Advent's Magnificat as Political Reflection - Luke 1:46-56
As we move into the Advent season, it is appropriate to reassess our political leanings, along with the policies and platforms we support, endorse, or support. That is not simply because we are political creatures. It is also because Advent is actually a political endeavor.
Advent is waiting. Advent is expectation. Advent is looking to see God's reign brought to bear upon the earth. That has overtones and implications for our politics, since, at their heart, politics are about relationships. They are systems to order all of our relationships and interactions with one another. While God's reign may not be a political institution of this world, it has some very particular themes and demands upon those relationships codified in our legal structures.
One of the primary Advent texts is found in Luke 1:46-56, in which Luke places in Mary's mouth the essential meaning and importance of the message of God come to earth. We find here a statement on how God's reign would impact the structure and essence of human relationships, economics, and politics. The main theme of the text is that of reversal, or turning the world upside down from its normal patterns of structure and behavior.
Mary looks at her lowly state and sees how God has reversed her position and importance in the world by choosing her to bear Messiah. God's interests in her words were to care for those considered lowly in the eyes of society. The prophets had consistently mentioned this as an essential issue behind God's recriminations of the nations, including Israel and Judah. Injustice toward the poor and powerless was the standard rationale for exile and God's judgment. In the Messianic reign Jesus would preach, God's love and care for the outcasts of society would be front and center.
Mary speaks of God's mercy for those living in fear of God. She grasped that God's greatest character trait was dealing in mercy, compassion, and grace. She understood and proclaimed the centrality of grace in restoring people to relationship with God. God was not treating her in a way that would make her fear, but showering her with grace the society around her would deny her. While the gossip mill was full of recrimination for her pregnancy out of wedlock, she understood that God was more concerned for her well-being.
Mary speaks of an upheaval between the powerful and important according to human political definitions and the importance God gives the lowly. Israel itself had been selected as God's people because they were a nation of no account. They were wandering nomads, then slaves in Egypt, but God selected them to a position of honor. They were then charged to treat the voiceless and powerless in their midst with grace, protecting them from oppression of any and all kinds.
Mary speaks of God's economic reversals, granting the wealthy less importance than the poor whom God wishes to provide from abundance. As we will see in Jesus, the wealthy already had their needs met. The religiously powerful had position and prominence. Jesus would rather much ignore them in favor of reaching out to the needs of the poor and otherwise oppressed. Jesus would spend the bulk of his ministry making the marginalized important before God.
Mary speaks of God fulfilling a promise to Abraham and making something of Israel at long last. Jesus would take this theme and expand elements of its application to Israel becoming the center of blessing for all nations. He would address God's promise in becoming present and approachable by all.
If we take an honest look at these principles as regarding the identity, character, and purposes of God, it should impact our political leanings. We should be made aware of how our political leanings affect the lives of the poor, marginalized, and outcasts of our society. We should become aware of those who are neglected and ostracized by our political structures. We should open our eyes to God's care for those who are the most vulnerable around us.
Mary was but a child by today's definitions. She was of the lower classes of Israelite society. She was pregnant, while not yet married. She had no political voice in the power structures of Israel, much less under Roman occupation. She was the brunt of the gossip mill in Nazareth. She was property being bought and sold by her father and intended husband. While society would have cast her in a negative light on so many counts, God sought her out for blessing.
As we await the full implementation of God's reign on earth, these are the ideals that faith in Christ should call forth from us. Advent is a season of waiting, but it is also a plea for us to take action. We await a heavenly implementation of the reign of God Jesus preached, but meanwhile we are called to transform the world in which we live according to those very principles.
Our political leanings should fall in line with Luke's description of the import of Jesus' birth. They should give priority to meeting the needs of the poor and oppressed. They should give hope to the marginalized of our society. They should offer grace to those our society casts aside as irrelevant or unimportant. They should offer a message of reversal that considers the poor just as central to society as we would consider the wealthy.
Advent should mean that we are hard at work making the good news Jesus preached a reality in all of the relationships in our society. Generosity and grace should infuse our political priorities just as much as our economic lives. Our voices, our actions, our votes, and our interactions with others should call out for the great reversal of God's will for all. Advent should remind us that we are called as Christ followers to transform the world according to the priorities of the reign of God in Christ Jesus. That is indeed good news for many, especially for those feeling themselves forgotten and ignored on the margins of society.
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