How Can We Keep from Singing?

Or Making Ourselves Vulnerable to the Power of the Future

from Visitation Chapel  

He has shown strength with his arm;

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their from their thrones

and lifted up the lowly;

He has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

Luke 1:51-53

My soul is a lens for God, my spirit castanets,

for God has made me both pregnant and pageant

for the sake of all children forever.

The Mighty One has found sanctuary

in my human lactation."

---Mary Luti

From generation to generation

women sing out of the shadows

and labor in the echoes

for the holy to be born.

--Jan L. Richardson

Litany  (adapted from Miriam Therese Winter)

Leader:  People, what will we bring to birth in the world of the new creation?

All: Wisdom and justice.

Peace and compassion.

Concern for all God’s little ones.

For the homeless and impoverished,

the hungry, and all bear the brunt of indifference and oppression.

Leader: What will we bring to birth on the earth of the new creation?

All:  A total disdain for power

that diminishes or destroys,

divestment of wealth and status,

a sharing of human resources

based on mutuality

and sudden surprises of grace.

Leader: People, what will we bring the birth in the hearts of the new creation?

All:  An unbreakable bond in the Spirit

that binds as one all brothers and sisters,

transcending class, color, culture, religion, race, and gender,

that treats no personal preference, no physical or spiritual difference as an aberration or handicap.

   

      Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that the Song of Mary is the oldest Advent hymn. “It is at once the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung…These are the tones of the women prophets of the old Testament now come to life in Mary’s mouth." This Galilean woman stands in a long Jewish tradition of female singers from Miriam with her tambourine (Exodus 15:2-21) to Deborah (Judges 5:1-3), to Hannah (1 Samuel 2:1-10 ), the mother of Samuel, who gave away her sons to build the history of her own country.  These scholars think that the Magnificat comes out of the long history of political struggle of the Jewish people against their oppressors.

      Others like historian Richard Horsely believe that Galilee was the spawning ground for 1^st century revolts against the repressive Roman occupation and that this is a victory song turned into a song of revolt. Could this be why missionaries in Africa were forbidden to share it with their converts?  And still others like feminist Elizabeth Johnson see it as dangerous and subversive because it reminds us that the Holy One of Israel protects, defends, saves, and rescues the "nobodies" of this world including unwed mothers. 

     The Song is dangerous because this image of Mother Miryam challenges our vision of women as submissive to authority. Is this the reason why Women of the Disappeared in Chile used it as their mantra?  Whether it is a victory song of old or a new call to revolution, Miryam's song of praise is also a call to nonviolent resistance. Her willingness to make herself vulnerable and her exchange of blessings with her cousin have led her to now dream and imagine a deliverance for all her unborn child and all her people.  Her Yes to solidarity with God’s project has now led her to say No to oppression and domination of all kinds.

     It is for these reasons that she has become the image of the woman of faith.  It is her faith in things not seen and in her ability to submit with her life for the future liberation of her people that we lift her up and call her blessed among women. "Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her" (Luke 1:45).   

   

 So let each of us find our song and sing it. Let us to prepare the way for the birth of love and justice. Miryam says we should expect that this birth will turn our lives upside down and inside out. Miryam, the pregnant and poor unwed mom, asks us to wait and sing for the upheaval of the world, the expected reversal. She also asks us to pray for a world without war or conflict or violence. She asks us to hold our leaders accountable for their actions and inactions---their thoughts and their deeds, their votes of support and their votes against dignity and freedom. She asks us to divest from and boycott their stranglehold of economic, social, and political power. She asks us to feed the hungry by lifting their sieges, shaking off their occupation, and breaking down their walls of hostility and concrete. She asks us to dream about the way the world would look if things were reversed, if the Beloved Community could be made manifest. She asks us to dream it in the past tense as if it were already taking place. Finally, Miryam, the mother of Jesus, asks us to affirm God being born not only in her real womb but in the womb of human suffering. She asks us to imagine, to sing, and work to make it so. How can we keep from singing?

     Please join me in this song of protest and hope. Sing out of the shadows so the holy can be born.

How Can I Keep From Singing? (traditional tune)

My life flows on in endless song, above earth’s lamentation;

I hear the real, though far-off hymn, that hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife I hear its music ringing;

it sounds an echo in my soul; how can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble in their fear and hear their death knell ringing,

when friends rejoice both far and near, how can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon vile our thoughts to them are winging,

when friends by shame are undefiled, how can I keep from singing?

Benediction ( from Maren Tirabasi)

Incarnate us to be your improbable gift of blessing to each other,

that we might bring to completion your promise

of radical love to the whole world.

  

Resources: Responsive Prayers adapted from Advent and Christmas Wisdom from Saint Benedict; Meditation by Rev. Loren McGrail; Litany adapted from Miriam Therese Winter; Benediction from Maren Tirabasi. Music is credited to Baptist Minister Richard Lowry. Lyrics are anonymous. Many have sung this song but perhaps the most haunting is Enya on her album Shepherd Moors.