Christmas Musings Day 23

Empty, Away

Luke 1:53 (ESV) ⁵³ he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

               I like to think of myself as average American Middle-Class, neither too poor nor too rich. In some ways, there is a certain amount of intellectual snobbery involved in this. Whenever the conversation turns to what “the rich” ought to do, I am talking about someone else; however, that is not reality. If look worldwide, I’m among the elite wealthy. Depending upon which calculator I use, I fall somewhere in the upper ten percent of the world’s population. That puts me closer to the Donald Trumps and Bill Gates of this world than most of the rest of the teeming masses that populate our globe. I do not like thinking of myself this way and it bothers me to type these words. But if you are reading this missive, the same would be true for you. As citizens of the U.S. “middle-class,” we enjoy a historically unprecedented affluent lifestyle. No matter how you parse the data, we are rich. Through Advent, God says some challenging things to us.

               Mary, in her beautiful outpouring of adoration, speaks to the purpose of Advent. God engaged in the Advent story to radically alter how our world functions. We place great emphasis on power and the acquisition of wealth and influence. It is hard to escape this mindset. But the Lord wants to shake things up. In the Magnificat, Mary provides the details. Later Jesus would say similar things in the Sermon on the Mount. Those of us who are proud can expect to be humbled. Those of us who enjoy positions of power can expect to lose our place. Those who endure lowly place can expect to be lifted up. The poor and destitute can expect to find fulfillment. Those of us who are rich can expect to be sent, empty away. Empty away. That is the antithesis of what I expect at Christmas, but Mary, and the prophets of old, cry out with this sobering message. But if I fear the Lord, His mercy is great. Perhaps if I let Him have His way, I can be part of His reorganization of this world, helping those I meet that have great need.