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He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
\\xa0 \\xa0 he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
\\xa0 \\xa0 but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
\\xa0 \\xa0 but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
\\xa0 \\xa0 remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
\\xa0 \\xa0 just as he promised our ancestors.\\u201d
Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (Luke 1:51-56)

Here in Mary\\u2019s song lies a dangerous heart-of-the-Gospel thread that ought to rightly make us uncomfortable.

It is a thread that runs throughout the Bible. \\xa0It perhaps begins in the story of Cain and Able as God asks Cain the question \\u201cwhere is your brother Able?\\u201d \\xa0\\u201cAm I my brother\\u2019s keeper?\\u201d Cain replies. \\xa0\\u201cYes, you are,\\u201d God\\u2019s response seems to say. \\xa0

In the Old Testament, this idea is enshrined in law. \\xa0\\u201cLove your neighbour as yourself\\u201d says Leviticus 19:18. \\xa0Many other laws go on to spell out the implications in defence of the place and the cause of the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the foreigners. \\xa0You are your brother\\u2019s keeper. \\xa0Your sister\\u2019s too.

But sin is pervasive. \\xa0The poor and weak are continually used and abused by the rich and powerful, even as Able was slain by his brother. \\xa0In the course of time we come to the book of 1 Samuel, which Luke patterns his gospel after. \\xa0After Hannah gives birth to Samuel and dedicates him to the Lord, she sings not such a different song than Mary will. \\xa0A song that declares the great reversals that the Lord\\u2019s justice will bring. \\xa0The warriors are broken, but the weak are made strong; the full starve and the hungry are filled; \\u201cThe Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.\\u201d \\xa0That\\u2019s a song that echoes not only with Mary\\u2019s song, but with Jesus\\u2019 own oft\\u2019 repeated refrain: \\u201cThe last shall be first, and the first shall be last.\\u201d \\xa0\\xa0

Why should this make us uncomfortable though? \\xa0Because we are the first. \\xa0We are the rich. \\xa0

I am the rich one that might just be sent away empty. \\xa0Maybe the proud one and the ruling one sometimes too\\u2014the one who needs to be scattered and brought down in order for justice to be done: for the poor to be released from their bondage to the needs of my lifestyle, the resources of the Creation to be liberated from the over-asking of my consumption.

Of course, we ought not wait for God\\u2019s judgement to level that playing field: as followers of Jesus, we are actively invited into this song as agents of God\\u2019s justice. \\xa0We are invited to humble ourselves, to sell our possessions and give to the poor\\u2014even spending ourselves on behalf of the poor: time, talents, and treasures. \\xa0Indeed: the call is actually nothing less than to die to ourselves, trusting God fully with everything: not just with our souls, but also with our identity, our status, security, and wealth. \\xa0Our very lives. \\xa0Is this not what we\\u2019re actually praying when we ask for God\\u2019s will to be done and for his kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven: a radical justice that levels out the blessings of Creation so that everyone has enough? \\xa0A New Creation and a New Humanity that keeps boundaries, brothers, and sisters in mutual love and dignity under the just rule of Jesus\\u2014isn\\u2019t that what we seek?

Maybe that sounds radical. \\xa0But Jaques Ellul, writing just after WWII, was convinced that nothing short of a radical shift in Christians\\u2019 lifestyles like this would actually be able to crack through the walls of our culture and create a true, missionary encounter within our own society. \\xa0I think he\\u2019s right. \\xa0Mary in her song seems to think so too.\\xa0

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