Reading: Luke 1:46-56
And Mary said,
I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.
Occasionally I like to read from Eugene Peterson’s The Message to refreshen familiar texts. I usually don’t like it much for poetic passages such as this one, known as Mary’s Magnificat.. I really don’t like the first verse: “I’m bursting with God-news,”—the wording is too contrived for me.
But I do like the second line: I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.” For someone who is so happy that they burst into song, dancing around is just as normal as clapping or arm-pumping—or something! Even professional football players in the NFL can’t keep from celebrating touchdowns, even incurring penalties for “celebration”!
Sometimes people in church want to throw yellow flags for celebrating also. On this day, Mary might have gotten a penalty! But fortunately, nobody threw a flag, so years later her song is still being sung to celebrate the fact that God is with us!
Her themes are familiar to us after our daily readings from the prophets: Our God, who worked mightily in the past, leveling mountains and raising valleys, leveling nations and raising the oppressed, leveling the economy so that the gap between rich and poor disappears, our God has acted in this world to prepare it for The Coming!
His mercy flows in wave after wave before him.! I need wave after wave of mercy to prepare me for The Coming. What if God had asked the question: how often should I forgive him? Seven times? Even seventy times seven? I would have been lost. But his mercy flows in wave after wave, He piled on the mercies, piled them high, so I too can dance before the Almighty God.
Mary’s faith had been confirmed by her relative Elizabeth. She stayed until Elizabeth’s ninth month—perhaps long enough to celebrate John’s birth with this special older couple!
Now she had to prepare herself to have her own baby. I think she danced every day!
The Coming is near! Can you dance?
Mark's Blog 
Leave a Reply