Trinity Episcopal Church
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Advent 4
December 24, 2006
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Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:47-55 (The Magnificat)
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-55
Collect of the Day
From the Revised Common Lectionary as Adapted for Use by the Episcopal Church
and Authorized by the 74 th General Convention of the ECUSA
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.” (Luke 1:39-55)
A Mighty Thing
The Rev. Dr. Bill Stroop
This is the final Sunday before the Feast of the Nativity. And this is one of the hardest sermons for me to do. Why? Because today is the feast of the Visitation: the celebration of the visit of the newly pregnant Mary to her much older and pregnant cousin Elizabeth. It is hard for a middle aged male to identify with the wonderfully human emotions expressed in mutual pregnancy between these two women.
Although it may be a long time for some, can you remember back to the time when you sat through prenatal or birthing classes? Remember that for about 24 weeks, you would gather each week in the evening with other couples expecting children? The group I attended had mostly first time parents, although there was a couple who had had one child before. We looked at them, of course, like the grand gurus of childbirth. The women usually wore spandex tights or sweat pants, and loose fitting Tee shirts. The clothing made it easy for all of us to watch the progression of each pregnancy. There were plenty of things to learn at these meetings, like how to massage tired back muscles, and take cleansing breaths making a “hee, hee, hee, whoooo” sound. One practical lesson I especially remember was how to disguise breaking of the waters at the grocery store – should that occur – by smashing a jar of pickles on the floor. But what I remember most about those meetings was the sense of excitement in the room when we got together and shared our stories. We dads-to-be grew less embarrassed looking at the tummies of each others wives, and the women didn’t seem to matter talking in the presence of men about changes in bra sizes and patches of hair that appeared in strange places. There was a palpable sense of expectant joy in that room. It was almost liturgical.
I read a story by Herbert O’Driscoll about a young boy and a hired hand that worked on his ranch.[1] One night, the two were sitting gazing at the stars. The older hired hand was sucking on his pipe, blowing smoke into the cold, night air. Neither spoke. The hired hard pointed the stem of his pipe at the moon, and said to the boy, “Do you know that the moon and the stars move around all of the time?” The young boy said that he did. “Well,” the hired hand continued, “do you know how the angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her that she would have a child?” The boy said that he knew that too. “Well then,” the man continued as he looked skyward, “do you know that when the angel asked Mary if she would bear the holy child, all of the stars and the sun and the moon stopped in their courses until she said ‘yes’? And when she said ‘yes,’ they all began to move again? Did you know that?” the hired hand said triumphantly.
We know the stars did not stop moving in their courses, but it must have felt that way. In the text immediately preceding today’s Gospel, the angel Gabriel told Mary that she had found favor with God and that she would conceive a son (Lk 1:30-31). Mary, who was unmarried and a virgin asked Gabriel how this would happen. Gabriel told her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and that she would conceive. Nothing is impossible for God, Gabriel reassured her. And then Gabriel waited. It must have seemed that the entire cosmos held its collective breath for that moment. And when Mary said, “Here I am, servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,” the whole of creation exhaled. Time began anew when Mary said “yes” to the conception, “yes” to the labor, “yes” to the pain, and “yes” to the birth.
This sense of cosmic time standing still must have been one of Luke’s original intentions for this story. We know this because of the use of Luke’s verb tenses. In the original Greek, what is expressed in these passages is “timelessly true: past, present, and future, [merged together], without differentiation. Luke wanted everyone to experience] the confidences and certainty of the past as though they already were [present in the future].”[2]
But the Angel Gabriel delivered two messages to Mary. The first was that Mary herself would bear a child. The second was that her relative was already six months pregnant. I suspect that this piece of news was what prompted Mary to take the extraordinary journey to visit her. The story does not make it clear whether Mary shared her travel plans with Joseph; perhaps it was most important for her to be with someone she knew well, and who was also pregnant. Mary might have needed a pre-natal class to help her deal with the upheaval in her world. She might have needed a safe placed to be to avoid comments from her neighbors until she herself got used to the whole idea. [3] Maybe that’s why she stayed until Elizabeth’s son was born.
