Advent 4 (Year C) December 19, 2021
Micah 5:2-5a, Psalm 80:1-7, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-55
Here we are – the 4th Sunday in Advent,
with less than one week to Christmas. We have been counting down the weeks with
the lighting of our Advent wreath candles, looking forward to the Hope, Peace,
Joy, and Love promised to us by the coming of the promised Messiah. In the last
three weeks, we have anticipated the coming of Jesus through prophetic eyes…
Old Testament prophets proclaimed the faithfulness of God and the coming of a Savior
centuries before Jesus’ birth. Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, voiced
the reality and truth of Jesus through the work of his son, John, preparing the
people to hear Jesus and recognize him when he came.
And today, we are reminded that the Messiah Jesus is
not just any old savior. He comes not to rule with the sword, but with strength
and majesty and peace. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us Jesus comes
to establish a new world order and that we are sanctified into that order by his
sacrifice. And then we have Mary. She was with him, beginning to end… at the
cross, on his journeys around Judea, pressing him into service at the wedding
in Cana… and in millions of moments that we will never know. But in Luke’s
gospel, we hear the fullness of Mary’s dedication to God. Mary, from the very
beginning, is all in.
Our gospel reading today is in two parts, and I could
have chosen one over the other but decided to keep them linked together. Earlier
in chapter 1 of Luke’s gospel, we first meet Elizabeth, mother of John and wife
of Zachariah, who we remember from Advent 2. Her pregnancy fulfills the angel’s
promise made to Zachariah that in their old age they would have a son… God
often uses this conversation to get people’s attention. Hers is a quiet
pregnancy since Zachariah was struck mute in his disbelief, and she must have wondered
how it would all play out.
Meanwhile, we see another angelic visitation… not to
Joseph, the man to whom Mary was engaged, but to Mary herself. This passage is
living proof that when God’s messenger says, “Don’t be afraid,” something big
is going to happen. Mary’s only question was this: How? And while the angel
shares the process in broad strokes, I imagine Mary could put the brakes on at
any time. But when all was said and done, Mary responds: Here I am – a servant
of the Lord – let it be.
And then our story picks up with today’s lesson.
First, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, maybe
for affirmation, maybe to support her in her geriatric pregnancy. But what we
see is Elizabeth responding to Mary, the truth and viability of her pregnancy
confirmed by the presence of Mary and the baby in her womb. Promises were made
to both women, and in this meeting, the reality of those promises is confirmed.
God’s hope and peace and joy and love are real and are coming, and these two
pregnancies drive that point home.
Here are two women who are on opposite ends of the
pregnancy spectrum… one very young and in an incomplete marriage covenant, and
the other so old that she was probably the subject of much gossip. They could
have been destined to spend those pregnancies in isolation and fear. But
together, they find that they are part of a symphony of hope, obedience,
availability, surrender, and action… they hear – they believe – they go – they
give birth.[i]
And as an affirmation, Mary lifts a prayer glorifying
God. It is a prayer of thanksgiving – for the blessing of being a vessel for
God’s love. But it is also a declaration about who God is. In this prayer, she
relays a remarkable truth… that God’s acts of power and mercy in the past are also
working in the present will work in the future . She understands that God is
not just working through her as an individual… God’s promise through her will
be a gift to all the world.
Through Mary’s willingness to serve, God will reorder
the world once again. No longer will the powerful have ultimate sway. The
humble and the hungry will be lifted up and made whole.[ii] Mary tells us from the
very beginning: Jesus isn’t just coming to save us from our sins… he is coming
to save us from ourselves. It’s not either/or – it’s both/and… and Mary’s song
reminds “You can’t have one without the other.”
Last Tuesday, our Stuttgart PWOC had their Christmas
dinner. After sharing a wonderful meal, we listened to these same gospel
readings, and in small table groups, we contemplated what it must have been
like for Mary and Elizabeth. We talked about the historical realities – Mary as
an unwed mother – how Joseph could have divorced her publicly or privately but
instead chose to accept the angel’s prophetic challenge. We thought about how
exciting and reassuring it must have been for Elizabeth and Mary to have one
another to lean on. We marveled at Mary’s bravery, and faithfulness, and biblical
knowledge, and how much she trusted God to see this promise through.
