Luke 1:46b-55
On this fourth Sunday of Advent the anticipation is growing. We want to rush to Christmas – to just get there already. But our texts for this week remind us that we are still a waiting people. The celebration of Christmas is still off in the distance, we are not there yet. Sometimes, as pastors, we want to give in to the temptation to preach a Christmas message this week, but let me encourage you to sit in the waiting, just a bit longer. There is so much we can learn about waiting and hope and love and joy and peace in the texts for this Sunday.
Just before our text, in Luke 1, we are met with two angelic visitations, two different reactions to these angelic messengers, and the birth of two baby boys being foretold. But, that’s not all, to end this chapter we hear two joyful, prophetic songs, echoing the song of the angels – echoing the song of creation – “Good news! God is coming!” I wonder how many people in our pews need to be reminded of this good news? Good news! God is coming! And in fact, God is already here! Emmanuel, God is with us! I imagine there are many in our congregations who need to hear the song again – Christ has come! Christ is coming again! Wrapped within these declarations of faith holds the hope and the promise we need for this Advent season. And, as we see in Luke 1, we hear these declarations from two unlikely people – Elizabeth and Mary.
In many commentaries verses 39-45 are included in today’s text, so I’m going to include them in my thoughts as well. In verses 39-55 we see two women being invited into the story of God in some incredible ways. It was highly unusual in that time for women to have been named in a genealogy. It was highly unusual for women to have such a significant role in the story and yet, here in the grandest story of all, God invites these two women to play leading roles. In fact, it is through their eyes God’s story is told! Notice, until John is born, Zechariah is mute; and Joseph, in the Christmas texts does not say a word. We do not hear this story from the male perspective, we hear this good news from the eyes, ears, and hearts of women!
There is such beauty in this story – in this connection between these two women. These two women, who are from different generations – different cultural backgrounds –and yet, they are family, and their unborn children bond them together in deep ways they could not yet fully understand. These two women also discover God in ways they could have never imagined and their shared place in God’s story leads them to be some of the first proclaimers of the new thing that God was beginning to usher in! In this deep bond, God was taking care of these women. I love the way Michael Bennet writes about this bond: “God gives Mary and Elizabeth to things they each lacked: community and connection. God removes their isolation and helps them to understand themselves more fully as part of something larger than their individual destinies. Together they are known more fully, and begin to see more clearly than they do as individuals” (Bartlett and Taylor 2010).
As I thought about this connection between Mary and Elizabeth I began to wonder: What can we learn from these two women about the power of community and connection – and the ways that leads to revelation and understanding? How might Advent be an opportunity for us to sit with people in our communities who are waiting – waiting for a diagnosis, waiting for a relationship to be healed, waiting for the anxiety and stress to end, waiting for forgiveness, waiting for someone to love them, waiting for a place to belong, waiting for someone to notice them? What can this community and connection between Mary and Elizabeth teach us about the hope we have because Christ has come, Emmauel, God is with us; and the hope we have because one day, Christ will come again? How might God be calling us to share that hope, that Good News with those around us?
Both Mary and Elizabeth found themselves at the center of God’s redemption story in ways they could have never imagined. For Elizabeth, she thought her days of ever bearing a child were long gone – what would this child mean for her? For Mary, this news of her baby boy would have sent shock waves throughout her family. Would anyone believe her? Would she be punished for something she had not done? Even in Mary’s acceptance of her part in this story, I am sure there were questions surrounding what this would mean for her – for the baby. But God does not leave these women alone in their questions, in their wonderings. God brings them together. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth and for both of these women there is understanding that they are not alone in journey – they have each other. There is something about this redemption story that only Mary and Elizabeth can understand – as they are the ones carrying the promise – the promised one who will go before to prepare the way; the promised One who would come to save the world. Who else could understand? In their connection there is community, there is understanding, and the faithfulness of God is reveled. They are met with a realization that everything God has said would happen is coming to pass – and they have been invited to be a part!
