Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Fourth Sunday in Advent (2009)

Rejoice! God’s Promise is Fulfilled Rev. Toby Byrd

Luke 1:39-45 (ESV)

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, [40] and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. [41] And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, [42] and she ex claimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! [43] And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? [44] For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. [45] And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord."

The Gospel text for today is one of the most moving revelations of God’s power, grace, and mercy found anywhere in Holy Scripture. With the briefest of language, St. Luke presents a tender and moving scene between two women relatives who meet in a happy reunion. One is young, probably barely out of her teens; the other is getting on in years. The younger is an unmarried girl from a small village, distinguished only by her shyness and innocent piety while the older is the wife of a Hebrew priest, who has borne her old age with grace and wisdom. It has been a long and difficult journey for the younger woman who has traveled a goodly distance to visit her older relative. It’s possible that she has come to escape the whispers of scandal in her home town of Nazareth. Here, in the home of her relative, she is safe from gossip and prying eyes, for her older relative and her husband accept her without question. From the moment they meet, there is a strange and deep bond of understanding that unites these two women. In spite of their differences in age and social standing, they share a spectacular secret: each is to become a mother for the first time.

It might be expected that this shared secret, which caused each of them pain and shame, might unite them only in common misery. Although it was a first child for each, Elizabeth would probably have preferred celebrating becoming a grandmother or even a great-grandmother. However, this was not to be as she would celebrate motherhood at seventy-five! What would her relatives say and her neighbors think? As for Mary, her situation was hardly less favorable and maybe even more difficult—at least Elizabeth had a husband. Everything pointed to these two different women finding common ground only in the misfortune of unpredictable situations.

However, there was no weeping, sadness, shame, or pity in their meeting. Each was positively overcome with joy, and each perceived in her own and in the other’s forthcoming motherhood a sign from God. The life each nourished inside their body filled them with an unaccountable courage and sacred pride. It caused Elizabeth to prophesy and Mary to sing. The evangelist notes that “when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior’ ” (Luke 1:41-42, 46-47).

Prophecy and poetry—what strange reactions to mysterious happenings! Yet, what other response would be appropriate in the presence of the Lord? Neither woman exhibited the least anxiety or fear. Each was convinced that what had happened to her, and indeed to both, was of God’s doing. This was His deed, not of judgment upon them but of goodness through and in them. Thus, both of them rejoiced, because God’s promise was fulfilled.

Had not the angel assured Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, about the child to be given them: “the angel said to him, ‘Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord . . . . and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God . . to make ready for the Lord a people prepared’ ” (Luke 1:13-17 ESV)? Moreover, that same angel had spoken to Mary about the child she would be given: “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. . . . the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. (Luke 1:32-35 (ESV).

Twenty centuries later we hear this account and we’re still moved by it. However, we would be utterly mistaken to suppose that it has been preserved to entertain us with a charming tale of motherhood. This is no romantic apology for unwed mothers, or a sentimental conclusion that children are a welcome blessing at any time. The Spirit has revealed this account to us for a reason, thus, we should perceive that Elizabeth and Mary are speaking to us of God and His righteousness. What they celebrate in their lives is the greatness of God. He is great because He keeps His Word to men, and He reveals Himself through His mighty deeds. Moreover, God invites our worship and trust, just as these women rejoiced in His presence and were not offended by the mysteriousness of His coming into their lives.

