I haven't done two Bible and Economics postings in a row, but since this was the passage read and sung in church yesterday, I thought the timing was right.
As is often the case with these money and morality passages, I never noticed the economic implications growing up (it never being pointed out). And yet, there's a pretty strong message to be had here. Scary, even.
From Luke 1 - Mary's Magnificat - the song she sang when she discovered she was pregnant with Jesus:
And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for the Lord has been mindful of the humble state of this servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me--holy is God's name. God's mercy extends to those who fear the Lord, from generation to generation.
God has performed mighty deeds with God's arm; The Lord has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
God has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
God has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
God has helped God's servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants for ever, even as God said to our parents."
As my pastor said in her sermon yesterday, if most of us deal with the "rich" part of this passage at all, we tend to spiritualize it. "Oh, Mary didn't REALLY mean that God sends away the rich empty - she must be speaking of those who put their faith in riches. Or perhaps those who aren't humble. That's not a line to take literally as it seems..."
And, why wouldn't we think thusly? We are the rich, after all. Do we really think God sends us away merely because we are rich, as Mary directly says here?
For my part, I will say it again: For the person swimming for their life, letting go of that which weighs them down is not necessarily bad news... Being made empty - so that we might be filled again - why, that's Good News.
You think?
2 comments:
Suppose it is really true. The rich do not inherit eternal life. Suppose in our every richness we are tossed into the flames of everlasting damnation. That would be a fine kettle of fish!
But suppose, too, that eternal living is not linear and that God gives us conditions that may seem sequential, moments that seem to trail one after the other but which in actuality have the potential to stream into the cloud of forever. Then each moment we may recognize ourselves as rich and defined by material embellishment or as poor and dependent wholly on the mercy and grace, common and otherwise, of God. Each moment is a faith crisis and we may choose our rich self-sufficiency or our poverty and salvation through Jesus Christ.
I preached on this passage on the Second Sunday of Advent. Or was it third? Anyway, the gist of my sermon is that Jesus came into the world to overthrow the existing social and moral order. I included Luke's Beatitudes, including the woes. They key word in my sermon was "revolutionary". There was quite an altar call response.
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