HOMILY
HOMILY
"It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe (1 Cor. 1.21).
archive of homilies can be found below the latest homily
CHRISTMAS HOMILY
mary's magnificat and the new world order (part 2)
luke 1.46-55
(12/25/24)
part 1 can be found immediately below part 2
46Then, Mariam said,
“My entire being extols the Lord,
47and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
48because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
49But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!
50Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.
51He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
52He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
53Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
54He will embrace Israēl, His child,
remembering His unwavering devotion,
55just as he promised our ancestors,
Abraham and his descendants, to perpetuity (author’s translation).[i]
introduction
Mary’s Magnificat as recorded in Luke’s Gospel has been a source of inspiration and hope for millions, perhaps billions. Here is a woman to whom and with whom God did such great things that age after age has extoled her. But it was not always so with her. Before her encounter with God, she had been of lowly status. She lived in obscurity. She had not expected much from life and was utterly surprised when God lifted her from her lowly station.
“But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.”
She was as grateful as she was surprised.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer…
How incomparable is His power!”
Mary knew and acknowledged that her transformation was the unparalleled work of God. Only God could accomplish the work of a transformation such as hers. But we should know and acknowledge that the agent of that transformation was Jesus, the babe she carried in her womb for nine months; the babe she gave birth to; the babe she laid in a feeding trough inside a stable; the babe she raised; and the babe that would become the most extraordinary and influential man the world has ever seen. Had Mary not been the mother of Jesus, she would have remained in obscurity. You and I would not even know of her existence. It is, then, fair to say, nay necessary to say that it was in and through Jesus that God transformed Mary and made something extraordinary of her.
But Mary quickly came to appreciate that she was not God’s first transformation. Neither was she to be Jesus’ last transformation. God called Jesus to transform others. Many others. God called Jesus to transform the entire world.
Mary came to realize too that Jesus’ call to transform the world was far more radical and revolutionary than her own transformation might have suggested. Jesus was not only called to bring transformation. He was called to bring reversal. There was something fundamentally wrong with this world and its values. It was especially twisted and perverted in its valuations about people. God called Jesus to fix the world, reshape its values and reverse unjust fortunes.
The billions who have found inspiration and hope through Mary and her personal transformation have also found inspiration and hope in her deeper insight that God called Jesus to transform them and, indeed, the entire world into something new. This private and worldwide transformation and the nature of it is the subject of the second part of Mary’s Magnificat and the focus of this homily. We find ourselves agreeing with Mary and partaking of the same spirit of wonder that filled her whole being.
“How incomparable is His power!”
the new world order
In the first half of her Magnificat, Mary expressed her feelings about the incredible transformation God brought to her life by making her the mother of Jesus. In the second half of her Magnificat, Mary acknowledges that she was not the first and would not be the last of God’s transformations. Indeed, she discerns that she and her transformation are both indicative of past divine transformations and prefigure future and more expansive transformations. The devotion that God showed to her was but a foretaste of a far more expansive devotion.
“Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.”
“He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.”
He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
There is much to unpack here. First, we recall that God is a God of transformation. This is part of His divine character. The Biblical record begins with an account of creation. Here, God transformed a chaotic void into a livable space for all life forms, but most especially for humankind. As important as this creative transformation is, it takes a back seat in Biblical theology to another divine creation: God’s creation of the nation, Israel.
The creation of Israel involved transforming Israel from slavery to freedom. From serving an oppressive and malevolent master to serving a benevolent God. But this transformation was of a radical nature. Israel’s transformation from slavery to freedom came at the expense of Egypt, a world power that would not willingly participate in God’s transformational character and intentions. Israel’s transformation from slavery to freedom created a reversal of fortunes for both Israel and Egypt.
Israel came to understand that its transformation and the reversal of fortune that it produced was not a fluke. Not a one-off. Rather, it was characteristic of God. The Psalmist, one of Israel’s greatest spokesmen and evangelists, declared,
YHWH is exalted above the earth.
Greater is His importance than the universe is expansive.
Who is like YHWH, our God;
the One who sits, exalted;
the One who condescends to look upon
heaven and earth;
the One who raises the beggar from the ground;
the One who lifts the destitute out of the trash heap,
so that they may associate with those who are noble,
with the most noble citizens among my people.”[1]
This is quite the imagery. Here, for example, we are made to look upon, perhaps against our will, and really see the poor as they kneel on the ground before “one of their betters” from whom they beg even the smallest token of assistance. Here, we watch the destitute, slumped over and desperately rummaging through a city’s mound of trash in hopes of finding something, anything to sustain their health and life. And, here, we see God transform them and make them equal with the most advantaged and noble citizens of their city.
But even this imagery and the transformation it depicts is too mild for Mary’s vision of God’s transformations. As with Israel’s experience in Egypt, God’s blessed transformations include uncomfortable reversals. “Those who go hungry,” Mary says, “God satiated with delicacies.” There is transformation. Then she goes on, “and the rich He sent away empty.” There is reversal. Almost as if he has learned his lessons from his mother, as a grown and mature man Jesus will announce from a Galilean hill,
“Blessed be ye poor:
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are ye that hunger now:
for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye that weep now:
for ye shall laugh.”[2]
We find these transformations pleasing. We are happy for them. But found in this happy transformations is a reversal that may be less comfortable for us.
“But woe unto you that are rich!
For ye have received your consolation.
“Woe unto you that are full!
For ye shall hunger.”
“Woe unto you that laugh now!
For ye shall mourn and weep.”[3]
We could be forgiven for thinking of the poor, the hungry, and those who weep as, really, the same class of people; a class of people whose economic status God will reverse. God’s transformations and reversals, however, go far beyond the mere economic. Mary sees that God
“brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.”
God’s transformations and reversals bring a new world order indeed.
In the second half of her Magnificat, then, Mary transfers her own private experience onto the world stage. God would manifest his unwavering devotion to the ages to come the same way he manifested his unwavering devotion to Israel before her and then to her. As He raised Mary from her lowly, obscure, and insignificant status, blessed her through Jesus, and made her to be extoled, God raises up and blesses the world’s lowly. This is accomplished by bringing down the high and mighty.
jesus, agent of the new world order
In her Magnificat, Mary spoke of God’s transformations and reversals in the past tense.
“He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
This past tense, I suggest, as two significations. First, as we have said, transformation and reversal has always been part of God’s character and central to His “work and glory.” Mary’s transformation is part of that history of divine transformation. But her own transformation is also part of the future. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Mary is so sure of future transformation that she can speak of it in the past tense. This use of the past tense in speaking of a future surety is common in Hebrew prophetic circles.
Just as Jesus served as agent for her own transformation, he would be agent to future transformation. In Jesus, God would give His work of transformation and reversal a renewed focus and emphasis. Jesus was called to carry on God’s eternal work of transformation and reversal. Jesus was true to this calling. Examples of Jesus’ transforming and reversing works and words can be found everywhere. Here is but a sampling.
The “King of kings” is born in a feeding trough.
The announcement of Israel’s king’s birth is first announced to shepherds, one of the lowest on Israel’s status ladder.
The “Holy One of God” participates in an ordinance for sinners.
Jesus heals all manner of disease and affliction.
Jesus pronounces blessedness upon the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated.
Jesus pronounces a woe upon the rich, the full, the happy, the popular.
