Being Present with Joy

Luke 1:41-55 CEB

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.”

Mary praises God

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.”

Intro

This week, we continue our sermon series, The Gift of Being Present. Two weeks ago, we began by examining how we are called to be present with hope. We examined our call to awaken our hearts to the grace of God and be that grace to others so that as we actively wait for Christ’s return, we are empowered to do something about the injustice and oppression of the world. In this, we are truly present in the world with the hope of Christ.

Last week, we explored what it means to be truly present with peace in the world. Peace is not the absence of conflict or wars; instead, Peace is when we are able to learn and articulate the movements of our inner lives, give name to our different experiences, and enable God’s grace to work more fully in our lives. Thus, as we allow the Spirit to work within us, we become more at peace with ourselves, enabling us to work for peace, wait for peace, and make straight paths for peace as we, like Christ, lead not from our pain but through love.

As we journey together this Sunday, we may find this to be an odd text for the proclamation of Joy. In the Magnificat, Mary seems to be proclaiming that the world will be flipped upside down. If you are on the side of the rich and the powerful, that can seem like an especially harsh and non-joyous proclamation. Yet, we must re-examine our idea of Joy.

Right before our Gospel lesson, we have the newly pregnant Mary traveling to visit her cousin, Elizabeth. Mary travels around 62 miles to visit her cousin. At the end of her journey, we enter into our text for today. Just as Mary greets Elizabeth, the baby leaps in Elizabeth’s womb, and she begins to bless Mary, as the Spirit speaks to her soul, so she speaks a word of blessing into Mary’s Soul.

In Elizabeth, we find all of God’s promises fulfilled. At her age, Elizabeth reminds us of Sarah’s pregnancy once, which ought not to be possible. Elizabeth comes from Aaron’s lineage and is married to the priest Zechariah. Earlier in this chapter, Elizabeth is promised a son, and Zechariah is told that the son “will go forth before the Lord, equipped with the spirit and power of Elijah.” God has been faithful to Elizabeth. In her very being, in all that she is and all that she has to offer, she offers herself to the work of God. As one theologian puts it, “Elizabeth embodies God’s covenant promises to Israel.”

In Mary, we find God on the cusp of doing something new. This unwed virgin is about to give birth to Emmanuel, God with us. In her song, she speaks of the God she knows through her faith. And yet, she proclaims the greatness of the work that God is already doing and will do through her. She proclaims not the turning upside down of the world but the right-siding of the world that God is doing and that God is ushering in through Christ.

God raises up the lowly and lowers the powerful. The rich are brought down, and the poor are empowered. All this work will continue in the birth of her son, Jesus. Mary joyfully responds as she proclaims the things of God and prepares herself for the work she will do in order to continue the fulfillment of God’s promises.

This does not mean that the work Mary is called to is easy and always happy. When the angel appeared to her, and in her acceptance and rejoicing in this role, as the bearing of Christ. Mary was still facing the realities and challenges of her predicament. She is still an unmarried, pregnant teenager. Much like peace is not the absence of fighting, so too is joy, not the absence of struggle or conflict. Yet Mary faces her challenges head-on, trusting in her God to lead and guide her.

In his book You Are the Beloved, Henry Nouwen reminds us that even the most joyful people face challenges. He writes, “Joyful persons do not necessarily make jokes, laugh, or even smile. They are not people with an optimistic outlook on life who always relativize the seriousness of a moment or an event. No, joyful persons see with open eyes the hard reality of human existence and at the same time are not imprisoned by it. They have no illusion about the evil powers that roam around, "looking for someone to devour", but they also know that death has no final power. They suffer with those who suffer, yet they do not hold on to suffering; they point beyond it to an everlasting peace.”

You see, in her Magnificat, her song of rejoicing, Mary knows the challenges she faces. She doesn’t laugh about her situation. She probably wasn’t smiling either. But with a somber face, knowing the evil powers that were against her, Mary moves past her suffering by trusting in the promises of God as she prepares to bring the Light of the World into the world.

So often in church, we find ourselves at a crossroads. So many of our congregants have been here for a long time. They have their own faith and their own understanding of who God is. Yet the church stands at a crossroads. A younger generation is here with different understandings, different priorities, and different ways of expressing their faith. Whether it is worship style, leadership style, or where church ranks in their lives, this often leads to conflict. Those who have been here for a long time and have done things a certain way cling to power, hoping to preserve the church just as they have experienced it and understand it to be. When this happens, those of us who have been here a while become stumbling blocks to those who see a different future, renewed hope, and the inbreaking of God coming forth. Sometimes, God’s new thing is stifled because we have always done it this way.

