A Safe Place

One summer during college I spent the summer as a camp counselor for Camp Yolijwa in Southern California. Every single week, but one I had the oldest group of kids that came to camp. It was the week that I had younger kids that I encountered a boy that really didn’t want to be there. He was having a good time with the activities. He thought the food was fine, and the other kids were perfectly nice to him, but there was something off. He and I had a conversation one day during the week and I asked him if he was homesick and he said he wasn’t really homesick. It wasn’t that he missed his parents and his siblings but the whole living out in the country away from the city. Away from what was familiar and known to him made him feel uncomfortable. He didn’t want to go home, and again he assured me it wasn’t homesickness, but just that he didn’t feel comfortable being where he was.

So for the rest of the week I did my best to make sure the other counselors and campers made sure to try make him feel more comfortable with the camp and the whole outdoors lifestyle. It was interesting for me because there were lots of other kids who loved coming to the outdoors and felt a connection to the camp and the other kids. Who felt at home with this different way of living. It was how I felt about that place and I still have fond memories of who I met, what I experienced , and how I connected with God there. In fact, it was a time and place of sanctuary for me. I felt safe, loved, cared for, and accepted. I had wished, hoped and prayed, that it would be the same for this young person too.

I wonder if Mary felt , in the words of that young boy from camp, comfortable, when she was pregnant with Jesus. After all she was betrothed to Joseph but not married yet. There wasn’t supposed to be any marital relations between the two of them or with her and anyone. Joseph could bring charges against her and have her stoned for being pregnant. Or as we hear in Matthew’s gospel he was going to divorce her quietly, which was above and beyond what was the accepted norm. So would Joseph accept her? Would her parents/relatives accept her? Would the tiny town of Nazareth accept her? Trust me when I say it was a tiny town. I have no doubt that everyone knew everybody else and, as we all know you can only hide being pregnant for so long.

After Mary finds out that she is pregnant and that her relative Elizabeth is pregnant she decides to go and visit her. Perhaps this miraculous conception at old age will be what allows Mary to have a place that she can feel comfortable for a while. Or in other words Mary is probably seeking a place of sanctuary for herself during the first part of her pregnancy. Miriam Webster defines sanctuary as a place where someone or something is given shelter. Or the protection that is given by a safe place. I might also add that sanctuary can be found in a person that is willing to welcome you in and provide a safe space to talk, and be yourself.

Mary does find that comfort, that sanctuary in her relative Elizabeth when they seem to have an instant connection when they share this joyful moment of the unborn John leaping for joy in Elizabeth’ womb. There is a connection the wondrous way that they have both become pregnant. There is a connection in their understanding of who this unborn baby is in Mary’s womb. There is a connection in this faith that they share when they find out they are pregnant both separately and now together. Those connections bring joy, comfort, calm, sanctuary.

In that moment of knowing that Mary had found sanctuary and a new home, if even for a short time, she exults with her whole being a song of praise and wonder. In the first part she gives thanks to God for all that God has done for her. In the next part she seems to talk about reversing the way the world is by talking about lifting up the lowly and casting down the powerful. Now if that were just a plain reversal then we would have the poor be rich and the rich be poor and nothing would change. There would still be the have and the have nots. There would still be people who were left without a sense of comfort and sanctuary. What I believe Mary is talking about is what we talked about with John last week. Mary is suggesting/prophesying that the world be made level. That all people be brought to the same level. That all people will have food and no one will be too powerful or too unnoticed. When there is a world like that then all people will hopefully experience and live in a sense of sanctuary and comfort. Then she concludes her praise with reminding God what God has done in the past and how God keeps God’s promises. Or perhaps that God is and has always been sanctuary for people.

Mary found sanctuary in the presence of Elizabeth and perhaps Elizabeth felt the same with her. For 3 months Mary was able to feel comfortable with those around her, with the unborn savior, with herself. What a gift Elizabeth brought to Mary in that time of uncertainty in her life. And isn’t that what it is…a gift. Not just to provide a safe place for someone, like a hotel, a home, or a cabin at camp, but to physically be that presence of safety for someone else. To make someone feel at ease and comfortable with you so that they do not worry about what might come next. To trust that what they say and do are safe with you. I wish I had that language all those years ago at camp to articulate sanctuary to that young boy.

Again, that is the prophesy that Mary brings to us. That one day Jesus will offer sanctuary to all those groups of people, and he does. He feeds those who are hungry. He lifts up the lowly and shows mercy to all who are in need. As much as we need to offer to be that presence of sanctuary to others, we also need to remember the one who ultimately offers sanctuary to us. Jesus, who oddly enough never really had a home or a single place to be comfortable with, found connection with God in the world and in us. That same Jesus gave his life so that we might forever have sanctuary in our relationship with God. That no matter where we go and what we are going through we can find hope, comfort and solace in the arms of our God, in Jesus, and the gift of the Holy Spirit. May we this day and always find comfort and sanctuary in the arms of the one who holds us close every day of our lives whether we realize it or not. That is the gift of our God and that is the blessing of a savior who is a living sanctuary for this world. Amen.