Wanna Talk About Whom?

Quite a way back, C & W artist Toby Keith made good on a lighthearted ditty by songwriter Bobby Braddock, called “I Wanna Talk About Me”. Not a ballad tugging on the heartstrings, this was a fun piece poking at the mild narcissism that can run through relationships stuck on superficiality. It is a complaint registered along the lines of: “We only ever talk about your trifles and minutia. Sometimes, can I get my stuff in?” When the verses transition to the bridge it goes like this: “I like talking about you, you, you, you usually, but occasionally I wanna talk about me (me, me, me, me)” Two hidden funny things about it are 1) Is it not usually the girl that is having to listen all the time to the other’s self-absorption? And 2) Is a shift from the self-babble of the one to the auto-fixation of the other really a move toward depth?

The lightness of this song points to the rather serious tendency people have for ego-centric fixation. I do not know whether other societies avoid this, but in our culture, the ego dominates a person’s thoughts and interactions. This is predictable and understandable because our brains function naturally, viewing all from the perspective of “I” just as an instinct of survival. Social maturity softens this singular focus, and spiritual maturity introduces a more secure and more authentic “self” into the picture.

This week in church we will use a beautiful declaration of other-centered praise in the liturgy where the psalm is usually used. It is the praise that pours forth from Mary, after the angel, Gabriel announces she is the one through whom the Savior will be born into the world. The Gospel according to Luke preserves this along-side several other remarkable affirmations of faith from people in the Jesus narrative. It is a very special feature of Luke’s Gospel. Mary delivers a spontaneous offering of praise which comes to be known by the church as the Song of Mary. It rings purely of her receptivity to God in faith and her humility before the purposes of God.

The announcement of the archangel could have turned her spirit toward pride that she had been chosen, but it does not. It turns her to magnify God, not herself. She sings of the greatness of God, especially in bringing about the great saving effect. She sings not of herself, but of her Savior. Mary was surely, entirely steeped in the Hebrew scriptures, because her opening is framed much like the prophet’s in Isaiah 61:10 — “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness.” In its entirety it resembles what we call the Song of Hannah when she learns she carries the child she never thought she would bear; read a portion of her song from:

Then Hannah prayed and said, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies because I rejoice in Your salvation…The Lord makes poor and rich; He humbles, He also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust, He lifts the needy from the garbage heap to seat them with nobles.” —1 Samuel 2:1, 7-8

However much the human being is inclined to promote the self, in the rhapsody of encountering God, one’s spirit turns wholly to praise the almighty. If my song is normally, “I like talking about me, me, me, me, usually…” experiencing God who breaks into the world for the purposes of love and restoration turns that around. Look at the Magnificat, the Song of Mary:

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; *
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed: *
the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him *
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm, *
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, *
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things, *
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel, *
for he has remembered his promise of mercy.

Every line is about God’s action and greatness. Only in the spirit of humility is there any reference to herself. When there is a reference to herself, Mary puts it in the context of the healing good done by God for all humanity. Mary is our example for the other-centered soul. There is a healthy version of other-centeredness. It comes from robust security, and confidence in the loving, effective relationship God offers to all. We should long for that security to grow and that confidence to grow within us. It is our true self, not our distracted egos, that provide the soil in which security grows.

I will say more about this in an exploration of Romans 16 soon, but the marvel of the incarnation, and therefore the marvel about which Mary sings is the “mystery of particularity”. The unfolding of time is vast, the size of the world is immense, and the variety of culture is enormous too, but at a particular time, to a particular person, in a particular way God came into this world. The eternal Word through whom all things came into being, became flesh. God was made present to us on our turf, that is, in time and space. Sometimes I wanna talk about me. Sometimes you wanna talk about you. That is only natural, but today, every day, we should be the ones singing as Mary sang; sing with me. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!”