Jesus teaches that the first will be last and the last will be first.
Heaven rejoices over one lost sheep more than over the sheep never lost.
What is “highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
A sinner leaves the temple “justified,” while a “righteous” man leaves condemned.
A single widow’s two mites is worth more than every rich man’s abundance.
Israel encouraged to be more like a Sidonian widow and a Syrian leper.
“The queen of the south” and “the men of Nineve” held up as examples to Israel.
A Samaritan becomes a hero at the expense of a Levite and a High Priest.
The King of Israel and Son of God participates in the same fate as two criminals.
Jesus brings release from sin.
Jesus reverses death to create enduring life.
Jesus’ entire life was one of reversal of expectations and unexpected transformations. His ultimate transformation and reversal in this world was his proclamation of the kingdom of God; that all the kingdoms of this world would fall and be replaced with the kingdom of God.
We must not domesticate Jesus, his call, or his mission. His was a radical work of transformation and reversal. This transformation and reversal count be disrupting. Out of this disruption, Jesus would create and new world, a new kingdom. Jesus’ happy transformations and, at times disruptive reversals are as much a part of the Christmas story as any other.
conclusion and benediction
God was and is a God of transformation and reversal. He was so from creation and then throughout Israel’s history. Transformation and reversal was part of “His work and glory.” God transformed Mary’s life in ways that she could not have imagined. The agent of this transformation was Jesus. Even before he was born, he had the power to transform lives. Mary was, in a sense, Jesus’ very first transformation.
When Mary saw the unimaginable happen in her own life, her mind was set ablaze with new possibilities. Mary transferred her own experience of transformation to the whole world. As God’s divine work of transformation and reversal had gone on for ages before, it would continue for ages to come. That work of transformation and reversal would find new focus, new energy, and new power in her son, Jesus, and his ministry. He would turn the world, with its false and twisted values, upside down, inside out, topsy-turvy! He was, in a sense, a world destroyer. He would stretch out his powerful arm and destroy one world in order to create a new one: purer, more just, and more enduring.
This transformation, this reversal of fortune, this dismantling of false value systems, this replacing of false value systems with a value system called the kingdom of God was, in fact, one of Jesus’ principal labors and objectives. I believe, in fact, that Jesus’ challenge to and reversal of the world’s value system belongs near the top of any list concerning the purposes and objectives of his actions, his teaching, his ministry, and, finally, his very life. Even more recognized and appreciated aspects of Jesus’ ministry—his healings, for example, or his teachings, or even his atoning sacrifice, death, and following resurrection, ascension, and enthronement—even these represent a challenge to, a transformation and reversal of the world’s influences and values. They represent his commitment to transformation and reversal.
This, it seems to me, is the view of his mother, Mary, who, in her famous Magnificat, makes no mention of the more traditional appreciations of her son’s ministry. Rather, in her Magnificat, Mary discerns that God will work through her son to reveal, challenge, transform, and reverse the world’s distorted value systems and create a new word order: the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ call to transform and reverse is gospel. It is good news. It may not be such good news for the high and mighty, the rich and power, the influential and ruling classes whose status is to be reversed. But for the likes of Mary, and for all the world’s poor and powerless this is glad tidings of great joy, indeed. Little wonder that Mary exclaimed,
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
This gospel, this good news of transformation and reversal is an integral part of the Christmas story. It is one of the great gifts Jesus offers the world. It must not be forgotten or ignored. Christmas must serve as a reminder of the good news of transformation and reversal. But more than this, Christmas serves as a call to all disciples. Disciples are called to support, assist, labor, and advocate for the transformation of this world and the reversal of its twisted and perverted values. This is one of the greatest gifts we can give to that man whose birth we celebrate. It is one of the greatest gifts we can give to the world.
Mary Christmas! And
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men.”[4]
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
[1] Psalm 113.4-8, author’s translation
[2] Luke 6.20-21
[3] Luke 6.24-25
[4][4] Luke 2.14
[i] For those who wish to compare translations, here is the KJV.
46And Mary said,
“My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
50And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
51He hath shewed strength with his arm;
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree.
53He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54He hath holpen his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy;
55As he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”
“My entire being extols the Lord,
47and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
48because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
49But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!
50Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.
51He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
52He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
53Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
54He will embrace Israēl, His child,
remembering His unwavering devotion,
55just as he promised our ancestors,
Abraham and his descendants, to perpetuity (author’s translation).[i]
introduction
Mary’s Magnificat as recorded in Luke’s Gospel has been a source of inspiration and hope for millions, perhaps billions. Here is a woman to whom and with whom God did such great things that age after age has extoled her. But it was not always so with her. Before her encounter with God, she had been of lowly status. She lived in obscurity. She had not expected much from life and was utterly surprised when God lifted her from her lowly station.
“But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.”
She was as grateful as she was surprised.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer…
How incomparable is His power!”
Mary knew and acknowledged that her transformation was the unparalleled work of God. Only God could accomplish the work of a transformation such as hers. But we should know and acknowledge that the agent of that transformation was Jesus, the babe she carried in her womb for nine months; the babe she gave birth to; the babe she laid in a feeding trough inside a stable; the babe she raised; and the babe that would become the most extraordinary and influential man the world has ever seen. Had Mary not been the mother of Jesus, she would have remained in obscurity. You and I would not even know of her existence. It is, then, fair to say, nay necessary to say that it was in and through Jesus that God transformed Mary and made something extraordinary of her.
But Mary quickly came to appreciate that she was not God’s first transformation. Neither was she to be Jesus’ last transformation. God called Jesus to transform others. Many others. God called Jesus to transform the entire world.
Mary came to realize too that Jesus’ call to transform the world was far more radical and revolutionary than her own transformation might have suggested. Jesus was not only called to bring transformation. He was called to bring reversal. There was something fundamentally wrong with this world and its values. It was especially twisted and perverted in its valuations about people. God called Jesus to fix the world, reshape its values and reverse unjust fortunes.
The billions who have found inspiration and hope through Mary and her personal transformation have also found inspiration and hope in her deeper insight that God called Jesus to transform them and, indeed, the entire world into something new. This private and worldwide transformation and the nature of it is the subject of the second part of Mary’s Magnificat and the focus of this homily. We find ourselves agreeing with Mary and partaking of the same spirit of wonder that filled her whole being.
“How incomparable is His power!”
the new world order
In the first half of her Magnificat, Mary expressed her feelings about the incredible transformation God brought to her life by making her the mother of Jesus. In the second half of her Magnificat, Mary acknowledges that she was not the first and would not be the last of God’s transformations. Indeed, she discerns that she and her transformation are both indicative of past divine transformations and prefigure future and more expansive transformations. The devotion that God showed to her was but a foretaste of a far more expansive devotion.
“Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.”
“He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.”
He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
There is much to unpack here. First, we recall that God is a God of transformation. This is part of His divine character. The Biblical record begins with an account of creation. Here, God transformed a chaotic void into a livable space for all life forms, but most especially for humankind. As important as this creative transformation is, it takes a back seat in Biblical theology to another divine creation: God’s creation of the nation, Israel.
