Advent marks the new year in the calendar of the church. It’s weird time to reset, when everything (in the northern hemisphere) is dying and getting dark. It’s a weird time in the world to proclaim the traditional themes of hope, peace, joy and love when it sometimes seems there is so little of it.

Weird is the Christian brand, however. Or it should be. It was a weird and unexpected of God to choose a Jewish peasant girl to be the mother of a Savior. It was weird and unusual that she would be un-married and uneducated. That the news came to her and not her father or betrothed husband. Weird that her encounter with an angel and her response and song is recorded in scripture at all.

Her song is powerful! It summons up the songs of all the prophets and singers before her, naming just how weird and wonderful God is. Mary saw a revolution coming and she sang about it, praised the God whose son Jesus – her son! – would usher in this transformative time.

We’re going to be making our way through Advent with Mary’s song this year. We’ll hear it from different angles, draw out different themes and pair it with other prophetic and revolutionary passages from scripture. May God bless our reflection on the song of Mary and inspire our own revolutionary songs and actions.

image: linocut by Ben Wildflower

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Advent 1 – Nov. 29 – Hope: Anticipating Liberation – Is 2:1-5; Luke 1:46-56

Is 2 speaks of one a time when the nations will beat their spears into pruning hooks and their swords into plowshares. Mary’s hopeful song echoes that of the prophets and anticipates the ministry of Jesus, somehow knowing even before his birth that the God who chose a peasant girl as a vessel for the Christ will bring hope to the lowly and weak and hungry.

Advent 2 – Dec. 7 – Peace: Practicing Non-Violence – Ps 122, Luke 1:67-79

The Psalmist prays for the peace of Jerusalem and Zechariah’s song anticipates a son who will usher in a new beginning, making the way for a savior. In both instances, the new beginning will have us walking in the way of peace. The path to peace may not be easy, but it’s only through active non-violence that the oppressor is to be overthrown.

Advent 3 – Dec. 14 –  Joy: Resisting, Humor and Creativity – Is 35

Mary’s song is filled with triumph and also with joy. In the liberated future that she imagines, that the prophet Isaiah imagines, people are filled with joy and rejoicing. But there is no reason we cannot also engage in joy now, in praise and rejoicing in the present. Humor and creativity are powerful tools for the just future that God dreams for God’s people.

Advent 4 – Dec. 21 – Love: Caring for the Sojourner – Luke 2:1-7; Matthew 2:1-15

Mary sings of a God who shows mercy and helps the lowly and when her son is born, he comes into the world a migrant in need of mercy and aid. He is born on the road and almost immediately is forced to flee the country to find safety. The care of strangers kept him safe: an innkeeper who offered shelter, gifts of wise teachers and news that inspired escape. As people called to welcome our neighbor as we welcome Jesus, we too must offer care to all who sojourn.

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