Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;
61:2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
61:3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion-- to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.
61:4 They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
61:8 For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
61:9 Their descendants shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the LORD has blessed.
61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
61:11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
Psalm 126
126:1 When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.
126:2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
126:3 The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.
126:4 Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb.
126:5 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.
126:6 Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.
Luke 1:46b-55
1:46b "My soul magnifies the Lord,
1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
1:48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
1:50 His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
1:51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
1:52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
1:53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
1:55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
5:16 Rejoice always,
5:17 pray without ceasing,
5:18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.
5:20 Do not despise the words of prophets,
5:21 but test everything; hold fast to what is good;
5:22 abstain from every form of evil.
5:23 May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
5:24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
John 1:6-8, 19-28
1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
1:7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
1:19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
1:20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, "I am not the Messiah."
1:21 And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No."
1:22 Then they said to him, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
1:23 He said, "I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,'" as the prophet Isaiah said.
1:24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.
1:25 They asked him, "Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?"
1:26 John answered them, "I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know,
1:27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal."
1:28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Yes, the passage from Isaiah is the one that Jesus quotes when, now an adult, he presents himself at temple for (again) the first time in Luke’s gospel. The gospel writers just love Isaiah. John seems to know Mark has already used Isaiah to introduce John the Baptist, because he does it again. But Isaiah presents us with an excellent example of what Moltmann described as the pathos of God. And what Isaiah begins, Mary’s Magnificat continues. Isaiah doesn’t always show up in direct quotation, or even direct reference. But he’s (they’re?) often around, especially in the lectionary this time of year.
Now, this is Gaudete, the Sunday when the church allowed a little more joy and a little less penitential gloominess into the preparation because Christmas is a celebration 🎉 of life, not of life over death ☠️. Lent concludes, after all, with Holy Week: Holy Wednesday, Maundy (Commandant) Thursday, Good Friday; the vigil by the tomb of Holy Saturday. Christmas Eve is a vigil of the church, too. But it ends not at sunrise, but midnight, because as of Xmas day: “Christ is born.” And that begins 12 days of Christmas celebrations which turns into several weeks of Epiphany celebrations, which culminates in the grand celebration of Mardi Gras, where the party ends at: exactly midnight on the morning of Ash Wednesday.
It’s a little cruel to be gloomy all four weeks of Advent when that’s the reason for the new church year in the first place. So Gaudete allowed rejoicing, and it included Mary’s sing of joy and praise and revolution: the Magnificat. It appears twice in the lectionary for year B (the lectionary is a three year cycle). The idea is to use it for one Sunday or the other, replacing the Psalm. But this isn’t a church service, and your only choice is to read this; or not. My choice is to repeat it for both Sundays this year, and leave the Psalm alone, too.
“My soul magnifies the Lord.” I love that line, but I must confess, I don’t know what it means. Walker Percy wrote a penetrating analysis of Isaiah 40, pondering why the prophet said:”All flesh is grass.” But it isn’t, Percy said. Flesh isn’t like grass at all!
How does one’s soul “magnify the Lord”? Like a magnifying lens? How is the soul like that? What does it mean to “magnify the Lord”?
In the 19th century German Biblical scholars began applying new principles to the analysis (exegesis) of scripture. Part of this was a result of Romanticism, which took folklore and old stories that weren’t Greek, out if the shadows and into the light. This study developed tools of analysis and definitions. Today literary criticism recognizes story genres if fable, parable, and tale from that scholarship. Unsurprisingly, it was turned on more familiar non-Greek writings: Bible.
The results were enlightening to some, startling and disturbing to others. It became a tool to criticize Christianity, although it’s a more effective tool of exegesis. And the school of criticism, called historical criticism, that this analysis was a part of, eventually spawned a counter-reaction in America in the early 20th century. Thus came fundamentalism.
If historical criticism treated scripture as a text among texts, fundamentalism treated it as a sacred object directly from the hand of God. Historical criticism explained metaphor; fundamentalism eliminated metaphor, treating every word of scripture as literal. I’ve often wondered what a literal interpretation of Mary’s song would look like. The powerful are thrown down from their thrones? The rich are sent away with nothing, and the hungry eat? Mary puts that in the past tense; doesn’t that mean it’s already happened? Did I miss it? Is it going to happen? I haven’t heard this preached on TV, or, well, ever, by a fundamentalist or “evangelical” preacher, either as literal statements or metaphors.
I’ll come back to Mary’s song next week. For now it’s enough to note that Mary is singing about God’s justice, and you can’t approach that, or understand it, literally. John’s gospel says the Baptizer baptizes with water, but Jesus will baptize with fire. Again, not literal, but the metaphor is much more in keeping with Mary’s song. As Dom Crossan will have Jesus say: “When you start a fire, you want it to burn.”🔥 what good is a revolution if you don’t mean to revolutionize things?
Both the Baptizer and Mary are talking about revolution. Both are talking about justice.
Justice is a concept, not an actual thing. You really can’t discuss anything to with God literally. Even approaching God is to enter the cloud of unknowing. Perhaps Paul means that when he tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. If you take that literally, what else can you do? Be a monastic, I suppose, and define even your daily chores as prayer. I don’t have a problem with that; but I don’t know of any fundamentalist monastic communities.
And the irony is, American fundamentalism gave rise to Islamic fundamentalism, in rather the same way the Nazis learned how to legislate racism and eugenics from early 20th century American law (the scientific application of fundamentalism). What would the world look like if, instead of defending the idea of the “word of God,” we had tried as hard to implement the ideas of the Magnificat and Paul’s words to his church in Thessalonika?
This is Gaudete Sunday. Rejoice always . Pray without ceasing. “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil. And you will at least be like John, a voice crying out in the wilderness. Don’t worry about that. Some of the best people are in the wilderness. Metaphorically speaking. Let your soul magnify the Lord; and if you can, tell me what that’s like.
And may the God of peace sanctify you entirely.
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