WEBVTT 00:00:00.819 --> 00:00:03.680 Beloved of God, I invite you now to listen to 00:00:03.680 --> 00:00:06.280 the Holy Gospel according to Luke, the first 00:00:06.280 --> 00:00:11.720 chapter. Glory to you, O Lord. And Mary said, 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:16.839 My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices 00:00:16.839 --> 00:00:21.120 in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:25.120 on the lowly state of his servant. Surely from 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.899 now on all generations will call me blessed. 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:31.480 For the mighty one has done great things for 00:00:31.480 --> 00:00:37.259 me, and holy is his name. Indeed, his mercy is 00:00:37.259 --> 00:00:40.340 for those who fear him from generation to generation. 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:45.759 He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered 00:00:45.759 --> 00:00:48.359 the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:52.140 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones 00:00:52.140 --> 00:00:56.399 and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry 00:00:56.399 --> 00:01:00.350 with good things. and sent the rich away empty. 00:01:01.350 --> 00:01:05.769 He has come to the aid of his child Israel in 00:01:05.769 --> 00:01:08.950 remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise 00:01:08.950 --> 00:01:13.790 he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his 00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:17.750 descendants forever. This, beloved, is the gospel 00:01:17.750 --> 00:01:21.469 of the Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. You may 00:01:21.469 --> 00:01:32.760 be seated. So first, grace to you and peace from 00:01:32.760 --> 00:01:39.000 God who calls unlikely people. Christ who unsettles 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.780 unjust systems and the Holy Spirit who keeps 00:01:43.780 --> 00:01:47.379 singing through truth, through our human voices. 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:56.319 Amen. Beloved friends, what do we hear about 00:01:56.319 --> 00:02:01.430 Mary in this text? Well, we have heard about 00:02:01.430 --> 00:02:05.950 her obedience, her faith, her humility, and her 00:02:05.950 --> 00:02:10.629 willingness to say yes. And all of that really 00:02:10.629 --> 00:02:15.870 does matter. But today, as we end this Quality 00:02:15.870 --> 00:02:20.710 of Call Summit, I want to linger with Mary, not 00:02:20.710 --> 00:02:25.789 just as a symbol of quiet submission, but with 00:02:25.789 --> 00:02:32.550 Mary, Mary who I see as the prophet. Mary is 00:02:32.550 --> 00:02:37.250 a truth teller. Mary is the one who sings out 00:02:37.250 --> 00:02:42.530 loud about God's disruptive justice. Because 00:02:42.530 --> 00:02:45.830 Luke does not place Mary's song in a sanctuary. 00:02:47.870 --> 00:02:52.830 It's on a doorstep. And Mary does not sing the 00:02:52.830 --> 00:02:57.069 Magnificat from a position of safety or a position 00:02:57.069 --> 00:03:02.090 of authority. She sings from a position of vulnerability. 00:03:02.849 --> 00:03:09.349 She is young. She is poor. She is pregnant. She 00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:13.349 is living under imperial rule. And she is unsure 00:03:13.349 --> 00:03:16.930 whether the systems around her will protect her 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:26.189 or punish her. And yet, and yet, she sings anyway. 00:03:28.750 --> 00:03:31.990 My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices 00:03:31.990 --> 00:03:38.189 in God my Savior. Now before Mary names any injustices, 00:03:38.189 --> 00:03:44.069 before she imagines the mighty falling, the Mighty 00:03:44.069 --> 00:03:48.610 Falling, the MIGHTY FALLING, and the lowly lifted, 00:03:48.710 --> 00:03:54.250 she claims joy. Not just shallow optimism, but 00:03:54.250 --> 00:04:00.580 joy. Not denial. but JOY. Joy that's rooted in 00:04:00.580 --> 00:04:05.060 trust that God is present and God is active. 