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He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0just as he promised our ancestors.\u201d

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (Luke 1:51-56)

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So, 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.\xa0 It 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. \xa0And many 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.\xa0 You are your brother\u2019s keeper.\xa0 Your sister\u2019s too.

But sin is pervasive.\xa0 The poor and marginalized are continually used and abused by the rich and powerful, even as Able was slain by his brother.\xa0 And so in the course of time, after Hannah gives birth to Samuel and dedicates him to the Lord, she sings not such a different song than Mary will.\xa0 A song that declares the great reversals that the Lord\u2019s justice will bring.\xa0 The 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\xa0

That\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?\xa0 Because we are the first.\xa0 We are the rich.\xa0

Gathered with thousands of other Christians from around the world at the last meeting of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, this became for me, again, a palpable reality.\xa0 The cries for justice from the delegates from the Global South against us in North who have built, on their backs, the luxuries of our anything-at-the-click-of-a-button, all consuming consumerist society.\xa0 It all still flows from the historic power differential of colonial rule and exploitation.\xa0 I didn\u2019t personally do any of that colonizing or enslaving, of course, but I have participated and benefitted from the same arrangements that keep us rich and them poor.\xa0 And confronted with my brothers and sisters in Christ from those long-marginalized countries who confront me about why I\u2019m not doing something to reverse this unjust reality: I\u2019m inclined to run and hide, as many of us are when confronted with things closer to home, like Canada\u2019s treatment of indigenous people and their children.

But even if I don\u2019t do anything about it, Mary\u2019s song reminds me that God will.\xa0 I am the rich one that will be sent away empty.\xa0 Maybe the proud one and the ruling one sometimes too\u2014the one who needs to be scattered and brought down for justice to be done, for the poor to be released from their bondage to the needs of my lifestyle, and the resources of the Creation to be liberated from the over-asking of my consumption.\xa0 Does that mean I won\u2019t have a place in God\u2019s heaven? \xa0No.\xa0 But perhaps I won\u2019t be the one who gets a crown.

Of course, we don\u2019t have to wait for God to bring this judgement on our own heads.\xa0 We can already begin to live like he\u2019s called us, even now.\xa0 To humble ourselves.\xa0 To sell our possessions and give to the poor, even spending ourselves on behalf of the poor: time, talents, and treasures.\xa0 Indeed: 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.\xa0 Our very lives.\xa0 Is 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?\xa0 A New Creation and a New Humanity that keeps boundaries, brothers, and sisters in mutual love and dignity under the just rule of Jesus?

Sounds radical, doesn\u2019t it?\xa0 Jaques Ellul, writing just after WWII, was convinced that nothing short of a radical shift in Christians\u2019 lifestyle would actually be able to crack through the walls of our culture and create a true, missionary encounter within our own society.\xa0

Things to ponder.\xa0 If you\u2019d like to listen to Mary\u2019s song as you do so, here\u2019s a link to an excellent rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7fTuH_0agE

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