Devotional Reading from the Daily Common Lectionary: Luke 1: 39-56

Text; My soul magnifies the Lord… (v. 46b)

“The Magnificat”is Mary’s response to her kinswoman Elizabeth’s “blessing”.  When Bach set them to music the piece was so beautiful that listeners seldom listen carefully to the words or their. Why does Mary’s soul magnify the Lord? The answer may surprise you.

“He scattered the proud in the thoughts of their (own) hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he had filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (vss. 51-53)

God has always had a bias for those who have nowhere else to turn. From the blood of Abel crying from the earth for justice through the prophets of the Old Testament who called for Justice to roll down down water and Righteousness like an everflowing stream to Mary’s song, to Jesus’ parable of the Sheep and the Goats, God reveals a bias for the Least, the Last and the Lost.

I believe that one of the spiritual disciplines of Advent is for us to learn how to be Generous. To paraphrase minister and author John Ortberg, when the game of life is over, all of the pieces go back into the box.

Lord God, in the closing days of Advent, plant within my heart the seed of Generosity so that I may sing with Mary, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Amen.