December 23, 2018, is the 4th Sunday of Advent in lectionary year C, and the assigned texts include Luke 1:39-45 (Mary’s visitation to Elizabeth) and Micah 5:2-5a. We also read Luke 1:46-55 (the Magnificat) as the Psalm for the day.
Adam Hearlsen’s Working Preacher commentary on Micah was helpful, as were Lori Walke’s at Modern Metanoia, and this column by Holly Scheer at The Federalist. Here’s the sermon:
How many of you know the song, “Mary Did You Know?”
The music is beautiful, and I appreciate Christmas songs that point ahead to the rest of Jesus’ story, so I love the bridge. Listen to these words:
The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again. The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb. What a great picture of Jesus’ ministry.
Not only is the song beautiful, but I found out that it’s co-written by someone named Buddy Greene, spelled G-R-E-E-N-E. How can you not like it?
Here’s how: The premise of the song is ridiculous.
Mary, did you know that this child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you?
Mary, did you know when you kiss your little baby, you kiss the face of God?
YES! Mary knew! Her memory was fine. She knew!
First of all, the angel Gabriel had told her. Yes, when the angel first showed up, Mary was a little confused.
She had some questions about the whole being a pregnant virgin thing. She was young, but she wasn’t that young.
But when Gabriel explains that her child will be from the Holy Spirit, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and he’ll reign on the throne of his ancestor David forever, she understands. After Gabriel literally explains to her “What child this is,” Mary’s response is the most profound moment of faith in the whole Bible, perhaps in all of history.
Luke 1:38. Mary said, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
Mary says yes to God’s call to her. She knows what’s going on. That’s where today’s Gospel reading picks up. Mary goes on a trip to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who we know is also miraculously pregnant, although in her case it’s a miracle because she’s so old, not because she’s a virgin.
Mary is not just going on a vacation, though. Luke specifies that she set out “with haste.” If you read between the lines a little, you can imagine why. She knows the truth about this child, but no one else would know what was going on. It’d be pretty tough to explain that you’re pregnant, but no, there was no guy involved. She’s done nothing wrong.
The Gospels are silent on Mary’s parents’ reaction, but you can imagine what it might have been. So, like many unexpectedly pregnant teenagers throughout history, Mary goes off (is sent off?) to visit relatives in the country for a few months.
You can imagine some of the questions running through Mary’s head as she goes. Yes, she agreed to this, yes, it’s a blessing, but still. How can this be? How is Joseph going to react? How did I not get the angel’s explanation in writing? What do I do with a child that’s the Son of God? Why me?
When she gets to Elizabeth, who again, is carrying her own literal little miracle inside her, Elizabeth greets Mary as blessed among women. Even Elizabeth’s unborn child recognizes there is a miracle happening here.
I wonder how badly Mary needed to hear that reassurance from her cousin that this is a blessing. I wonder if Elizabeth knew how meaningful her words were. Sometimes God’s messages come not just through angels and visions, but through the words of ordinary people, perhaps even through our own words and hospitality. Elizabeth is a good example of faith for us too. Her greeting soothes whatever lingering doubts Mary had.
That’s when Mary sings her song. She finds her voice after she’s comforted and reassured by her cousin. We read it out of order, but this is the Psalm we read together. If you still aren’t positive that the answer to the question, “Mary, Did You Know?” is yes, pay attention to the song Mary herself sings. Luke doesn’t tell us what tune Mary was singing to, so perhaps it wasn’t as catchy as Mary Did You Know, but it’s much more profound.
We call her song the Magnificat, because it begins, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” She starts out giving thanks for what God has done for her. God has looked with favor on her, a lowly peasant girl.
“Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” Mary does not use that word “blessed” just to mean she’s fortunate or lucky or something. It’s deeper: her blessing is seeing and believing.
Looking at this song, Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber writes that in Mary, “We see what casting our lot with and being blessed by the God of Israel really looks like. Namely that being blessed means seeing God in the world and trusting that God is at work even in things we can’t see, or understand, or imagine.”
Perhaps I’m not being fair to the song I’m picking on. Mary did not actually know all the details of what would happen. I dare say she did not know in that moment that Jesus would be crucified and then resurrected.
She did not know that he would turn water into wine, or heal a bleeding women, or the other specifics of his miracles. But she has a pretty good idea of what this child she carries will mean to the world.
Just as importantly, she’s willing to trust God is at work in what she doesn’t know. As Elizabeth says, “Blessed is she who believed.” Mary is willing to go along with God’s plan. By the Holy Spirit’s power, she agrees to be the mother of God, Theotokos, the God-bearer.
Mary knows how long her people and the whole world have been waiting for God to act. Go back for a minute to the first reading, to the prophecy from Micah 5. To grasp the depth of Micah’s prophecy, you need to know the context. Micah is prophesying as the mighty empire of Assyria has invaded Israel and placed Jerusalem under siege. The verse immediately before our reading in Micah 5 reads, “Now you are walled around with a wall; siege is laid against us; with a rod they strike the ruler of Israel upon the cheek.”
Things are not looking good. Micah’s audience needs hope. In the midst of despair, Micah makes the promise that Israel’s story, God’s story is not over yet.
Yes, things will be rough. The nation and the people will be given up. As it turns out, God will miraculously intervene this time against the Assyrian army, but about 100 years later, the Babylonian empire will actually capture Jerusalem. But God is not done.
Micah prophesies that a savior will be born in the little town of Bethlehem, and that long-awaited savior will stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord. That savior will finally bring security and peace, not just to Israel, but to the world. There is hope. A messiah will come.
I don’t know if Mary specifically knew Micah’s prophecy, or if she thought about it and a light bulb went on in her head when she found out they had to travel to Bethlehem. Most likely, she would have been familiar with it. Certainly she would have known the general story, the promise that one day the Messiah would come, that God’s story isn’t over.
That’s a message for us as well. Even with Christmas right around the corner, we need hope. We may not be afraid of an enemy army ravaging our land, but there are plenty of things we fear. What are you afraid of?
Maybe it’s your health, growing older. Maybe it’s wondering if your live has meant anything, if what you’ve done will last. Maybe you’re afraid for a child, for a struggle they’re going through, or for what’s next for you. Maybe you’re afraid of where our country is going. Maybe you’re afraid for a job. Maybe you don’t even know what you’re afraid of. Mary certainly had plenty to be afraid of, but in this world of fear, Mary sings her own radical prophecy. God is on the move. God is acting.
God’s mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. The God who has acted in the past with a mighty arm helping his servant Israel is not done. God will act again. God is acting again, here, now.
The world that we think we know, where the strong and mighty rule, where the hungry starve and the rich feast, where power is found in kings and castles and governments rule in their halls of power, that world is not all there is. Mary knows God is working. God cares about those who are suffering, who are despairing, who are afraid, the hungry, the lowly. God is working to pull the powerful down from their thrones and to send the rich away empty, to lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things.
God is changing the world. This baby she carries, this baby whose birth we’re about to celebrate once again, this baby is the centerpiece of history. This baby Jesus changes everything.
Luke continues: And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.
Mary knew and Mary said “Yes. Let it be with me according to your word.” May that be our response to God as well. Amen