This weekend (August 15/16), we will not only recognize, but celebrate, Mary, Mother of our Lord. One way she continues to impact our worship life is her Magnificat, the song of praise that emerges in Scripture while she’s visiting her cousin, Elizabeth, in Luke 1. My favorite setting of it comes from our treasured Holden Evening Prayer. This was composed by Marty Haugen, a rather prominent musician in Lutheran and Catholic circles (in fact, he’s responsible for the settings of “Healer of Our Every Ill,” “We Walk by Faith,” and “All Are Welcome,” among many others, in our Evangelical Lutheran Worship red hymnal). Holden Evening Prayer was brought to life by Haugen amidst the snowy landscape of Holden Village, a contemplative retreat center, in Washington in the mid-1980s. The collection of songs has been sung by numerous communities of faith throughout this country and around the world ever since. And although it is often brought to life during Lent, the message applies throughout the year:
Jesus Christ, you are the light of the world;
the light no darkness can overcome.
Stay with us now, for it is evening,
and the day is almost over.
Let your light scatter the darkness
and shine within your people here…
You who made the heaven’s splendor,
every dancing star of night,
make us shine with gentle justice,
let us each reflect your light.
Mighty God of all creation,
gentle Christ who lights our way,
Loving Spirit of salvation,
lead us onto endless day.
This was also the music I often turned to through many evenings of pandemic isolation years ago. I pulled up the YouTube video you will find below, and was immersed into its holy insistence on light prevailing through the shadows of seemingly endless gloom and relentless hopelessness throughout our human landscape at the time. There was something about the way the musician, Joseph Glarner, brought the notes to life: as if they were jumping off the pages and keys with endless love and relentless hope.
And so it is with Mary’s Magnificat that we will hear as the actual Gospel this weekend. Lest we forget, Mary most likely faced her own feelings of endless gloom and relentless hopelessness, as she was considered one of those “weak and lowly ones” amidst the mighty Roman Empire of the time. Not to mention, she must have been scared out of her mind when an angel appeared out of no where to let her know she was about to help usher in the Savior of the whole world and all. And God only knows the social isolation she must have endured when she became pregnant not in the way her family and surrounding community (or the whole world, for that matter) were used to throughout history. Yet, somehow, she managed to sing out, “My soul proclaims your greatness, O God, and my spirit rejoices in you.”
It’s not just Mary’s song of praise. It’s ours. Granted, we can still have the shadows within us: the shadows of fear and worries and…well, scared-out-of-our-minds over whatever may be going on with our own lives, and those we care about dearly. Perhaps, we won’t sing the Magnificat, or anything like it, with quite as much gusto as Mary is often portrayed of doing herself. Sometimes, we just need those notes to jump off the pages and keys to us, to give us a glimpse of that endless love and relentless hope. So, this weekend, we give thanks for a teenage girl who God claimed as wonderful, who God claimed as worthy not only to carry a child, but to be an essential proclaimer of the Greatest News herself. This weekend, we also give thanks that God claims all of us to be that, too. And we give thanks for the words and the notes that will help us fall in love with that most beautiful Gospel all over again. Thanks be to God, indeed!
In Christ,
Pastor Brad
“Holden Evening Prayer Service” (Marty Haugen)
Led By: Joseph Glarner - YouTube