Two Pregnant Women

 

Rev. Debbie Cato
Micah 5:2-5a and Luke 1:5-45
Fairfield Presbyterian Church
December 19, 2021 Fourth Sunday of Advent

Open us, Holy One, to your Word and your Way. As we make our final preparations before Christmas, clear our minds of holiday distractions and our long list of to-dos. Help us approach your Word with awe and wonder so that we may hear the message you intend for us today. Amen.

 

Two Pregnant Women

 

In this week’s Gospel reading, we have 2 different birth announcements.  We read how the angel Gabriel comes to an old priest named Zechariah as he is working in the temple.  Understandably, Zechariah is fearful.  Unless you are used to angels popping up and speaking to you; you would probably be a little shook up, too!  That’s not the kind of work interruption I expect! 

The angel Gabriel says to Zechariah, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard.”  Your prayer has been heard.  “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to give him the name John.  He will be a joy and delight to you and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.  He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.” 

Imagine!  God has intervened and not only will this old couple have a child; he will be used to turn the people back to God.  Wow!  That’s some news. 

 Six months goes by; six months after the angel’s visit to Zechariah; six months after Elizabeth finally conceives a child; six months into Elizabeth’s pregnancy, and this same angel Gabriel pays a visit to Mary.  We don’t know what Mary is doing when Gabriel visits.  Unlike Zechariah, we don’t know where she is when the angel suddenly comes to her and says, “Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”   Luke tells us that “Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.”  But like he did with Zechariah, Gabriel reassures Mary and tells her “Not be afraid.”  And then Gabriel goes on and gives her the news…. “You will be with child and give birth to a son and you will give him the name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”

Now I don’t know about you, but I would find this startling!  Put yourself in Mary’s shoes.  Mary is a teenager; probably about 14 years old, engaged to be married to Joseph, an older man; a local carpenter.  Mary is a virgin, having never been with a man.  And this angel says that she will have a baby…. Not just any baby…. She will give birth to God’s Son.  (pause). 

How do you begin to process this?  What goes through your head?  What do you understand this to mean if you are Mary?  (Pause).  

Mary asks only one question - the logical question of how?  How will this happen?  How is this possible?   How?  Oh, says Gabriel – that’s easy!  The Holy Spirit will come upon you.  You will give birth to the Son of God. 

O.K. then.  That explains it!  I mean… imagine!

But, as if this isn’t enough news for the day, Mary also learns from Gabriel that her cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant.  Mary knows that Elizabeth is barren.  She knows that Elizabeth is beyond childbearing age.

“Nothing is impossible with God,” says Gabriel.  Nothing is impossible with God.

And after getting all this news what does Mary do?  Mary doesn’t waste a minute.  She gets up and travels to a town in the hills of Judah where Elizabeth lives, about 80 miles away.  When Mary arrives and greets Elizabeth, we are told that the baby in her womb leaps for joy and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. The unborn John responds the unborn Jesus.  Elizabeth’s unborn child recognizes the Messiah.  Mary’s visit to Elizabeth isn’t just a meeting between two pregnant women.  It’s the introduction of a Messiah named Jesus to a prophet named John – John the Baptist. 

 And, filled with the Holy Spirit herself, Elizabeth recognizes the blessedness of Mary carrying the messianic child.  And recognizing this, Elizabeth immediately begins to bless Mary – not merely because she’s carrying the LORD but also because of her faith.  Elizabeth expresses wonder and joy.

Elizabeth praises Mary for being favored by God, but Mary praises God for her state as a favored one.  Mary gives all the glory, all the honor, all the blessing to God.  She knows this is about God; not about her.

 These two pregnant women see beyond the obvious.  They see things not for what they are, but for what they might be.  The conventional wisdom of the first century would trap these women in the box of second-class citizenship, with the extra constraint of shame placed on Mary, a very young, unwed mother.  With the help of the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth sees that God is breaking tradition and doing things differently, by sending the LORD Jesus into the world through a young girl named Mary.  Elizabeth is a picture of wisdom.

And Mary, well she’s a picture of faith.  Mary believes the angel Gabriel.  She doesn’t try to make sense of it logically.  She doesn’t wait to understand the details.  She believes God.  She believes that she will have a baby without a human father.  Now that takes faith!  That takes thinking outside the box. 

