Advent 4C, 2009

The Rev. Patricia Templeton
Advent 4C
December 20, 2009
St. Dunstan's

"Social Networking – Gospel Style"

A young woman who is a friend gave birth to a baby girl last week. I have not seen Molly or her husband since I moved from Chattanooga more than five years ago, but in recent months I have kept in touch with her through Facebook.

Through that modern phenomenon of social networking, Molly’s friends saw pictures of the baby’s ultrasound and the newly-decorated nursery. We heard about doctor’s appointments and false labor pains. We knew when she arrived at the hospital and when she received an epidural.

These were not one-way communications. Whenever Molly posted a new comment friends near and far responded. Some offered advice and told of similar experiences. Others offered messages of encouragement, support, and prayers.

When the first pictures of the new baby were posted online, the love and joy nearly leapt off of the computer screen.

This experience is a modern day example of a very old truth. People need community.

Particularly when we are going through transitions and changes in life, it helps to hear from people who have traveled similar paths before us, or are on similar journeys now. It helps to hear encouragement, and to know that others are praying for us and love us. It helps to know that somebody, somewhere, understands.

That old truth is at work in the Gospel story we hear this morning, the pregnant Mary visiting her older cousin, the also pregnant Elizabeth.

The angel Gabriel has just appeared to Mary with the shocking announcement that God has chosen her to give birth to the savior of the world. The angel also gives Mary the news that her kinswoman Elizabeth has conceived a son in her old age.

We don’t really know much about what Mary was feeling about this unexpected turn of events. From Matthew’s gospel we know that there was at least a hint of scandal about Mary’s pregnancy – that Joseph considered breaking the engagement. Even though he didn’t, there were probably rumors and whispers and raised eyebrows.

It must have all been terribly confusing and frightening to a young girl, just a teen-ager. And so Gabriel’s news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy was truly a gift.

As Luke tells the story, as soon as the angel departs, Mary “arose and went with haste” into the hill country to visit Elizabeth. Here was a place where she could go for community, for support, for encouragement and love and understanding.

The scene of the two pregnant women greeting one another is one of my favorite in scripture. We have no indication that Elizabeth has known ahead of time of Mary’s pregnancy; certainly there was no way for Mary to have told her the news.

But as soon as she sees her young cousin, Elizabeth explodes with joy. Scripture says she is filled with the Holy Spirit, which means that the words that she says are God’s words, too.

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” Elizabeth exclaims. “Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believes.”

Elizabeth not only realizes that Mary is pregnant; she immediately understands the significance of that pregnancy, and of her own – that the child who leaped for joy in her womb was the one who would prepare the way for his cousin, the savior of the world.

This poignant, vivid scene has been painted by artists many times. But I have to confess that most of those paintings, many of which are Renaissance art, leave something to be desired to me.

They are too static, too stiff, too otherworldly in their depictions. There is none of the urgency, the passion, the joy that this story conveys.

This week, I saw online a painting by contemporary artist Dinah Roc Kendall, Mary Meets Elizabeth, that does convey the emotion of that scene.

In this painting, set in today’s world, Elizabeth, dressed in a striped shirt and overalls, her belly bulging with baby, stands at the front door, her arms thrust out to welcome a young woman bounding up the stairs of the stoop.

It is a picture full of energy. Mary’s face is determined and eager; Elizabeth’s is filled with joy and anticipation.

The painting shows Mary and Elizabeth framed in the front door. On the road in front of the house a woman pushes a stroller with a baby, a boy runs to school, another races by on a bicycle.

Art critic Catherine Kapikian says of this painting, “In this frenetic environment of contemporary life, the elevation of the mundane gives way to the extraordinary.”

That scene 2,000 years ago was both mundane and extraordinary. Two pregnant peasant women in a humble dwelling in a rural hillside town. Two cousins getting together to talk about their respective unlikely pregnancies.

An ordinary, mundane moment as ordinary life goes on all around them.

But in this ordinary, mundane moment God is at work in extraordinary ways, speaking through simple, humble people in a remote village.

Elizabeth is the first to voice this extraordinary thing that God is doing through her and her young cousin, and the sons they both bear.

That is why she cries out to Mary, “Blessed are you, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

In biblical times, “bless you” was not just an offhanded comment, not something you said after a sneeze. Not even the Southern “bless her heart.” A blessing was a dynamic force, words that created power and actual blessing in one’s life.

When Mary hears these words from Elizabeth, she suddenly realizes she is blessed, that this unexpected pregnancy is not a dilemma or a scandal, but is truly God at work in her and through her.

Suddenly whatever fears and concerns she may have had are gone. Suddenly she understands that what God is doing in her, and in her cousin Elizabeth is much bigger than the two of them, that this blessing will be for all people, for all time.

In just a few days we will gather here again to celebrate the fruit of Mary’s womb. After today, Elizabeth will disappear from scripture all together, and Mary will be mentioned only in passing.

Attention will shift to their sons, to John the Baptist who proclaims the Lord is near, and to John’s cousin Jesus, who comes to redeem the world.

But today, let’s stay focused on these two women, Mary and Elizabeth, the first to know and to understand what God is about to do through the seemingly ordinary events of two births.

Let’s rejoice in the community they share, in the love and support and understanding they give one another.

Let’s give thanks for their radical faithfulness, a faith that they pass on to their sons.

Blessed is the fruit of their wombs. But blessed, too, are Mary and Elizabeth, faithful women who believed.

Amen.

Readings

Micah 5:2-5a

But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace.

Hebrews 10:5-10

When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the scroll of the book it is written of me.)” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law,) then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Luke 1:39-55

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said, “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. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”