Share the Love

Scripture Luke 1:39-55 The Message

39-45 Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

You’re so blessed among women,
    and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
And why am I so blessed that
    the mother of my Lord visits me?
The moment the sound of your
    greeting entered my ears,
The babe in my womb
    skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.
Blessed woman, who believed what God said,
    believed every word would come true!

46-55 And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
    I’m dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
    I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
    the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
    on those who are in awe before him.
He bared his arm and showed his strength,
    scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
    he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.
It’s exactly what he promised,
    beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

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This is more like it!   You know, the last couple of weeks the scripture reading and the designation for that particular Sunday in Advent haven’t even come close to matching.   Peace and Joy are really not words we associate with John the Baptist.  But this passage, Mary and Elizabeth responding to the gift of God’s love for the people, made manifest in the birth of Mary’s child, this is all about love!    

The Bible doesn’t name a lot of women.   Men have names, but more often than not, women are simply called the wife of this one or the daughter of that one, or given some other descriptor, like the woman at the well.  When they are named, you know there is something important about them. Chances are good that they will do something that changes the course of history for their people.   Rahab let the Hebrews into Jericho.  Deborah led Israel’s armies into war.  Jael saved Israel by killing the great general Sisera.   Esther saved her people from genocide.  These were women of substance.  And then there were the women bore sons when it was thought impossible for them to do so.  Samson’s mother was barren until a messenger of the Lord came and told her she would have a son.  Sarah, wife of Abraham, became pregnant with Isaac at a very advanced age, thus becoming the foremother of all the tribes of Israel.  Hannah, barren but greatly loved by her husband, had her womb opened by God and bore Samuel, who would name both Saul and David to be kings of Israel.    

So - Mary and Elizabeth.   Elizabeth was old, way too old to have a child.  She and her husband Zechariah had been childless all their lives.  And then God’s messenger, the Angel Gabriel came and told Zechariah that his wife would have a son, whom they must name John.  There was the usual disbelief, which in this case resulted in Zechariah losing the ability to speak until the child was born.   When Elizabeth was six months pregnant, the angel Gabriel went to Mary and told her that she would bear a child, a holy child, who would be called God’s Son.   Her disbelief was easily dispelled, and she accepted the charge laid upon her.  Then she went to see her cousin, Elizabeth, who was quite probably the only person who would believe what had happened to her.

Mary was a different case from all the other women in scripture who bore special sons.  She didn’t fit the profile.  She was neither barren nor old.  She was young and unmarried. She was betrothed to Joseph, which means her father and his father had agreed on a marriage contract and exchanged money and goods.  So the couple was considered as good as married, but the wedding hadn’t happened yet.  And she was young, according to historians probably around 14.  Now, some people have a problem with that.  Last year I read a pretty good blog post about Mary. I liked the perspective the author brought to Mary’s story.  Until I got to the end, when the writer said something like, “But she wasn’t 14.  God is not a paedafile.”   Thing is, Mary’s was a different world entirely from the one we live in.    We think of a 14 year old female as a child, but that’s a relatively new development in the history of the world.  Especially when you consider that for most women for most of history, their entire purpose in the life was to bear children, as many as possible.  Once a girl was old enough to get pregnant, she was marriageable.   

So Mary goes to Elizabeth, who greets Mary with great joy.  You’re so blessed among women! The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, the babe in my womb skipped like a lamb for sheer joy.  Mary’s response, known as the Magnificat, has been immortalized in music by such composers as Bach and Mozart.  And I am so not used to seeing or hearing it any way but that traditional way.  But we used the Message again today, so when I read the passage I saw it  in a new way.    

That’s what happens, you know, when you do something in a different way instead of “the way we’ve always done it.”  Like adding a new spice to an old recipe, or singing new words to an old tune, or putting pineapple on pizza, that thing we’ve always done becomes new.  There’s enough of the familiar there to be comfortable, but there’s that new flavor that adds something quite unexpected.    When I read the words this time,  I read beyond the celebration of what God had done for Mary, and beyond the way she spoke in the past tense about things that God did for God’s people.  I looked beyond her words about what God had done to what God is doing and what God will do.  She said, “It’s exactly what he promised,  beginning with Abraham and right up to now.”   Suddenly, the “right up till now” part resonated in a way it hadn’t before. I stopped reading this as Mary’s celebration of God’s past actions and started reading it as prophecy.   

According to Merriam-Webster the Word of the Year for 2018 is “Justice,” the dictionary publisher said the word was looked up on its website 74 percent more this year than last year.  Among the other definitions of Justice I found when I looked it up - in the Merriam-Webster dictionary were these:  “: the quality of being just, impartial, or fair  : the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action: conformity to this principle or ideal : righteousness.”  (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice)   And what Mary describes in her song of celebration is God doing justice, righting wrongs.  

" He scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
    pulled victims out of the mud.
The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
    the callous rich were left out in the cold.” 

Our world is very different from Mary’s world.  And yet, somehow the same.  We see the poor getting poorer, and the rich getting richer.  There are wars and rumors of wars, acts genocide, people starving,  people dying of treatable illnesses, and even slavery in the world.  There are some 6.3 million refugees in the world, people fleeing from war and danger in their home countries.  We see people oppressed, even here in our country because of their race or religion or gender identity.  According to the FBI, hate crimes are up for the third year in a row.   On any given night 554,000 people, 17% of the US population, are unhoused.   The numbers of homeless persons is increasing across the country, but the highest rate of homelessness is here, in California.   

There are those who, looking at all of this are asking “Where is God? Why does God allow these things?”   There are others who say God doesn’t interfere or take a direct hand in human affairs today. That the days for miracles and seeing God work are past.   I disagree.  

I believe God is working in our world.   You see, what God has always done is send a prophet, a person, who speaks God’s Words to the people, who changes hearts and minds.  And today God has sent, not just one prophet, but many.  People who speak out for the oppressed, the hungry, the homeless, people who work tirelessly toward change.  We see righteous people working toward justice for all persons.   Disciples minister Sandhya Jha, Director of the Oakland Peace Center, teaching anti-racism, working toward a world where all persons are truly considered equal in value.  Disciples Minister Dr. William Barber has taken up the leadership of the Poor People’s Campaign begun by Dr. Martin Luther King, and has made a National Cal for Moral Revival.  These are just two, but there are many others, some in this congregation even, who are working tirelessly  toward justice - God’s version of justice - for all persons.  Because God’s  "mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. . .  he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.”   

God’s love calls us to love him, to celebrate the Good News God News, to dance the song of our savior.  God calls us to share the love, to let mercy flow out upon those who suffer, who hunger, who are cold and tired.  Just as God chose Mary to bear the Christ, so God choses us,  to do this work in the world, to follow the path our Lord Jesus has set before us, to be God’s hands and feet.  Because what God has done for us can never be forgotten.  The God whose very name is holy, gave Mary a child, and that child is our Christ, our Lord, our Savior.  That child, that Christ Child, calls upon us daily to share the love with one another, and with all the people in the world. 

So go from this place today, to celebrate our God, and to share the Love.