Advent 4C 2015 Micah 5:2-5; Magnificat; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45
Facing an unknown future, the unwed pregnant teenager welcomes the warmth of the wise old woman who hugs her. Their three months together is a time to tell stories, big and little, that connect their lives. In these days between the old and the new, each becomes her sister’s deepest confidant. Fears and joys are safe between Elizabeth and Mary. The two grow together, working and praying and resting in God.*
In Mary’s visit to Elizabeth we see two women embodying God’s promise of faithfulness to God’s people. In the much older matriarch Elizabeth we hear echoes of Sarah who, in Genesis, in her old age, gives birth to Isaac. We’re also told in earlier verses that Elizabeth is descended from Aaron, who along with Moses was a faithful leader of Israel. Elizabeth is promised a son—he will be John the Baptist—who will carry the “spirit and power of Elijah,” one of Israel’s most renowned Old Testament prophets. With rounded belly and heavy with child, Elizabeth embodies God’s ancient promises from the past.
Mary, by contrast, is but a girl. To her, the angel Gabriel speaks words of promise that Mary will bring forth into the world not just a son but the Son of God—God’s new thing being born in Jesus Christ. This encounter with Elizabeth and Mary brings together the past and future.
Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, sings a blessing for God’s new thing Mary will bring into the world. When her song ends, Mary begins to prophesy and sing her own new song—one of a new world order. “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she sings with joy. In her being, knowing what God has done, she is not bashful about proclaiming the reality and the promise she embodies. Known to us as the Magnificat, Mary first praises God’s faithfulness to her and then she sings of a new world that is coming shaped after God’s intentions. A world in which the proud are scattered, the powerful brought down, the lowly lifted up, the hungry filled, the rich sent away empty. In this new world order the powerful are stripped of their entitlement and the humble given prominence. In this new order God’s reign has broken through our status quo.
Realists as we are, we may not yet see these realities around us. But God’s promises have come to pass. God’s Son has come into the world. Through baptism, we are a new people in Christ Jesus. God’s promises of peace, hope, joy and love have been made manifest in us. The old order, though struggling to survive, is doomed.
Through her song of justice, Mary calls us to be agents of change for this new world. God’s call to us on this fourth Sunday of Advent is coming to us through Mary’s song. She sings about the “yes” and the goodness of God she has learned from her Jewish faith. She knows God can be trusted, and she is willing to say “yes” to God, even when she does not understand how one like herself could bear God’s Son. Mary sings because she has new life in her—stirring in her womb and in her heart. All of us, like Mary and Elizabeth, are carrying the possibilities and promises of God to make this church, our families, this community, this nation, this world a better place.
This shared celebration between Elizabeth and Mary of what God is doing in them can teach us how to learn from and encourage each other. In Elizabeth’s praise of Mary, the church can see a new way to cross generational boundaries. Through Elizabeth’s support and encouragement, Mary is strengthened to proclaim prophetically and with confidence the new world God is bringing about. Without Elizabeth’s encouragement, Mary might not have had the confidence to envision God’s new creation. But with Elizabeth’s encouragement she draws on God’s ancient promises, those inherited from the past, to proclaim the faithfulness of God past, present and future.
And the same is true for us today. Next year we will celebrate 65 years of being St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church here on the corner of Lorcom Lane and Military Road. In all of these years God has been with us, is with us and will be with us. And I wonder what the “Elizabeth generation,” male and female, might say to the “Mary generation.” How might the older generation empower the younger generation to be courageous and bold and prophetic?
What of our traditions do we value and want to keep as a sign of our faith? What new thing is God calling forth from us? What “yes” is God waiting to hear from us about mission and ministry in this place? What conversations are yet to be had about being church in the 21st century?
It is only together, in Elizabeth and in Mary that the past and the future come together in the present as prophetic witness. So as we enter this expectant time with Mary and Elizabeth, both of whom have said “yes” to God’s plan, I wonder what will be asked of us. Where are we going next as followers of Jesus? What is the future calling forth in us?
For it is not over, writes poet Ann Weems.
“It is not over,
this birthing.
There are always newer skies
into which
God can throw stars.
When we begin to think
that we can predict the Advent of God,
that we can box the Christ
in a stable in Bethlehem,
that’s just the time
that God will be born
in a place we can’t imagine and won’t believe.
Those who wait for God
watch with their hearts and not their eyes,
listening
always listening
for angel words.
So are you listening? Are you watching with your heart? Will you say “yes” to God, allowing Christ to be born anew in you this Christmas? It is my prayer that you will—that we all will say “yes” to the future that is being born in us.
Sermon sources: * adapted from “Elizabeth” poem by Mary Lou Sleevi in Women of the Word, p. 33; “It’s Not Over” poem by Ann Weems in Kneeling in Bethlehem, p. 95; commentary in Feasting on the Gospels by Andrew Clark Whaley, pp 20-24; commentary by Trisha Lyons Senterfitt in Feasting on the Word, Advent Companion, pp 88.90.