This week, we’re looking at the song of Mary.
If you ask me, it’s massively underrated.
We’ll look at who Mary was in more detail on Thursday, but she was Jesus’s mother. A young Jewish woman, most likely a teenager, she totally knew the music of her culture.
Growing up, I sang Mary’s song at school and in choirs, in very high-sounding English, to tunes I didn’t much care for. And it was called by its Latin name, the ‘magnificat.’
What strikes me now though is what people didn’t say. No one said, “Hey, you want to know what Christmas is about? Read Mary’s song.” When I heard someone explain the good news, they would give me an analogy or a diagram. No one pointed to this song.
I guess that’s partly because Mary was writing within the Jewish tradition – which the church hasn’t studied well. And maybe some parts of the church prefer to think of Mary as a musician, but not a theologian.
Whatever. I get to appreciate the song now.
Let’s start by looking at the timeline briefly.
Jesus was probably born between 6 BCE and 4 BCE.
So, very close to when our calendar switches from BCE to CE. And there’s no year zero. Our current system was devised about 500 years after Jesus lived, by a monk called Dionysius the Humble (or ‘Dennis the Insignificant’). He calculated the date when Jesus took human form and made that year 1, for the first year, like you would the first year a king’s reign.
Except his calculations were a little off. Whoops.
The church still uses this dating system though and refers to years as BC (Before Christ) or AD (Anno Domini – that’s Latin for ‘year of our Lord’). So, for example, you’d talk about “44 BC” or “44 before Christ” and then “AD 79” or “Anno Domini 79” or “the year of our Lord, 79”. As you can see, this terminology is a bit quirky with “BC” coming after the year and “AD” coming before; perhaps unsurprisingly, we now have the much more modern abbreviations BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) that refer to the same dates.
Meanwhile, until 1752, the British calendar year began on March 25 – nine months before December 25. Because the church set the date of Jesus’ conception as March 25, it was deemed that that’s when the calendar year should begin.
And now you know.
A short look at the Bible
Today’s reading is Luke 1:39–56. It tells the story of how Mary went to visit her older cousin Elizabeth (we’ll look at Elizabeth’s story in more detail next week). Mary sang her song in response to Elizabeth’s greeting. Have a read.
Jewish women in the ancient world cared deeply about having children. Being a mother brought social status and financial security, because continuing the family line was a Very Big Deal. And, of course, having kids can be immensely fun and rewarding.
By the time Mary sang this song, she knew she would bear Jesus, and Elizabeth was also six months pregnant with her first child. For both women, bearing children was a big deal. But having sons who were long foretold by the prophet Isaiah? That went way beyond their expectations.
That’s why Mary’s song is so thankful that God ‘noticed’ her. She hadn’t expected it, she was a nobody from a poor family. But God had turned her into a somebody and she was excited.
One thing I love is how unashamed Mary is. In her culture, people thought about collective communities far more than individual people. But Mary enthusiastically proclaims what God has done for her as an individual.
Not only that, but she says all generations will call her blessed. Christians interpret this a prophecy for how the church would honour Mary over the centuries to come. And it’s true that Mary is revered in the church, and the Roman Catholic church in particular.
But is that what she had in mind? Because it sounds more like a reference to the early origin stories of the Jewish people.
The first patriarch, Abraham, didn’t have any children until he and his wife Sarah were both in their old age. Though both Abraham and Sarah were quite flawed individuals, they have been remembered with honour ever since. The Jewish people believe that through the Sarah’s son Isaac, and his descendants, all peoples of the earth would be blessed.
I wonder whether Mary was comparing herself and her child, to Sarah and Sarah’s son. If so, that’s pretty bold.
And it’s an awesome piece of theology.
Invitation to pray
We each pray in our own way; some of the best advice I had was ‘Pray as you can, not as you can’t.’ So I offer an invitation to pray – not an instruction.
What would it mean for you to feel ‘noticed’ in a good way? Tell God about the areas of your life that you would like to be known for. Offer them up to him and ask him to nurture them so that you find achievement and satisfaction in them.
All posts in the series can be found via the tag Xmas2020.