The creation of Israel involved transforming Israel from slavery to freedom. From serving an oppressive and malevolent master to serving a benevolent God. But this transformation was of a radical nature. Israel’s transformation from slavery to freedom came at the expense of Egypt, a world power that would not willingly participate in God’s transformational character and intentions. Israel’s transformation from slavery to freedom created a reversal of fortunes for both Israel and Egypt.
Israel came to understand that its transformation and the reversal of fortune that it produced was not a fluke. Not a one-off. Rather, it was characteristic of God. The Psalmist, one of Israel’s greatest spokesmen and evangelists, declared,
YHWH is exalted above the earth.
Greater is His importance than the universe is expansive.
Who is like YHWH, our God;
the One who sits, exalted;
the One who condescends to look upon
heaven and earth;
the One who raises the beggar from the ground;
the One who lifts the destitute out of the trash heap,
so that they may associate with those who are noble,
with the most noble citizens among my people.”[1]
This is quite the imagery. Here, for example, we are made to look upon, perhaps against our will, and really see the poor as they kneel on the ground before “one of their betters” from whom they beg even the smallest token of assistance. Here, we watch the destitute, slumped over and desperately rummaging through a city’s mound of trash in hopes of finding something, anything to sustain their health and life. And, here, we see God transform them and make them equal with the most advantaged and noble citizens of their city.
But even this imagery and the transformation it depicts is too mild for Mary’s vision of God’s transformations. As with Israel’s experience in Egypt, God’s blessed transformations include uncomfortable reversals. “Those who go hungry,” Mary says, “God satiated with delicacies.” There is transformation. Then she goes on, “and the rich He sent away empty.” There is reversal. Almost as if he has learned his lessons from his mother, as a grown and mature man Jesus will announce from a Galilean hill,
“Blessed be ye poor:
for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are ye that hunger now:
for ye shall be filled.
Blessed are ye that weep now:
for ye shall laugh.”[2]
We find these transformations pleasing. We are happy for them. But found in this happy transformations is a reversal that may be less comfortable for us.
“But woe unto you that are rich!
For ye have received your consolation.
“Woe unto you that are full!
For ye shall hunger.”
“Woe unto you that laugh now!
For ye shall mourn and weep.”[3]
We could be forgiven for thinking of the poor, the hungry, and those who weep as, really, the same class of people; a class of people whose economic status God will reverse. God’s transformations and reversals, however, go far beyond the mere economic. Mary sees that God
“brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.”
God’s transformations and reversals bring a new world order indeed.
In the second half of her Magnificat, then, Mary transfers her own private experience onto the world stage. God would manifest his unwavering devotion to the ages to come the same way he manifested his unwavering devotion to Israel before her and then to her. As He raised Mary from her lowly, obscure, and insignificant status, blessed her through Jesus, and made her to be extoled, God raises up and blesses the world’s lowly. This is accomplished by bringing down the high and mighty.
jesus, agent of the new world order
In her Magnificat, Mary spoke of God’s transformations and reversals in the past tense.
“He exercised dominion with his power.
He weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
He brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
Those who go hungry He satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He sent away empty.
This past tense, I suggest, as two significations. First, as we have said, transformation and reversal has always been part of God’s character and central to His “work and glory.” Mary’s transformation is part of that history of divine transformation. But her own transformation is also part of the future. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Mary is so sure of future transformation that she can speak of it in the past tense. This use of the past tense in speaking of a future surety is common in Hebrew prophetic circles.
Just as Jesus served as agent for her own transformation, he would be agent to future transformation. In Jesus, God would give His work of transformation and reversal a renewed focus and emphasis. Jesus was called to carry on God’s eternal work of transformation and reversal. Jesus was true to this calling. Examples of Jesus’ transforming and reversing works and words can be found everywhere. Here is but a sampling.
The “King of kings” is born in a feeding trough.
The announcement of Israel’s king’s birth is first announced to shepherds, one of the lowest on Israel’s status ladder.
The “Holy One of God” participates in an ordinance for sinners.
Jesus heals all manner of disease and affliction.
Jesus pronounces blessedness upon the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated.
Jesus pronounces a woe upon the rich, the full, the happy, the popular.
Jesus teaches that the first will be last and the last will be first.
Heaven rejoices over one lost sheep more than over the sheep never lost.
What is “highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
A sinner leaves the temple “justified,” while a “righteous” man leaves condemned.
A single widow’s two mites is worth more than every rich man’s abundance.
Israel encouraged to be more like a Sidonian widow and a Syrian leper.
“The queen of the south” and “the men of Nineve” held up as examples to Israel.
A Samaritan becomes a hero at the expense of a Levite and a High Priest.
The King of Israel and Son of God participates in the same fate as two criminals.
Jesus brings release from sin.
Jesus reverses death to create enduring life.
Jesus’ entire life was one of reversal of expectations and unexpected transformations. His ultimate transformation and reversal in this world was his proclamation of the kingdom of God; that all the kingdoms of this world would fall and be replaced with the kingdom of God.
We must not domesticate Jesus, his call, or his mission. His was a radical work of transformation and reversal. This transformation and reversal count be disrupting. Out of this disruption, Jesus would create and new world, a new kingdom. Jesus’ happy transformations and, at times disruptive reversals are as much a part of the Christmas story as any other.
conclusion and benediction
God was and is a God of transformation and reversal. He was so from creation and then throughout Israel’s history. Transformation and reversal was part of “His work and glory.” God transformed Mary’s life in ways that she could not have imagined. The agent of this transformation was Jesus. Even before he was born, he had the power to transform lives. Mary was, in a sense, Jesus’ very first transformation.
When Mary saw the unimaginable happen in her own life, her mind was set ablaze with new possibilities. Mary transferred her own experience of transformation to the whole world. As God’s divine work of transformation and reversal had gone on for ages before, it would continue for ages to come. That work of transformation and reversal would find new focus, new energy, and new power in her son, Jesus, and his ministry. He would turn the world, with its false and twisted values, upside down, inside out, topsy-turvy! He was, in a sense, a world destroyer. He would stretch out his powerful arm and destroy one world in order to create a new one: purer, more just, and more enduring.
This transformation, this reversal of fortune, this dismantling of false value systems, this replacing of false value systems with a value system called the kingdom of God was, in fact, one of Jesus’ principal labors and objectives. I believe, in fact, that Jesus’ challenge to and reversal of the world’s value system belongs near the top of any list concerning the purposes and objectives of his actions, his teaching, his ministry, and, finally, his very life. Even more recognized and appreciated aspects of Jesus’ ministry—his healings, for example, or his teachings, or even his atoning sacrifice, death, and following resurrection, ascension, and enthronement—even these represent a challenge to, a transformation and reversal of the world’s influences and values. They represent his commitment to transformation and reversal.
This, it seems to me, is the view of his mother, Mary, who, in her famous Magnificat, makes no mention of the more traditional appreciations of her son’s ministry. Rather, in her Magnificat, Mary discerns that God will work through her son to reveal, challenge, transform, and reverse the world’s distorted value systems and create a new word order: the kingdom of God.
