Rev. Debbie Cato
Luke 1:39 -58
Fairfield
Community Church
December 18, 2022
God of all, we are a mixed bag of distracted and
forlorn, eager, and anxious. We hope that you might move through the obstacle
course we build up around our hearts— made out of questions and defenses— and
douse us in good news. For at the end of the day, all we want is to know that
we are not alone, that you are always near. So knock on our door, Sweet talk
the guard dog we place in front of our vulnerable hearts, and come right in.
Make yourself at home. Pull us close and tell us your story of unbelievable
good news. We are listening. We are grateful. Amen.
We See
God In Each Other
This
section of scripture, known as “The Visitation,” joins together the
announcements of the births of John and Jesus with the accounts of their actual
birth stories – pointing out the similarities and the contrasts of the two sons
miraculously conceived by these two women.
Both will be great, but Jesus will be the greatest.
Elizabeth is old and was barren, praying for years and years to conceive. God tells her she will bear a son, not by Him, but by her husband. They will name him John and he will do great things. Elizabeth’s son John will usher out the old age so that Jesus, his cousin, can usher in a new age.
And of course we later learn that John grows up to be a rather odd duck. Living in the wilderness, wearing camel hair clothes, eating locusts, and shouting repent to everyone who could hear and baptizing those who listened in the Jordan River.
Mary is a mere 13-year-old unwed virgin, engaged to marry Joseph, a carpenter. God tells her she will bear a son – the Son of God, conceived by The Holy Spirit. He will be the Messiah, the Lord of Lords. The Son of God. All the world will worship him. Jesus will usher in a new age. Jesus won’t be the kind of savior people expect. He will be a rebel to the establishment, teaching peace and justice and love.
Even the unborn John knows the difference between himself and Jesus and John leaps in the womb when Mary enters the home. The unborn John saw God in the unborn Jesus.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth sees God in Mary. She praises her for both being chosen by God to be the mother of the Lord and, because Mary believed the word of God. Elizabeth humbles herself before Mary, recognizing that Mary is more highly exalted, more highly chosen than she.[1]
And Mary, well she speaks her joy in what we know as the Magnificat,
this song in Scripture that has been made into beautiful choral music. Nadia Bolz-Weber says that she thinks that “Mary, mother of our
Lord, understood that what qualifies us for God’s grace (the “help” I need)
isn’t our goodness – what qualifies us for God’s grace is nothing more than
our need for God’s grace.”[2] Think about that. What qualifies us for God’s grace is our need
for God’s grace. Because we need it, God
gives it to us.
Nadia says, “When Mary sings of God in the Magnificat, she didn’t say that God looked with favor on her virtue. She didn’t say that God looked with favor upon her activism. She didn’t say that God looked with favor on the fact that she had tried so hard that she finally had become the ideal version of herself. No. God looked with favor on her lowliness.”[3] Her meekness. Her commonness.
Mary sees
what God has done for her as a foreshadowing of what he will do for all the
poor, all the powerless, and all the oppressed of the world – the central theme
of the whole second movement of the song – the triumph of God’s purposes for
all people everywhere. Mary is so
sure God will do this that she proclaims it as an accomplished fact. [4]
He has shown strength with
his arm;
he has scattered
the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their
thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away
empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his
mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his
descendants forever.”
Elizabeth and the unborn baby John recognize God when Mary and the unborn Jesus come to their home. But I think that Mary also recognized God when she saw Elizabeth. Perhaps that is why she went to visit her. Perhaps she saw Elizabeth as a holy woman in her life. We don’t know why she made that trip. Was Elizabeth a special person in Mary’s life? We don’t know. But when Mary received the news from the angel of her own impending pregnancy and birth, and then the news that her old, barren cousin Elizabeth was carrying a child, she traveled to see her. Mary spent three months with Elizabeth. She stayed until it was time for Elizabeth to give birth.
When Elizabeth opened her door to Mary, I think Mary saw God in Elizabeth’s face. I think she recognized that God was present in the moment and present in Elizabeth’s pregnancy just as He was present with Mary. I think she sung to praise God for Elizabeth’s situation as much as her own.
I see God’s face so much in my life. I see Him in the faces of my grandchildren, Clara and Caleb, the innocence of their love and enthusiasm for life. I saw God in the faces of the preschoolers on Thursday morning when we recounted the story of the birth of Jesus and did the felt board together. I see the face of God when I look out from the pulpit at you, sitting in the pews, so full of love. I see his face when you offer up prayer concerns for friends and neighbors and family members that you care deeply about. I see the face of God in people at the post office who heard what happened and ask how I’m doing. I could go on and on.
Look around at each other. God is in us. After all, we are created in His image. If we pay attention, we see God in the faces of people we meet in our ordinary interactions every day. The clerk at the store, the waitress at the restaurant, the teacher or administrator, the person we pass on the street. The homeless person shivering in the cold. The person who is on the opposite side of the political aisle. The person you are angry with; estranged with. There’s a saying that goes something like, “you will never look into any face that is not loved by God.” I think that is the same as saying that we should see God in every person we encounter. Imagine if we treated one another that way. Imagine.
Mary greets Elizabeth at a literal threshold (the doorway of Elizabeth’s home) and goes to her at a threshold moment in her life when all is about to change. They recognize God in each other.
Let’s make a practice of seeing God in one another and watching how that changes how we interact and treat one another in the new year. Amen.
[1] Interpretation. A Bible Commentary for Teaching and
Preaching. Luke. Craddock, Fred. P 29.
[2] Nadia Bolz-Weber. thecorners@substack.com. 12.14.2022
[3] Nadia Bolz-Weber. thecorners@substack.com. 12.14.2022
[4] Ibid.
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