Psalm 80:1–7 ESV

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your might and come to save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved! O Lord God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers? You have fed them with the bread of tears and given them tears to drink in full measure. You make us an object of contention for our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves. Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved!

Luke 1:39–55 ESV

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Love in the Darkness

This, my friends, is a ridiculous story. This is the sort of ridiculous story one can only find in the Bible. God truly works in wild and mysterious ways and we can see that in this passage about two very unlikely pregnant women. Elizabeth is past her childbearing prime. She’s never been able to have children and one day, an angel appeared to her husband announcing her pregnancy and quite literally striking him speechless until the baby’s birth. And this late-life, unexpected baby is the prophet who will usher in the ministry of the long-awaited Messiah. 

Then there is young Mary – probably a teenager – not married yet, a virgin, no money or real resources, miraculously pregnant and carrying the very Son of God. And Mary’s not the only one who knows how special this baby growing in her womb is. He’s so special that the other baby actually jumps for joy in Elizabeth’s belly! These two women – highly unlikely and probably marginalized and ignored by society – they are the ones carrying the future of God’s people and the message of salvation. 

This isn’t just a short little girls’ lunch together, either. Mary stays with Elizabeth for THREE MONTHS. What we see here in this passage is the Reader’s Digest version of their time together – the highlights reel – the edited for time TV version of the movie. We see their greetings to one another, their encouragement, and then Mary’s song. This song is sometimes referred to as “the Magnificat” and we’ll be singing a version of it later in the service – a version that we’ve sung before as a congregation. Mary and Elizabeth – a strange and unexpected pair – greeting one another, encouraging one another, comforting one another, and singing God’s praises together. 

Mary and Elizabeth have some significantly different life experiences – one young, one old. One married, one engaged. One in a stable family situation, one about to find herself in a stable starting a family. But both about to do something amazing by being faithful to God. 

When we think about Mary, we often think about her love for the world – the love she showed for everyone by stepping out on a limb and putting her reputation and pending marriage on the line by accepting this holy mission. I have a painting in my office of Mary holding Jesus as he’s being taken off the cross and in her eyes, you can see the love and the pain that she has. Her robes are rounded in the picture and they are blue and green – they look a bit like the Earth, symbolizing the life of love for all people she lived – the things she gave up in her life and the pain she went through for the sake of Jesus’ mission of loving everyone. Elizabeth’s son would also meet an early and violent death because of his role in the story. Neither Mary nor Elizabeth had an easy task ahead.

That’s why Mary and Elizabeth needed one another. And that’s why this passage is too important to leave out of the story. In spite of their differences, Mary and Elizabeth were called to difficult but important roles in God’s work of loving the world. But before they could move forward in loving the world and spreading the gospel story, they had to sit with one another and reflect on God, on their mission, and on God’s faithfulness before they could go forth. They had to be prepared. And it took them three whole months. Think about that. . . a normal pregnancy is nine months long. They spent a full third of their pregnancies together reflecting, connecting, and preparing. 

Mary has been given this incredible announcement via angel, but instead of rushing out to tell everyone and diving right into this job of being the Messiah’s mom, she goes first to someone in her close community – in her family. You see, before she could go out into the world and play a powerful role in God’s mission, she met with someone close to her. Those are the relationships that when nurtured, help us break out into the world in powerful ways.

I love Christmas. I love the decorations and the joy and the wonder and just everything. I actually and truly squeal a little with excitement when I see the Christmas Eve candles come out of the cupboard. I love Christmas hymns. I know some of you are wondering about that because we haven’t sung any of them yet on Sunday mornings, but it takes away from the importance of Advent when we rush the Christmas liturgy and music in church. A big part of the beauty of Christmas is that it pops out in this enormous giant celebration at the end of the reflection we do together as a church community in Advent. 

When the rest of the world is dashing around in a frenzy trying to get ready for what seems to be for many people just a giant hassle, we get to sit together and really dwell in the story. We get to hang out together and connect and reflect like Mary and Elizabeth did. I promise that on Thursday night and for every Sunday in the actual church season of Christmas, we will LET LOOSE with the Christmas hymns, but we can’t rush through this time of reflection and connection. We will find ourselves unprepared for real participation in the loving work of Christ if we do. 

And if we look at how the author of this gospel tells the story, the songs are an important part of telling the story – the whole story. We can’t skip any of them. Luke doesn’t! We see Zechariah’s song when he finds out he’s going to be a father in his old age. We read the song of Simeon later after Jesus’ birth. We have the song of the angels to the shepherds and here we have Mary’s song of praise as she reflects with her family member about the wonderful thing that is about to happen. Luke tells the story at the beginning by weaving songs into the story. These songs mark stages in the progression of the story, just as our patterns of worship and song and scripture mark stages in the progression of how we tell the story in our worship times together. 

This is a hard time of year for many and in rushing the story, we can often forget that. It’s easy to jump straight to the joy and to miss the healing, the reflection, the preparation. Many of us have been hurt this year by other people – family or friends, perhaps someone else in the congregation. Many of us have suffered the pain of a loved one’s death this year. Some of us feel unprepared for the things that God calls us to do and say and be. 

We are all in different places of life, but in the midst of that we have some things in common. We are all brothers and sisters – we are a family in Christ. We are like Mary and Elizabeth to one another in that way. We are a strange and unexpected group of people who come together regularly, greeting one another, encouraging one another, comforting one another, and singing God’s praises together. And we are like Mary and Elizabeth to one another in another important way as well – we are all called to a mission of love for the world around us after this time of greeting, encouraging, comforting, and singing. It’s an important mission we cannot let slide, nor can we rush into it unprepared. We need one another, now more than ever. We need to sit in quiet reflection together about the mission we’ve been given to love the world and to sing the songs of God’s promise and goodness. It’s important to spend time in that tension before getting to the big moment we’ve all been waiting for. . . even when that moment is so close we can smell the cookies baking. We can’t rush through Advent to get to Christmas. We, like Mary and Elizabeth need to spend time reflecting quietly with one another. In the next few days as we ramp up to the “big event,” let’s remember to be in prayer for one another. Sing God’s praises, remembering that the task of loving people and spreading the Gospel is big, but the joy is mighty and we are not left alone or unprepared.