God keeps His Word—of that Elizabeth and Mary were sure. “Blessed is she,” exclaimed Elizabeth, “that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (v. 45). Moreover, Mary was no less positive. After recounting how God favored her, how He had shown steadfast love to each generation that feared Him, how He had dealt in unerring pity and judgment with all people, Mary concluded: He had done all these things “in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." (Luke 1:54-55 ESV). Each woman understood her own situation and the other’s as part of the history of God’s faithfulness to men. Centuries before God had established His covenant with Abraham to make him and his descendants a people through whom He would gather all peoples under His sovereign rule. That covenant God renewed with Israel when He delivered them from bondage in Egypt, gave them the Law at Sinai, and established them as a powerful nation in Canaan. God loved Israel as the apple of His eye. In spite of Israel’s repeated rebellion, God’s covenant with them was the one thing that remained unchanged and unchanging. Now, climaxing His uncompromising love, God sent His Servant-Son to bring all His promises to a conclusion; and Elizabeth and Mary were chosen instruments to accomplish that deed of God. The ages of waiting were over: God’s Word had become flesh in Mary’s womb; and Elizabeth’s child would be the herald of that good news.

We, too, are participants with Elizabeth and Mary in God’s faithfulness. For we also stand in the same unbreakable tradition of God’s saving history with them. In the coming of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s anointed and chosen Son; God has made a new covenant with men. That covenant is nothing less than the Gospel, God’s promise of mercy to the world wrapped up in the One who died for our sins and was raised up as the pledge of our new creation. The church is the agent of this new covenant, as Mary herself once gave birth to the Incarnate Word. Through the preaching of the Gospel of the forgiveness of sins; through Holy Baptism, as we witnessed with Sedona and Savanna this morning, in which we are crucified with Christ and raised to new life with God; through the Eucharist, in which we joyfully feast with Christ and share His sacrifice for us—through these means the church begets the Word in our flesh and makes us “little Christ’s” members of God’s family, and true servants of God.

Are you surprised by this announcement? Indeed, you should be surprised by joy! God has chosen you to be representatives of His new humanity as surely as He chose the lowly handmaiden, Mary, to be the mother of our Lord. He has made you the herald of His mighty deeds of salvation as surely as He made Elizabeth the mother of the prophet of the Most High. Therefore, you can rejoice with Mary: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior . . . . for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name” (Luke 1:47, 49 ESV). Moreover, all this has happened, not because you were worthy, but God has done it “in remembrance of His mercy” (Luke 1:54) which is enacted in Jesus Christ.

From the moment you are cleansed in the waters of baptism, God is present in the midst of your life; He is present in the power and glory of His saving grace. You are living evidence of the fact that God is not dead. It has been said, to be a witness of the living God does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, rather it means being a living mystery for Christ. It means to live in such a way that your life would not make sense if God did not exist. Therefore, just as Sedona and Savanna now live with the gift of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, you, too, through your baptisms are the same cleansed, Spirit filled people. Moreover, as I urge Sedona and Savanna to live their lives as living witnesses of their love of Christ with their eyes ever fixed on heaven, I urge each of you to recall your baptism and do the same.

Do not be frightened that you are called to be a living mystery. Remember the example of the two women “who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken . . . from the Lord” (v. 45). The Word from God that calls you to be a living mystery will also complete in you that service to which it calls you. I urge you not to be offended at the lowliness of your life, which God uses to reveal His holy name. This is consistent with His way of doing things. He created the universe out of nothing: He took a family of nomads and made them His covenant people; He chose a shepherd boy and made him King David; He used aged Zechariah and Elizabeth and made them parents of a prophet greater than Moses; He came to an unwed and obscure Palestinian maiden and caused her to be the mother of the Lord. God took the cross of shame and made it the glorious instrument of the world’s reconciliation, and God caused life and new creation to arise out of the grace.

The greatness of God is not to be found in spectacular displays of divine majesty and naked power. God bids us look for and find Him hidden in the ordinary things of life in order to remind us that He is not far off but close to the center of our existence. Moreover, and most wondrous of all God’s deeds is that He takes you, a sinner, a rebel without a cause, and makes of you a saint, His holy son or daughter, an obedient servant.

Therefore, how blessed we are to trust God with our lives and worship Him forever? We are blessed beyond measure. Truly we can sing, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. (Luke 1:46-47 ESV). How blessed we are to say, rejoice because God’s promise has been fulfilled in Christ. Amen.

May the Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.