The sign that the world needs to see

Text: Luke 1:39-55

The Bible is well populated with barren women who pray for the miracle of a child - Hannah in First Samuel, The Shunamite Woman from Second Kings, Rebecca and Rachel in Genesis, the unnamed mother of Samson in Judges and of course, Sarah, wife of Abraham, who laughed out loud when she heard that she and Abraham would be parents in their old age...

Now today in Luke, we have Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah, a fine upstanding couple, he a priest and she a priest’s daughter, who have been praying for this blessing for years.

Even though the announcement came to Zechariah, Elizabeth didn’t need Zechariah or even an angel to explain to her what was going on. She had a religious background.  She knew the stories.  She knew that there was such a thing as a miraculous pregnancy, the work of the Lord Most High.

And off course we know the story of Mary and the Angel Gabriel with his news. This is another of those miracle pregnancy stories with which we are so familiar.  But there’s a definite twist to this one.  Mary has not been on her knees daily, or in the temple at each festival, to beseech God to bless her with a child.  Mary had not been worrying about appearances and the shame of barrenness that plagued her Biblical foremothers. Those other women had had their shame lifted from them because of their pregnancies.  But one might imagine that for someone like Mary, a pregnancy would be viewed much differently.  

And yet this was God’s doing and both women know it immediately. Luke skillfully weaves together in rich detail the stories of these two women, one old and part of the religious and social establishmenand one very young, with no pedigree or resume to commend her for receiving the status of God’s highly favored lady.  

They are apparently related to one another, the one who will become the mother of the messenger and the other who will become the mother of the message itself.  Gabriel told Mary that Elizabeth’s pregnancy would be a sign to her, just as the angelic host will later tell shepherds that Mary’s baby will be a sign to them, and Mary hurries to see this sign for herself as will the shepherds on Christmas.

Thus these two blessed women come together, and their stories converge here as they bring two highly personal stories of God’s working in the lives of God’s people together in a secluded house in the Judean hill country.

And with Zechariah in silent attendance, these two strong women who can think for themselves and speak for themselves, who recognize the work of God in the world and their own roles in that work, express not their fears or worries but their joy. These women greet one another as ones who have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak radical speech, like prophets, and they tell us - especially Mary tells us - 

that the one who has done marvelous things in the past continues to do them and will continue to do them and thus our salvation is most blessedly assured.  Gabriel may have been the announcer of the pregnancy news to both Mary and Zechariah, but Mary on her own recognizes the significance of this unbidden pregnancy, just as Elizabeth recognized the hand of God in her own much longed-for pregnancy. 

In the weaving together of these two women’s stories, we see the hand of God at work both through the religious and social establishment - through a couple who would naturally be expected to produce an exceptional child - and also through a person and a situation that is completely unexpected and outside of the realm of the respectable. We see God working through the normal AND the marginal channels. We see God doing what God always does, through Elizabeth, doing what we can expect God to do. And we also see God doing something new, through Mary, and both women have the grace to perceive that new thing that God is doing and announce its presence and its implications with power and conviction.

And Mary’s announcement is radical.  She affirms what God has done, not only for her, but what God is going to do for all of humanity.  How this great God turns everything upside down. The hungry are filled and the rich go away empty.  The lowly are lifted up and the powerful are pulled down.  

It’s tempting to see this as polarizing language.  In our well-intentioned desire to get specific instructions so we can follow them and be right when called upon in class, it’s easy to say that God only favors the lowly and only feeds the hungry. It’s easy to say that Mary’s song tells us that there are winners and losers in the game of life.

But this story that weaves together two different stories about the same thing says, no, God isn’t about polarizing us. After all, God makes it rain on the just and the unjust, too.  

God is particularly about that thing that we all need, rich or poor, hungry or well-fed. And that thing is love.  Sometimes that love comes through the usual, expected channels.  And sometimes it comes through surprising ones.  But either way, we all need God’s love and care. And the mighty who have been pulled down from their thrones will find that God comes to them in love in their brokenness just as God’s love and care comes to those who have been broken before they ever had a chance to taste success.   

Our common humanity is not found in our successes, or wealth, or abilities, or our religious practices, or our attitudes. What we all, rich or poor, hungry or well-fed, have in common is heartbreak, suffering, brokenness which cannot be fixed or cured with money or possessions or positions of power, even if we would like to think that they can.  

What really cures heartbreak is love.

And so we are called to love one another. We who are not poor are called to love those who are.  We who have power are called to share it with those who do not.  We who have food and clothing are called to provide for those who do not.  We are called to actually be in relationship with them, to be RELATIVES in some way, just as Mary and Elizabeth were some kind of kin, the one wise and settled and established and the other young and unsettled and very, very vulnerable.

As we begin our Christmas celebrations in these next days, wishing one another joy and peace and happiness, opening our presents and enjoying favorite music and food, let us remember that the way we are called to worship Jesus is by hearing the pleas of the heartbroken and vulnerable and responding to them with the gift of loving kindness.  

For love - in its many many forms, from babies and kinship to warm clothing and nourishing food to working for justice and peace and clean water and medical care for all humanity - love is the sign that all the world needs to see.