Reading the Magnificat in Aberdeen

I asked our Bible study group if it was ok if I blogged some of our discussion and they were enthusiastic about sharing our conversations. “We want people to know what we are doing!” So, for those of you who want to know what one of our Bible studies look like, this is last Sunday:

Every Sunday, we meet for Bible study. There are usually 10-12 of us, people from many different backgrounds and experiences, most of us poor, some of us homeless. We always begin with sharing who we are and lighting candles around the table with our prayers for hope and healing and peace. We read our text and the table is open for discussion.

Until Advent, we are reading various texts in the Bible that address poverty and discussing what these texts mean for us.

Yesterday, we read Mary’s song in Luke 1:46-55, commonly called the Magnificat in liturgical churches. We ask two questions in our Bible studies. The first is simple: What strikes you in this passage? What jumps out at you?

·         Mary must have really had a hard time. As an unwed mother, she would have been frowned on. But look at her—she is praising God!

·         Mary is from Nazareth, a little town in Galilee. And people said of Nazareth—“Can any good come from Nazareth?” It was a town with a bad rap.

·         God chose Mary because she was humble and because she was poor.

·         These promises are for all generations and for all peoples.

·         All of these promises haven’t happened yet—the powerful are still on their thrones and the poor are still poor.

After we read the text for a second time, we ask a second question: What does this passage mean for us, here and now, in Aberdeen in 2014?

·         God brings the rich down to earth—God rejects arrogance. God wants us to be humble. We talked about how its so easy to be arrogant.

·         Sometimes rich people think they have special blessing and we are taught that God blesses people with wealth. If that is true, then poor people have done something wrong and are being punished. But, in this passage, God cares about the poor and blesses the poor.

·         God loves everyone. But God has special care for people who are poor.

·         Some of us shared our experiences of poverty. Poor people realize that their riches are in heaven.

·         Its hard to get through the eye of a needle.

·         In this town, the poor are of no importance. It seems like city leaders don’t care about us. That we are just a nuisance in the way of redevelopment.

·         I pointed out that most people in Aberdeen are actually poor. More and more, people are becoming poor, all over the country. We talked about how this is a growing reality for all of us.

·         If these promises are for all people, how can we address the things that divide us, that divide Spanish and English speakers in this community, for example?

·         Its still hard for single mothers in our community. But, in this text, God chooses a single mom to bring Jesus in the world. God doesn’t judge like we judge.

 

·         We talked about the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We talked about female images of God in the Bible.

 

We closed our time together with Eucharist, naming our hope of living in a world where the poor were valued and no longer exploited, where all were fed and none went hungry.