Leanne Shawler, Artist

Every year some part of the Jesus birth narrative strikes me differently. For the past few years, it has been that the birth wasn't a pretty, sanitized thing, but was full of dirt and muck and loneliness. The song, "Labor of Love" by Andrew Peterson, has been my song of the season in the past. This year it is Mary's Magnificat that has captured and held my attention. I've read a couple of articles about how Mary was not meek and mild but that she was a revolutionary, a rebel against the occupation. I'm sure you've seen the video footage coming out of Aleppo. I watched one yesterday that started with a shell-shocked child sitting on a gurney, like so many of the shell-shocked Syrian children we've seen lately. Blood is on his forehead. Beside him was a woman from the same building that had been bombed. She is mourning and crying for her lost children. Her face is bloodied also. "Omran, Angels Are Here!" by Judith Behr The camera move...

Here's the list of all the posts I wrote this Advent on the Magnificat. I am not sure how I managed to write two introductions, but there you are: Advent Blogging: The Magnificat (11/25) On the Precipice: Beginning Advent (11/30) My Being Proclaims: Luke 1:46-48 (12/1) All Generations Will Call Me Blessed: Luke 1:48b-49 (12/8) For Those Who Fear: Luke 1:50 (12/15) The Promise and the Call: Luke 1:51 (12/17) Make Straight The Way: Luke 1:52-53 (12/20) Trusting in the Promise: Luke 1:54-55 (12/23) Today, Rachel Held Evans posted about the Magnificat . Well worth a read. On the 26th, I am planning to start a new icon, so I'll be taken up with that for a while and posting about it, but after that (and the occasional lectionary post), what should I write about next? Delving into scriptures has proven to be illuminative and transformative for me... Ideas?

54 He has helped his servant Israel,     in remembrance of his mercy, 55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,     to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” Mary continues to speak of God's deeds as already completed, so sure is she that God will deliver. In these last two verses, she speaks of the scope of God's work: Israel, Abraham and his descendants. The promise God makes to Abraham is this "...through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me." ( Genesis 22:18 ) Israel, the nation, restored, and blessings to come upon all nations. When I reflected upon this passage, the word that shimmered forth was "promise". Sometimes when I do lectio divina, the "shimmer" is a word that attracts, sometimes it's a word that repels. Whatever it is causes me to look closer at why that word or phrase caught at me, and "promise" had both positive and negative echoes. I t...

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,     and lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things,     and sent the rich away empty. Last week , I wrote about verse 51, which talked about what God does to pride. What happens when the core, most central, sin of pride is no more? The powerful are brought down from their thrones. There is no need for thrones when all are humble and look to God. Do you remember Samuel protesting to God about Saul being made King? ( 1 Samuel 8 to refresh your memory.) The lowly are lifted up: without pride, without sin, the playing field is level. There's no superiority in this world. The hungry are filled with good things: pride is no more, pride that can make us do selfish things, like hoard resources, like grain. The rich are sent away empty: everyone has enough. Not stuff for the sake of owning stuff, or nicer stuff, or more pretty-shiney stuff ...

51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. Mary speaks as if God has already acted, that all these things in this and the following verses have come to pass, because this is what God has promised through Gabriel, and throughout centuries of scripture. But you know what? They haven't come to pass. There are still chasms between proud and humble, rich and poor. So what happened? A Messiah came who wasn't what Mary was expecting either. A Messiah who showed us the way of delivering these hopes of Mary. Looking at the second verse: "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts." In reading commentaries for today's post, I came across one in Feasting on the Word that said pride is the central sin. From pride comes all other sins and ways of breaking relationships with God and each other. Like when we know better than God in a certain situation (like that fruit in the...

50 His mercy is for those who fear him     from generation to generation. Fear.  I get hung up on the word fear when I read this line. I'm pretty certain as a faithful God-believer that I'm supposed to be hung up on the word mercy. Fear. I think of the phrase from Frank Herbert's novel Dune that for a while I had memorized: "I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." (Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear) Pretty sure I wanted to be a Bene Gesserit when I grew up.  I really need to re-read that series... In church, I was taught that the word "fear" would be more correctly translated as "great awe". But when angels appear they always start with "Do not be afra...

48b Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,     and holy is his name. This is God's work, not hers. That Mary will be called blessed is because God is working through her and her status (as a woman at that time) will be the highest because she is Mother of the Messiah. All generations have and do call her blessed, for having that sure confidence and trust to say yes to God, and for being the God-Bearer (Theotokos). And yet it all circles back to God. God is important here, not Mary’s blessedness. This isn’t a puffed up moment for her. She’s been thinking about this remember  and she knows this for she praises God as mighty and that his name is holy. The way ahead is scary: Joseph is in his rights to abandon her; her reputation would be shattered; she could end up on the very edges of society. And yet this is a great thing God has done for her because it means th...

Here’s how I started thinking seriously again about writing about the Magnificat. One of the songs we’re singing at the Advent Choral Celebration this Saturday is called Mary’s Canticle by Leon C. Roberts. It’s a gospel piece that has grandeur and solidity and sureness and guts. It got me thinking. So here we are. The Magnificat opens with: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." ( Luke 1 : 46-48 NIV) For some reason when I think of Mary singing this (ok, the NIV says “said” but it’s a song), I think of it happening right after the angel's visit but it doesn't. She ponders things quietly in her heart. This song, known as the Magnificat from the Latin version, has been marinating for a while. As she readies and then makes the journey to her relative Elizabeth (about 80 to 100 miles) which takes about a week on foot according Logos , she has plenty of time to cons...

We're on the precipice. It's Advent, the start of a new year. We're on the precipice like Mary was two thousand and fourteen years and eight months ago or thereabouts. Two thousand and fourteen years and eight months ago a young girl said yes to God and received the answer to her prayers, to her people's prayers. She stepped way out of her comfort zone because of what God promised. To her relative, she sings this. She is carrying the unborn Messiah, the one who will free Israel from the Empire, from the oppressive monarchy that has impoverished her people, her family, her father, herself. A Davidic Messiah. A Messiah like King David who defeated the Philistines and set Israel into its Golden Age. We can look back at that moment two thousand and fourteen years and eight months ago and think: boy, did she get that wrong. But how wrong did she get it really? Her son was quite the unexpected Messiah.  She saw the path ahead as straight, no...

icon I wrote last year I will finally be blogging a series on Mary's Magnificat for this Advent. (I am also thinking about #AdventWord , the only reason I joined Instagram a couple of weeks ago.) I think I first talked about doing this blog series a couple of years ago after I led a series with fellow bloggers on the Prayer Attributed to St. Francis . The Magnificat is a song about so much, I didn't know where to start. It's so hard to get my head around. So I put it off. Today I made a start on the first post for the series, but looking ahead, given the grand jury decision in Ferguson that I just heard about ... I don't know how I can write about this without coming off as ridiculously white-privileged. It's a song of joy. It's a song celebrating the Messiah's impending arrival. It's a song of freedom coming, long hoped for. Yeah, I don't know what I'm going to say. I don't know if I'm going to say it right. So I inv...