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Today is the Fourth — and Final — Sunday of Advent.
Advent at the Cottage this year has centered on justice and joy. Yeah, I know. Justice is under threat and joy is scarce. Things seem bleak.
But we’ve been helping one another find traces of both this December.
I think it has helped.
Luke 1:39-55
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child 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. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
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 in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
After a month of mostly staying away, I started watching the news again about two weeks ago.
There are a lot of grim stories out there. I’ve been attempting to figure out what matters and not get distracted by every new outrage. The last time that man was president, I fell victim to the scandal-of-the-day “flood the zone” strategy.
I won’t do that again. I can’t live that way. So, I’m approaching things with, I hope, more discernment.
In recent days, several news outlets (U.S. News and World Report, ABC News, Fortune, The Guardian) reported that the new cabinet and department nominees constitute the wealthiest collection of humanity ever appointed to important positions of public trust. “Let’s just get it out of the way upfront,” wrote Tim Murphy in Mother Jones, “Donald Trump is assembling a government of billionaires, the likes of which the United States has never seen.” Probably the rest of the world, too.
This story seems genuinely important.
Fifteen billionaires — that includes Elon Musk, who is alone worth $400 billion, and who might be the richest person to ever live in all of human history. Sixteen if you count the president-elect. That’s 16 people with personal wealth of over $1,000,000,000.00, most of them at least doubling or tripling that amount.
Some of the best Substack political writers have posted recently on the billionaires — including Jonathan V. Last from The Bulwark, Heather Cox Richardson, Timothy Snyder, and Ruth Ben-Ghiat.
Last week’s top story was about one billionaire — Elon Musk. He attempted to control government policy by using his social media platform to dictate to and threaten Congress. Musk tried to sink a bipartisan budget deal — and shut down the federal government for Christmas.
Official Washington was, at first, cowed but then sort of stood up to Musk. They managed to pass a weaker budget deal. But even the new one stripped out regulations against American tech companies doing business in China — a provision that would have hurt Musk’s Tesla and AI operations. The government didn’t shut down, which was a good thing, especially for hundreds of thousands of federal workers and those who rely on government programs. But Musk got one big thing he wanted. And he learned how to do it better next time.
Thus began the Trump Oligarch Heist of Democracy. Think of it as Musk’s personal January 6 insurrection adventure. He tried to overthrow Congress not by invading the building but by tweet.
If you’ve made it this far in my Advent musing, you might be wondering why I’m writing about Elon Musk and billionaires.
The answer is simple. The fourth Sunday of Advent is the day on which Christians read the Magnificat, the prophetic song of the Mother of Jesus.
Mary was the first prophet of the New Testament, who, decades before either her nephew John or her son Jesus, proclaimed the Kingdom of God. In the opening pages of Luke’s gospel, she announced the entire theological vision and purpose of God’s coming reign — the promise she carried in her own womb:
God has mercy on those who fear the Lord,
from generation to generation.
God has shown strength with his arm
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
casting down the mighty from their thrones
and lifting up the lowly.
God has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
Advent Four: Throw the Billionaires Out/Send the Rich Away Bankrupt Sunday.
Jesus didn’t come into the world to save individuals from their personal sins or get anybody to heaven. Jesus was born to defeat the powers and principalities that had set themselves up as gods — and who established their kingdoms and empires in place of the Dream of God.
Peace on earth means casting off every Caesar, every Herod, every Caligula, every Ivan the Terrible, every Hitler, every Putin, every Elon Musk who believed himself to be god. Peace on earth means an end to their schemes.
Christmas insists that Elon Musk has lost. Christmas declares that Donald Trump’s act is a fraud. Christmas resists the oligarchs and billionaires who control and destroy. They will fail, but they will still try. Yet, every one of them is on the wrong side of the sacred story. Their power is a deadly delusion, a deceitful corruption, and the fantasy of their own wounds and insecurities.
They might do well to remember a later passage from the Gospel of Luke:
There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
The peace announced by the angels would be attended by the poor and outcast. Peace would be breastfed by a young woman, pregnant not by her own husband, who was a subject of imperial oppression, forced by decree to leave the safety of her own home in the tender final days of bearing a child to term.
That’s what we are waiting for in Advent. Not just a sweet baby. We await a baby born who would finally and fully shatter the illusions of greed, violence, and domination. God With Us. The One who brings justice and joy. Peace and good will, not retribution and evil intent.
That’s Christmas, the very meaning of the Savior’s birth.
At Mary’s side, we midwife this gleaming truth. The poor and lowly are the heirs of the Kingdom. The corruption of the elites will be made right. Justice is coming.
The Mother preached it before her son was born. These days, Mary’s prophetic words have never rung so true. They are good news indeed.
And trust her — because Mom is always right.
INSPIRATION
Open unto me, light for my darkness.
Open unto me, courage for my fear.
Open unto me, hope for my despair.
Open unto me, peace for my turmoil.
Open unto me, joy for my sorrow.
Open unto me, strength for my weakness.
Open unto me, wisdom for my confession.
Open unto me, forgiveness for my sins.
Open unto me, love for my hates.
Open unto me, thy Self for my self.
Lord, Lord, open unto me! Amen.
— Howard Thurman
My soul doth magnify the Lord
said Mary, under circumstances
which make it something of a startling
utterance. Not I accept the will of the Lord.
Not I bow before the Lord.
Not even I give thanks to the Lord.
No, Mary, this young woman,
presumably unfamiliar with angels
or divine voices of any kind,
let alone those pronouncing
that salvation would grow inside
her ordinary flesh — this woman
who may be innocent, but hardly seems naïve —
says something remarkable.
My soul magnifies the Lord.
Who I am, what I do, how I choose
makes God bigger. As if God
were to slip between microscope slides
and appear in never-before-seen detail.
Which is, of course, exactly
what happens. Somehow,
in being magnified God gets small,
small enough to sleep amongst the straw
and the scent of farm animals.
God magnified becomes particular,
tangible, urgent as a hungry child.
And Mary, like so many women
before her and after, puts the baby
to her breast, where they both grow
vast in one another’s eyes.
— Lynn Ungar, Magnificat (December 2019)
Every year, my family attends the Washington Chorus Candlelight Christmas concert at the Kennedy Center. One of their signature pieces is The Dream Isaiah saw, with lyrics by the late Thomas Troeger.
It always makes me weep.
There is something uniquely powerful about these words and this music presented in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capitol:
Lions and oxen will sleep in the hay,
Leopards will join with the lambs as they play,
Wolves will be pastured with cows in the glade,
Blood will not darken the earth that God made.Little child whose bed is straw,
Take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream Isaiah saw:
Life redeemed from fang and claw.Peace will pervade more than forest and field:
God will transfigure the violence concealed
Deep in the heart and in systems of gain,
Ripe for the judgment the Lord will ordain.Little child whose bed is straw,
Take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream Isaiah saw:
Justice purifying law.Nature reordered to match God’s intent,
Nations obeying the call to repent,
All of creation completely restored,
Filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.Little child whose bed is straw,
Take new lodgings in my heart.
Bring the dream Isaiah saw:
Knowledge, wisdom, worship, awe.
I rarely leave a comment, but I had to today. This speaks truth so clearly. The title of the fourth advent Sunday, oh my and such truth. So powerful and bold. I am encouraged to stand taller and fight the system more. Thank you.
Thank you, Diana, from the bottom of my heart, for the most timely Christmas message I have ever read. M.