It is with wonder and awe I open the Bible to The Magnificat, taken from the Gospel in Luke 1:46-55. My wonder is the Blessed Virgin Mary, a woman chosen by God. My awe is teachings from the Bible, a gift from God. After experiencing a Pentecostal background both Biblically and ministerially I have been led to the Episcopal world of ministry. Once again, I am like a new Christian which can be both exhilarating and new.

As I reflect on the Magnificat, it is the words of the prayer of praise of Mary. It is the essential link between humility and holiness. God recognized a handmaid when the angel Gabriel shared with her of the impending birth of Christ. We may never be able to approach Jesus from Mary’s level of sanctity as the Mother of God. Although we are offered her words in response to Elizabeth’s greeting, glorifying God and thanking Him for choosing her to bear His Son. This prayer of praise is used all over the world and through many faiths.

Mary was chosen by God through whom the Messiah came. The announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary is called The Annunciation. It is dear to the world because it is a prophecy of the Savior Jesus Christ’s birth, to foretell of the grace and peace that would come to mankind from God through Jesus Christ.

No matter how the world is changing around us, God’s goodness is unmatched, we can trust in Him (Nahum 1:7: Exodus 33:19; Psalm 25:8; 34:8; Matthew 19:17.) I trust and remain in wonder and awe of the privilege to read the Word of God, and today to hear the word of Mary’s praise.

Our Father in heaven, thank you for your Mercy and Grace. Thank you for never leaving us. Thank you for sharing the words of Mary so that we may feel and hear her response. I pray I would say yes to anything asked of me. Forgive us when we don’t thank you enough. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
-Acacia Kimball

The Magnificat is a response to some pretty esoteric stuff: a virgin, an angel, a message from God, a kingdom without end. And the virgin’s acceptance of all this with extraordinary simplicity, innocence, and trust. And then the exuberant exultation as this powerless, vulnerable maiden suddenly finds herself vaulted into the arena of world events. Was I ever so young and trusting? I would more likely have said, “I know this is your plan, Lord, but…geez!” Mary just said “yes” and became the bearer of the Son who brought good news to a broken society and ultimately to a broken world.

Israel saw healings and forgiveness, saw the lowest cared for, their humanity acknowledged, their place in society restored. Then the scales of justice slowly began to move into balance. The lowly were lifted up, the powerful were brought down. With this maiden-mother’s son God deposed the tetrarch and his collaborators. Down through the centuries, her name became a prayer for many while the titles of powerful men turned to dust. Her child grew to manhood and overwhelmed an empire with mercy.

God had rocked the world in order to fulfill an ancient covenant. God’s people would see that he had not given up on them, even though they had forgotten their part of the bargain. God kept faith because that’s what God does. This is good news for the world, and for me.

Even when I fall, the Holy One lifts me. The events that seem to rule my life are nothing compared to him. He loved me from birth, took me as his own at baptism, and promised me his eternal love. Can I return that love, every day? Can I love what he loves? Can I exalt his name forever? That is my prayer.

O Holy One, may I love you and praise you daily, love those you love, and answer yes when you call. Amen.
-Carol Treston

The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed. – 1 Samuel 2:10

The word that comes to mind when I see this passage is “braggadocio”. Also, the name of a font found in Microsoft Word, it means “empty boasting, arrogant pretension: cockiness” according to the Merriam-Webster website. My mental picture of this word is a combination of the song “We Will Rock You” by Queen, an MMA fighter trash-talking their opponent, and the yelp Tim Taylor makes in the TV show “Home Improvement”. I mean, Hannah sings about the Lord’s adversaries being “shattered”—that is not a mild statement!

In the context of the rest of Hannah’s song, however, it works well. Much like today, she was perceived to be weak as a woman, and there were political powers at play where she lived that threatened her and her people. Israel had judges, but they would frequently stray from the path dictated by the Ten Commandments and the 613 laws in Leviticus, resulting in the Lord sending some foreign nation to rule over them for a bit to punish them. At any moment, some massive foreign power could come in and rule over them again. I mean, the last verse in the book of Judges talks about how “in those days there was no king in Israel” and “all the people [doing] what was right in their own eyes.” (Judges 21:25, NRSV) There is about to be a takeover, and Israel might not come out on top in this one. The belief that the Lord was going to “shatter” the adversaries would be incredibly comforting because it meant that the Lord was in control and everything was going to work out in the end.

