“Singing Ahead of Time”

Luke 1:39-56

December 18^th and 21st, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

We have not done this in a few Sundays and since I had a little trouble finding a cute story to get our sermon going this morning, I thought that we would take one of our trips. Besides that, these biblical stories, right before Christmas, are so rich and lend themselves to this sort of thing. So unless you are brand new to our church and have not heard me do this sort of thing, then you know how our trip taking happens. I begin by painting a picture, with words, of our lesson and then invite you to use your imaginations to get you there. Sometimes, when we do this sort of thing, we pile in the church van to get to where we are going. But not this morning. This morning we will have to put on our hiking boots and walk up from little, old, Nazareth to the hill country, where Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth and her priest of a husband, Zechariah, live. Elizabeth and Zechariah’s house may be a parsonage. The Bible does not tell us the name of the town, but it sounds upscale, doesn’t it? Luke calls it the hill country. Why, that might be like living in The Heights. We do not know the name of the town where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived, but if you were here last Sunday, then you might remember that Mary was from Nazareth, a town that was not upscale at all. In fact, one commentator that I read this week said this, “Imagine the worst possible place to live in and that is Nazareth.” Nazareth would not have made the top ten cities to live in during biblical times.

Elizabeth, you see, is the city cousin. She is the one who has made it. She is sophisticated. She married well. She landed a priest in the days when marrying a preacher meant something. Her husband’s family line could be traced all the way back to Moses’ cousin, Aaron. Her husband, Zechariah, might have started out serving small churches, but now he has made it. He is up there in the ranks high enough to enjoy priestly duties at the altar in Jerusalem from time to time. You might remember that that is where he was, in last week’s lesson, when Gabriel appeared to him to tell him the good news that his wife was going to have a baby. Because there was a little doubt in his question of how his wife could have a baby at her age, he has not been able to talk since then. I am not really sure why Mary went to see her cousin in the first place. All of the versions of the Bible that I read to get ready for this morning say that she went with haste to get there. It would be a guess, but it is possible that her family did not take the news of her pregnancy as well as she took it and so they sent her to talk with her cousin’s husband, the priest. The Bible does not tell us what the reaction was of her family to the good news. Or, perhaps she went to the hill country to congratulate Elizabeth on her good news. There really is no reason for us to think that she went to see Elizabeth to confirm what Gabriel had told her. It was, after all, unbelievable, but I do not think that she went up there to check things out. What we do know is that Mary high tailed it up there to see her cousin, Elizabeth, who was about six months further along in her pregnancy. I want you to hear this. Elizabeth is the first one to hear what Mary has to say. Maybe she is the first one who is willing to listen, to really listen. Did her parents listen to her? I do not know. Was Joseph open to what was happening. I am not sure. What I do know is that Elizabeth was ready to listen.

So are you still with me? I know, I know. It was a long walk, uphill most of the way, but we have finally arrived at the city limits and found the church where Zechariah is serving as the Senior Priest. Maybe next door is the parsonage, where Elizabeth and Zechariah live. Mary knows the way. Come on. Let’s crowd around the door as Mary knocks on it. We will slip in as Zechariah opens the door and leads us to where Elizabeth is, resting in the living room. There is room for all of us, but a few of you may have to sit on the floor. Is that all right? The voices that we will hear in the living room will be women’s voices. Zechariah, you see, still cannot speak. All he can do now is to wave and grin and point. I hope that he is using the time to prepare for his son. Perhaps he is getting the nursery ready or writing sermons for the next few months. Come on, walk with me. Do not be shy. Let’s follow Mary into the living room, where Elizabeth is. Luke records this story. Luke tells us that Mary was the first one to speak. Luke tells us that when she greeted her cousin, the baby inside of Elizabeth jumped. It will be this little baby’s job to point out who Jesus is. With him in his mother and Jesus in her’s, he is just doing that ahead of time. Besides the kicking and the jumping going on inside of her, something else is happening inside of Elizabeth. Luke tells us that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. You could have missed this. Luke tells us that Elizabeth excitedly almost screams out, “Blessed are you among woman, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” It is easy to miss how excited she is! Because you are in the room with her, you can see it on her face and hear it in her voice. She is loud, friends. It is, after all, hard to push back excitement. What is she so excited about, you ask. She is excited that Mary has come. She is excited that the baby inside of her is jumping in response to it. Listen to this line, she is excited because there is new life popping out all over the place. She is excited that her young cousin has the good sense to believe that what is happening to her is not a fluke or a hoax or an allusion. She knows that something great and wonderful is about to happen and that God is behind the whole thing.

