Rev’d Peter Balabanski

Advent 4A – Isa 7 10-16, Mt 1 18-25

The Australian government has declared today to be a National Day of Reflection. This is so the nation may stop together and unite to turn our thoughts to everyone impacted by the Bondi Beach attack, including the families and friends of those who lost their lives and those injured.

We in SA are invited to light a candle at 6:17 pm and together with family, friends and loved ones observe a minute of silence as part of a united, national act of remembrance. This is a moment to pause, reflect and stand together with our Jewish community, to share in their grief, and affirm that hatred and violence will not divide us. We will thus stand united with Jewish Australians and remember those who lost their lives and who were impacted by this event. https://www.pmc.gov.au/news/national-day-reflection-bondi-beach-attack

The words together and united here are very important. Because doing things as a united community, with all the love and respect and consideration and compassion that implies, choosing to be an intentionally united community, confronts and rejects divisive evils like hateful racial or religious profiling. It can also begin to support healing of the wounds that were inflicted to separate people out from the community as a whole.

Being together says that everyone belongs; everyone is cherished; everyone is us. It’s not an aggressive reaction; it’s simply love in action. And that’s what we as the Church of God are particularly called to be. So remember 6.17 pm our time. Set an alarm for 6.00, have a candle ready and be together with the national community. A candle gives a good long time for reflection.

The Song of Mary reminds us that the use of power and violence to divide people into categories of insiders and outsiders, haves and have-nots, slaves and owners – Mary’s song reminds us that these curses have dogged humankind for a very long time. And around the world in recent years, and now most immediately at Bondi, the blight of human cruelty and hatred towards people artificially branded ‘other’ seems to be sinking to ever deeper lows. There is an answer to this in intentional unity. But even then, it can seem like that’s not enough. Many of the world’s people still feel isolated from being heard; from having any say. They feel invisible.

We’ve just been presented with a compelling response to this. Today, in her song of joy, Mary declares that no-one is alone in their struggle to belong; to be heard; to be seen. As a teenager, she’s practically invisible in her 1st century community. Yet she bursts out with a song of such radical challenge to the powers that be, that it’s been banned by authoritarian governments as recently as the 1970’s and 80’s; not to mention by the British Raj in India. They didn’t want people getting ideas about God casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly!

Mary may have been invisible to the decision-makers of her community, but one of the first things we hear in her song is that she knows God has seen her: my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, who has looked with favour on his lowly servant. God sees me, sings Mary. I belong. I’m visible. I’m heard, and I can’t be silenced. Can you imagine what it was like for the young Jesus to be raised by a mother like this? No wonder he turned out the way he did!

Mary knows God. She experiences God as her great Saviour; God has done great things for her. And that gives her the confidence to compare the way she sees her world being run with the will of God she has heard revealed in the scriptures. A cruel foreign regime divides her people to rule them. And she knows God will have none of it. So she sings confidently of God’s deep kindness for the lowly and the hungry. She knows from Jewish history that God has had a short way with corrupt rulers. So she sings confidently of God doing that again, scattering the proud in their conceit, casting down the mighty from their thrones, and lifting up the lowly. Filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.

God’s judgment has a distinct pattern for Mary; judging for the poor and needy, but holding the rich and powerful to account. They live as though there is no God, so they’ve made their own bed. They’re to be sent from God’s presence empty; lonely; unseen. The tables are turned. A community of people together will remain.

That’s the vision we hear in her last verse. Mary remembers God’s promise to Abraham; that through him, all families of the Earth will be blessed. In the end, for God, everyone belongs. Unity replaces division; love conquers hatred. What a wonderful conclusion from Mary, that young Jewish teenager, on this day of reflection. And what a Son she’ll be sending to the world at Christmas! Amen