Jesus’ call to transform and reverse is gospel. It is good news. It may not be such good news for the high and mighty, the rich and power, the influential and ruling classes whose status is to be reversed. But for the likes of Mary, and for all the world’s poor and powerless this is glad tidings of great joy, indeed. Little wonder that Mary exclaimed,
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
This gospel, this good news of transformation and reversal is an integral part of the Christmas story. It is one of the great gifts Jesus offers the world. It must not be forgotten or ignored. Christmas must serve as a reminder of the good news of transformation and reversal. But more than this, Christmas serves as a call to all disciples. Disciples are called to support, assist, labor, and advocate for the transformation of this world and the reversal of its twisted and perverted values. This is one of the greatest gifts we can give to that man whose birth we celebrate. It is one of the greatest gifts we can give to the world.
Mary Christmas! And
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good will toward men.”[4]
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
[1] Psalm 113.4-8, author’s translation
[2] Luke 6.20-21
[3] Luke 6.24-25
[4][4] Luke 2.14
[i] For those who wish to compare translations, here is the KJV.
46And Mary said,
“My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
50And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
51He hath shewed strength with his arm;
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree.
53He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54He hath holpen his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy;
55As he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”
CHRISTMAS HOMILY
mary's magnificat and the new world order (part 1)
luke 1.46-55
(12/21/24)
46Then, Mariam said,
“My entire being extols the Lord,
47and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
48because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
49But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!
50Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.
51He has exercised dominion with his power.
He has weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
52He has brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
53Those who go hungry He has satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
54He will embrace Israēl, His child,
remembering His unwavering devotion,
55just as he promised our ancestors,
Abraham and his descendants, to perpetuity (author’s translation).[i]
introduction
The first Christian Bibles–a combination of the ”Old Testament” and the “New Testament”– were written in Greek. The Christian Bible remained predominantly Greek in both the East and West until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Christian Church continued to copy and utilize the Bible in Greek after the collapse of the Western Empire. However, the Western Christian Church came to be dominated by Saint Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate—the vulgar, or common language Bible.
Due to depressed technologies that limited transportation and communication between the East and the West, the West all but forgot the Christian Bible’s Greek origins. The West was mostly devoid of Greek texts of any kind–secular or religious—as well as individuals who could read and understand them. This state of forgetfulness and loss in the West lasted for some thousand years. Only as technologies and communications began to improve and as refugees from felled Constantinople streamed into the West with their Greek texts and knowledge did the West rediscover the classical Greek world and the Bible in its Greek original.
What, you might ask, does all of this have to do with Mary’s Magnificat? The West’s rediscovery of Greek was slow. The West’s ability to print the Bible in Greek was halting. The first Greek Bibles published in the west were incomplete. One of the very first—perhaps the first—Greek Bibles printed in the West was printed at Milan in 1481.[1] This printing brings us to Mary’s Magnificat. This first Greek Bible published in the West included only the Old Testament Book of Psalms, Mary’s Magnificat as recorded by Luke in 1.46-55, and the Benedictus found in Luke 1.68-79.
This speaks, certainly, to the importance and influence of the Psalms–something I have spoken of many, many, many times in my questionaries, meditations, and homilies. It also speaks to the importance and influence of Mary’s Magnificat.
I have commented on Mary’s Magnificat many times in recent years, especially since the American presidential election of 2016, when it became impossible to any longer ignore the depths of American perversion and society’s need for deep reformation and restructuring. Mary’s Magnificat has become increasing important and influential in my understanding of Jesus. It has become increasingly important and influential in my understand of Jesus’ own self-understanding concerning the purposes for which God sent him. It has become increasingly important and influential in my understanding of the calling to which every follower and disciple of Christ is called, and what the disciple of Christ is called to advocate in society at large.
I have complained about the way our views of “the flood”—whether expressed in word or the visual arts—are often reduced to meaningless caricature. This horrific event—whether real or legendary—is rarely discussed in word or portrayed in images in any real way. In the visual arts, for example, we are shown cute, cuddly little animals lined up in disciplined lines awaiting their happy boarding onto the ark. Artists, it seems, dare not portray the millions of bloated and bursting human corpses bobbing on the ocean’s surface. Such truth defying caricature does service to no one but those who wish to remain blissfully ignorant.
Similarly, we have, I fear, domesticated Jesus nearly out of all recognition. I, myself, have been guilty of domesticating him. I am not sure he would recognize himself in the almost teddy bear caricature our words and images often make of him. It is reasonable, I suppose, that during the Christmas Season we are inclined to focus on Jesus as a babe: a babe warmly wrapped in blankets on top of clean hay inside a cozy manger. The presence and stench of animal dung, I admit, doesn’t make for a very good Christmas hymn. But our Christmas sentimentality must not be confused with reality. The fact is, a baby rapped in rags and lying in an animal trough has a dark side to it.
Our Christmas sentimentality must not extend to the man the babe became. That babe turned into an extraordinary man. A very serious man. And that extraordinary and serious man became a man on a mission: an extraordinary and serious mission. It was not a self-appointed mission. It was a mission from God. It would be interesting to discuss Jesus’ mission with one another. No doubt, we could come up with many important aspects of his mission: to serve as revelation of God and his true and largely unknown character, to suffer and die as the result of this world’s sins, to be resurrected that he might bring enduring life to all.
All of these are true. But in her Magnificat, Mary mentioned none of them. She focused on a different mission. This mission is no less important or impactful than any other. Indeed, it is at the very heart of who Jesus was and how he understood himself and his divine call. In this and its companion homily, we explore Mary’s important and influential Magnificat, and especially what it has to say about the mission of her son, the man whom, under divine appointment, she named, Jesus.
a mother’s intuition
It is valuable to see what men such as Peter or Paul or Alma or Moroni understand about Jesus and his life mission. But what about Jesus’ mother and her understanding of her son and his mission? Who, whether male or female, prophet or not, should we expect to better understand and communicate the character of Jesus and the meaning of his life and mission than his mother? An inspired mother. A mother who thought of herself, first and foremost as a servant (handmaiden) of God. A mother who looked upon the face of an angel. A mother who was instructed by an angel. A mother to whom an angel revealed the character and greatness of her future son. A woman who became a mother through the power of God and an unknowable encounter with Him. A woman, it is said, who was the mother of God.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just being sentimental now, but it seems to me that such a woman’s—such a mother’s—intuition and inspiration into the nature and mission of her very own son ought to be the subject of great interest, attention, and consideration. Little wonder, really, that this woman’s, this mother’s intuition and inspiration should be found in Western Christian Europe’s first Greek publication in a thousand years. This speaks well of the discernment present in those responsible for such publication. Then, too, perhaps our attention and response to this mother’s intuition and inspiration concerning her son, Jesus, and his mission says something about us.
mary’s experience and lead up to her magnificat
We know very little about Mary, either before her pregnancy with Jesus or after. We first meet her when the angel Gabriel visited her and greeted her as a “blessed one” and assured her, “the Lord is with you.”[2] It seems that the angel’s portrayal of her in his greeting caught her by surprise, for “she was confused by his greeting and mused, ‘what kind of greeting is this.’”[3] Seeing Mary’s uncertainty, the angel found it desirable, perhaps even necessary to repeat the most essential point: “you have obtained pleased acceptance with God.”[4]
The angel Gabriel then informed Mary that she would become pregnant and bear a son. She was to name him Jesus. This name, he went on to explain, was consistent with the extraordinary character and mission of the boy. We can’t say for sure how Mary felt about these predictions, but we do know that the angel ended with much the same encouragement that another angel delivered to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who was, herself, skeptical of an extraordinary promise that she would bear a son: “No word from God goes unfulfilled.”[5] With this assurance, the annunciation ended with Mary expressing her hope, “Oh may it happen to me in accordance with your word!”
