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Advent 4, 12/20/2009
Sermon on Luke 1:39-45, by David Zersen
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." (RSV)
EXPECTATIONS AND BLESSINGS
Most of us know the film, Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Kostner, which told the story of an Iowa farmer who believed he was being called to build a baseball field out of a cornfield, and if he did players would come and play ball on the field. Afraid that like his father he might be becoming a stick-in-the-mud, Ray Kinsella, played by Kostner, opts for spontaneity and builds the ball field.
Some of us are more spontaneous than others and willing to follow our hopes and dreams. I think that many of the characters in the Bible represent that kind of spontaneity for us, a confidence born of faith which propels one into the future.
Think of Abraham who left his homeland going out, as the author of Hebrews (11:8) tells us, "not knowing where he was to go." And the list goes on (11:32) to tell of "Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthah, ... David and Samuel and the prophets-who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight."
Dreamers all, these men and women who longed for what God could do in and through them realized potential because they knew that hope produced confidence, and confidence results.
The thread of hope which permeates the Old Testament is the expectation of what God can and will do through the promised Messiah. The Old Testament lesson appointed for today tells us about Bethlehem and how in the minds of faithful Jews it was to become the place from which would come the one who was to rule Israel, whose name was from ancient days.
The expectation presented by this messianic vision was clear in the mind of Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, whom we meet in today's Gospel lesson. Although Mary has come to visit Elizabeth, and celebrate her pregnancy, it is Elizabeth who dominates the scene as Mary's greeter. She hails Mary's pregnancy and fills the air with the joy ringing out of her tradition which knows that one day a Messiah will bring hope to his people. Only Elizabeth's joy is supreme because she recognizes that Messiah to be borne in the womb of the woman who comes to greet her.
Elizabeth anticipates in the coming of her relative the fulfillment of all the hopes of her ancestors. What the prophets had foretold, that she experiences firsthand when Mary comes calling.
Advent gives such a mood of expectancy to each of us and we should make the most of it. We long for the fulfillment of peace, hope and joy which beckons to us from the manger as we approach this season. Many of us have approached year after year with the sense that something awaits us here which can fulfill all our hopes an dreams. All too often the hustle and bustle of the season prevents us from realizing the meaning of these words. Yet this year again, perhaps as never before, God seeks to touch us with these words and their full potential for us.
Today as I drove past a decorated apartment complex, the Christmas banner promised "Comfort and joy, Just two of the amenities you will find here!" Such promises are not empty when God himself makes them. We are invited to build the setting in our heart that prepares room for God's promise of peace, hope and joy. We have the assurance that our lives can be changed and fulfilled when we make room for Jesus this year.
Besides the theme of expectancy in this Gospel lesson, there is the striking theme of blessedness. Elizabeth regards Mary as blessed among women, not least because she accepted with trust the commission given to her in this pregnancy. It's one thing for her to be the Mother of God, but quite another to experience the awe and wonder that came with having her heart pierced as she saw her son, this hope for the world, hanging upon a cross.
Blessings often come in packages like this. They can be both crowns of joy and crosses of sorrow. As William Barklay put it, "God does not choose a person for ease and comfort, but for a task that will take all that head and heart and hand can bring to it." Blessedness can bring a paradox in that it may confer on a person the greatest joy and at the same time the greatest task.
You and I know this well for often the privileges and opportunities in life bring with them burdens and anxiety. Yet once we have lived through the challenges that an opportunity can bring, we reflect that it was a blessing, not a curse, which brought us in this direction.
When we look to the future of the coming year, we never ask God to spare us the burdens which can overwhelm us-because in these very burdens are the blessings which fulfill us as God's people.
The cross itself speaks of that kind of blessing, a burden which brought death to Jesus in a horrifying kind of way. However, death was not only the key to Jesus' eternal life, but the assurance of forgiveness and life eternal for each of us.
With Elizabeth and Mary, we look at the unknown elements of our future and embrace them with faith and confidence. This is the opportunity of the Advent season that assures us of things to come that are filled with both promise and burden. Because it is our loving God who reaches us to us from our future, we know that we can call whatever he offers us blessed.
In this assurance of God's love, we are made a spontaneous people who dare to take some risks and try new adventures. We know that that we can count on open doors and burdens made light because Jesus awaits us at the fork in the road.