 Rather than question, rather than doubt, rather than protest for that matter, Mary praises God for looking with favor on her, although she has done nothing to earn or deserve God’s attention.  The gift of Jesus is a pure gift – all she has to do is accept it in faith and trust God to continue to work for good in her life.

 Mary – this teenager soon to be unwed mother of the Savior of the World is his first disciple.  She is the first to hear the Gospel message – the Good News that the Messiah will be born.  She accepts this good news as truth and then she interprets the news. 

You see, Mary goes beyond believing.  Mary predicts how God will turn the world upside down – scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful, lifting up the lowly and feeding the hungry.  She knows that God isn’t trapped by traditional ideas or institutions and that he will show favor to those who respect him – not to those who have the most earthly power or possessions.   And he will do this through the son she will give birth to – the very Son of God. 

 Luke presents God’s work through these two women – one an old barren woman and the other an unwed teenage girl – and the sons they bear as one singular act.  Both sons have been miraculously conceived, both were told by super-natural revelations.  Both have great purposes.  

 But, despite the similarities, the uniqueness of Jesus is clear.  Even in his conception and birth, Jesus is greater than John.  When these two stories are brought together, the singular purpose is made clear through the priority of the one Son.  Jesus, and therefore Mary, takes precedence over John and Elizabeth.

 Zechariah and Elizabeth in their piety have been yearning for a child, so that the conception of the Baptist is in part God’s answer to Zechariah’s prayers.  But Mary is a virgin who has not yet been intimate with her husband, so what happens is not a response to her yearning but a surprise initiative by God that neither Mary nor Joseph could have anticipated.  The Baptist’s conception, while a gift of God, involves an act of human intercourse.  Mary’s conception involves a divine creative action without human intervention; it is the work of the overshadowing Spirit, the same Spirit that hovered at the creation of the world when all was void. 

 John is miraculously conceived by his elderly parents with the promise that he will be used by God to prepare the way for the Messiah.  John the Baptist calls people to repentance; calling people back from alienation and rebellion against God.  Prepare the way!  Get ready, repent!  God is coming, John preaches.  

God is coming in Jesus.  Jesus who is miraculously conceived by Mary through the Holy Spirit is the long-awaited promised Messiah.  The one promised to the Israelites more than 400 years before.  John will prepare the way, but Jesus will save the world.

Christmas invites us to see things differently than the rest of the world.  Like Mary, we are invited to find true joy in a new place – in the gift of God’s favor.  God really loves you, and his affection has nothing to do with your education, your achievements, your job security, your bank account or your marital status.  Mary announces that God favors us in our lowliness, in our humility, in our simple willingness to lean on him. 

That’s good news for all of us.  When the world around us doesn’t seem to care, God favors us.  When the future seems uncertain, God promises to do great things for us.  Mary announces that God’s “mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation” and that he will never let his people down.

 Mary’s words are a declaration from a voice at the bottom of society.  It is a voice crying from the depths that God’s Messiah will bring justice for the poor.  It is a voice proclaiming a new order – an order centered on Mary’s son, the One who came to save his people from their sins.

 Christmas is all about seeing what might be, instead of what is.  That’s what Elizabeth did when she welcomed an unwed teenage mother with joy.  That’s what Mary did when she rejoiced in God’s favor.  That’s what Jesus did when he entered the world to save us from our sins and bring justice to the poor. 

We need to do something with this good news.  After hearing the word of God and accepting it, we must share it with others, not by simply repeating it but by interpreting it so that others can truly see the good news - Interpreting it through our actions as well as through our words.  As we look forward to the coming of Christ, let us ask ourselves how this year we are going to interpret for others what we believe happens at Christmas, so that they will be able to appreciate what the angel announced at the first Christmas 2,000 years ago  - “I announce to you good news of great joy which will be for the whole people.  To you this day, there is born in the city of David a Savior who is Messiah and Lord.”

Let us pray:

We praise you, God of promise, and give you thanks for Mary, a daughter of Israel, who sang the songs of David and held in her heart the burning words of Isaiah. We pray as Mary did; may your name be holy, may the hungry be filled, may the proud be scattered and the oppressed raised, may your love be ever with your people.  We pray this prayer through Mary's child, Jesus, who is Christ, forever and ever. Amen.

-- Thomas Harding, ed., Worship for All Seasons: Selections From Gathering for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany (The United Church Publishing House, 1993), 42.