The appointed Gospel reading for today is the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-56), otherwise known as the Magnificat. It is hard to think of another scriptural text that has had more translations, paraphrases, and musical settings.

In Anglican Prayer Book tradition, the Magnificat is the first canticle in Evening Prayer. Many generations could recite the Cranmerian text from heart, but I fear that is not so now. Very few Anglican churches in this country celebrate Evening Prayer with any regularity -- largely because people simply stopped attending. And that's a pity, because this text deserves pride of place in our liturgy.

The Magnificat is one of the most revolutionary texts in the New Testament, proclaiming God's favour on the poor and the lowly, and the deposition of the mighty. More than any other text, it affirms reversal of fortune: the first shall be last, and the last shall be first, as Jesus said so often.

For us in the first world, it should be a hard text to sing. We live at the top of the pyramid. It is we who have been put down from our seats. Well -- look around you. 'T'ain't so! Or is it? I have to read this text as prolepsis, which means acting in the present as if a future event had already happened -- "already, but not yet."

I have been working with Samaritan House Ministries Inc. for several years now, and have been its board chair since last June. We work with the poor and the disadvantaged of our community, running a food bank operation, teaching basic literacy, helping families in need. For most of our client families, the Magnificat would be a joke -- plain BS, not to put too fine a name on it! But the text can say to me, and to the ministry's staff, that God's will is to raise up the downtrodden, set their feet on firmer ground, and give them a place in this society that they can only dream of in the present.

Mary's Song gives us a vision for God's Kingdom, ushered in by the birth of Mary's Son, Jesus. May we sing it with fervor.