Soon after Gabriel’s visit, Mary traveled into the hill country to visit her cousin Elisabeth. During this visit, Elisabeth discerned Mary’s pregnancy and the extraordinary nature of the son that she carried. It is there, during that visit, that Mary uttered her Magnificat.
magnificat, the private view
Mary’s Magnificat begins at the personal and intimate level.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer…”
Here, we sense the wonder that consumed Mary. The impact of God’s presence in her life, the impact of having this son in her womb was profound, deep, all-consuming. And it was personal, intimate. No longer is the Lord simply “the Lord.” No longer is He simply “God.” He is “my Deliverer.”
God has delivered Mary. He has rescued her. Now, the idea of rescue carries in it the notion of something negative. One is rescued from something. We might understand Mary to be filled with joy because God rescued her from some generalized negative something. But, as her Magnificat continues, it becomes clear that Mary has been rescued from a very specific kind of something.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over my God, who is my Deliverer…”
because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
Mary was rescued from her “lowly status.” Like her son, Mary’s lowliness must not be domesticated. The word used here for lowly is almost universally derogatory. It is to be “mean,” “base,” “weak,” “poor,” “insignificant.” God rescued Mary from a life of insignificance, obscurity, and powerlessness, along with the humiliation that nearly always attends them. God rescued Mary from a life devoid of a sense of real self-worth.
Now, we can read Mary’s “His servant,” as a statement of Mary’s devotion to God and her willingness to serve and worship him. She will certainly be this after her encounter with God. No doubt, she tried to show her love and worship of God through service before her encounter with God. But, I believe, we should hear something different in Mary’s “His servant.” The traditional, “maidservant,” is a fancy word for “slave.” Mary’s social status was that of or just above that of a slave. She knows something about oppressiveness.
But even slaves, even the oppressed belong to God. Like those famous oppressed slaves of Egyptian lore, God sees the slave. He understands the slave’s oppression. And he acts, sooner or later, to benefit and bless and free the slave. To be sure, they are not of “lowly status” in His eyes. All are alike in the eyes of God.
So, Mary is transformed into something, someone new. But the transformation that God brought into her life was not to be measured in inches or by a few degrees. The transformation was a complete 180. It was almost more than she could understand.
“But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!”
John reports of Jesus attending a wedding feast. At some point during the days-long feast, the host ran out of wine. When Jesus’ mother made Jesus aware of this deficiency, Jesus acted.
“And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’
And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, ‘Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.’
And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, ‘Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.’
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory.”[6]
Now, water is important. It is, though, so ubiquitous in our day and society that we rarely give it a thought. This would not have been true in the ancient world or in Jesus’ day. Water was precious, its availability often uncertain. People gave a lot of thought to water. But drinking water was of little use for the purposes of a wedding. What was wanted at a wedding feast was wine, not water.
Jesus’ transformation of some twenty-five gallons of common water into the choicest of wine can be seen as symbolic for Jesus’ transforming power in the life of all who accept him. It is an apt symbol for Jesus’ transformation of Mary’s life. Through Jesus’ presence in her, God transformed her from someone lowly and dismissed as unimportant to someone exalted and acknowledged as greatly blessed. He turned her from water into wine.
conclusion and benediction
Generations of Christians have found inspiration in Mary’s inspired oracle known as the Magnificat. To be sure, they have found hope in the transformation that God brought into her own life, seeing in it the potential for their own transformation. Mary’s insights into the nature of the mission God called Jesus to fulfill rival the insights of any other. Jesus’ mission was to transform the world in ways that Mary prefigures and the second half of the Magnificat describes. Mary was Jesus’ first patient, his first miraculous transformation, and evidence of his wondrous, almost unimaginable effectiveness as a transformer.
Over the past two thousand years, peoples have extoled Mary as blessed just as she intuited and expressed in her Magnificat. We know little of Mary’s character before or after Jesus’ birth. Many have speculated about it. In some faith traditions an entire theology has been built around her. Such speculation and traditions may have much or little in common with reality. No doubt she became an extraordinary woman.
But, whatever her character, it is important to note that she became what she became because of Jesus. Her renown came because of Jesus. Without having given birth to Jesus, Mary would have remained in obscurity. You and I would never have known of her existence.
It is, then, fair to say that in was in and through Christ that God transformed Mary and made something extraordinary of her. This is true of all of us. And this is precisely what Mary intuited and expressed in the second half of her Magnificat. Mary was Jesus’ first transformation, but she was to be far from the last. God called Jesus to transform individuals. But, more, God called Jesus to transform the entire world, the entire world order. This transformation and nature of it will be the subject of our second homily on Mary’s magnificent Magnificat.
“Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.”[7]
“Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.”[8]
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
[1] In the west, the first whole publication of the New Testament came in 1516 with that of Erasmus. The first western publication of the Old Testament in Hebrew came in 1488.
[2] Luke 1.28. I have not included the KJV’s “blessed art thou among women” as it is not attested in many Greek texts deemed best.
[3] Luke 1.29
[4] Luke 1.30 (author’s translation)
[5] Luke 1.37, author’s translation
[6] John 2.6-11
[7] Luke 11.2-3
[8] Luke 6.20
[i] For those who wish to compare translations, here is the KJV.
46And Mary said,
“My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
50And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
51He hath shewed strength with his arm;
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree.
53He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54He hath holpen his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy;
55As he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”
“My entire being extols the Lord,
47and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer,
48because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
49But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!
50Then too, His unwavering devotion extends for ages and ages.
51He has exercised dominion with his power.
He has weakened the high and mighty with their inner self-perception.
52He has brought rulers down from their thrones,
and elevated the vulnerable.
53Those who go hungry He has satiated with delicacies,
and the rich He has sent away empty.
54He will embrace Israēl, His child,
remembering His unwavering devotion,
55just as he promised our ancestors,
Abraham and his descendants, to perpetuity (author’s translation).[i]
introduction
The first Christian Bibles–a combination of the ”Old Testament” and the “New Testament”– were written in Greek. The Christian Bible remained predominantly Greek in both the East and West until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. The Eastern Christian Church continued to copy and utilize the Bible in Greek after the collapse of the Western Empire. However, the Western Christian Church came to be dominated by Saint Jerome’s Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate—the vulgar, or common language Bible.
Due to depressed technologies that limited transportation and communication between the East and the West, the West all but forgot the Christian Bible’s Greek origins. The West was mostly devoid of Greek texts of any kind–secular or religious—as well as individuals who could read and understand them. This state of forgetfulness and loss in the West lasted for some thousand years. Only as technologies and communications began to improve and as refugees from felled Constantinople streamed into the West with their Greek texts and knowledge did the West rediscover the classical Greek world and the Bible in its Greek original.
What, you might ask, does all of this have to do with Mary’s Magnificat? The West’s rediscovery of Greek was slow. The West’s ability to print the Bible in Greek was halting. The first Greek Bibles published in the west were incomplete. One of the very first—perhaps the first—Greek Bibles printed in the West was printed at Milan in 1481.[1] This printing brings us to Mary’s Magnificat. This first Greek Bible published in the West included only the Old Testament Book of Psalms, Mary’s Magnificat as recorded by Luke in 1.46-55, and the Benedictus found in Luke 1.68-79.