What about us? What does being in community and connection with others teach us about our role in God’s grand story? I think we too have similar revelations – we are not alone, we are being invited into something that is far beyond our imagination. As we journey with others we become the proclaimers of good news to one another. We get to tell the story of how God met us, and our stories become the song we sing to others – you are not alone, God is with us, God can be trusted, God is faithful – I know, here’s how God met me. It’s this community, this connection to one another that helps us remember the HOPE we have in Christ, our Emmanuel, the God who is with us. As we share our story of how God has met us, our story can be the spark that lights hope in another. So how is God calling us to share the light of hope this Christmas? How is God calling our churches to be the proclaimers of hope in our communities? Who do we need to tell the story to?
We also learn something deeply important about waiting from Elizabeth and Mary – that is, presence matters in the waiting! One of the beautiful things I see in this relationship between Elizabeth and Mary is the importance of being present. In these moments, it’s as if they were a tangible expression of the presence of God with them. The ministry of presence is an important part of this story. As they are waiting to see how their story is going to unfold, they are present with and for each other. There is something deeply important about being willing to wait with others – not there to fix the situation, not there to even say anything, just there to be present in the waiting. I have found this to be very true in my own personal life – and in my life as a pastor.
You cannot underscore the importance of presence. I have had times in my life where I was waiting – waiting for a diagnosis, waiting for joy in the midst of my grief and I have had some friends who have been extensions of the presence of God in my life as they have sat with me; as they waited with me. I have also had the privilege of coming alongside people in my church and waiting with them. Maybe this text is reminding us that we are not always good at waiting FOR– and we’re also not good at waiting WITH. Maybe this text is reminding us to reclaim the gift of presence – to be present with people as they wait – to be the tangible expression of our God who waits with us. What would it look like for your church to reclaim the gift of presence? How might God be calling you and your church to wait WITH others?
And then, we learn more about hope and presence in verse 46 when we hear Mary’s song. This glorious song about the Child to come – the One we’ve been waiting for…the One we are waiting to return. Within this song that is birthed in Mary’s heart we hear the good news – the good news for us who are waiting!
Mary sings of the God who see, El Roi, the God who saw her – the God who chose her. This Christ child is still El Roi, the God who see us. This Christ child is still Emmanel, the God who is with us. This Christ child is still the One who came to make things right – to set in motion God’s redemption plan that will once and for all make things new…this is Good News! This is news worth sharing, worth proclaiming, worth reminding our people of – and maybe even reminding ourselves of! This Christ child is still the One who comes and will one day come again!
It is important for us to notice that the coming Messiah is not being proclaimed by the religious leaders or those of notability, no, the coming Messiah is proclaimed by, as Charles Campbell writes, “marginalized, pregnant women – one young, poor, and unwed, the other far beyond the age to conceive…[yet] they meet in the hill country of Judea to celebrate…In the women’s actions, the world is indeed turned upside-down. Hierarchies are subverted. The mighty are brought down. Two marginalized, pregnant women carry the future and proclaim the Messiah” (Bartlett and Taylor 2010). This Good News is good news for ALL people – not just those whom society deems worthy – this coming Christ is good news for those on the margins, those the world has forgotten, those the world would deem “unworthy.” This is, as the angels sang, “good news of great joy for ALL the people” (Luke 2:10 NRSV).
In Mary’s song we hear about this God who is with us in our waiting, this God that is coming to us, this God who brings healing and love, freedom and redemption, restoration, compassion, and grace. I can’t think of a better song for the Church today to be singing!! This is the song we should be singing at the top of our lungs, and yet, at times, it seems like the Church is singing this song is being sung in hushed tones, if it is even being sung at all. There is a world around us that is desperate to hear this song of hope – they need the Church to be the proclaimers of the Good News! They need the Church to sing the song of hope again – to sing it at the top of our lungs – CHRIST HAS COME, CHRIST IS COMING AGAIN!!
Bartlett, David Lyon, and Barbara Brown Taylor. 2010. Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. Year C, Volume 1, [Advent through Transfiguration]. First edition. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=706082.