Liberalism and the Mediocre Christ -

“Lord, whose love in humble service.

Before I came to St. Martin's in 2012, I was a professor at an American university, and on one occasion, I had a class of 170 students. And I thought I'd ask them what they thought Jesus came to do. I only gave them two options.

Option one was he came to affirm and underwrite the deep purposes of creation and the way things are. And option two was to bring about a great reversal, and uphold those who were oppressed and bring down the mighty. I was slightly shocked to find that two-thirds of them thought the answer number one was the right answer.

I didn't tell them what I thought the answer was, but I was slightly shocked that so many people thought he came to say, it's all just fine, on you go, carry on. The Magnificat is the great statement at the beginning of Luke's gospel that Jesus did not come to say, come, carry on, all's just fine. It's a great song of reversal.

It's a song of reversal in which Mary, as a person pregnant outside what used to be known as wedlock, sees herself and identifies ith the oppressed of the earth and talks about God's great reversal. And it's a way in which Mary personifies Israel in its internal exile and its occupation by the Romans and proclaims God's purposes to restore Israel to its former glory. So we're going to hear a contemporary setting of the Magnificat in a moment.

From Great Sacred Music: Thursday 2nd May: Justice, 2 May 2024

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/great-sacred-music/id1210908650?i=1000654323434

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