Like me not quite grasping everything that happened between the pregnant women at those pre-natal meetings, Luke does not give many details of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. I imagine that the aged and six-month pregnant Elizabeth was resting when Mary arrived. But when Mary came in, Elizabeth stood and embraced Mary. The child within Elizabeth, moved strongly within her, reassuring the older mother-to-be that her baby was still all right within her. Elizabeth, at any rate, was probably overjoyed at the stirring within her, and was elated to see Mary. Elizabeth called her “blessed;” “blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth’s excitement is almost infectious. Mary was in that quiet and highly personal place of newly pregnant mothers; she was still reflecting about her quiet acceptance of the angel’s call. The wondrous look of unbelievable joy on Elizabeth’s face mixed with her amazement at being pregnant at all must have moved Mary to song. Mary became ecstatic.
Mary began to sing what is known as the Magnificat after the opening word in the Latin translation. [4] We really don’t know what Mary sang or said, but Luke wanted us to know how Mary felt about her pregnancy and God’s action that would take place in the world through her child. The Magnificat is patterned after the Song of Hannah (I Sam 2:1-10) in the Old Testament. In that song, Hannah, the wife of Elkanah, sings for joy to God for conceiving her son Samuel, late in life. Both the Song of Hannah and the Magnificat stress the main themes of the Gospel of Luke. The Song of Hannah says that God “raises up the poor from the dust; God lifts up the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor” (1 Sam 2:8). In Luke’s version, Mary sings that the lowly will be raised and the lofty will be brought low. Mary sings of the God who brings down the mighty and exalts those of low degree, who fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty. [5]
I don’t think that Mary really understood all of this herself. She was in the middle of the cosmic drama, and from the middle of something, it is hard to get perspective. But Luke, writing about these things a couple of generations later, saw in Mary’s acceptance of Gabriel’s call, the beginning of this eschatalogical reversal. By becoming illegitimately pregnant, Mary became an outcast of her society – the lowest of the low. Yet from that place at the very margin of the social and cultural world, a new kingdom would come.
Both Mary and Elizabeth felt the very real presence of God in the joy of the new lives within them. Because God had done this for them, God would do much more around them in the world. And they understood this truth through nothing but faith. Often when we experience great joy, we project that joy to others, letting the songs within us join with the songs of others until it all becomes a universal symphony. I remember when my daughter was born, I put a giant pink flag on the house to announce to our neighbors and to the world the joy that Miriam’s birth gave me. I was so happy.
The Magnificat is not limited to the joy of pregnancy. The Magnificat is an archetypal expression of the joy that comes from the receipt of an unexpected gift of the spirit. It is a song of faith. Sometimes we are both giver and receiver, such as when we step out of our self-centered lives and selflessly give of ourselves to a stranger. That warm glow bubbles up from the depths of our soul; it often causes a physical change recognizable by others. We smile. We glow.
The Holy Day of the Nativity comes tonight with the Christmas Eve services, and we will remember and celebrate the birth of Jesus in liturgy and much song. The last Sunday of Advent coming as it does on Sunday seems to compress and intensify the season. It forces us to remember that we are incarnational people; that we recognize the joy of God’s work in us and in our world today; right now. We need to remember and be alert for God’s actions that work through us to bring God’s presence into the world all the time. Let us give expression to that new life within us, so that we, along with Mary and the Shepherds, can sing out most joyously: “the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Lk 1:49). And let us share that feeling and do great things for others, raising up the lowly, and lifting up the needy.
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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.
47 “My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
50 His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts 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 helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
Consequently, 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.
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.”
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
[1] Herbert O’Driscoll. “Let It Be.” In The Christian Century 120(25): 18, December 13, 2003.
[2] Fred B. Craddock. “Luke.” Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching.” (Louisville, KN: John Knox Press, 1990), 30.
[3] O’Driscoll, 18.
[4] Craddock, 29.
[5] Craddock, 30.
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Copyright © 2006, William G. Stroop - All Rights Reserved.
21 December 2006
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