Lifting up the Lowly; Filling the Hungry

On Tuesday of this week, the Church celebrated the Feast of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. This is the day that Mary, having said yes to the Angel Gabriel, goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Upon arriving at Elizabeth’s home, Elizabeth exclaims, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” The baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped for joy at the sound of Mary’s greeting, and Elizabeth’s response to that leap is equally as surprising. She is glad to greet the mother of the Incarnate Word. And Mary, for her part, responds in equal humility with her hymn proclaiming precisely what Luke understood to be true about this savior coming into the world. This is a new kind of savior than the saviors of Rome. He will be about the poor, the lowly, the hungry. He will be about raising up God’s people and exalting those who have been overlooked.

In the last two weeks, our parish has responded to the needs of the lowly, the invisible, the homeless, the hungry through gifts from the Rector’s Discretionary Fund with more frequency than has been true over the last several months. In the last couple of weeks, we have easily given about $600 worth of assistance to people who needed food to eat, gas to get to work, assistance with their rent or utility expenses, and help with medical co-pays for prescription drugs. The needs of the community around us are landing on our front door step, and we are doing our best to support those in need in our community. It is nothing less than following in the footsteps of Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke. We are being called forward to support our neighbors who are lowly, who are poor, who are hungry, who have been forgotten. But, we also need to recognize that what we are doing through the Rector’s Discretionary Fund is nothing more than a band-aid for a more serious ailment. It is important to continue applying bandages to open wounds, but we also need to find our way to living out the fullness of Mary’s song in the first chapter of the Gospel according to Luke. She sings:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness 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." (Luke 1:46-56 NRSV)

in his book Toxic Charity, Robert Lipton writes, “For all our efforts to eliminate poverty - our entitlements, our programs, our charities - we have succeeded only in creating a permanent underclass, dismantling their family structures, and eroding their ethic of work. And our poor continue to become poorer.” At first glance, it seems that he is building an argument for a classic economic argument in America: to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. If, however, we continue reading in his book, we will find that what he is actually advocating is an economy of relationship that invites all people with all of their gifts to be the solution for a particular neighborhood or city or nation. It is an argument for rethinking how our economy works and how we, as the body of Christ, can practice the abundance of God’s love out in the world in ways that transforms.

We may wish to think that we are not able to transform the economy of the world around us to be something more reflective of God’s love. It is easy for us to say something along the lines of “Oh, that’s impossible for us to change. It is too big a challenge for us. We are only one church in this much larger economy.” And, it might be true that we would not be able to change the worldwide economy overnight, but it is also true that we can create new economies that are more reflective of God’s love right here in this corner of God’s creation. We can begin to partner with our neighbors to find shared solutions to the challenges that many of us face in our lives, and we can share God’s love out in the world in such a way that we transform our community and are transformed into knowing that through the power of Christ, all things are possible. It is nothing less than seeing the power of the resurrection unfolding right before our eyes. It is one way in which we encounter the risen Christ urging us forward in mission and ministry.

We have the ability to follow an alternative way in the world and to grant to people a place in which they are celebrated just as God created them in the beauty of God’s image. And when our efforts to proclaim gospel are combined with the efforts of the entire Body of Christ, we do have the ability to change the world provided that we continue to walk in the ways of love as modeled by Jesus.

Mary’s song invites us to abide with poor and the oppressed. It invites us to be swift to love, to make haste to be kind, and to abide with all of our neighbors through the challenges of life. We, like Mary, are invited to be bearers of God’s Word, and we, like Mary, are invited to say yes to this awesome, liberating invitation into the way of love.

In Christ,

Hunter+