"Blessed Art Thou"

A sermon preached at Christos MCC, Toronto, ON,

December 14, 2003,  Third Sunday in Advent

Scripture:  Luke 1:38-55

(I don't usually dedicate sermons to anyone, but this sermon is dedicated to my dear friend and brother in Christ, the late and much loved Dan Schellhorn, who inspired it by helping me to understand how much of pastoral work is learning to embrace the holy, and who helped "midwife" me through the "expectancy" period of my own ministry formation.  Blessed art thou, Dan, and blessed is the work of God in you!)

Anne and I went to see a movie the other night, something we seldom do, but we went to see "Love, Actually," and we enjoyed it a lot. And it has a bit of a Christmas theme to it. I won’t give away much of the plot – basically, it’s about love, and taking the risks to find love – but it also takes place right before Christmas, there are several subplots running and there’s this huge cast of characters, and some of them are getting ready for a school Christmas pageant. And this little kid comes home and tells her Mom she needs to make her costume for the Nativity scene.

And the Mom says, "Oh, what part did you get? Mary? The innkeeper’s wife? A shepherd?" No, says the little girl, "I’m a lobster." The "First Lobster," actually. As it turns out, there are three lobsters in this Nativity scene, along with an octopus and a whale, too. I didn’t actually understand that part of the movie. I never did get it, but it was real cute. Silly moi, I had NO idea that there were lobsters present at the birth of Christ. Let alone whales. It’s on my LONG list of things they never mentioned in seminary.

But like the movie "Love, Actually," the whole of the Christmas story DOES have a rather large cast of characters, with several subplots running. And one of the characters and subplots that sometimes gets overlooked in all the Christmas hoopla is Mary’s kinswoman, Elizabeth. We don’t know if she was Mary's aunt or cousin, but we do know that Elizabeth made a difference Mary’s life. She saw through the apparent shame of what seemed to be an illegitimate pregnancy, and identified God at work in this young vulnerable girl. And I want to talk about Elizabeth tonight, because she was one of those rare people who practice the art of embracing the holy. And when I see what she does, it makes me want to learn how to do that myself.

I sometimes wonder why the angelic birth announcement to Mary is immediately followed by the story of her pilgrimage to visit Elizabeth. Mary lived in Nazareth - up north, in Galilee. Elizabeth lived in the south - in Judea, probably in Jerusalem. Why would a young pregnant girl make such a long, tough journey all by herself?

Well, I can think of a couple of possible reasons. Both as old as time itself. I think there’s some possibility that Mary's parents sent her there - a pregnant daughter sent away to relatives in another city. It’s happened before.

Or perhaps Mary sent herself. Oh, I know she’s been visited by an angel, and the angel said it was all copacetic, but she’s still a young girl. I can’t help but think that, notwithstanding the angel, she was perhaps a bit – maybe more than a little bit – confused and scared by the experience of having a baby out of wedlock - rejected by her betrothed, Joseph. So Mary didn't go to the religious leaders of her community, as many people today don't go to the church with their problems. She didn't even go to her girlfriends or to her betrothed. Being a very wise young woman, she hurried away from those scornful voices; she knew what she needed and who to visit to find it. She needed blessing and assurance; she needed comfort and courage.

Who knows? In any event, here she is, on Elizabeth’s doorstep. I can almost picture her, stepping out of a Greyhound bus into a crowded, noisy terminal in the big city. Far from home. And slowly walking through the streets with a tattered suitcase held together by duct tape, making her way to Elizabeth's house. Knocking at the door, with her heart in her throat, not knowing what kind of reception she’ll get when Elizabeth sees she’s pregnant.

And then picture the door swinging open, and the image of an older woman standing inside the doorway, pregnant herself. Consider Elizabeth. Elizabeth was also pregnant under amazing circumstances. Elizabeth had lived her life under the scorn of barrenness. And suddenly, in her old age, she’s pregnant and finds herself soon to take on the exhaustive duties of motherhood. Imagine her overwhelming feelings of anxiety. How could she do it? I read recently of a 63 year old woman who had a baby. I’m 47, and I know I don’t have the stamina. 63 is an age when most people retire. Can you imagine her feelings of desperation? Imagine Elizabeth’s. Her face lights up with joy at the sight of Mary on her doorstep, but soon dims as she notices the tattered suitcase, and the swollen belly, the river of tears flowing down Mary’s cheeks.

