It’s a small-town scandal. The young girl’s belly is bulging. She’s a young, unschooled, unwed, nobody. She talks to God, but who would believe she hears him talking to her too?
Her world is divided: high and low, rich and poor, powerful and powerless. She’s on the bottom every time.
But Mary believes the words God speaks: “Favored one! The Lord is with you.” (Lk. 1:28).
. . .
Laurie Kagay is our Director of Communications and a professor at the Institute for G.O.D. This was one of her initial sermons back in 2008, in Bombo, Uganda.
During one of my first sermons, I presented this story to a group of church leaders at a Bible conference in Uganda. Looking at a church full of men, my teacher, Gregg Garner, asked: “you ready?” I didn’t feel like it with my scattered notes and untimely shaky voice. I knew few men would want to hear a sermon from a woman, even in 2008. Gregg looked at me with full sincerity and said: “You’re ready. You can do this.”
So I began. I taught how Zechariah and Mary both heard from God. But the little girl from Nazareth had a superior response. In what seems to be an impossible situation, Mary believed God could make good. “Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your will,” (Lk. 1:38). She then sang a prophetic word that culminated in the lines:
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.
The pastors at the conference were far poorer than I, but they still had power in their world. They sat proud, expecting God (and me) to applaud their achieved positions. They assumed God worked through them. But I knew Zechariah’s storyline: muted for his lack of faith.
In my periphery, I noticed two contrasting images. To my right, a poster promoting Uganda’s “big men”,spiritual leaders who rule the city churches. These men were who everyone else wanted to become (posters like this hang in nearly every church and home). To my left, young girls were walking, carrying dishes, preparing for the next meal. They were out of school even though it was the middle of the week. Many of them barefoot, their clothes were worn thin. I looked back to my audience wearing suits, ties, polished shoes, and full bellies. I realized I was no longer teaching about Zechariah and Mary. I was standing in the midst of them, about to weigh in on whose side God was on.
I remembered myself as a teenager, lying on my bedroom floor, praying that God would use me. The girls washing dishes were not so different. They would have loved to attend the conference, but they weren’t welcome.
So, to the best of my ability in a room full of men twice my age, I called out the disparity. I charged them to hear Mary’s song. “Come down from your thrones, even if they only exist in your imagination. Wake up to the work that God wants to do with people you’ve overlooked.” I suggested that the girls outside could be the future leaders of their community. Eyes widened, mouths dropped, brows furrowed.
If these leaders wanted to be a part of God’s storyline, they would have to do for these girls what Gregg did for me. For years and to this day, he has always given me a place at the table. On that particular day, when my sermon garnered very little approval, Gregg supported me. He did not “thank” me for my message and release me to my seat. He charged them to hear the truth, and fielded their questions, without ever telling me to sit down.
Ssemakula Lawerence, his wife Josephine, and their two daughters at the time, Quinn (right) and Genesis.This picture was taken after the conference mentioned in 2008.
Ssemakula Lawrence, a teacher and choir leader, heard the message to consider the weak, and all he had to do was go home. Lawrence’s eldest daughter, Quinn, suffered from sickle cell anemia. (Sickle cell anemia is an incurable disease that in Africa, can result in 50-90% childhood mortality.) Lawrence and his wife continued learning the Bible from our team. They added to it lessons in health care, nutrition, and advocacy. Lawrence and Josephine taught Quinn about a God who was on her side, ready to lift her up. Our team made health funds available whenever a need arose. Even a scholarship for her educational journey. For another little girl who felt the odds stacked against her, God was near.
. . .
Quinn is more accustomed to doctor’s offices than any child should be. Sometimes she is unable to get out of bed because of the pain. But today, more than a decade after that sermon, Quinn took her final tests to finish secondary school. She ranks as one of the top students in the entire nation of Uganda. She is confident of God’s calling to serve in the medical field, to help lift up other kids like her.
“I remember that day well. Surely God is full of mercy. I am praising God for his great faithfulness which has seen us to where we are today seeing Quinn beat the odds. You all have been our source of hope in moments of despair, our eyes when we couldn’t see well and our joy when all joy was unreachable. Please share this good news with the world. ” — Lawrence Ssemakula
Mary’s song does not speak of a reversal, to sit the poor on thrones. That would only reproduce the same inequality with new characters. Instead, Mary calls for equality. The low need lifted up so that they can serve those lower than them.
Though Gregg has an incredible mind to study the Scriptures, he patiently teaches people like me, who want to know God. He also helped me see that I could teach. Being lifted up meant I could now serve those who lacked what I had gained. The pastors in the church that day did not have a lot of material wealth, but they had enough to help the girls outside. I stood before them as living proof of what could happen if they did.
Quinn in her school attire, beginning her final term of secondary school. Just last week Quinn completed her final exams.
Lawrence was lifted up, accepting God’s invitation to come low. Lawrence shifted his eyes from the “big men” on the wall to his daughters at home and his students at school. Quinn was also lifted up, to serve. Regarding her calling, she told me: “I have to do it. I’ve been given too much to not give back to others.”
Laurie Kagay facilitating a skit about G.O.D.’s history in East Africa, for a youth conference in June of 2019.
None of us make ourselves. It’s a lie that everyone has the power to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. Some don’t even have shoes.
Jesus himself was lifted up! The mom whose pregnancy looked like a death sentence was the first one to tell him, “you’re ready.” He had teachers in the temple, who fielded his questions and shared what they knew. He had a cousin who promoted him as the one sent by God.
Jesus spent his life lifting others up: kids, women, the hungry, the sick, the stranger, those in prison. He charged us to do the same. “Follow me.”
No matter who we are or where we are born, we are made in the image of God. Our world divides us, tips the scales in favor of those in power, and forsakes responsibility for the weak. Justice is in order, and God is waiting for our participation.
This holiday season, we’re calling you to help us re-balance the scales. Let’s lift up the lowly to enjoy an equal position in this world God calls good. It’s time to sing Mary’s song, impolite as it may seem, to envision a breakthrough in equality.
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.
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