And then we asked each other, “What kind of role model
is Mary for us?” Evidenced by her powerful prayer, Mary’s first instinct was to
worship God. The Magnificat is not a prayer of desperation – it is a prayer of
affirmation.
Do our lives reflect the same kind of humility that
Mary reflected? What does that look like for us? What will that require us to
change or eliminate? Do we even know where to start?[iii] So many questions, we
realized, often raising more questions than providing concrete answers.
As I get older, I have a better understanding of how
important Mary is to us – not just as the mother of Jesus, but as a role model
for a faithful life. Even as she questioned how God would work through her to
bring the Messiah into the world, she still believed. Was she confused?
Uncertain? I say, yes – probably all those and more.
Still, despite all of this, Mary is called blessed. Lutheran
pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber puts it this way:
“So maybe the really
outrageous act of faith on Mary’s part was trusting that she had found favor
with God. This, it seems to me, is a
vital and overlooked miracle of the Annunciation story. Yet instead, we prefer
to focus on what virtues we think Mary must have had so that we can cultivate
them in ourselves and maybe make our own selves worthy of God.”
But here’s where Mary had
some real chops. She heard outrageous things from an angel and she didn't say
“Let me see if I get any better offers” She didn't say “Let me get back to
you”, she heard outrageous things from an angel and said, “Let it be with me
according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary trusted the word from the angel,
telling her that she was favored. And maybe that trust is what made her
favored.[iv]
Many of us Protestant Christians have never prayed the
Rosary, but when we read the words, we must take this to heart. The prayer does
not begin, “Hail, Mary, full of virtue…” it starts “Hail, Mary, full of GRACE…”
the one thing that is simply a gift and nothing we can earn. Our hardest job is
to realize that what qualifies us for God is simply our need for God’s
grace… that and nothing more.
There’s a wonderful children’s story – The Best
Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. Boy, did she ever get it right when
she told the story of a Christmas play gone horribly wrong. It all started when
the director broke her leg a few weeks before Christmas… and the six worst kids
in the town volunteered to play all the major roles… there was hitting and
cussing and general malcontent. Through the rehearsals, we find out the
Herdmann kids had never even heard the story of Jesus’ birth… they just came to
church for the donuts. And when their fearless leader, Imogene, found out about
all of the indignities surrounding the nativity, she just wanted to go beat
somebody up.
But on the night of the play, everyone experienced the
story in a new way as these novice players acted out the familiar story right
before their eyes. And the audience knew that the children had really “gotten
it” when Imogene as Mary picked up the baby and burped it, when Gladys, the
meanest Herdmann of them all, pushed her way through the angel choir shouting,
“Hey! Unto you a child is born this day!”, and as the Herdmann brothers, dressed
in borrowed bathrobes approached the manger scene, carrying the family’s
Christmas ham. In this story, the whole town shows up at the Christmas Pageant
to see what chaos the Herdmann kids would bring. But everyone left saying, “I
don’t know what it was, but this was the best pageant ever!”
The story of Christ starts with Mary… who was willing
to take on this unthinkable responsibility, and she is joined by Elizabeth, who
didn’t tell her she was crazy but affirmed and supported her amid a scandal
that could go wrong more ways than we can count. Mary’s song rings forth in the
world, loud and clear. It is a song of hope, faith, and trust that God will not
abandon God’s people. And at the same time, it is a song of revelation and
revolution.
This is our song, too. Let us a people who sing “My
soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has
looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all
generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for
me, and holy is his name.” And let us believe it and mean it, and live it out
every day.
I don’t know what that looks like for you, but we are
reminded in the Great Thanksgiving each week some of the ways to live out this
call: working for “that day when justice shall roll down like waters and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream when nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
Peace, Deb
(c) Deb Luther Teagan, December 2021
[i] Rev
Sue Grace, Denmark, Australia, “Advent 4: Love is Waiting to be Born,” December
15, 2021, https://www.companionsontheway.com/post/advent-three-love-is-waiting-to-be-born
[ii] O
Wesley Adams, Commentary on Luke 1:35-55, December 19, 2021, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fourth-sunday-of-advent-3/commentary-on-luke-139-45-46-55-5
[iii] Shella
Hightower, PWOC Christmas Program, December 14, 2021.
[iv]
Nadia Bolz-Weber, And the soul felt its ____, The Corners, December 18, 2021, https://thecorners.substack.com/p/and-the-soul-felt-its-____
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