Now, some of us, manage, without fail, to say the wrong thing at moments like that. I often do. So I really admire what Elizabeth did next. She squelched the urge to groan, and instead, she put all her faith-resources to work, struggling to find some appropriate response. And just then, her own baby leaps within her womb. The child that she and Zechariah had prayed for for so long, even when she was too old to have a baby. The child who was everything a gift from God could be - leaped within her womb! And with that movement inside her belly, Elizabeth was reminded of her OWN experience of God. And suddenly she knew just what to say.

"Mary, you are the most God-blessed young woman in all the world! And your baby is a miracle from God!" And with those words, Elizabeth embraced the holy within Mary, and opened her arms, and welcomed Mary to the safety of her home.

Sometimes I wonder what might have become of Mary, if not for Elizabeth's gifts of faith and grace? I picture her trudging back to the bus station. You know what happens to lonely, broke runaways there..... She might have been picked up by the religious authorities and stoned to death for the crime of fornication. Or, unable to support herself and a baby, Mary might have been forced to sell her body to feed her child..... or sell the child to someone who needed cheap labour. She might not have made it. However it might have played itself out, I’m certain that the Christmas story would not be the story we know, if not for the gift of Elizabeth! "Mary, you are the most God-blessed young woman in all the world! And your baby is a miracle from God!"

Luke says Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months - healing and being nurtured and strengthened with unconditional love - being blessed - learning from Elizabeth about motherhood and about trusting God with your life - and preparing for the most difficult thing she’d ever had to do. And then Luke tells us that, after three months, Mary went home. Home to face her family not as a young woman disgraced, but as a young woman blessed by God.

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas but for this remarkable woman named Elizabeth. And the way Elizabeth enabled Christmas to happen was by practicing the art of embracing the holy.

So.... I want to learn how to do that, too. And I think if we want to become that kind of a person, there are a few things we need to learn.

First, we have to decide what we truly believe. We have to answer the questions, "Where IS God in this crummy situation? Is God really working in my life?" And that’s not an easy question to answer, because our human tendency is to be skeptical of the power of God's love to change peoples' lives. In particular, to change OUR lives.

But Elizabeth knew what to say to Mary, because she sensed God working in HER life, within her very body. On the one hand, it’s only by knowing how the Divine Presence is at work in our lives, that we can convey to anyone else how the Holy One can work in their lives. But on the other hand, we also need to know that that presence is not narrowly defined by OUR own personal experience.

Looking at the experience of these two women, I would say that being expectant of the blessings God will give us, but waiting on God to determine the specific nature of those blessings, is part of embracing the Holy. Embracing the holy means perceiving, and then identifying for others, the active presence of God in their lives. And embracing the holy means trusting that God's grace is the most powerful force in the world, and that it is at work somewhere in every human situation!

Second, we need to recognize the blessings that are coming to us. We need to hear what Elizabeth said to Mary, and hear it for ourselves, and know that we are the most God-blessed people on earth. Blessed are you among all people! And blessed is the work of God that is growing within you! And blessed are those who have believed that God would do what God has promised!

God will do what God has promised.  Meister Eckhart, a German mystic and theologian in the 13^th century asked the question, "What good is it to me if Mary gave birth to the Son of God fourteen hundred years ago, if I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and culture?" That’s the holiness at work within us, within you. The power of divine blessing, the power of God-with-us, the power of the holy in each of us. Embrace it.

(I don't usually dedicate sermons to anyone, but this sermon is dedicated to Dan Schellhorn, who helped me to understand how much of pastoral work is learning to embrace the holy, and helped "midwife" me through the "expectancy" period of my own ministry formation.)