This speaks, certainly, to the importance and influence of the Psalms–something I have spoken of many, many, many times in my questionaries, meditations, and homilies. It also speaks to the importance and influence of Mary’s Magnificat.
I have commented on Mary’s Magnificat many times in recent years, especially since the American presidential election of 2016, when it became impossible to any longer ignore the depths of American perversion and society’s need for deep reformation and restructuring. Mary’s Magnificat has become increasing important and influential in my understanding of Jesus. It has become increasingly important and influential in my understand of Jesus’ own self-understanding concerning the purposes for which God sent him. It has become increasingly important and influential in my understanding of the calling to which every follower and disciple of Christ is called, and what the disciple of Christ is called to advocate in society at large.
I have complained about the way our views of “the flood”—whether expressed in word or the visual arts—are often reduced to meaningless caricature. This horrific event—whether real or legendary—is rarely discussed in word or portrayed in images in any real way. In the visual arts, for example, we are shown cute, cuddly little animals lined up in disciplined lines awaiting their happy boarding onto the ark. Artists, it seems, dare not portray the millions of bloated and bursting human corpses bobbing on the ocean’s surface. Such truth defying caricature does service to no one but those who wish to remain blissfully ignorant.
Similarly, we have, I fear, domesticated Jesus nearly out of all recognition. I, myself, have been guilty of domesticating him. I am not sure he would recognize himself in the almost teddy bear caricature our words and images often make of him. It is reasonable, I suppose, that during the Christmas Season we are inclined to focus on Jesus as a babe: a babe warmly wrapped in blankets on top of clean hay inside a cozy manger. The presence and stench of animal dung, I admit, doesn’t make for a very good Christmas hymn. But our Christmas sentimentality must not be confused with reality. The fact is, a baby rapped in rags and lying in an animal trough has a dark side to it.
Our Christmas sentimentality must not extend to the man the babe became. That babe turned into an extraordinary man. A very serious man. And that extraordinary and serious man became a man on a mission: an extraordinary and serious mission. It was not a self-appointed mission. It was a mission from God. It would be interesting to discuss Jesus’ mission with one another. No doubt, we could come up with many important aspects of his mission: to serve as revelation of God and his true and largely unknown character, to suffer and die as the result of this world’s sins, to be resurrected that he might bring enduring life to all.
All of these are true. But in her Magnificat, Mary mentioned none of them. She focused on a different mission. This mission is no less important or impactful than any other. Indeed, it is at the very heart of who Jesus was and how he understood himself and his divine call. In this and its companion homily, we explore Mary’s important and influential Magnificat, and especially what it has to say about the mission of her son, the man whom, under divine appointment, she named, Jesus.
a mother’s intuition
It is valuable to see what men such as Peter or Paul or Alma or Moroni understand about Jesus and his life mission. But what about Jesus’ mother and her understanding of her son and his mission? Who, whether male or female, prophet or not, should we expect to better understand and communicate the character of Jesus and the meaning of his life and mission than his mother? An inspired mother. A mother who thought of herself, first and foremost as a servant (handmaiden) of God. A mother who looked upon the face of an angel. A mother who was instructed by an angel. A mother to whom an angel revealed the character and greatness of her future son. A woman who became a mother through the power of God and an unknowable encounter with Him. A woman, it is said, who was the mother of God.
I don’t know, maybe I’m just being sentimental now, but it seems to me that such a woman’s—such a mother’s—intuition and inspiration into the nature and mission of her very own son ought to be the subject of great interest, attention, and consideration. Little wonder, really, that this woman’s, this mother’s intuition and inspiration should be found in Western Christian Europe’s first Greek publication in a thousand years. This speaks well of the discernment present in those responsible for such publication. Then, too, perhaps our attention and response to this mother’s intuition and inspiration concerning her son, Jesus, and his mission says something about us.
mary’s experience and lead up to her magnificat
We know very little about Mary, either before her pregnancy with Jesus or after. We first meet her when the angel Gabriel visited her and greeted her as a “blessed one” and assured her, “the Lord is with you.”[2] It seems that the angel’s portrayal of her in his greeting caught her by surprise, for “she was confused by his greeting and mused, ‘what kind of greeting is this.’”[3] Seeing Mary’s uncertainty, the angel found it desirable, perhaps even necessary to repeat the most essential point: “you have obtained pleased acceptance with God.”[4]
The angel Gabriel then informed Mary that she would become pregnant and bear a son. She was to name him Jesus. This name, he went on to explain, was consistent with the extraordinary character and mission of the boy. We can’t say for sure how Mary felt about these predictions, but we do know that the angel ended with much the same encouragement that another angel delivered to Abraham’s wife, Sarah, who was, herself, skeptical of an extraordinary promise that she would bear a son: “No word from God goes unfulfilled.”[5] With this assurance, the annunciation ended with Mary expressing her hope, “Oh may it happen to me in accordance with your word!”
Soon after Gabriel’s visit, Mary traveled into the hill country to visit her cousin Elisabeth. During this visit, Elisabeth discerned Mary’s pregnancy and the extraordinary nature of the son that she carried. It is there, during that visit, that Mary uttered her Magnificat.
magnificat, the private view
Mary’s Magnificat begins at the personal and intimate level.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over God, my Deliverer…”
Here, we sense the wonder that consumed Mary. The impact of God’s presence in her life, the impact of having this son in her womb was profound, deep, all-consuming. And it was personal, intimate. No longer is the Lord simply “the Lord.” No longer is He simply “God.” He is “my Deliverer.”
God has delivered Mary. He has rescued her. Now, the idea of rescue carries in it the notion of something negative. One is rescued from something. We might understand Mary to be filled with joy because God rescued her from some generalized negative something. But, as her Magnificat continues, it becomes clear that Mary has been rescued from a very specific kind of something.
“My entire being extols the Lord,
and the deepest parts of my being leap for joy over my God, who is my Deliverer…”
because He has looked with understanding upon His servant’s lowly status.
Mary was rescued from her “lowly status.” Like her son, Mary’s lowliness must not be domesticated. The word used here for lowly is almost universally derogatory. It is to be “mean,” “base,” “weak,” “poor,” “insignificant.” God rescued Mary from a life of insignificance, obscurity, and powerlessness, along with the humiliation that nearly always attends them. God rescued Mary from a life devoid of a sense of real self-worth.
Now, we can read Mary’s “His servant,” as a statement of Mary’s devotion to God and her willingness to serve and worship him. She will certainly be this after her encounter with God. No doubt, she tried to show her love and worship of God through service before her encounter with God. But, I believe, we should hear something different in Mary’s “His servant.” The traditional, “maidservant,” is a fancy word for “slave.” Mary’s social status was that of or just above that of a slave. She knows something about oppressiveness.
But even slaves, even the oppressed belong to God. Like those famous oppressed slaves of Egyptian lore, God sees the slave. He understands the slave’s oppression. And he acts, sooner or later, to benefit and bless and free the slave. To be sure, they are not of “lowly status” in His eyes. All are alike in the eyes of God.
So, Mary is transformed into something, someone new. But the transformation that God brought into her life was not to be measured in inches or by a few degrees. The transformation was a complete 180. It was almost more than she could understand.