00:04:06.139 --> 00:04:11.680 Beloved, God is present and God is active here, 00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:16.959 right now. So for all of us who have gathered 00:04:16.959 --> 00:04:20.300 here over these past couple days, these things 00:04:20.300 --> 00:04:25.500 from Mary really do matter. Because we lead in 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:29.579 a church that is shaped by fatigue, anxiety, 00:04:30.100 --> 00:04:34.720 institutional change, and deep questions about 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:38.740 sustainability. Many of our colleagues and our 00:04:38.740 --> 00:04:41.019 siblings in Christ carry more responsibility 00:04:41.019 --> 00:04:46.379 than they get support. Many feel scrutinized 00:04:46.379 --> 00:04:50.899 more than they are trusted. And many have learned 00:04:50.899 --> 00:04:59.939 the hard way that joy, Joy can feel risky. But 00:04:59.939 --> 00:05:03.620 what Mary reminds us of is that joy is not a 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:08.660 reward for everything working out. Joy is the 00:05:08.660 --> 00:05:12.259 decision to believe that God is still at work 00:05:12.259 --> 00:05:16.740 in the midst of all of these complicated realities. 00:05:18.879 --> 00:05:21.540 So I ask you today, beloved, what would it mean 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:30.779 for our systems, of call, if joy, JOY, not endurance, 00:05:31.220 --> 00:05:37.740 but joy is the baseline expectation. So Mary 00:05:37.740 --> 00:05:40.680 continues, God has looked with favor on the lowliness 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:45.699 of this servant. Mary imagines God, at least 00:05:45.699 --> 00:05:48.839 in my own holy imagination, she imagines God's 00:05:48.839 --> 00:05:56.470 gaze not as judgment, but as delight. I think 00:05:56.470 --> 00:06:01.470 that this matters deeply for us as leaders. Because 00:06:01.470 --> 00:06:04.250 many leaders, especially women, our non -binary, 00:06:04.470 --> 00:06:08.670 siblings, leaders of color. We experience the 00:06:08.670 --> 00:06:12.970 church's gaze as conditional. We experience the 00:06:12.970 --> 00:06:18.509 church's gaze as evaluative or maybe even suspicious. 00:06:19.930 --> 00:06:23.470 Mary insists, though, that God's favor rests 00:06:23.470 --> 00:06:29.800 within her loneliness, not despite her loneliness. 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:35.120 So for those of us who are going to continue 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:38.180 to shape these systems of call that we live with, 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:43.819 that raises some hard questions. Do our systems 00:06:43.819 --> 00:06:50.040 communicate trust or constant assessment? Do 00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:55.029 our leaders feel seen as whole people? Or risks 00:06:55.029 --> 00:07:00.350 that need to be managed? Do we treat difference 00:07:00.350 --> 00:07:08.610 as a gift? Or as a complication? You see, beloved, 00:07:08.769 --> 00:07:13.410 quality of call begins with the conviction that 00:07:13.410 --> 00:07:21.290 leaders are already worthy of dignity. But here's 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:25.300 where Mary's song sharpens. God has brought down 00:07:25.300 --> 00:07:29.759 the powerful from their thrones and lifted up 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.959 the lowly. God has filled the hungry with good 00:07:32.959 --> 00:07:40.000 things and sent the rich away empty. Now these 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:43.920 are verses that history has tried to silence, 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:47.920 even in the church. And these are verses that 00:07:47.920 --> 00:07:50.959 have been banned in many places. And these are 00:07:50.959 --> 00:07:55.399 verses that truly unsettle leadership. Because 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:59.459 Mary names what systems rarely do on their own. 00:08:00.300 --> 00:08:04.779 Power, beloved, is not neutral. And hierarchy 00:08:04.779 --> 00:08:11.139 is only holy by default. And God, I believe, 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:15.319 is not invested in preserving unjust arrangements. 