."Luther, in his work on the Magnificat, LW 21, suggests that God’s high regard toward Mary, is rooted in nothing in herself, but, rather, in God’s grace alone. If anything of Mary is to be praised, it is her lowliness, a lowliness perhaps shared by us all in our seeming insignificance.
As Luther states it; “. . . not her humility but God’s regard is to be praised.” p. 314
As we prepare to proclaim the Gospel on this coming Sunday, will it be the magnificence of the Godhead entering our world, or the wonder of God’s condecension that will mostly truly conveigh the Good News of the incarnation, the true wonder of the Gospel?
I deeply appreciate the emphasis of a renowned Mill Creek theologian and practitioner of Celebratory Pietism who - when speaking of Christmas preaching - points primarily to the Kenosis named in Philippians 2:
Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross.As we venture forth in our preparations for Christmas proclamation, I wonder at this. That no matter how much stuff gets tacked on to Christmas, in the end, what shines through, is the utter humility of God entering our world in this way.
Peace to you this Christmas!
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I’ve liked this from a sermon I remember reading in 1987, the first Christmas I was serving my first call. I saw it today on textweek.com
"The Mary in Us All," Ronald Goetz, The Christian Century, 1987
"Without acknowledging that we are, in our virgin beginnings, the humble, barefooted recipients of a grace and a call that are the foundation of all we can ever hope to accomplish, our civilization loses all perspective and our power inevitably corrupts us. We could do worse than to claim Mary as our patron saint, she who was the simple and pure recipient of the grace of the Holy Spirit."
and this rich paragraph has imagery that is quite striking. . .
"Certainly we are not to remain passive recipients. We are engraced so as to be active and creative. But at the root of everything is God’s initiative and grace. We cannot create ourselves, we cannot redeem ourselves, we cannot "ascend into heaven. . . to bring Christ down" and we cannot "descend into the abyss, to bring Christ up from the dead." Everything that is comes from God. Every hope we have for the redemption of all things comes from God. If we think seriously in these terms -- upon which the Reformation was itself grounded -- how can we fail to realize that we have all been made pregnant by God’s grace? We are all Mary."
I liked this from the main link on textweek.com this week. It is from Christian Century, December 11, 1974, by Dr. Conrad Hyers prof of comparative mythology and the history of religions at Gustavus Adolphus College. (Has anyone ever heard of this guy?)
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts;
He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree. [Luke 1:51-52, RSV]
There is something peculiarly biblical in these words from the Magnificat of Mary. And though the immediate Christian inclination has been to interpret them in terms of a drama of sin and salvation, their peculiarity is more fully appreciated in terms of the genre of comedy. There is -- as the imagery itself might indicate -- a remarkable affinity between the biblical tradition and the comic tradition which has too often been neglected because of misgivings over drawing upon such associations. Still, the themes of ‘scattering the proud" and ‘putting down" the mighty, while elevating the lowly in their stead, are an important part of the symbolism of comedy, and of the ancient repertoire of clowns and fools.
[and]
Though both Matthew and Luke make a special effort to demonstrate Jesus’ Messianic legitimacy by placing him in the royal line of David, no effort at all is made to "dress up" the obscurity and lowly estate of his birth. If anything, these elements are emphasized as part of the inner plot and meaning of his nativity. They are the "point of the joke," so to speak, the form of the divine folly.
One more thing, I didn't want to put all this on my opening Ramble. After this, I'm done. Promise.
This is from the opening paragraph of Luther on the Magnificat
When the holy virgin experienced what great things God was working in her despite her insignificance, lowliness, poverty, and inferiority, the Holy Spirit taught her this deep insight and wisdom, that God is the kind of Lord who does nothing but exalt those of low degree and put down the mighty from their thrones, in short, break what is whole and make whole what is broken. LW 21 p. 299
Good news for a clown and a fool, to be sure, at which I surely do excel.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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