Cover Song

Do you know the most famous cover song in the New Testament?  
 
Father Goodrich preached this sermon based on Luke 1:46-55 to a live congregation of St. John's Episcopal Church, in Dubuque, Iowa. The church was celebrating the Feast Day of St. Mary.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:22

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today's Gospel from St Luke, chapter 1, is perhaps the greatest cover song in history in history. In popular music, the term cover song is used for a new rendition or remake of a previously released song that someone else wrote or performed. For example, did you know that the epic powerhouse ballad number one hit single I Will Always?

Speaker 2 1:03

Love you. By Whitney Houston.

Speaker 1 1:06

Was originally written and performed as a country song by Dolly Parton Like with many Bible passages. I would bet that some of your favorite songs are actually covers Remixed for a new voice in in a new way, for a new time. After the service, I'll have copies available of my own cover of I Will Always Love you. In my recording, accompanied by ten tubas and ten triangles, I turn this beautiful song into a painful polka. But, seriously today's lesson from.

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Luke, chapter 1 is both literally and figuratively, magnificent. A perfect selection for this feast of St Mary that we celebrate this morning. But before we get to Mary, we have to go to Elizabeth. Elizabeth, no, not Her.

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Late.

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Majesty, but the Elizabeth whose words helped to inspire Mary's royal worthy song, a song recited and sung by millions. Wait, wait, no, no, no. Recited at least by billions of people over the centuries.

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At least several thousand times yesterday, at least several thousand times today and it will again be, recited at least several thousand times tomorrow and so on.

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This is a song, a canticle, a prayer, known by its Latin name Magnificat. Luke's Gospel does not begin with Mary Joseph and Jesus. It does not begin with the Magnificat. Luke's Gospel does not begin with Mary Joseph and Jesus. It does not begin with the Magnificat. It begins with Elizabeth and Zechariah. Elizabeth and Zechariah are a devout couple, zechariah is a temple priest, and they never had children, and now they're too old to have them. But as with Mary and Joseph, elizabeth and Zachariah receive news of an unexpected pregnancy and at first, unlike Mary, zachariah does not believe it.

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But Elizabeth does get pregnant, and after Mary receives her own angelic announcement of a coming miracle baby, she takes a trip to visit her older cousin Elizabeth. Luke, chapter 1, verse 41.

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Listen carefully when Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the child the future.

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John the Baptist, by the way, leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb Today's passage that we just heard begins just after Elizabeth's words and, as you heard, mary says my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

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Please, look with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

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We might even say smallness. Truly, from now on, all generations will call me less Magnified in Latin, magnifica. In her lowliness, in her precarious situation as an unwed teenage mother in the first century, she is found to be favored by God, amen. There is both a spiritual and physical glow to Mary, for she is a willing participant in conceiving and bearing, birthing good news into the world. But what kind of good news and for whom? Hmm, mary's song gives us some hints. Catch the hints if you can, 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 and the thoughts of their hearts.

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he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly and he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty, Scattering the proud lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry with good things. Mary's song is a rehearsal of what God has done in the past for the people of Israel and what God will do for all peoples through the ministry of.

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Jesus and through those who follow him. Mary's song is a preview of 2,000 years of Christian commitment to lifting up the lowly and feeding and filling the hungry with good things. 2,000 years of soup kitchens and sheltering the homeless. 2,000 years of welcoming the outcast and reaching out to the forgotten In Mary we see the gospel written in flesh and blood in a teenage Middle Eastern girl and a teenage Middle Eastern girl and in Mary's eyes we see the glimmer of the gospel that will become the light of the world, her son Jesus Christ Bible scholar Dr.

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Judith Jones adds this insight. Listen carefully Mary sings about the God who saves not just souls but embodied people, the God she celebrates is not content merely to point people toward heaven God's redemptive work begins here on earth. God fills hungry not only with hope, but with food, Rather than being satisfied with comforting the roaming Mary's Lord lifts them up, granting them dignity and honor a seat at the table and a voice in the conversation.

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Now, for you, theological types, ponder this the Eucharist is an enactment of these truths and an invitation to live them out in the world. To be fed so that you might feed. To be fed, so that you might feed to be fed, so that you might feed Mary's song echoes the words we hear today from the Old Testament, lesson from Isaiah the prophet, chapter 61. Maybe you noticed the resonance.

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I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exalt in my God.

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And it will be this very chapter, isaiah 61, that Jesus quotes extensively in his first sermon, 33 years after Mary visits Elizabeth, the scriptures are full of cover songs like these remixing the good news for the poor, the hungry and the outcasts. Now, to be a Christian, then, is to offer, however humbly, however feebly, our own cover songs of this timeless spiritual melody.

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How, with your words and with your deeds that lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things now, thankfully you do not have to be the spiritual equivalent of Whitney Houston or Dolly Parton to offer your own cover of Mary's song.

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Just imagine the situation I bet most of us have experienced you're at an elementary school concert and some little kid some little boy or girl gets up on the stage and they sing a song, and they don't have like the best voice and they don't have very developed musical skills. But does their song make a difference? Are people moved by it? They are. Randy Travis, the country singer whose smooth baritone sold millions and millions of records, suffered a massive stroke in 2013. Destroying His voice, his singing voice, is all but gone In 2016.

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When he was admitted to the country Hall of Fame.

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He surprised those in attendance by singing and I say that in quotes singing very imperfectly, very weakly, in a voice that many would say was pitiful the song Amazing Grace. All the big names of country were there, his friends, his family, his colleagues. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. Could he do what he wants to do? No, far, far from it. But did his phone still make a difference?

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It did so, whether you've got lots of energy and enthusiasm in life, or whether you've lost some energy and enthusiasm for life, you can still offer your own cover of Mary's song, your own small words and deeds that lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things, those made lowly by suffering, those made lowly by other people, those hungry for physical food, those hungry for spiritual food. The good news is that God multiplies the power of the small.

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Mother Teresa put it this way.

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Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.

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Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.

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Friends, I urge you to sing the small song of Mary For the triune. God's power is made magnified in the smallest prayer, in the smallest act of kindness, in the smallest cup of water given to the thirsty, the smallest morsel given to the hungry. In the kingdom of God, small is made magnificent. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,