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:21.579 For church leaders, this is not abstract theology. 00:08:23.310 --> 00:08:26.490 This is theology that asks us to examine who 00:08:26.490 --> 00:08:30.910 is consistently overworked in our systems? Who 00:08:30.910 --> 00:08:34.789 is consistently undercompensated in our systems? 00:08:35.570 --> 00:08:40.649 Who is encouraged to stay and who is quietly 00:08:40.649 --> 00:08:46.129 pushed aside? Whose leadership is trusted instinctively 00:08:46.129 --> 00:08:51.490 and whose leadership seems to always be in question? 00:08:53.200 --> 00:08:56.940 Beloved Mary's song refuses to separate spirituality 00:08:56.940 --> 00:09:02.059 from structure. Quality of call is not just about 00:09:02.059 --> 00:09:06.259 care for leaders. It's about whether our systems 00:09:06.259 --> 00:09:12.100 reflect the character of God that we so boldly 00:09:12.100 --> 00:09:18.179 proclaim. You see, beloved, Mary imagines a reordered 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:22.289 world, right? where the hungry are fed with good 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:28.389 things, where power is not hoarded, and where 00:09:28.389 --> 00:09:34.389 dignity is restored. Now this is not naive hope. 00:09:35.730 --> 00:09:39.090 This is what I like to call disciplined imagination. 00:09:40.850 --> 00:09:44.649 And it's precisely the kind of imagination that 00:09:44.649 --> 00:09:50.039 we as leaders are called to cultivate. Because 00:09:50.039 --> 00:09:52.740 to love the child Mary is carrying within her 00:09:52.740 --> 00:09:56.899 womb is to love the Christ who will later overturn 00:09:56.899 --> 00:10:01.639 tables, confront religious authority, and proclaim 00:10:01.639 --> 00:10:06.700 good news to the poor. Beloved, the Magnificat 00:10:06.700 --> 00:10:11.039 does not invite the church to be polite. It invites 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:15.740 the church to be faithful. So what does this 00:10:15.740 --> 00:10:19.750 song ask of us? today, in the here and the now. 00:10:21.149 --> 00:10:24.330 I believe it asks for us to believe that systems 00:10:24.330 --> 00:10:30.570 can change. We can do that work. I believe it 00:10:30.570 --> 00:10:33.190 asks us to listen to the voices from the margins 00:10:33.190 --> 00:10:37.809 of leadership. I believe it asks us to measure 00:10:37.809 --> 00:10:41.990 success not by survival, but by flourishing. 00:10:43.500 --> 00:10:46.659 And lastly, I believe that it asks us to trust 00:10:46.659 --> 00:10:50.740 that God's justice is not a threat to the church. 00:10:51.860 --> 00:10:58.659 It truly is the salvation of the church. Beloved, 00:10:58.679 --> 00:11:05.220 the Magnificat is not a solo. It's a song that's 00:11:05.220 --> 00:11:10.970 communal. And we as leaders decide every day 00:11:10.970 --> 00:11:15.350 whether the church will sing it LOUDLY or not 00:11:15.350 --> 00:11:23.389 at all. So I invite you as I close, because Mary 00:11:23.389 --> 00:11:26.230 ends her song by trusting that God will be faithful 00:11:26.230 --> 00:11:30.990 to God's promises. Not because the world is ready, 00:11:31.129 --> 00:11:36.559 but because God is ready. So I leave you with 00:11:36.559 --> 00:11:38.440 these questions, and these are not accusations. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:44.379 They are simply invitations. What would it look 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:49.299 like for our systems of call to magnify the Lord? 00:11:51.159 --> 00:11:54.600 Where might joy become an act of resistance? 00:11:57.320 --> 00:12:04.299 Whose voices need to be trusted more fully? And 00:12:04.299 --> 00:12:06.379 what kind of church are we willing to become 00:12:06.379 --> 00:12:11.039 so that EVERYONE can flourish, not just those 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:17.240 on the inside? Beloved, Mary did not wait for 00:12:17.240 --> 00:12:21.559 permission to sing. So may we have the courage 00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:26.480 to listen and the faith to join Mary's song. 00:12:28.059 --> 00:12:29.620 Amen, and God bless you all.