The Present Future: Giving birth to defiant joy

December 11, 2022 • Third Sunday of Advent
Scripture Readings: Luke 1:46b-55
Rev. Alexis Lillie

My best friend called me this week, crying. She had been emotionally hit by the heaviness around her: injustice, the killing of unarmed black children, concerns for safety, fears for her own child. It all, in that moment, suddenly became too much. She was feeling the reality of this in-betweenness that we live in, and feeling it hard.

Our text for today meets us here – in this passage that's commonly known as the Magnificat – here in the "in-betweenness".

The Magnificat hinges on pregnancy, which is a type of in-betweenness. And there are many ways to be pregnant. This is not only about pregnancy in the literal, physical sense. We often speak of the pregnancy, and the "birthing" that comes with things like big projects, books, ideas, anything that is really labor-intensive.

While intense, these all have a positive ring to them. And not all pregnancies -- whether literal or not -- feel so well-received. Think about my friend. She is heavy with the weight of injustice. Our in-between moments, when we are confronted with the disconnect between the world as it is, and the world as we want it to be, these are pregnant moments that seem less-than-positive.

Even as we are being led to glimpse the beauty of possibility that is on the other side of suffering, when we are on this side it doesn't feel so good!

My (literal, physical) pregnancy, was very by the book. Which was lovely for me, but understandably annoying to a lot of people! Nevertheless, there was still a moment of terror when I realized, for real for real, this actually has to come out of my body, somehow! There is literally no turning back.

And for that realization, no matter how that shows up -- whether a physical or metaphorical pregnancy -- we need midwives. In the literal and metaphorical sense.

In those brief moments on the phone with my friend, I think I mid-wived her through her despair. I gave her a space to cry and process without judgment, to let it out of her body because at this point of pregnancy, you have to go through it to get to the other side.

I feel blessed to have a whole team of midwives, some in this very congregation, who have helped me push through many of my most difficult moments. I imagine them with bruised fingers because I've squeezed too hard during the pain. I imagine us all with sweaty hair and faces because we're in the thick of really labor-intensive work. I imagine them telling me to let it all out, responding to my screams by asking if there's any more, deep down, that needs to move.

In the Magnificat, I think Elizabeth is one of Mary's midwives -- she, after all, kicks this whole thing off. She calls Mary “blessed,” and then Mary launches into her psalm.

Elizabeth is there to help Mary move through her body what needs to come out of it. Perhaps she does that in a literal sense when Jesus is born, too. But in this moment she is doing it in an emotional and spiritual sense. She is helping Mary give birth to a song of joyful defiance.

That is what the Magnificat is: A song of defiance. In some ways, it's not unique. It was a song similar to the psalms that other followers of God sung in defiant hope in past generations. One commentator I read says, "When God empties the rich of their excess and fills the hungry with good things, the result is not social reversal — with the powerless and the powerful changing places — as much as it is social leveling."

And that leveling is about saving embodied people - in physical, tangible ways -- counter to what any other ruler or person in power was likely doing at the time. The commentator points out: God fills the hungry not only with hope, but with food. Rather than being satisfied with comforting the lowly, Mary speaks about a God who lifts them up, granting them dignity and honor, a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation.

You might notice, Mary is speaking about these things -- these points of future hope -- as current reality!

God has scattered the proud.
God has lifted up the humble.
God has filled the hungry and sent the rich away.

We all know, these are not things that have definitively happened yet. We might see echoes of them emerging in places. But my friend wouldn't have called me crying if they were foregone conclusions. And yet, Mary speaks of them in the present tense.

There is power in that! This is why there is potency to say things like: I AM courageous and creative; I HAVE friends that support my sense of well-being; I CAN live healthily and peacefully -- even when we don't already have those things.

It doesn't mean things are guaranteed if we speak in the present tense. What we're speaking may not come to pass in this lifetime! But -- the Magnificat also indicates this way of speaking is important for bringing about the world we want.

We are always in-between, always pregnant with some expectation. Granted, some in-betweens are more or less comfortable than others. But if we are continually learning and growing and laboring and birthing and being shaped by our experiences, there are always in-betweens.

I saw this reflection left by someone at the Temple at Burning Man this Summer. It’s written about literal, physical labor, from a woman’s perspective. But I think it’s applicable to the various types of pregnancy, birth, and labor that we’re talking about today. The author writes:

There is a phase in labor, appropriately called transition, where a woman will meet her breaking point. She'll feel as though she just can't go on, and she is right. [that version] of her is not strong enough for the task at hand. It's during this time [this version] dies so that the woman can be reborn ... into a new more capable version of herself with far more strength than she has ever known.

The Magnificat encourages us to continually be listening for the various ways we are "pregnant" - in all the forms that can take - and to rely on the midwives around us to help birth our defiantly joyful visions of the world as it can be.

Amen

What are the areas of expectation in your life? Who or what is "mid-wife-ing" you through them?

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