“But, just imagine! From now on every age will extol me as blessed
because the Mighty One has done great things for me.
How incomparable is His power!”
John reports of Jesus attending a wedding feast. At some point during the days-long feast, the host ran out of wine. When Jesus’ mother made Jesus aware of this deficiency, Jesus acted.
“And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them, ‘Fill the waterpots with water.’
And they filled them up to the brim. And he saith unto them, ‘Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.’
And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, ‘Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.’
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory.”[6]
Now, water is important. It is, though, so ubiquitous in our day and society that we rarely give it a thought. This would not have been true in the ancient world or in Jesus’ day. Water was precious, its availability often uncertain. People gave a lot of thought to water. But drinking water was of little use for the purposes of a wedding. What was wanted at a wedding feast was wine, not water.
Jesus’ transformation of some twenty-five gallons of common water into the choicest of wine can be seen as symbolic for Jesus’ transforming power in the life of all who accept him. It is an apt symbol for Jesus’ transformation of Mary’s life. Through Jesus’ presence in her, God transformed her from someone lowly and dismissed as unimportant to someone exalted and acknowledged as greatly blessed. He turned her from water into wine.
conclusion and benediction
Generations of Christians have found inspiration in Mary’s inspired oracle known as the Magnificat. To be sure, they have found hope in the transformation that God brought into her own life, seeing in it the potential for their own transformation. Mary’s insights into the nature of the mission God called Jesus to fulfill rival the insights of any other. Jesus’ mission was to transform the world in ways that Mary prefigures and the second half of the Magnificat describes. Mary was Jesus’ first patient, his first miraculous transformation, and evidence of his wondrous, almost unimaginable effectiveness as a transformer.
Over the past two thousand years, peoples have extoled Mary as blessed just as she intuited and expressed in her Magnificat. We know little of Mary’s character before or after Jesus’ birth. Many have speculated about it. In some faith traditions an entire theology has been built around her. Such speculation and traditions may have much or little in common with reality. No doubt she became an extraordinary woman.
But, whatever her character, it is important to note that she became what she became because of Jesus. Her renown came because of Jesus. Without having given birth to Jesus, Mary would have remained in obscurity. You and I would never have known of her existence.
It is, then, fair to say that in was in and through Christ that God transformed Mary and made something extraordinary of her. This is true of all of us. And this is precisely what Mary intuited and expressed in the second half of her Magnificat. Mary was Jesus’ first transformation, but she was to be far from the last. God called Jesus to transform individuals. But, more, God called Jesus to transform the entire world, the entire world order. This transformation and nature of it will be the subject of our second homily on Mary’s magnificent Magnificat.
“Our Father which art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.”[7]
“Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.”[8]
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
[1] In the west, the first whole publication of the New Testament came in 1516 with that of Erasmus. The first western publication of the Old Testament in Hebrew came in 1488.
[2] Luke 1.28. I have not included the KJV’s “blessed art thou among women” as it is not attested in many Greek texts deemed best.
[3] Luke 1.29
[4] Luke 1.30 (author’s translation)
[5] Luke 1.37, author’s translation
[6] John 2.6-11
[7] Luke 11.2-3
[8] Luke 6.20
[i] For those who wish to compare translations, here is the KJV.
46And Mary said,
“My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
50And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
51He hath shewed strength with his arm;
he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52He hath put down the mighty from their seats,
and exalted them of low degree.
53He hath filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich he hath sent empty away.
54He hath holpen his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy;
55As he spake to our fathers,
to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.”
homily archive
old testament based homilies
genesis 4.9... am i, an american, my brother's keepter? |
| ||
genesis 29-30... critiquing the myth of innocence (part 1): the dysfunction of jacob's family |
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exodus 1.8... a king who knew not joseph |
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exodus 2.11-12... awake and arise" moses, a "woke" man, yahweh, a "woke" god, and israel, a nation called to "wokeness" |
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exodus 13.3-10... the righteousness of being woke: resisting the un-biblical anti-woke heresy (part 2) |
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exodus 20.2-6... unwavering devotion for thousands of generations |
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leviticus 19.9-10... profit, wealth distribution, and the poor |
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leviticus 19.35-37... biblical weights and measures, modern profit margins, and what they portend for modern society |
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deuteronomy 4.9... the righteousness of being woke: resisting the un-biblical anti-woke heresy (part 1) |
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deuteronomy 6.20-23... the righteousness of being woke: resisting the un-biblical anti-woke heresy (part 3) |
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deuteronomy 6.20-24... the lord brought us out of egpt: dayenu |
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deuteronomy 8.3... the hidden manna |
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2 samuel 8.4-20 & matthew 16.13-26... the more things change, the more they stay the same |
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1 kings 1-12 & mosiah 11... king solomon and king noah, two peas in a pod: neoliberalism and the redistribution of wealth |
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2 kings 14.24... jeroboam's boom |
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2 kings 21... engaging in some foolish bible parallelomania: america's manasseh |
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psalms... reservations and just execrations |
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psalm 1 and 2... forbidding and resisting the governance of the ungodly |
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psalm 32... the blessedness of confession |
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psalm 40... he put a new song in my mouth |
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psalm 63... my soul is thirsty |
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psalm 101... music to the ears |
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psalm 130... in full expectation of forgiveness |
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isaiah 5.1-7... the lord’s love song for his vineyard and its interpretation (part 1—introductory) |
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isaiah 5.1-7... the lord’s love song for his vineyard and its interpretation (part 2) |
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isaiah 5.1-7... the lord’s love song for his vineyard and its interpretation (part 3) |
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isaiah 5.1-7... the lord’s love song for his vineyard and its interpretation (part 4) |
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isaiah 5.8-10... the injustice and immorality of predatory land practices (part 1) |
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isaiah 5.8-10... the injustice and immorality of predatory land practices (part 2) |
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isaiah 5.8-10... the injustice and immorality of predatory land practices (part 3) |
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isaiah 5.8-10... the injustice and immorality of predatory land practices (part 4) |
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isaiah 5.11-17... the injustice and immorality of the luxurious and lavish lifestyle (part 1—introductory)
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isaiah 5.11-17... the injustice and immorality of the luxurious and lavish lifestyle (part 2) |
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isaiah 5.11-17... the injustice and immorality of the luxurious and lavish lifestyle (part 3) |
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isaiah 5.18-19... injustice and delusion
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isaiah 5.20... the injustice of turning evil into good, lies into truth
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isaiah 5.21... injustice and the false wisdom of this world
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isaiah 5.22-24... injustice, bribery, and the commingling of the wealthy, influential, and powerful
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isaiah 1.2-6 (homily) a devoted parent, a rebellious child, and a brutal beating: metaphor for a nation’s rebellion |
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isaiah 32.1-8 (homily) deviant |
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isaiah 40.1-11 (homily) comfort ye my people |
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isaiah 56.10-12 (homily) the dereliction of duty: watchmen, sheepdogs, and shepherds |
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jeremiah (homily) the revelation of quotation |
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jeremiah 1.4-5 (homily) jeremiah's call: witness to a foresighted and farsighted god |
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Jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 1):
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 2): billionaire’s row
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 3): lies, lies, and more lies |
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 4):
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 5):
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 6): us law and more weapons, more war, more retribution, more death |
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 7): crimes against humanity, and the renunciation of war |
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jeremiah 6.14 (homily) healing our brokenness inadequately (part 8): three strikes and you’re out |
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healing our brokenness inadequately (part 9): the iniquity of inequality... bigger, deeper, higher, grosser than ever |
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healing our brokenness inadequately (part 10): cannibalism, american style |
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healing our brokenness inadequately (part 11): drinking and bribery: partners in crime |
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ezekiel 16.48-50 (homily) materialism and greed: the true sin of sodomy |
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amos 5.10-12 (homily) prophetic imagination: imagining justice |
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amos 8.4-6 (homily) fraudulently selling bad product at inflated prices (part 1) |
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amos 8.4-6 (homily) fraudulently selling bad product at inflated prices (part 2) |
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micah 2.1-3 (homily) dispossession and homelessness: a societal choice |
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micah 6.6-8 (part 1)... how should I approach God?
