The Fourth Sunday of Advent, 19 December 2021, Clapham
At last week’s Austwick carol service, whilst we were calmly listening to the Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral’s solemn, pious Silent Night, Ava Booth, 8 months and two weeks old, in her mum’s arms on the front row, decided to join in the singing: ‘Sleep in heavenly pe-ace; sle-ep in heavenly…’ ‘WAAAAAAAAAAAAH’
I love moments like that, when the pomp of our traditional services is punctuated by a healthy dose of reality, and in this case a baby reminds us what the first Christmas Night must really have sounded like, as the newborn Jesus screamed for his mother’s milk. “The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes….” Oh really? Each time we sing words like these we distance ourselves further from the vital truth at the heart of Christmas - that Jesus was a baby just like every other, born to an unexceptional mother, and that the real miracle is to be found in just that thing.
Why are we so quick to put a halo on Mary, when the good news would be far better pictured if we put an apron on her, and showed her with her sleeves rolled up doing the ironing with one hand whilst holding in her other arm the child feeding at her breast? Whist most new mums can’t exactly find the time to be looking their best, for some odd reason we call Mary immaculate.
Why are we so keen to distance Mary's experience from that of every other mother by insisting that her first was a virgin birth? Whether or not it was is a side issue, for the real miracle is far more mundane and thus far more profound.
For Mary herself gives voice to the real good news of Christmas; she expressed it so well in her very own words to Elizabeth, saying “He has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.” The real good news of Christmas is that God comes to earth favouring the lowly, placing an ordinary country girl at the centre of a world about to turn. The power of Mary’s story is that she intuitively grasps that God is in the business of transforming the tired old ways of the world by creating space for light to emerge from the darkness. Mary intuitively gets this, as it dawns on her that God has chosen her, an ordinary teenage girl, to be the model for this transformation.
One title which is very seldom given to Mary is the name Prophet. But a prophet she certainly is, in a direct relationship with the prophets of old like Isaiah in proclaiming a message of comfort to the troubled broken people of the land; in anticipation of the prophetic ministry of Elizabeth’s child John in announcing the arrival of the One who would bring the salvation of God. A prophet Mary certainly was, for the song she joyfully sang in the house of Elizabeth as both women realised what God was doing through them, this song which we call the Magnificat and dress up in lengthy choral pieces sung in Latin, is a prophecy. She speaks directly, as every prophet does, of the ills of the world and the revelation of the new thing which God is now doing in turning this world around.
For God, she says, in turning her life around, reveals his pattern for the new world coming through his - and her - son. It’s a pattern totally at odds with the world of patriarchy, for it places a young woman at its centre. It’s a pattern completely opposed to the world of privilege for it has the lowly at its heart. And it’s a pattern which reveals the idolatrous lie of meritocracy in showing that being lifted up by God doesn’t mean having to be uplifted from your working-class roots, it means you being absolutely loved, valued, special, just where you are, wherever that is.
Mary’s prophecy is clear-eyed about God’s priority for the poor over the rich, for she comes from poverty but in this moment feels like the wealthiest girl alive. Mary’s prophecy has rung through the ages as a song of hope for every woman longing for change in her damaged world; as an inspiration to every woman seeking the strength to make that change; as a celebration for every woman who has achieved some sort of turning in the world. It’s a song which sings for every woman escaping a violent relationship; which celebrates with every one who breaks a glass ceiling.
Mary’s prophecy has been well-learned and applied by so many through history, from the 15th century peasant farmer’s daughter Joan of Arc inspired by visions to lead the struggle for her country in a time of war, to Dorothy Day, inspired by the self-sacrifice of neighbours during the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 to, in later life, establish the Catholic Worker Movement of pacifist Christian communities helping the poor and homeless, and campaigning with and for them. [1]
Mary’s prophetic vision will, I’m sure, be well known to a young woman called Becky Tyler who the nation has warmly embraced since Grayson Perry selected a painting of hers for display at his Art Club exhibition. Becky has quadriplegic cerebral palsy which means she’s unable to walk or use her mouth to talk, but Grayson Perry has called her a ‘star’, for the digital artwork she creates with eye-tracking technology. Yes, she uses just her eyes to paint with. Becky describes herself as a ‘Christian, teenager, eye gaze artist, gamer, actress, preacher, but mostly very cheeky’. Her voice is digital and with it she has preached to 6,500 people at the annual Greenbelt Christian arts festival.
