Women in the Bible: Mary in Luke's Gospel

           In the narrative surrounding the Magnificat, Luke weaves the birth stories of John and Jesus into a tapestry of joyful songs, hope for the oppressed, and miraculous announcements by heavenly beings.  When Gabriel announces the pregnancy to Mary, she shows her obedience by hurrying to Elizabeth’s house.  When Mary first speaks to her, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps and she is able to interpret her baby’s movement like Rebecca in Gen 25:21.  They are the first to realize the significance of the child Mary is carrying.  Elizabeth is then filled with the Holy Spirit and blesses Mary and her baby.  While John is a character whose birth is significant enough to require an angelic announcement, Elizabeth acknowledges Mary’s superiority in the situation.  This leads Mary to burst into a ballad of praise for God’s blessing of her and for bringing about the eschatological hopes of Israel.  Luke’s narration brings the movement of the story to a complete halt after Mary meets with Elizabeth.  The purpose of this deliberate slowing is hermeneutical – that is, to ensure that his audience understands the significance of the angel’s proclamation to Mary, her conception, and the blessing pronounced by Elizabeth – and that meaning is rooted in the covenantal purpose of God.

          The intent of God, as described in the Magnificat, functions as a foretaste of what the major themes of Luke-Acts will be.  Mary’s hymn, which is a prophecy of Jesus’ significance in Luke, has an emphasis on women, the poor, the reversal of fortunes between the arrogant and the lowly, and the fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham.  Mary’s Song juxtaposes the lots of the proud, mighty, and rich against the lowly and hungry: the former are scattered, put down, and sent away hungry, while the latter are exalted and filled.  This is the core of Luke’s gospel: Jesus is good news to all, but especially to those who have none.  In the Synoptic Gospels, the evangelists show Jesus’ concern for outcasts; but Luke places a special emphasis on those who are on the periphery.  This binary of the powerful and the lowly anticipates a major theme of the Lukan narrative.  He focuses on reversals where the rich and powerful are frustrated, while the lowly know true exaltation.  The opponents of Jesus (and therefore God’s purpose) are characters who desire positions of honor and who exclude the less fortunate and socially unacceptable from their live.  The Magnificat is more than simply a joyous scene of praise; it is an integral part of the introduction to what the good news means to Luke and the lens through which to read Luke-Acts.  The poor and the lowly have cause to lift their voices and join Mary in song! 

Light

After reading 2 Corinthians 3, I was moved to write about how some of Paul's words about what Jesus' resurrection has meant not only to all people but also to me personally and I shared this with my church family on Sunday...

During high school, I had an amazing senior year. I had easy classes, lots of fun with friends, and I even was prom queen. But I didn’t take Christianity that seriously. It was something I did on Sunday but it didn’t let it permeate into the rest of my life. But towards the end of year, tragedy stuck – I had 3 friends commit suicide all around the same time. I fell into a deep and dark depression. It was like the whole world lost all of its color. Anything but sadness became absolutely foreign to me. After months of this I realized I needed help getting out of the pit I had fallen into. I turned to Christ ad began to pursue him wholeheartedly. Today we will me listening meditating and hearing a sermon on 2 Corinthians 3. Paul speaks of there being a major world shift before and after Christ’s sacrifice. One of the prominent metaphors Paul uses to talk about the state of the world before and after Christ’s resurrection is light. Before Christ’s resurrection no one could stand to look at God’s glory – the world could only glimpse the shadow of God in the world. It was as if everyone only saw in black in white or only a shadow of the true world. But after Christ, the world became bright and filled with light and color. Christ’s sacrifice made this all possible. The world is now a completely different place because of Him. So today I would like you to meditate on what areas of your life that Christ has brought light to or may still need to. Maybe it was depression or drug abuse. Or maybe you still need to ask God to shine the light of his glory into those areas of your life. Let us pray and thank Jesus for his sacrifice so that we can live a life that people only dreamed of before Christ. Let us thank Him and remember the sacrifice he gave because he loved us so much that he could not stand to let us walk around in darkness any longer. Let us thank him that we can live in boldness and freedom with our hearts unveiled to the love of Christ.

One Life to Live

I especially have one particular flaw that surfaces from time to time - especially around birthdays and special occasions - that life just goes too fast and I do not deal well with that. I am not even very old and almost every birthday I have a midlife crisis! (After all, who knows when midlife is for each of us? I guess I just try to be on the safe side and freak out every year, just in case.)  Sometimes I just look around and realize everything is completely different than it was even a year ago.  I lost my uncle to a quick and terrible bout of cancer, 
I moved across the country, started an M. Div. at a new school, lost and made some new friends, am living away from my family for the first time, became ordained, have a new dog, and am finally doing better with my stomach problems. Most of that was unseen this time last year! I worry that I am going to list a life with impoverished experiences, that I will not be able to fulfill my goals and dreams, that I will live an average life, and that I will lose people I love to distance or death. (Some thoughts are more ridiculous than others are. I distinctly remember stressing out that I hadn't slept in the desserts of Morocco with Bedouins yet, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro -which I don't even climb mountains, received my Ph. D, read every classic book, learned to play the piano, or revolutionized the world of women's ministry in the Christian Church by publishing Bible studies that are actually well-researched and not just craziness, and so on and so on.) 


My wonderful husband, however, once again reminded me how contrary this is to the faith I proclaim.  It is in fact only through the faith I possess that I am actually able to live fully and to live beyond the base ideas of what a "good" life are. It is only by living completely sold out on the idea of the God of Love and the Grace of Christ that I am able to live a life that means much of anything in the end.

I heard a great story today on the two men who started Alcoholics Anonymous in the 1930's. To this day the first Sunday of every June, hundreds and thousands of people gather at their gravesites to remember and thank these men who lived their lives completely sold out for God and have saved so many from alcoholism. One woman who they interviewed said that her son was in AA. She said she gave birth to him around 30 years ago, but that AA gave him life again last year. She began to weep uncontrollably (I was as well at this point). What a beautiful legacy to leave!