There are two parts to our scripture lesson this morning. You must not miss this. In the first part, Elizabeth is excited for two reasons. First, she is thrilled because Mary, the one who will be the mother of the Lord, has come to see her. And second, she is delighted in the fact that Mary has the good sense to hold on to the promises of God. Listen again to how Elizabeth says this, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

That is the first part of the lesson, Elizabeth’s reaction to the visit. The second part of it is what Mary says when it is her turn to talk. Now, I have never been pregnant. Talk about your miracles, that definitely would be one. But still I can imagine what pregnant women, both pregnant for the first time, one a little farther along than the other one, might talk about when they got together. They might pull out their copies of the very helpful book, What To Expect When You Are Expecting.” They might talk about how long morning sickness lasts and where to buy the best maternity clothes and how swollen ankles can get. You would think that Elizabeth, being older and further along in her pregnancy, would offer some helpful words. But that is not what happens. Instead Mary sings a song that we sing, now, most Christmases, or at least hear a sermon about, most years. Right there in the middle of the parsonage’s living room, Mary sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Bryan Gray, our music minister helped me to see this. When we were talking about this passage in our staff meeting, Bryan said, “Last week, Mary’s prayer, ‘Let it be with me according to your will’ sounded a lot like Jesus’ prayer in the garden. This week, her song sounds a lot like what Jesus will preach throughout his ministry.’” Mary’s song is not just a praise song. It is also a prophetic word. I do not know if you noticed this, but Mary’s words, with the future inside of her, don’t use the future tense. Did you notice that. Instead, her words sing as if these things have already taken place. Prophets, you know, and now, well, prophetesses, almost always get their tenses mixed up. Here is the reason that they do. All of them, everyone of them, are able to see what God sees, a world where things can be different. Jesus will see this. When He is out of his swaddling clothes, trained as a carpenter, and preaching to those with ears to hear, he will say things that will turn the world upside down. I think that Jesus gets that from His Father. After all, he could have, maybe even should have, chosen someone else to bring his son into the world. Elizabeth was the more logical choice. She lives up there in the hill country, with a husband, who, when he is able to speak again, could say powerful things about what has happened. But instead, God used Mary and before any of this happens, she sings because she believes in the promises of God. Listen to the words of her song. Don’t they sound just like something Jesus would say? I want you to hear them from Eugene Peterson’s translation, The Message: “His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. He bared his arm and showed his strength. He knocked tyrants off their high horses, and pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down at a banquet; he callous rich were left out in the cold. He embraced his chosen child; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham right up until now.” That sounds like God, doesn’t it?

I have to tell you this. I am not sure how you are going to take this, but this is just the truth of the Bible. God loves the person standing on the exit ramp on University, with a sign telling you that he will work for food, just as much as He loves you. But there is something else that I know. He also loves us when we feel left out, when we think the circumstances of life are too much, and we think that there is too much to bear. It is then, as much as any other time, that we have to trust the promises of God. Now I know, Mary had an angelic visit. I would love to have one myself. Today would be good day for me to have one. I would like that very much. But, when God leads, we cannot just sit and wait, we have to follow and we have to trust. We have to believe that God will have a part in whatever happens next. So now I am wondering if there are any big things going on inside of you. Something out there on the horizon that is causing you to have your own version of morning sickness. If that is the case, then you ought to take a clue from Mary. Follow her lead. It is possible, isn’t it, that the Holy Spirit has come over you. It is possible, isn’t it, that the cloud that you feel over your head isn’t a cloud at all, but the power of the Most High. Now I know that it would be nice to have all of the details of what is going to happen in the near future. But you know how God is. You know how he has acted in the past and you know that He will take care of you in the future. So you might as well go ahead and be excited about how things will end up.

Oh, look at the time! Look over at Elizabeth. She looks tired, doesn’t she? And she still has to prepare a dish for the potluck tomorrow night. Let’s go ahead and slip out of the house. Mary will stay with her. In fact, she will stay until the baby is born. Mary may get a lesson or two about what to expect with the end of the pregnancy. But we need to get going, on our way back to Nazareth. We might as well just stop in Bethlehem, though, and wait for Mary and Joseph there. I will see you there on Wednesday night. Let us pray.