The Church of England's Book of Common Prayer contains a service entitled Evening Prayer, although it may be known in some parishes as Evensong or Choral Evensong. Readers of this blog understand that I do not subscribe to most of the doctrines of the CofE in their literal sense but recognise their value as metaphor, symbolism and myth.
Following the reading from the Old Testament the congregation say or sing Magnificat taken from Luke 1: 46-55. I have never heard a sermon based on these verses either in the CofE or any other denomination.
The BCP states verses 52-53 as follows:
He hath put down the mighty from their seat: and exalted the humble and meek.
He hath filled the hungry with good things: and the rich he hath sent empty away.
The New International Version of the bible has it thus:
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
The Message puts it like this:
He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet, the callous rich were left out in the cold.
Powerful stuff. A call for inclusion, for justice. Highly political and theatening to the established order of religion and state. But it was not new, it reflects a major strand of thinking in what Christians call the Old Testament. For those of us who seek systemic change in society to achieve social justice the words quoted above are but one part of a range of teaching on inclusion and justice attributed to Jesus by the writers of the synoptic gospels.
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