Today, we celebrate the
second Sunday of Advent. Last week, we heard the story of the angel Gabriel
visiting Zechariah and telling him to expect the birth of the baby who would
become John the Baptist. We are uncertain how Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, was
related to Mary, Jesus’ mom, but we know they were relatives. After Elizabeth
was getting on in her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel made a second visit to
Israel to announce another miracle pregnancy. Hear the story where it picks up
in Luke, chapter one, verses twenty-six through forty-five:
Proclamation of the Scripture Luke 1:26-45
In the sixth
month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to
Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
to a virgin
pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary.
The angel went
to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was
greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.
But the angel
said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.
You will
conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.
He will be
great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give
him the throne of his father David,
and he will
reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this
be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel
answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most
High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the
Son of God.
Even Elizabeth
your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was
said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
For no word
from God will ever fail.”
“I am the
Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the
angel left her.
At that time
Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,
where she
entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth
heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Spirit.
In a loud
voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the
child you will bear!
But why am I
so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
As soon as the
sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she
who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Here ends this reading of the word of God
for the people of God: Thanks be to God. Amen.
Prayer of Illumination
Pastor: O God, our beginning and end, by whose command
time runs its course: bless our impatience, perfect our faith, and, while we
await the fulfillment of your promises, grant us hop in your Word. Amen.
Message My
Soul Glorifies the Lord
Today we recall the immense responsibility
God placed on a young woman, a young woman who was just maturing to adulthood.
A young woman given the responsibility to become the mother of Jesus, the
messiah.
I look at the young people in this room,
our 12 and 13 and 14 year olds, and see in them the vulnerability and strength
required to take on this responsibility. We raise our children and young adults
to be resilient. We raise them to tackle challenges, to fight for what is
right, to be strong and patient and tough.
Mary was like our young people.
Although she had questions, just as they have questions, she rose to the
occasion. I don’t blame her for her question – how will this be, since I am a
virgin? There was the problem of reality.
Most babies are not born to virgins. It is not every day you find yourself
experiencing a miracle, a miracle happening in your own body, no less.
Mary must have been afraid. Having
an angel appear in her presence alone would have caused her to recoil in fear.
And, then the angel told her she would become a mother, a very young,
inexperience, mother. When we talked about this at Lunch Bunch this week, one
of our members suggested that perhaps only a 13 or 14 year old would be optimistic
enough to take on the challenge. Perhaps Mary was not old enough to be gripped
by fear and consider all of the things that could possibly go wrong…..When I
was pregnant with Lucia, I was 32 years old…I was old enough to be aware of
everything that could go wrong and lay in bed at night obsessing over the possibilities.
But, Mary was brave and tough and maybe just naïve enough to not totally become
paralyzed by anxiety about the task ahead of her.
Mary was resourceful. The angel told
Mary that Elizabeth was also pregnant. So, Mary figured out a way to travel
from Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country of Judah. This was a 90 mile
journey. There is no explanation in our scriptures about how Mary travelled
those 90 miles – it just says Mary hurried from Nazareth to the home of
Elizabeth. But, only a resourceful person would have figured out how to make
that journey quickly, especially in a day and age when most people travelled on
foot….scholars think people could have roughly travelled 20 miles a day through
that region. Mary hurried to Elizabeth
on a 5 or 6 day journey. Mary was resourceful.
Mary was also resourceful because
she turned to Elizabeth for help. If anyone could have understood the weird,
strange pregnancy journey Mary was on, it would have been Elizabeth. Elizabeth
was a trusted, nurturing relative for Mary. I pray that all of our children,
the ones in this room, the kids who are part of this congregation, the kids who
are part of our wider community…I pray that all of our children have safe and
trusted adults they can turn to, especially when they are in crises. Mary was grappling
with the reality that she was pregnant with the Messiah – I count that as a
crisis. Fortunately, she had Elizabeth to turn to for support. In verse 56 of
Luke chapter one, it says: Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months
and then returned home. Mary was able to
stay with her nurturing relatives Elizabeth and Zechariah for 3 months. Then
she returned home to prepare for the birth of her baby. She would have left Elizabeth just before the
birth of John – Elizabeth was going to become too busy with mothering to care
for an increasingly pregnant Mary.
This year, as I reflect on the story
of Mary’s unusual pregnancy, and notice how brave and resilient she was, I am
also very impressed with Elizabeth’s grace and love. Despite her own unusual
pregnancy, Elizabeth took care of Mary. Often, we hear stories of kids and
teenagers who have tough relationships with their parents – we don’t know
anything about Mary’s parents – they are never mentioned in the Bible or the
story of our faith. But, when Mary’s situation became dire and hard, she turned
to Elizabeth. For whatever reason, her
parents were not her first choice. I pray that as the followers of Christ who
make up the church, we will all be adults like Elizabeth and Zechariah – ready to
nurture and love teenagers who are not our biological children, ready to
support and care for kids who find themselves in a mess – kids who struggle with
school – kids who are the victims of bullies – kids whose families reject them
because they stop believing in the faith of their fathers or they realize they
are LBGTQIA in families who are not open and affirming – kids who find themselves
struggling with addiction – kids who figure out they are pregnant when they don’t expect to be – kids like Mary who find
themselves dealing with a reality they
could have never planned for or prepared for.
There are so many lessons to learn
from the behavior of the people in our Bible, the people who are our ancestors
in the faith. As we prepare for Christmas, and prepare our hearts to welcome
Jesus, let us admire and work to imitate the nurturing parents who are part of
the Nativity of our Lord – people who became parents when they least expected
to become parents – too old, too young, adoptive, and “chosen” – Elizabeth and Zechariah
were the kind of “chosen” parents we hope to be – people who nurture other
people’s children and help them through the hard times in their lives.
May we do so in love. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment