Divine Revelation
We are nearing the end of our Advent journey that takes us to Bethlehem. This is my sermon from the last Sunday of Advent, 12/20/15. I preached this at St.Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Luke:1:39-45.
Think about how you would respond
if a relative showed up at your door unannounced? Besides that, she was going
to be staying with you for a while. Not only would she be staying with you, but
she is young, maybe 14 years old, unmarried and she is pregnant! Would you
welcome her in with open arms or would you grit your teeth, while you welcome
her, thinking to yourself, "Don't go away mad. Just go away."
Imagine how Elizabeth felt when
Mary stood at her door. There Mary was--alone, young and pregnant. In addition to that, Elizabeth's husband is a
priest. How would Mary's situation affect his reputation?
Today's gospel is imbued with
divine revelation. Elizabeth and Mary demonstrate to us how to respond
faithfully to God's guiding our way and revelation, even when it is way beyond
our realm of understanding.
This passage consists primarily of
Elizabeth's poetic words. It is a gospel full of joy, recognition, gratitude
and blessing. The encounter of these women has elements of mystery and
grace--the mystery of new life forming, but still invisible, and the grace of
recognizing each other as the Spirit-filled mothers they are becoming.
Without losing sight of the big
picture-- that Elizabeth's son, John will grow up to be a prophet and martyred
and that Jesus will grow up and suffer and die for our salvation on the cross,
today we enter into an up-close picture of Mary and Elizabeth's encounter and
share in the joy and gratitude they have in common with all who recognize
Christ in their neighbor. Although it may seem that the main characters in
today's lesson are Mary and Elizabeth, it is God who is at the center of all
the activity, orchestrating each scene--filling the women with recognition, joy, gratitude and the Spirit and
blessing them and the babes they are carrying. This short narrative frames the
prophetic oracles of Elizabeth who offers praise for Mary's faithfulness,
speaks of the blessedness of the Lord's birth and expresses wonder at God's
work of redemption.
Mary learned of her elder cousin
Elizabeth's pregnancy through her encounter with the angel Gabriel. We can
imagine a couple of different reasons why Mary was in such a hurry to leave
home and travel around 3 days to get to Elizabeth. As an unwed pregnant
teenager, Did she feel the need to get out of Nazareth before her baby started to show? In small
towns of that day, like today, everyone knows everything and the tongues would
surely wag. Was Mary looking for the comfort of being with her also-pregnant
cousin to share the marvelous mystery of having a human life within her? We can
speculate all we want, but we know she went "with haste" to see
Elizabeth. We aren't told of any divine direction for Mary to go, but I suspect
she wanted to share her joy in God's work in both of their lives. Mary wanted
to confirm the angel's words about Elizabeth being pregnant, keeping in mind
that Elizabeth was quite elderly. This was a sign of Mary's faith. She was
going to see what God had done with Elizabeth. Either way, Mary hurried because
of her joy.
Travel for purposes that were not
religious, was considered deviant behavior. Travel to visit family was fine,
but the report of Mary traveling alone into the "hill country" was
considered unusual and improper.
When Mary arrives, Elizabeth
welcomes her. From the moment of Mary's arrival, Elizabeth recognized God at
work in Mary. Two signs take place at this time. The first, Elizabeth's child
leaps for joy within her and the second is Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit. Earlier in this chapter Elizabeth's husband, Zechariah was told,
"even before [John's] birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit"
(v. 15). Now that time had arrived.
While still in the womb, John the
Baptist responded to God's presence in Mary. The capacity to recognize God's
work in Christ (though still unborn) and the expression of praise to God that
follows are gifts from God. Not only has Elizabeth experienced her own answer
to prayer for a child, but now she has received the added blessing of a visit
from the one who would be the mother of her Lord and ours.
Elizabeth blesses Mary. The joy and
and gratitude of both women causes Elizabeth to burst into song with a
blessing. As Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, she was given eyes of
faith to see and a voice of faith to sing God's praises. There is a sense that
in giving a blessing, one not only declares blessing or praise, but makes it
happen.
Elizabeth blesses Mary on two
grounds. Mary was chosen to be the mother of her Lord and Mary believed the
word of the Lord. Mary is blessed and the child she will bear is blessed.
Blessing always comes from trusting that God's word will be fulfilled. Mary
being blessed among women means that she has been specially blessed by God.
Elizabeth celebrates Mary. As much
as Elizabeth was a recipient of a miracle of God's grace, and was pregnant with
a child who would play a key role in salvation history, rather than being
prideful of her miracle, she humbled herself before Mary just as John humbled
himself before Jesus at Jesus' baptism.
Elizabeth's joy is overshadowed by
the joy of Mary's visit, that her unborn Lord would honor her with his
presence. How wonderful it would be if we had the same attitude regarding our
Lord's presence in our gathering together in the Word and in the Holy Supper.
"Blessed be God who has come to us this day." Worship is not our good
deed of bringing ourselves to God, rather, it is a time and place where God
comes to us.
Elizabeth's response to Mary's
arrival was counter-cultural. Elizabeth overturns social explanations. Given
Mary's condition, one would expect social judgment, shame, even ostracism from
her older relative. Yet Elizabeth had experienced her own shame and exclusion
as a wife with no children. Elizabeth's response to her own pregnancy shows
that God's grace had reversed her social status. Elizabeth continues the
pattern of social reversal by opening her heart and home to a relative her
neighbors would expect her to reject. Instead of the shame Mary's pregnancy may
have brought her, she receives joy and honor.
As we get closer to Christmas, does
anything leap for joy within us? Can we feel the stirring of new life, of age
old hopes, or the impossible longing to become possible? Are we open to the
ways that God chooses to act in our world today? What is God doing through
unexpected people in our society today?
Our lives too are to be as full, as
were those of Mary and Elizabeth, with the expectation of the transforming
experience of God's grace. Have we ever experienced in our lives times when God
wants to bring to the forefront something within us? Perhaps now some of us are
experiencing the wonderful and at the same time terrifying new creations in our
own lives. God wants us to experience his grace, as the capacity to recognize
God's work and the ability to praise God. It is this grace that must inform a
life that embodies Christ's life and values.
Like Mary and Elizabeth, may we
trust that God is coming to save us and set us free. May we too give thanks
that God has taken away our shame and respond to God's love by welcoming the
shameful. May we echo Elizabeth's blessing, "...blessed be [those] who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to [them] by the
Lord" (v. 45). May our days be marked with praise, blessing and the wonder
of God's work of redemption for all.
Amen.
Comments