On this final Sunday in Advent, we hear Mary’s song, a song of joy as she proclaims the ways her son will change the world.
In the midst of the overwhelming evidence of this world’s brokenness, Mary proclaims that God is at work. And God’s grace brings us joy. Because of what God is doing, we can join Mary in her song. Because of God’s grace, we can live with joy and hope no matter what our circumstances may be.
This week’s Scripture readings are Micah 5:2-5a, Psalm 80:1-7, and Luke 1:39-55. In addition to the theme materials from the Western North Dakota Synod, I found helpful Fred Craddock’s essay on this text from Preaching Through the Christian Year, Year C.
Here’s the worship livestream from Living Hope and the sermon podcast audio.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the One for whom we are waiting, Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen
Our Gospel reading starts out, “In those days” which means we need to back up a little bit to find out where we are in the story.
After a brief dedication, Luke begins his Gospel with the story of the angel Gabriel coming to a priest named Zechariah to tell him he and his wife Elizabeth are going to have a child. Their son will be filled with the Holy Spirit “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Sure enough, Elizabeth conceives and in the fifth month of her pregnancy, the same angel comes to her cousin, Mary, to again announce a miraculous pregnancy. Elizabeth’s pregnancy was miraculous because both she and her husband Zechariah are—Luke tells us—“getting on in years.”
Mary’s pregnancy is miraculous because she’s at a very different stage of life. She is young, an unmarried virgin, so having a child just isn’t possible.
The angel explains that this is God’s doing, and with God, nothing is impossible. Mary assents, saying, “‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.”
That’s where today’s reading begins. Mary is on board with God’s plan. She is ready to be part of the miracle God is doing. But she’s still in a tough position, because again, she’s pregnant and unmarried, and no one else is necessarily aware that this is God’s doing.
So in verse 39, “In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country.” She goes off to stay with her country relatives, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Luke doesn’t tell us, but we can imagine how she’s feeling.
Yes, she agreed to this, and she’s probably excited to be part of God’s plan. Having a visit from an angel would be pretty amazing.
But she’s also on her own, tired from a multi-day, 80 mile journey. She’s worried about what her family’s reaction to her pregnancy, certainly worried about what her fiancé Joseph is going to say. She’s traveling with haste—her life plan is in chaos! And of course, it’s early in her pregnancy, so there’s a good chance she’s dealing with morning sickness and everything that goes with that.
It’s the same mixture of joy and uncertainty, fear and excitement that every expectant mother feels, but at whole new level because God is involved. Every child is special, but this one is going to be God with us. So there’s some pressure there!
Mary greets her miraculously pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and Elizabeth reacts with joy. Even her own unborn child reacts with joy. And perhaps that’s exactly what Mary needed to hear. This is God at work and God’s work is good. This child is a blessing. “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
A commentary I read says, “These words from Elizabeth to Mary exemplify the idea that good things will come from all places, even the most unexpected. What is it like to believe in God when chaos or unexpected surprises are swirling around you? What sort of faith does it take to see the grace in the unknown? To see the joy?”
I’m not naive enough to say we can just choose to be happy. That’s not how life works. There are plenty of valid reasons to be disillusioned, to be discouraged, to be overwhelmed. Some are just the general busyness of this season, the chaos of everyday life, but there are more serious reasons as well.
Just this week, we had a school shooting here in Wisconsin, and when I heard it was a female student, I said out loud, “Oh, that’s not the usual profile.” How awful is it that there is a usual pattern for shootings in schools? What a terrible thing to know as “normal!” I refuse to accept that as normal. This is not God’s will.
There was a report last week that starting in January, the long-standing government policy of immigration agents respecting churches, schools, and hospitals as sensitive locations will be rescinded. We’re likely to see scenes shortly of people being dragged out of churches where they’ve claimed sanctuary.
There are famines in Gaza and Sudan, and new evidence of atrocities in Syria. There are people for whom pregnancies bring sorrow and fear, rather than joy. Maybe you’ve survived those experiences.
In our own communities, there are people for whom this is the hardest time of the year because of empty seats at the table, estranged family members or remembered loved ones.
This world is not as it should be. The Psalmist cries, “Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” We need God to act! We need a savior!
And so I wonder again, “What sort of faith does it take to see grace in the unknown? To see the joy?”
Elizabeth greets Mary with joy. Rather than looking at her young cousin with judgment, rather than indulging in the fear of what’s to come, Elizabeth sees the possibility of God’s action.
And joy is contagious. Perhaps especially when joy seems inappropriate, joy is meant to be shared. As Mary receives Elizabeth’s blessing, she is moved to song.
Her song beings with the personal, her gratitude that God has chosen her, that God has looked with favor on her lowly state. Then her song expands to describe the promise that God is acting in the world.
Fred Craddock writes, “The most remarkable quality of [Mary’s] song is that the justice God will bring to pass is spoken of in the past tense: has shown strength, has scattered the proud, has brought down the powerful, has lifted up the lowly, has filled the hungry, and has sent the rich away empty.
Why the past tense? According to the latest news reports, these things have not yet occurred.
Of course, the conditions are not yet, but one of the ways the faithful express trust in God is to speak of the future with such confidence that it is described as already here…
To celebrate the future as a memory, to praise God for having already done what lies before us to do: this is the way of the people of God.”
Joy is not merely an attitude, a state of happiness which ignores the needs of the world around us; joy is faith in God to act.
Joy is hearing of God’s grace and believing it, believing God is not done with this world. Grace brings us joy. Joy comes from recognizing that God is in the unknown future, as well as the present.
Our joy is not based on our circumstances, but on God’s promise, the peace God promises through Micah and the angel’s declaration to Mary that with God, nothing is impossible.
Beloved, we have good news to share, good news—as we’ll hear on Tuesday night—“of great joy for all the people. Contagious joy. God is at work, and God is doing good.
“Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine, that we may be saved.” Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen