Thomas J Parlette
“We Are Called to Say Yes”
Luke 1: 46b-55
12/14/25
We all know that this is the season of Advent. In fact, today is the third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, when we light the pink candle as a sign of rejoicing over what God has done and will soon do.
But we’ve also just begun another new season – Awards season. This is the time of year when all the major film awards begin nominating and voting for all the major awards.
The season usually starts in November, when nominations begin coming out. December heats up with the Golden Globe and SAG nominations, early predictors of who we might see nominated for the big prizes like the Academy Awards.
The big prizes are awarded in January and February, like the Golden Globes, SAG, BAFTA (the British Oscars), and finally, in March the biggest prize of all – the Oscars.
So right now, all the public relations firms that represent major stars are burning the midnight oil trying to line up what they call “puff pieces” for their clients. These are articles, interviews, personal appearances on TV or podcasts trying to raise their client’s profiles, create some buzz, somehow make them stand out as better, more important, more skilled or talented than their competition. (1)
In the language of our passage for today, P.R.reps and agents are looking to “magnify” their clients for awards season.
Today, we are looking at the second number of Luke’s musical, “Miracles in the Maternity Ward,” as we listen to Mary’s Magnificat. Luke is definitely the most musical of the Gospels. We’ve already spent some time with the “Benedictus,” sung by Zechariah. Today we move to the “Magnificat.” In chapter two of Luke, we will hear the angels sing the “Gloria In Excelsis,” and later in chapter two, when Jesus is dedicated in the Temple, Simeon will sing the “Nunc Dimittis,” giving praise to God for keeping the Divine promise.
Mary’s song actually has much in common with another song sung in the Old Testament. At the beginning of the Book of Samuel, Hannah sings a very similar song when she learns she is finally about to have a child- “Lord has filled my heart with joy, how happy I am because of what he has done! I laugh at my enemies; how joyful I am because God has helped me!... He protects the lives of his faithful people… the Lord’s enemies will be destroyed… The Lord will judge the whole world’ he will give power to his king, he will make his chosen king victorious.”
You don’t have to listen to hard to see the connection between what Hannah sang and what Mary now sings. Both songs magnify God’s goodness to those who are faithful.
Mary magnifies the generous abundance of God. First, to her personally, for giving her a son, and then to the wider world, for bringing mercy and justice.
Walter Brueggemann has coined a phrase that describes the Magnificat very well. He speaks in terms of a “lyric of abundance” as opposed to the “myth of scarcity.” (2)
The myth of scarcity is the belief that there will not be enough to meet our needs – enough food, enough money, enough mercy, enough forgiveness, enough grace, whatever it may be. The myth of scarcity whispers “get what you can now, because there is not enough to go around.” Resources are scarce.
The lyric of abundance, however, sings about God’s ability and willingness to provide what we need. The lyric of abundance celebrates that God is true to God’s promises – God will come through for us. God will provide. The lyric of abundance falls into line with what the Chinese philosopher Laozi wrote long ago in the Tao Te Ching – “He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”
Notice that Mary sings the Magnificat with an air of confidence – she sings everything in the present tense. There is no “God will act in the future” kind of attitude. Or, “I hope God will bring justice and mercy and forgiveness and grace. No, Mary sings as if these things are already done. They’ve already happened. God will – fill the hungry with good things. God will – send the rich away hungry. God will – bring down the mighty. God will – lift up the lowly. Mary’s Magnificat is more than a prediction or a prophecy – it is a description of the new reality. (3)
To be clear, Jesus’ birth does not erase the challenges Mary will face as an unmarried, pregnant teenager. Her joy does not mean the absence of struggle or conflict. Her joy comes in the connection to a greater story, a story much bigger than just her own. Mary’s joy that we celebrate this Sunday is because she is connected to a hope for more than can be seen at the present moment. Her joy comes from the fulfillment of promises God made to our ancestors. (4) Mary sings with joy because God does abundantly provide.
As followers who anticipate and celebrate Jesus’ birth each year, we are called to listen for the lyric of abundance in Mary’s song. (5) We too are called to say “Yes” to what God is doing and put our trust in the God who provides.
Edwina Gateley captured this call in her poem “Called to Say Yes:
“We are called to say Yes.
That the Kingdom might break through
To renew and to transform
Our dark and groping world.
We stutter and stammer
To the lone God who calls
And pleads a New Jerusalem
In the bloodied Sinai Straights.
We are called to say Yes
That honeysuckle may twine
And twist its smelling leaves
Over the graves of nuclear arms.
We are called to say Yes
That black may sing with white
And pledge peace and healing
For the hatred of the past.
We are called to say Yes
So that nation might gather
And dance one great movement
For the joy of humankind.
We are called to say Yes
So that rich and poor embrace
And become equal in their poverty
Through the silent tears that fall.
We are called to say Yes
That the whisper of our God
Might be heard through our sirens
And the screams of our bombs.
We are called to say Yes
To a God who still holds fast
To the vision of the Kingdom
For a trembling world of pain.
We are called to say Yes
To this God who reaches out
And asks us to share
His crazy dream of love. (6)
On this Third Sunday, we celebrate Joy. The joy that moved Mary to sing her Magnificat – my soul magnifies the Lord. My soul rejoices in the fact that God will always come through for us. God abundantly provides. So, once more, let us follow Mary’s lead, and say “Yes” to what God is about to do, through a baby, named Jesus, born in Bethlehem, upon a midnight clear.
May God be praised. Amen.
