The World is About to Turn

Scripture

 Luke 1:46b-55

^46b My soul magnifies the Lord,
⁴⁷       and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸  for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
          Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
⁴⁹  for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
          and holy is his name.
⁵⁰  His mercy is for those who fear him
          from generation to generation.
⁵¹  He has shown strength with his arm;
          he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
⁵²  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
          and lifted up the lowly;
⁵³  he has filled the hungry with good things,
          and sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴  He has helped his servant Israel,
          in remembrance of his mercy,
⁵⁵  according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
          to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”    (NRSV)

 

Devotion

Mary's Magnificat is one of people's favorite Advent texts.  Here, we see a lowly peasant girl rejoicing in the great things that God both has done and is doing in her life.  Her personal story of personal blessing and thanksgiving mirrors the story of all Israel.  Throughout scripture, the Mighty One constantly lifts up this small, humble people and empowers them to do great things. Mary rejoices that the long-awaited Messiah will soon arrive to lift up the lowly, fulfill the needs of all those who hunger, and save the people from their distress.

All of this lifting up cannot occur unless some significant tearing down is also done.  Mary describes the Savior's strength as being shown in the way God topples powerful (and presumably corrupt) leaders from their thrones, scatters those who are proud, and sends those who already have more than enough away with empty hands/bellies.  The Savior is about to turn the entire world order on its head. 

Mary's song is one of hope...but it is also one of challenge.  It challenges us to look at our lives and honestly assess whether we are among those who need lifted up...or those who are about to be torn from their thrones.  Based on what we have and how we treat others, is God more likely to fill our lives with good things or deem that we have already received more than our fair share?

These kinds of questions are particularly challenging for people who live in the United States of America.  The United States is the richest nation in the world.  It is also the nation with the most unequal distribution of wealth on Earth.  Billionaires line their pockets with more money then they could ever spend, while a greater and greater percentage of the population faces food and housing insecurity.   The negative effects of such gross disparity is made clear in the faces of students who regularly come to school so hungry for food that it is hard for them to learn...and in retirees who don't have enough money to both buy their medications and keep their lights on.  And as the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, middle class pockets get squeezed even tighter.

What's happening in our nation is also happening on a global scale.  The Allianz Global Wealth Report 2020 demonstrates that not only is the wealth gap between nations is widening and world's middle class is also declining at an alarming rate.  Globally speaking, the top 10% of households owned roughly 84% of total wealth in 2019... and private households in North America hold almost half of the world's financial assets.  Based on current data, Allianz expects this trend to have only gotten worse in 2020.  And as more money and power fall into the hands of a relative few people at the top, life continues to get harder for everyone else.

So where do these statistics leave us in relation to the Gospel?  At the very least, they should cause us to re-evaluate our personal and national relationships with wealth.  If we have more than enough, then it is incumbent upon us to help lift up others, lest we become the tyrants that God tears down from the thrones of wealth and power.  If we are truly among the poor and the lowly, then we can stay committed to serving God and helping one another as we can, because we know that (sooner or later) God is going to turn the world around.  After all, it was the least, the lost, and the brokenhearted who first experienced the joy that was serving Christ.  

Friends, surely the time of the coming of our Savior is near.  We may not see him in our lifetime, but he comes closer to us every day.  So let each take heart and do our part to help overturn all that is unjust and unequal in our world.  And as we do so, let us take heart and rejoice.  Let us lift up our voice and sing with Mary about God's greatness, for the world is about to turn.

 

 

Prayer

God, you challenge us to rethink what it means to be prosperosu