39 Mary got up and hurried to a city in
the Judean highlands. 40 She entered Zechariah’s home and
greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the
child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 With
a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has
blessed the child you carry. 43 Why do I have this honor, that
the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as I heard
your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45 Happy is
she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.”
46 Mary said,
“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
47 In the depths of who I am I rejoice
in God my savior.
48 He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored 49 because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name. 50 He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God. 51 He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. 52 He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed. 54 He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy, 55 just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.”
Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored 49 because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name. 50 He shows mercy to everyone,
from one generation to the next,
who honors him as God. 51 He has shown strength with his arm.
He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations. 52 He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty-handed. 54 He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
remembering his mercy, 55 just as he promised to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.”
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three
months, and then returned to her home.
We are used to hearing the parental stories of Joseph and
Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth, in the weeks leading up to Christmas as we
prepare for the birth of Jesus. The
story we’ve read today, however, comes around twice a year in the Christian
calendar. That’s worth paying attention
to!
If you use December 25 as your birth date of Jesus, and
then back up the other events according to the timeline in the story, you end
up with the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth taking place right about this time
of year. It’s a beautiful story of gracious hospitality and persistent hope,
and it points us to the promise of God’s preferred future. May we
pray.
We were
barely back from our honeymoon when the questions started, “So, when are you
two going to have some kids?” It’s
always baffled me that people are so comfortable asking such a personal
question about someone else’s reproductive practices.
Last
week, we were down at the beach for a couple days for a wedding Ashley was
doing. We were waiting for the elevator
in the hotel, when a little boy of about four looked at us and said, “Do you have
kids?” And I said no, to which he
replied, “Why not?” and I was thinking, “Because of Exhibit ‘A’ talking to me
right now!” but his Mom said, “Because maybe they actually want to enjoy
themselves when they come to the beach!”
I don’t
ask people about their plans for children.
For one, I figure that’s their story to tell, and when they are ready to
tell it, they will. For another thing, I
have come to realize what a deeply personal and sometimes painful topic that
can be for folks. I think of those I
know who desperately want to be parents, but for some reason can’t be. I think of those who have made an intentional
decision not to have children. I think
of couples where one partner desperately wants children and the other doesn’t,
and it’s a source of constant fighting between the two. I think of those who are struggling with
issues too painful, complex and difficult to talk about. I think of those who waited for years to
adopt a child, only to have the whole thing unravel at the last minute.
Kids,
and the issues around having them, can be complicated and difficult, to say the
least. If anyone knew that, it was the
two women we’ve met in today’s Scripture reading: Mary and Elizabeth.
Mary, a young girl between the ages of 12 and 15, from a
backwater village in the middle of nowhere, handed off in an arranged
engagement to a man twice her age, and now, she was pregnant.
Elizabeth, an old woman, unable to have children, which,
in her day was embarrassing. She had
endured a lifetime of whispers, speculation, hurtful comments and advice and
questions of a rather personal nature.
Now, she too, is mysteriously with child.
They
are an odd pair to have chosen to be the mothers of John the Baptist and Jesus.
One seemed too old to have anything left to give to God. The other too young,
to be wise enough or mature enough to offer anything of value to God. One well past her prime, the other with plenty
of living and learning left to do.
However,
God doesn’t see as we do. In this story, God reveals again that God is on the
move irrespective of age, gender, or status. God is always showing up in the
most unlikely and ordinary of people, people like Elizabeth who seemed to be
left out of “normal life” (whatever that means-married with 2.2 kids with a 2
car garage and a midsize SUV or Minivan...) Certainly she was too old to be a
soccer mom now!
At the
other end of the spectrum, God is always surprising us by choosing people like
Mary, who at the age of 12-15, was chosen to be entrusted with the most important
work God has ever asked anyone to do-bear the incarnation, bear God for the
world! A 12-15 year old! You know your teenager, you barely trust them with a
car.
What
does God see in both the old and the young that we might miss? Where we look
for something great to come from people in power, or people with fame and
influence, or only men, or only women, or only up-and-coming-20 somethings who
can navigate this digital age, or only 50 somethings who have had enough life
experience to be wise but are young enough to still have some energy...they’re
the ones who can be trusted to do something great! We have all these caveats
about who can do something great.
God
doesn’t have these same hang ups. What we measure as greatness, God declares
foolishness. What we elevate, God knocks
down a peg. God is recklessly
indiscriminate, appearing to and working through all kinds of people: slave,
free, young, old, refugees, foreigners, non-religious folks, widows, the
divorced, women, men, fisherman and lawyers. What do they all have in common
that allow them to do something great for God?
Each of
them willingly say “yes” to partnering with God to change the world.
In the
Old Testament, Abraham says “yes” to partnering with God to be a blessing to
all nations and goes to a new country/new land. Moses, at the burning bush,
says “yes” to partnering with God to bring the Israelites out of slavery in
Egypt. Deborah says “yes” to partnering with God to be a righteous judge over
the people. Jonah finally relents and says “yes” to proclaim repentance to his
enemies in Ninevah, saving their lives. Isaiah says “yes” in worship to being
God’s prophet proclaiming God’s longing for repentance and new life in Israel.
Esther says “yes” to partner with God, using her status and position as Queen
to help save God’s people.
This
narrative continues in the New Testament. Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph...later
Matthew the tax collector, Peter, James, and John the fishermen...Mary and
Martha and their brother Lazarus...all very different people...but the one
thing they have in common...they all say “yes” to partnering with God by
becoming disciples of Jesus.
This is
what all the major players in scripture have in common – they say “yes” to God.
How
about you? When your life is said and
done, as someone is writing the epitaph on your tombstone, your obituary for
the paper, the eulogy for your funeral – how do you want to be remembered, as
one who said, “Yes” to God, or as one who said, “No, thanks”?
Mary
and Elizabeth were two people who said, “yes” to God. Theirs is a beautiful story of
hospitality and grace lived in the midst of difficult and threatening
times. It happens sometimes that hard
times or a hard life can harden a person’s heart. They become ill-tempered, angry, and
short. We excuse it easily enough,
knowingly saying, “That’s just their way,” or “You’ll have to excuse so-and-so,
but they’ve had a hard life,” or “Nobody ever taught them any better than
that.”
What I
love about Mary and Elizabeth is that they didn’t let a hard life or hard
circumstances harden their hearts. They
were open, flexible, pliable to the new thing God was literally doing within
them. In an unkind and difficult world,
they were hospitable and gracious, open to each other, and open to God.
Both
women have an unshakable faith in God’s ability to do extraordinary things, and
an openness that God would do those things through them. Mary wasn’t too young. Elizabeth wasn’t too old. The only thing to say “no” to is our excuses.
Like
Mary and Elizabeth, be a person who says, “yes” to God. Will you do that? Yes to the presence of God? Yes to God within
you? Yes to God working through
you? Yes to God changing you and
changing the world through you?
Say
yes, and open yourself up to visit from grace in your own life. May something jump for joy within you, may a
new song be on your lips, and may you find yourself pregnant with the hopeful promise
of God’s preferred future.
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