Life is hard…

and it seldom turns out the way that we expect.

When I was young, I wanted to be a vet.

And, in a couple of days’ time… 

it will be thirty-six years since I graduated with my veterinary degree.

And, for a fairly brief time, I was in practice.

But… 

if I’m honest… 

I wasn’t particularly good at it.

Perhaps, if I had persisted, I might have done alright… 

but who knows…

because, as I often used to say, God got in the way.

I pursued a call to ordained ministry and I ended up at Theological College.

But I found it a fairly tough experience…

and, in the process, I felt hurt and betrayed…

so I pursued an academic career, rather than getting ordained.

But having done that––

having achieved what I wanted in getting a lecturing position at a theological college––

I felt compelled to offer for ordination, once again.

And, in a sense, here I am.

Along the way, my marriage ended.

My father developed dementia and died.

My dream of an academic career fizzled out…

and it’s taken me more than a decade to rediscover the fire to start researching and writing again.

Life is unpredictable.

We never know what the future has in store.

All too often, tragedy and heartache are lurking just around the corner…

waiting to pounce.

As we journey through life, all of us encounter the unexpected.

All of us encounter hardship.

Our lives get turned upside down.

Our worlds are thrown into chaos. 

Yet, in many ways, I’ve had it easy.

There’s never been a time when I had nothing to eat;

or I didn’t have a roof over my head;

or I went without the necessities of life.

Of course, that’s not the case for many in our world.

 

And all of that was especially true in the first century. 

Life was a battle for the average person:

eking out an existence on a little plot of land––

or toiling long hours in a small cottage workshop––

barely making enough to feed their families…

crippled by rents and taxes––

to an extent that none of us, today, could begin to imagine––

and paying off debts to the rich and powerful…

who only became richer and more powerful.

And, in Palestine, the Hebrew people lived under Roman domination:

they were brutally subjugated…

with every attempt at rebellion crushed mercilessly.

As a people, they dreamed of freedom and peace.

But, in reality, they faced an uncertain future.

 

That was the backdrop for the story that the author of Luke’s Gospel tells…

of a simple, young, peasant girl…

poor, powerless, and uneducated.

But, even more than that…

a simple, young, peasant girl who was pregnant, but not yet married;

in a strongly patriarchal society;

and in a culture that would have practiced honour-killings. 

A powerless, pregnant, peasant girl…

living in a harsh and brutal world… 

facing a very uncertain future.

And yet, as the author crafts his story, this powerless, pregnant, peasant girl proclaims…

“My soul magnifies the Lord, 

and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,

…for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant…

for the Mighty One has done great things for me…

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

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, 

and lifted up the lowly; 

he has filled the hungry with good things, 

and sent the rich away empty”.

Given all that’s happening to her, personally…

and given all that’s happening in her world…

how could Mary say that?

How could she rejoice?

 

But note what Mary does rejoice in.

She rejoices in God.

She rejoices in a God who looks with favour on the lowly, the poor, and the oppressed.

She rejoices in a God who overturns expectations…

and subverts the very structures of society that exploit and abuse.

She rejoices in a God who strives to create a world that is fair and just––

a world where there isn’t hunger…

or injustice…

or war…

or exploitation;

a world where all might live in harmony and peace.

 

And yet…

the author doesn’t have Mary praise God because God will do all of this––

but because God has done this.

The author has Mary speak as if it has already happened:

as if this new world has already come into existence––

not as a dream or a vision for the future…

not as something she hopes for…

but as something already fulfilled.

The author has Mary rejoice in God as one who has lifted up the lowly…

because God chose her––

someone lowly, poor, and powerless—

and lifted her up as the means by which God’s purposes in the world would be furthered.

God chose her–– 

not a princess or a queen…

not someone noble, or rich, or powerful…

but the most unlikely of sorts.

In other words, in Mary’s own experience…

God has already begun this revolution…

God has already inaugurated this new beginning…

God has already brought into being this new world order…

about which she sings.

The author has Mary praise God because, in her person––

in the reality of her lived experience––

God has already begun this revolution…

and the transformation of creation.

Mary’s trust in God is such… 

that it’s like the future has already happened.

And so she praises God.

 

In our world, today, there is so much that is harsh, brutal, and seemingly hopeless.

We live with the increasing destruction of fragile ecosystems…

and the permanent effects of climate change…

which governments don’t seem willing to address adequately.

Violence, terrorism, and war are commonplace…

and racism and militant far-right ideologies are on the rise.

Diseases like HIV/AIDS continue to devastate whole swathes of Africa and Asia.

The gap between rich and poor continues to widen––

especially in the Third World––

where the poor and underprivileged are exploited by multi-national corporations…

and greedy and corrupt governments.

Religious fundamentalisms continue to rear their ugly heads…

while the church is increasingly seen as irrelevant, or worse.

As we face another Christmas…

how can we have confidence in the future?

 

It is hard, sometimes, when we look at the state of our world…

and when we focus on all that’s wrong with it.

But Mary, in our story, challenges us to look beyond the circumstances of our world…

and our time…

and to focus on God;

to trust in the God of the incarnation.

Because God has lifted up the lowly.

Because God has come among us in Jesus Christ.

Because God has acted in human history.

Because God has already set the chain of events in motion.

And God will bring to fulfilment what has already begun.

Mary challenges us to focus on the God who works to overturn our structures…

to upset our complacency and apathy…

to invert our world’s expectations;

the God who has––

and who does––

lift up the lowly.

So, we are encouraged to have confidence in the future…

because of what God has done in the past. 

Indeed, as Jim Wallis––

the founder of the Sojourners community––

puts it:

“Hope believed is history in the process of being changed”.