December 22, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: “Mary Visits Elizabeth”
Scripture: Luke 1:39-45
(Other lectionary suggestions include Micah 5:2-5a, Luke 1:46b-55, and Hebrews 10:5-10.)
Luke 1:39-45
Mary Visits Elizabeth
39In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Here we are in the 4th Sunday of Advent, the last Sunday before Christmas Eve, and we finally get a moving, religious story about the Baby Jesus, although he still hasn’t been born! As we are told in today’s Scripture reading, the pregnant Mary heads for the house of her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, and we are told that the child in Elizabeth’s womb jumps for joy. There is something very moving to me in this story, and I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it’s because the two cousins, John and Jesus, are in this together, both part of God’s movement in the world. Also, it seems exciting that John the Baptist, still in his mother’s womb, jumps for joy, even before he meets his cousin Jesus.
We didn’t read it today, but what follows today’s Scripture reading is the song that Mary sings, called the Magnificat. (It’s called that because the first word in Latin is “Magnificat,” which means “My heart MAGNIFIES the Lord.”) ((Read Luke 1: 46-56 -- 46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. 54He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” 56And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home.))
Mary the mother of Jesus and her kinswoman Elizabeth shared a dream. “It was the ancient dream of Israel: the dream that one day all that the prophets had said would come true. One day Israel’s God would do what he had said to Israel’s earliest ancestors: all nations would be blessed through Abraham’s family. But for that to happen, the powers that kept the world in slavery had to be toppled. ....Mary and Elizabeth, like so many of the {Jewish people} of their time, searched the scriptures, soaked themselves in the psalms and prophetic writings which spoke of mercy, hope, fulfilment, reversal, revolution, victory over evil, and of God coming to the rescue at last.”
Mary’s song sounds a lot like Hannah’s song when she found she would become the mother of Samuel. (Read I Samuel 2: 1-10 -- 1Hannah prayed and said, “My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in my victory. 2There is no Holy One like the Lord, no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. 3Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 4The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength. 5Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry are fat with spoil. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. 6The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. 7The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts. 8He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world. 9He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail. 10The Lord! His adversaries shall be shattered; the Most High will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king, and exalt the power of his anointed.”) Says N. T. Wright, “Almost every word {of Mary’s song} is a biblical quotation such as Mary would have known from childhood.” Hannah’s song celebrates all that God will do through Samuel, and “Now these two mothers-to-be celebrate together what God is going to do through their sons, John and Jesus.”
Some more about Mary, the mother of Jesus.... There is a minister named Sara Semmler Smith, who is a Lutheran minister in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. And she likes to think of Mary as the first Disciple! I kind of like that: the mother of Jesus as the first “recruit” to the cause!
Rev. Sara has this insight, that Mary was an ordinary young woman, and that God has always used ORDINARY people to accomplish His will! Going way back, how did God speak to Moses, through a blazing, majestic CEDAR? No, through a lowly burning bush! And was Mary from some great family in Hebrew history? No, she was from the hill country, and a real nobody - except she said YES to God. As the Rev. Sara Smith puts it, “Mary was a poor peasant from an insignificant town in an unimportant province in the Roman Empire....She was just who God was looking for.” But she trusted God. She told the angel Gabriel, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me according to your word.”
You have heard Mary called “blessed.” She is because she was chosen by God. Says Sara Smith, “This is God’s story, not hers, ultimately. And her greatest example for us is that she chose to be a part of God’s story when invited. She chose to let God work through her. And so, the glory of Christmas came about by the willingness of an ordinary person to obey God’s claims on her life. Each of us, like Mary, in our own way is chosen by God to bear Jesus into the world.”
Here is Rev. Sara’s prayer for us: “May we keep alert, even during the holidays, to a moment when God might show up in our living room and lay a claim on us, invite us into God’s saving action for the sake of a world, of our neighbors who need to know God’s hope so desperately. I pray that we might be like Mary, full of grace, ordinary, yet bold enough to do God’s will. Amen.”
Pastor Skip
