I have always been perplexed by the lines in the Magnificat:
You have deposed the mighty from their thrones and raised the lowly to high places
You have filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty
These verses sort of make me squirm a bit. It’s so punitive toward the ‘haves.’ Why can’t there just be the raising of the lowly. And the filling of the hungry? Why the deposing of the mighty and the rich sent away empty? Isn’t God’s love for everyone? Doesn’t God want good for all? Isn’t God’s love universal? For rich and poor alike?
But when we think about it, the dynamics of human power arrangements create the haves, the wealthy, and the powerful, on the backs of the poor, the lowly, the regular people. Statistics tell us that the wealth gap in the US has been widening significantly since the 1980’s. There are more billionaires. What can you do with all of that money? And where does it come from? It comes from financial and power arrangements that benefit the few over the many and that deprive the many of needed social services and benefits.
Mary’s song is a song of liberation for all that can only occur when the current unjust economic and social power arrangements are dismantled and new economic and power arrangements that lift up those who have been forgotten are created.
A pipe dream? Nothing is impossible with God!
Prayer: Help us to be part of creating new arrangements for society that lift the lowly and fill the hungry! And may we cultivate compassion for the mighty and the rich. Amen.
This devotion was prepared by Rev. Kim P. Wells, pastor of Lakewood United Church of Christ in St. Petersburg, FL.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 