In her sermon she says, ‘I used to feel that God didn’t love me as much as other people because I am in a wheelchair. And nearly all the disabled people in the bible get healed by Jesus; so they were not like me. Then my mum showed me Daniel 7, verse 9 which says, ‘As I looked, the Ancient of Days took his throne. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.’ Its wheels were all ablaze! Yeah! God’s throne has wheels. God has a wheelchair! So now I know that God loves me a lot!’ [2]
In Becky’s story I hear echoes of Mary’s song. I hear it also in young women of other faiths and backgrounds who entirely evoke the spirit of her words, whether Malala Yousafzai campaigning for women’s education or Greta Thunberg calling for stronger action on climate change, here are two lowly ones now lifted up as pioneers of worldwide movements in their causes; here are two who all generations may not universally call blessed, but whose voices no-one can ignore. [3]
Mary’s prophecy echoes through women’s music of the ages. From the mystical compositions of the 12th Century polymath Hildegard of Bingen to the rallying songs of the Suffragettes; from Billie Holiday pausing for prayer before closing her shows with Strange Fruit to the women of Greenham Common and those at #MeToo vigils uniting across the years in renditions of We Shall Overcome, this song of a girl in Nazareth continues to convey the power for everyday women to envision a different, better world, and in the very act of envisioning it, to begin to bring it about. [4]
The lives and testimonies of working-class women have been largely obscured in history mostly by being ignored or condescended to, or in Mary’s case, by being elevated to the other-worldly, the Queen of Heaven, not a normal human. [5] But Mary’s prophecy sings out in defiance of all that.
Let us listen now to Canticle of the Turning, a ‘vigorous paraphrase of the Magnificat which presents Mary as a country girl who is more than a meek maiden’. [6]
Notes
I’m dedicating this sermon to Revd Lynne Cullens, self-described ‘Working-class, single mother and C of E priest’, chair of the National Estate Churches Network and the next Bishop of Barking, in thankfulness for her essay Some notes on class, relevance and the Church, from her blog, 15 February 2019.
[1] Wikipedia: Joan of Arc; Wikipedia: Dorothy Day; The Catholic Worker Movement.
[2] Ruth Iredje, The star student who creates art with her eyes. BBC News, 10 December 2021; Preaching at Greenbelt - Becky's message. Livability website, 27 October 2017; YouTube: Becky preaching at Greenbelt's Communion Service 2017.
[3] Wikipedia: Malala Yousafzai; Wikipedia: Greta Thunberg.
[4] Wikipedia: Hildegard of Bingen; Wikipedia: Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday's performances and recordings; Wikipedia: Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp; Wikipedia: #MeToo Movement.
[5] E.P. Thompson in The Making of the English Working Class speaks of recovering the lives of the poor from ‘the enormous condescension of history’. See also Lynne Cullens, Some notes on class, relevance and the Church, blog, 15 February 2019.
[6] Canticle of the Turning. Paraphrase of Luke Chapter 1, adaptation & arrangement: Rory Cooney. Tune: Star of the County Down, Irish traditional. YouTube: Canticle of the Turning - Rory Cooney performed by Rory Cooney, Gary Daigle & Theresa Donohoo from ‘Safety Harbor’, 1990. Quotation from the sleeve notes of John L. Bell and the Wild Goose Collective, ‘This is God’s World’, 2020.
CANTICLE OF THE TURNING
1. My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my heart is great,
and my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring
to the ones who wait.
You fixed your sight on your servant's plight
and my weakness you did not spurn
so from east to west shall my name be blest.
Could the world be about to turn?
MY HEART SHALL SING OF THE DAY YOU BRING.
LET THE FIRES OF YOUR JUSTICE BURN.
WIPE AWAY ALL TEARS, FOR THE DAWN DRAWS NEAR,
AND THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO TURN.
2. Though I am small, my God my all, you work great things in me,
and your mercy will last from the depths of the past
to the end of the age to be.
Your very name puts the proud to shame;
and to those who would for you yearn,
you will show your might, put the strong to flight,
for the world is about to turn.
3. From the halls of power to the fortress tower,
not a stone will be left on stone.
Let the king beware for your justice tears
every tyrant from his throne.
The hungry poor shall weep no more,
for the food they can never earn;
there are tables spread, every mouth be fed,
for the world is about to turn.
4. Though the nations rage from age to age,
we remember who holds us fast:
God's mercy must deliver us from the conqueror's crushing grasp.
This saving word that our forebears heard
is the promise which holds us bound,
'til the spear and rod can be crushed by God
who is turning the world around.
Paraphrase of Luke Chapter 1, adaptation & arrangement: Rory Cooney. Tune: STAR OF THE COUNTY DOWN, Irish traditional. Copyright © 1990 GIA Publications. Performed by Rory Cooney, Gary Daigle & Theresa Donohoo from ‘Safety Harbor’, 1990.
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