Reflection: The Power to Transform

Here’s a thoughtful reflection on Luke 1:47-55 (Mary’s Magnificat).  It was written by Sara Miles.

A Hunger Beyond Food
(inspired by Luke 1:47-55)

“He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.”
Luke 1:53

At the heart of Christianity
is a power that continues to speak to
and transform us.
As I found to my surprise and alarm,
it could speak even to me:
not in the sappy, Jesus-and-cookies tone
of mild-mannered liberal Christianity,
or the blustering, blaming hellfire
of the religious right.

What I heard, and continue to hear,
is a voice that can crack
religious and political convictions open,
that advocates for the least qualified,
least official, least likely;
that upsets the established order
and makes a joke of certainty.
It proclaims against reason
that the hungry will be fed,
that those cast down will be raised up,
and that all things,
including my own failures,
are being made new.
It offers food without exception
to the worthy and unworthy,
the screwed-up and pious,
and then commands everyone to do the same.

~ excerpted from Sara Miles in A Hunger Beyond Food. Posted on the Seed Publishers website.  http://www.seedspublishers.org/