Dear Friends,
This weekend we celebrate the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. A season of waiting and preparation. A season of hearing from John the Baptist that we are to repent, that the Messiah is coming who will judge us. At All Saints, this is also a season of Beer and Carols, a joyful Christmas Pageant, and a quiet, beautiful Lessons and Carols. And this season always concludes the same way: with the Magnificat of Mary.
After her cousin Elizabeth greets her as “full of grace” and “blessed” by God, Mary sings her song, “magnifying the Lord,” whom she praises as One who is on the side of the lowly, filling the hungry with good things even as He brings down the powerful and sends the rich away empty. This is a topsy turvy world, not one that the rich and powerful would design, but the world as God dreams it.
If you need some radical hope, read, sing, pray the Magnificat:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
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 thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.
Then, come to church for a final, quiet Sunday of Advent before the joy of Christmas.
Come, hear the Good News. Come, dream of the world that God desires.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+