Is our world that much different today? Are we living in a situation where we feel like we are being ruled by enemy forces in the form of the other political party? What side is the Lord on, anyway? We need to take heart that the Lord has a plan for all of this and what is right will triumph in the end.

This is my Father’s world;
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is king, let the heavens ring;
God reigns, let the earth be glad!
Lutheran Book of Worship #554
-Jen McCabe

He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. – 1 Samuel 2:9

I was betrayed by a friend. It happened years ago. The details aren’t important, but I was betrayed and left for dead. Darkness surrounded me on all sides; there was no light to be seen or perceived. It was such despair that the platitudes of God always being there – footprints in the sand – God being on the side of the righteous – none of that mattered.

None of that “God is there even when you don’t see him” would be true for me until I reached the end of that part of my journey. It wasn’t until I had hit the other shore that I could look back and see that God, indeed, had been there. But if you had told me that in the midst of my grief, the midst of my travail, I would have made some unsavory suggestions of what you could do with your platitudes and good cheer. Despair frightens all of us, with good reason, but we should not sugar-coat it, hide it, or deny it. It is a critical part of the human experience – the detritus out of which the real presence of Christ can grow.

It isn’t until one is past the night that one can see the dawn begin to break. I kept the faith, not because I had any, but because God kept it for me. That allows the prayer of Hannah to become the prayer of my heart.

God, you guard the feet of your faithful ones. Even if we don’t feel it or believe it, you guard us all because of your great love. When our lives grow dark, be there with us. We do not need the light as long as we are held in your warm, strong embrace. Let us not worry about prevailing, but about staying deep within your soft hands! Amen.
-Fr. Keith Axberg

He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world. – 1 Samuel 2:8

The Bible is replete with passages that hew to a theme cherished by many of us who grew up in the ‘60s: “The arc of history bends toward justice.” Back then it was a theme made particularly relevant by Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, and the Vietnam War. For Cold War kids like me, who were in high school and college during that period, it was a theme we embraced with all the brash confidence of youth, in spite of the chaos that seemed to engulf us. It’s one I stubbornly cling to even as I enter my dotage — even after losing faith in the power of Woodstock Nation to realize it.

Truth be told, I think we failed our children and grandchildren to a great extent. To be fair, the country we helped shape has made a lot of progress in terms of social justice, but the world as a whole seems more sharply divided between the princes and the poor — and the evening news just seems to underscore the disparities between those few with a seat at the table and the multitudes still mired in the ash heap. Today, the vigorous optimism of youth is being gradually replaced in my heart with a calmer and more abiding faith that justice and reconciliation are in far more capable hands than mine.

The promise of 1 Samuel 2:8 will come about, but it will happen in the Lord’s time. For those of you fond of wordplay, you might think of it as the “arc” of the covenant. If you consider the mission statement of St. Paul’s, our role and that of our children, grandchildren, and generations to come, is not so much to bend the bow of justice, but to do our best not to thwart the power of the Lord to fulfill the promise of 1 Samuel. Not that we could.

Lord, we believe that God is healing and restoring the world and that we are recipients and participants in that healing and restoration. May your love give us the strength, courage, wisdom, and compassion to live into our faith. Amen.
-Michael Boss

The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. – 1 Samuel 2:7

I think we have all had that moment where we wish our circumstances were different. Maybe we were the bullied child in school and wished our bully would be brought down, or perhaps we had a supervisor who persecuted us, and we wished that Human Resources would catch on and fire the person. Whatever the situation, it is almost universal that we would be in a situation in life where we were on the wrong side of a power dynamic.

In today’s verse, Hannah has just had her power dynamic shifted. Previously the barren wife of Elkanah, she has now been blessed with a son. Her status and worth as a woman and a wife would have been based on her ability to bear children, so now she has been transformed from the lowest of women to a position of strength.

A twist of this story that is in the previous chapter is that once she bore him, she gives him back to God for ministry. It is an interesting twist because it reminds us that everything we have belongs to God—we have nothing that is our own. Understanding this is the key to true richness.

As for her son, he became the prophet and judge Samuel. You might have heard of him?

Lord, help us to remember that nothing we own is of our own making—everything we have comes from you. Help us to share our riches that your name might be glorified and your work on earth be magnified. Amen.
-Jen McCabe