Christmas With the ChosenSample

In our defense, we told you on Day 1 that you would be reading Mary’s song twice in this six-day reading plan. Also in our defense: it’s worth reading twice. Because Mary’s song is not only a beautiful piece of written worship; it's an informative one.

On that first day, when we wondered aloud as to how on earth Mary could be so startlingly stoic, we found an answer in her song. While singing about her present, Mary spends about half her time revisiting the past. She remembers to remember Israel’s stories of old — stories that declare “God has done it before, and he’ll do it again” — and a tenacious hope is stirred within her, and with it, a pronounced stoicism.

But it’s not enough for us to say Mary is stoic — as if she simply stands firm and is silent; she speaks truth to power.

The more time you spend with Mary’s song, the more you see that she’s not only remembering how God has “scattered those who are proud” and has “brought down rulers from their thrones” and has “sent the rich away with nothing.” Mary declares that through the child she carries, God is scattering, bringing down, and sending away — and that he will do so to the end.

In this beautiful piece of written worship, an impoverished teenage girl from a Roman-occupied nation stares deep into the eyes of every emperor and sneering, legalistic religious leader — stares deep into the eyes of the one at the helm in Hell — and proclaims a grand upheaval is at hand in which the humble will be lifted up and the hungry will be filled with good things.

Do see how Mary is singing what Paul will sing years later in what many scholars call the great “Christ Hymn”? Jesus came as nothing, because he made himself nothing — but one day everything will take a knee at the mere mention of his name. What’s more, everything and everyone will confess that he is LORD.

While we often let Christmas slide into schmaltz, let’s not in light of Mary and her song. Christmas should be allowed to be stunningly subversive, set free to speak truth to power and to lift up the hearts — and chins, too — of those in humble estate.

So, how are you going to do such a powerful work in the days ahead?