Songs of Justice; Songs of Hope

 My Friends, 

 

This weekend marks the beginning of the season of Advent. The word “advent” is the Latin term for “coming” and the Season of Advent is the time that we spend deliberately preparing for the coming of Jesus on Christmas. It is the tradition here and in many Christian churches to spend the four weekends prior to Christmas preparing for our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations. (We do not typically have worship on Christmas Day, but this year Christmas is on a Sunday, so we will!) 

 

For this season, we will be looking at four “Songs” in Luke’s story about Christmas. Perhaps they are not songs proper, but they are poetic in nature, something you can see visually when you read your Bible and the words are arranged in poetic meter, rather than in prose paragraphs. 

 

The songs that we will read together are Mary’s “Magnificat,” Zechariah’s “Benedictus,” Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis,” and the angels’ “Gloria.” Generally, I don’t like using Latinate terms because I associate the prevalence of Latin with that part of the church’s past when the radicality of following Jesus was compromised as the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire. (That process, the association of the church’s missionary movements with colonization, and the use of Christianity to support racism in the US are what I consider the three greatest sins of our church history.) But, alas, Latinisms are so tightly bound to the history and language of the church that they cannot always be avoided. So, I use the term “Advent” and these titles for the songs with ambivalence. I appreciate the faithfulness that our tradition has handed down over the last two millennia, and I grieve the brokenness and sinfulness that has always been a part of our tradition.  

 

Mary’s “Magnificat” is so called because when her song – which begins with the words, “My soul magnifies the Lord” – was translated into Latin, “Magnificat” is how the word “magnifies” was translated. Likewise, Zechariah’s “Benedictus” is the Latin translation of his opening word that is translated in English Bibles as “Blessed.” (It’s a different word from the first word of the Beatitudes.) And then there’s Simeon’s song, historically called “Nunc Dimittis” because that’s the Latin for the first words, “Now dismiss.” And finally, the angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest,” the first word of which in Latin is “Gloria.” So, there’s Latin all over this Advent season for us. My two whole weeks of studying Latin in graduate school better pay off! 

 

We are calling this time of preparation, “Songs of Justice; Songs of Hope.” And here I will share a story that I’ve shared before, but it is golden: Soren Kierkegaard once went to a Christmas worship service and noticed that the wealthiest people were there, dressed in finery and seated in their paid seats in the ornate sanctuary. Then, someone began singing Mary’s Magnificat. You can find it in Luke 1:46-56. It speaks of God bringing down the high places, lifting up the low, filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty. Kierkegaard began laughing and expected everyone else to join in. But, as he looked around, nobody was laughing with him and he was perplexed. Surely they must have been hearing Mary’s words as a joke, because if they were serious words the people gathered on that day were hearing of their own demise. No one laughed, but it appeared that no one took Mary’s words seriously either. Is that really what we expect with the coming of the Christ? 

 

Kierkegaard was on to something. Mary’s song is about justice. It is more akin to a protest song from Woody Guthrie, or a spiritual that decries slavery than a beautiful aria that displays vocal prowess. It stirs the imagination, loosens our grip on the status quo of inequality, and equips us to see all persons living without excess or deprivation. So, too, are all the songs in Luke’s story. They are songs of justice and songs of hope. 

May God give us ears to hear, mouths to join the song, and hearts that are ready for the great transformation that Jesus’ birth brings. 

 

Mark of St. Mark