Sermon - Learning to Sing the Song of Mary

Timur Poerwowidagdo, Magnificat

A sermon given at Choral Evensong at St Sepulchre (the National Musicians’ Church) on Wednesday 8th March 2023 with readings chosen to reflect the theme of International Women’s Day - 1 Samuel 2.1-10 and Luke 1.46-55.

A voice of a vulnerable teenage girl who has just become pregnant. Embarked on a long journey - alone - to visit her cousin. A young woman with few rights - as we would understand the term. A member of an oppressed people; exploited and governed by an occupying military force. 

 

A voice which, according to one theologian, proclaims “the most passionate, the wildest, and most revolutionary” message ever heard.

 

A voice we hear at the very centre of this Office of Evening Prayer; where it has been recited daily in various forms since the sixth century - and perhaps even earlier. 

 

The voice is Mary’s. The words we know as the Magnificat. 

 

 

There is an ancient principle in the Church - that the words we pray express what we believe; and that our prayer shapes how we live out our beliefs. 

 

After millennia of praying the Magnificat, how has the voice of this young woman shaped the life of the church and the world? After we prayed the Magnificat this evening, how are the words of Mary shaping your life? 

 

 

Let’s remind ourselves of what she is saying.

 

Mary proclaims that her soul “magnifies” the Lord. This can’t mean that she is making Him any bigger - because nobody could do that. Rather, this is a way of saying that she has stepped back to let the reality of God live - and grow - in her. Here Mary stands with Abraham - her extraordinary obedience, like his, marking a pivot point in the story of our salvation. It’s no coincidence that at the end of the Magnificat we are reminded of God’s promise to him; that he would be the father of the nations, of a faithful people; father of our fathers. Now Mary becomes mother of our mothers.

 

Both Abraham and Mary are to be blessed throughout all generations. Their extraordinary obedience lies at the heart of our life of faith. Something we are called to follow. 

 

By Mary’s costly “yes” to God at the annunciation, made possible by her total immersion in the life of the old covenant; our faith became possible in the new. Because of her Son we too can cry with Mary “for he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.” We too can rejoice in God our Saviour. Liturgically, the text of the Magnificat reflects this; acting as a pivot point between the Old and New Testament readings in the Office of Evening Prayer.

 

The Magnificat echoes the words of Hannah, as she left her precious son Samuel to serve and minister in the temple. So Mary’s testimony of the power and the glory of God is not new; but the renewal of a message rooted in the promises of old.

 

Like Hannah, Mary tells of this renewal by joining her words with other hidden and silenced voices - and placing these centre stage as prophets of a new world order. Testifying to God’s transforming power and hope for the future by confirming the eternal promises he has made and kept. The proud scattered, the mighty fallen; the lowest risen up; the hungry filled with good things; the rich sent away empty. 

 

How can we not fail to be moved by this this outpouring of faith? How can we not believe in this Good News?

 

God’s justice triumphant.

 

A revolution ushered in when this young woman gave birth to Christ. 

 

Some have claimed that such was the power of its message that the Magnificat was banned for a time in India under British rule and during the long civil war in Guatemala. While evidence for which appears scant, the prevalence of these myths is in itself perhaps indicative of the revolutionary power of Mary’s prayer?

For two thousand years we’ve been repeating the words of this young woman. 

 

But the church and the world is still rife with injustice and inequality.  

 

Women not afforded equal status to men. 

 

In the richest country in the world women still earn twenty percent less than men for doing the same job. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by war and conflict – yet in the past thirty years seven out of ten peace processes worldwide have not had a single woman mediator or signatory. Even emerging artificial intelligence is showing gender bias. 

 

Perhaps we need to do more than hear and say the words of Mary in order that her voice - placed at the centre of our Evening Prayer - might become central to the way we live out our beliefs?

 

 

The Magnificat is the longest continuous speech by a woman recorded in the New Testament. But by a long tradition we understand these are not just the words of Mary. It’s her Song. 

 

Although hard to put our finger on, we sense a difference between speech and song in terms of its effect upon us. Therapists - like those who organise the dementia friendly Songhaven Concerts here - know this well. And perhaps so did the church reformers who reintroduced song into the liturgy of the church - one expression of which is the Anglican Prayer Book. Embracing the notion that singing - or listening to song - somehow affects us more deeply than saying - and is thus, they felt, a more appropriate way to glorify God than with words alone? 

 

I once heard the Dean of a prominent cathedral give a lecture in which he argued that the raw, revolutionary message of the Magnificat didn’t really come across in what he described as saccharin musical settings like Stanford in B flat. 

 

I get the drift - but I’m not sure I agree his theory can be universally applied. I think there’s something more - perhaps something deeper - to the effectiveness of song than a cerebral connection between music and text. 

 

I‘ve certainly experienced a tingly feeling when I’ve heard the choir here perform a range of settings from ancient to modern. Stanford included. 

 

Today Tessa, Jo, Izzy and the team have been busy sharing some fantastic clips of the choir performing music by women composers, in honour of International Women’s Day. Do check them out online.

 

Perhaps that tingly feeling we sometimes get when we hear music is a clue to the difference between speech and song? 

 

Song is physical. As anyone who is a member of a choir or choral society will know. After a concert you are generally shattered! Singing seems to reach parts other activities cannot reach! 

 

 

When God chose to redeem the world he didn’t send words, to be spoken through a another prophet. 

He sent the Word made Flesh.

 

The Magnificat is Mary’s joy at this intimate enfleshment.

Perhaps – if this International Women’s Day is to be different than all the others – to be more than statistics about gender gaps which we repeat over and over again each year; perhaps - if we are to see a world in which the hungry are filled and all are equally valued; perhaps – if this prayer is to shape how we live out our belief, we need to treat the Magnificat as the “Song” of Mary. To allow it to truly inhabit our bodies. To live and breathe it. To sing its message. Then we can rejoice as we, like Mary, get that tingly feeling - as the rhythm of our lives comes closer to beating in time with the sacred heart of our Saviour.

Image : Timur Poerwowidagdo, Magnificat