What Elizabeth and Mary model for us is moving into God’s true joy in the midst of changing times. You see, while Elizabeth represents the past of the church, Mary represents the future. Mary draws on the faith of the past but looks at the future with fresh eyes. Now, many expect Elizabeth to be the wise older cousin offering her wisdom to Mary. Rather, Elizabeth Blesses Mary, and with that Blessing, the Spirit moves through Mary to offer her own proclamation of the future.

One theologian puts it this way, “In Elizabeth’s praise of Mary, the church can see a new way to cross generational boundaries. Elizabeth, the representative of all that should be celebrated about the tradition of God in the community, sings praises to the young girl who is bearing God’s purposes into the world. This song of praise appears to open the mouth of the young girl to proclaim prophetically and with confidence this new world God is bringing about. Without her encounter and encouragement from Elizabeth, Mary might not have possessed the confidence to envision God’s new creation. Mary does not, however, describe a future totally foreign to Elizabeth’s understanding of God’s will, but a world formed by the revelation of God to that faith community.”

Elizabeth’s lesson for those who have lived out their faith shows us that we can celebrate the next generation, the now generation, and encourage them as they grow into their own faith. You have heard it said that Children are the future… I get so tired of this language…they aren’t the future. Rather, Children are the church now, youth are the church now, young adults are the church now, and we must empower them to do the work of the church! We shouldn’t be defensive about how we’ve always done it, rather, we embrace the ways in which the new generation sees God at work in the world.

You see, the new generation isn’t departing from the faith they have learned. Rather, with joy in their hearts, knowing the obstacles they face in the world, they embrace faith for their own. They have the audacity to believe that God might reveal something to them and that God might do a new thing through them. This is the lesson we have from Mary. Mary teaches the next generation that they have inherited a rich faith with a deep and complex story. Rather than reject and abandon it, they must embrace and build upon it. While God is working in new and different ways, God’s message today still lines up with God’s messages of years past. God’s faithfulness is the same for all generations.

You see, being present with joy means that we must acknowledge our realities, acknowledge the obstacles before us, but rejoice that God is with us. In the book of James, the author writes, “My brothers and sisters, think of the various tests you encounter as occasions for joy. After all, you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Let this endurance complete its work so that you may be fully mature, complete, and lacking in nothing. But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask”.

You see, the tests and the obstacles we encounter don’t mean that our joy goes away. We rejoice that God will give us wisdom when we ask. We rejoice that God will be right-side our work. We rejoice that God hears our cries and draws near to us.

Being present with that joy means supporting one another in the work that God has given us. It means clinging to the faith that has been passed down from generation to generation. It means looking to God’s faithfulness through the years. But it also means letting go and trusting those who see God differently than we do. Now, this doesn’t mean that we are just going to replace all of the church council because they’ve been at the church a long time. However, it does mean we ought to discern whether God is calling us to step up into leadership in new ways or step aside from leadership.

As we enter into the coming year, there a new people in our church leadership, new people stepping into roles once filled by those who have been here a long time. Things will change. Those charged with leading us in the children and youth programs, church council, missions, and other spaces of the church’s life have new visions of God’s inbreaking kingdom, and we must be ready to support them as we offer both our wisdom and our blessing to their work.

Transitions are often not easy. Yet, they are necessary. One of my favorite services in the life of the church is called A Blue Christmas Service. Last year, we will offer a Blue Christmas service, and we may offer one next year. The service is designed for those who have the “not so merry” feelings at Christmas. Whether from the loss of a job, the loss of a family member or spouse, difficult family situations, or any number of life’s difficulties, we acknowledge the different feelings we have at this time of the year. And yet, we are still present with Joy as we acknowledge the God who has never left us, the God who gives light to our darkness. The God who continues to show up. We acknowledge the spaces of transitions and the love of God found in God’s presence with us.

As we are present with joy today, we acknowledge our own realities and obstacles, we acknowledge the change and transition, but we also remind ourselves of the God who has been faithful to Elizabeth, to Mary, to our own ancestors, and to us. We trust that God will get us through every obstacles. We offer this true joy of faith in God through Jesus Christ to the world by living our lives with joy as we are not imprisoned by our obstacles. In one of the great hymns of the church entitled, “Come and Find the Quiet Center,” we proclaim “In the Spirit, let us travel, open to each other’s pain, let our loves and fears unraveled, celebrate the space we gain: There’s a place for deepest dreaming, there’s a time for heart to care, in the Spirit’s lively scheming there is always room to spare.”

This is true joy this Advent season. Despite the obstacles we face, we are united in living to God’s true joy. We spread that joy to the world as we move into God’s future. And we rejoice that “in the Spirit’s living scheming, there is always room to spare.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.