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micah 6.6-8 (part 2)... how we do not approach God
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micah 6.6-8 (part 3)... how we do not approach God—the temple
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micah 6.6-8 (part 4)... how we do approach God
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micah 6.9-12 (homily) profit above all |
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malachi 4.5-6 (homily) the spirit of elijah: an expanded view |
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new testament based homilies
matthew 2.1-18 (homily) rachel weeping for her childen: a christmas story |
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matthew 5.13-16 (homily) salt that has lost its savor |
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matthew 5.38-42 (homily) creative resistance and hopeful evangelizing |
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matthew 6.7 (homily) no vain repitition |
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matthew 11.28-30 (homily) come unto me |
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matthew 11 (homily) i am meek and lowly in heart |
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matthew 16.13-26 and 2 samuel 8.4-20 (homily) the more things change, the more they stay the same |
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matthew 16.13-23 (homily) so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 1): apostolic confession and rebuke |
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matthew 16.24-26 (homily) so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and ral power (part 2) take up his cross |
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matthew 21.1-9 (homily) so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 7): meek and sitting on an ass |
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matthew 27.33-50... the thrice repeated temptation jesus faced on the cross
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mark 9.33-37 (homily) so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 4): what was it that ye disputed? |
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mark 10.23-27 (homily) the needle’s eye, the rich man, and astonished disciples (part 1) |
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mark 10.23-27 (homily) the needle's eye, the rich man, and astonished disciples (part 2) |
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mark 10.35-45 (homily) so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 6): even the son of man came not to be ministered to, but to minister |
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luke 1.5-25 (homily) luke's introduction to his gospel (part 1): the annunciation of john the baptist |
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luke 1.26-38... luke's intoduction to his gospel (part 2) the annunciation of jesus |
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luke 1.39-45... luke's introduction to his gospel (part 3) leap for joy |
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luke 1.46-56... luke's introduction to his gospel (part 4) mary's magnificat |
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luke's 1.46-55... jesus' surprising reversals (part 1): a mothers intuition: of the mighty and rich, low, and hugry |
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luke 1.46-55... mary's magnificat and the new world order (part 1) |
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luke 1.46-55... mary's magnificat and the new world order (part 2) |
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luke 2.4-20... a season of invitation and promise |
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luke 4.23-30... jesus' surprising reversals (part 2): a prophet's inspiration: sidonian, syrian, and israelite widows and lepers |
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luke 5.12-14... a man covered with leprosy |
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luke 5.27-32... jesus' surprising reversals (part 3): turning sinners into role models and heroes |
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luke 6.20-26... jesus' surprising reversals (part 4): the reversal of beatitude |
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luke 7.36-50... jesus' surprising reversals (part 5): to whom little is given, the same loveth little |
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luke 9.28-36... so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 3): let these sayings sink down into your ears |
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luke 9.51-56... so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 5): ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of |
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luke 10.25-37... jesus' surprising reversals (part 6); which now of these three, thinkest thou was neighbour?
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luke 22.19-20... the righteousness of being woke: resisting the un-biblical anti-woke heresy (part 4)
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john 13.4-7... so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 8): ye also ought to wash one another's feet, for i have given you an example |
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john 13-17... i will not leave you comfortless |
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john 15.4-5... supernatural aid |
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john 18.36... now is my kingdom not from hence: an easter homily |
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romans 1.16-17... the righteousness of God |
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ephesians 1.3-14... blessed be god the father |
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colossians 1.12-20... jesus is good, better, best |
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hebrew 2.9-18... atonement--the savior's unity and connectedness with us: he also himself likewise took part of the same |
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revelation 4.8-5.13... praise is comely |
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revelation 5.1-7... so shall it not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power (part 9) |
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revelation 5.1-9... the surprising and other-worldly nature of godly power
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revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse (part 1): general observations |
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revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse (part 2): the white horse and its rider |
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revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse (part 3): the red horse and its rider |
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revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse (part 4): the black horse and its rider |
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revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse (part 5): the pale horse and its rider |
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book of mormon based homilies
1 nephi 8.26-27, 33... the great and spacious building |
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1 nephi 13.20-29... authorship of he book of mormon |
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jacob 1.8... would to God that we could persuade all men to suffer his cross: a response to mormonism’s belittling of the cross |
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alma 34.9... fall: our need of atonement... all mankind must unavoidably perish |
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helaman 13... the slippery slope of materialism |
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3 nephi 11.13-17... grace: the savior's generous and earnest invitation... come forth unto me |
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doctrine and covenants/ pearl of great price based homilies
dc 1... knowing the calamities which should come |
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dc 10.25... lies, stories, sins, totems, and tribes |
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dc 38.1-6... by the virtue of the blood... have I pleaded
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dc 38.1-6... zion and joseph’s smith’s muse, enoch
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dc 38.7-9... rending the veil of darkness and looking upon the face of god
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dc 38.10-15... the powers of darkness prevail
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dc 45.1-5... kristallnacht |
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dc 45.1-8... hearken, listen, and hear: the ministry of advocacy |
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dc 84.112... dual purposes: caring for the poor and humbling the rich |
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dc 101.43-51... selling out zion for profit |
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jsh 1.19-20... abomination |
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topically based homilies
biblical economics 101 |
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2 samuel 8.4-20 & matthew 16.13-26... the idolatry of choosing human governance over the governance of God |
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1 nephi 2.19-24... prosperity and the just society (part 1): the "prosperity promise" as found in the book of mormon |
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prosperity and the just society (part 2): the nature of prosperity in the old testament |
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election: responsibility, not privilege: humility, not superiority |
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divine love: "conditional" or "unconditional," that seems to be the question |
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humans are both private and public beings. god is both father and king |
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human sacrifice on the altar of the american god, economy |
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pandemic and sin |
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white supremacy and the "times of the gentiles" |
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the "dark teachings" of the endowment |
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something has gone terribly wrong: the 2016 presidential election |
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that was then, this is now: election 2016 |
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the prayer that might have been: thoughts on the lds church and the gay community |
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on byu’s honor code, eternal marriage, and degrees of glory
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homily series
revelation 6.1-8... the four horsemen of the apocalypse in five parts |
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so shall in not be among you: the nature of true greatness and real power |
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jesus' surprising reversals |
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the righteousness of being woke: resisting the un-biblical anti-woke heresy |
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