The Mighty One

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Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
who has looked with favor on the lowliness of her servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is her name.
Her mercy is for those who wonder at her
from generation to generation.
She has shown strength with her arm;
she has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
She has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly,
filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
She has helped her servant Israel,
in remembrance of her mercy,
according to the promise she made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and Sarah and their descendants forever."
—Luke 1.46-55

What could this simple, uneducated peasant girl have been thinking, launching into a political analysis of power and history? What indeed. The world will never understand that God’s power is nothing, nothing like what the world thinks of as power. Only those who stand outside the obscuring walls of power can see.

The world thinks of power as power over, the power to force things to happen, the power to coerce, threaten and destroy. But God’s power is power under and within, the power to create and bless and set free, the power to bring forth. God’s power is not in places of influence and violence, not in the arrogant and rich, in those who are happy and respected and successful. It is not in the tyrants and tycoons. It is in powerlessness and brokenness. It is in poor peasants, in those who have been excluded, in ordinary people with broken lives. God’s power appears to this world as powerlessness; God’s order appears as disorder: backwards, upside down, inside out. The last are first, the poor blessed, the dead raised. God comes to upend the world.

The good news of this season is that the Mighty One is present among us, in the poor and the powerless, in times of hopelessness and suffering. In weak people, in bleak times, Christ comes. Do you see? Let Mary lead you to the light in the darkness, the hope in bleak midwinter, the babe in the manger.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve


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Copyright © 2009
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
unfoldinglight(at)hotmail.com