24/12/2024
Christmas Message
The Magnificat from Luke’s gospel (Luke 46-56) is one of the most famous Christian songs, whispered in monasteries, chanted in cathedrals, recited in bush churches by candlelight and set to music with trumpets and kettle drums by Bach
It is the gospel before the gospel, a fierce bright shout of triumph thirty weeks before Bethlehem, thirty years before Calvary and Easter.
It’s all about God, it’s all about revolution and it’s all because of Jesus, recently conceived, not yet born but who made Elizabeth’s baby “leap [for Joy] in her womb (Luke 1:41) and made Mary giddy with excitement, hope and triumph.
The intimate details are revealed to us by Luke, with the Holy Spirit carrying Elizabeth into shouted praise “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:42) and Mary into her Song of Praise
Underneath it all is a celebration of God. God has taken the initiative, God the Lord, the Saviour, the powerful one, the Holy one, the merciful one, the faithful one has - “done great things … lifted up the lowly … filled the hungry … helped … Israel” (Luke 1:51-55)
It is this God, our God, the Living God, the creator of the universe and all things, the lover of all humankind, the Father of Mary’s baby, it is this God that gives Elizabeth and Mary reason to celebrate – “My soul magnifies the Lord … my spirit rejoices in God my saviour” (Luke 1:47)
And today it is this very same God who gives us reason to celebrate also, his love poured out through Mary’s baby, His son Jesus of Nazareth and the hope he brought into the world through his life, ministry, death resurrection and ascension.
The bringer of God’s love, grace, mercy, forgiveness and justice and “what does the Lord require of [us] but to do justice, and to love kindness and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8) as Mary and Elizabeth both did "as we rejoice in God[our] saviour ... who has done great things ... Holy is his name" (Luke 1:46-49)