Sermon 3 Advent Year A 2019, The Magnificat Luke 39-56 The Rev. Laura Stephenson St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Grand Junction Colorado
Luke 1:39-45
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.” And Mary said,
Canticle 15 Page 91, BCP
The Song of Mary M agnificat
Luke 1:46-55
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior; * for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: * the Almighty has done great things for me, and holy is his Name. He has mercy on those who fear him * in every generation. He has shown the strength of his arm, * he has scattered the proud in their conceit. He has cast down the mighty from their thrones, * and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, * and the rich he has sent away empty. He has come to the help of his servant Israel, * for he has remembered his promise of mercy, The promise he made to our fathers, * to Abraham and his children for ever.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: * as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. A men. ______
Please join me in a brief prayer: God, you have made all good things come to pass- lifted up the lowly, remembered the promise of mercy... help us in the proclaiming of the Gospel be the hands and feet in the world. Amen.
I ran across a painting of two pregnant women, bellies aglow, greeting one another depicting the scene when Mary and Elizabeth meet. This is also the moment, we’re to understand from the babies jumping around in the womb John the Baptist and Jesus meet for the first time. But there is so much more texture to it than that. The two women and two children are a study in contrasts. Let’s start with Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
Elizabeth has a great deal of wealth and social position because she is married to Zechariah. We know Zechariah is a mucky muck because he is serving at the temple when the Angel Gabrial comes to tell him John the Baptist will be born. And like many parents, I imagine Zechariah and Elizabeth were distressed by the odd fashion choices John made to make his point about the coming kingdom of God partly because of their own social, religious, and political position but they nonetheless loved him with everything they had. In this time and place and people, for a women not to have children is considered a humiliation so Elizabeth getting so old without a child is a problem for her and Zechariah. Notice the parallel between her words in verse 25, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.” and Mary’s in verse 46-48, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Elizabeth is talking about personal salvation where Mary is talking about universal salvation.
Now let’s address Mary, mother of Jesus. The Magnificat, which is fancy church speak for the poem of praise in Scripture attributed to Mary when she’s talking to her cousin about being pregnant with Jesus. It is a poem about the hopes of Jewish people for a Messiah. Notice who’s saying it- a young girl! Her lack is emphasized in the Gospel of Luke because he’s writing to a more affluent congregation. Luke is making a point about who God chooses to come to us through. We learn that Mary in admits to being unmarried. I believe this is more about being young and less about being a virgin. She has a fiance with a great royal lineage but because they’re not married, she’s still at risk for abandonment. And what’s more, because women could not own property Mary is economically, socially and religiously vulnerable until, as we say, he puts a ring on it.
The two women are bearing children soon. Elizabeth is having a baby who is John the Baptist and Mary is having Jesus. So they are in anticipation. One child will save humanity, one child will point to how that other child is saving humanity.
Many of you know the tremendous planning, hope and joy that comes with anticipating a child. It happens not only in the bodies of women, but in communities as we prepare for the changes children bring. Children are not simply small adults. Their bodies are different, their minds are different and most precious their spirituality is different. These two women, with their vastly different social, physical, economic and religious stations in life, have taken the bold step of saying yes to children. We, the people of St. Matthew’s, are also saying yes to children. It is through them we have hope for God’s love to come pouring out. We’re investing in expanding our children’s ministries by hiring new people to work on Sunday and by supporting our staff with curriculums and events. We mean it when we say we want children here. We have this tremendous gift of children among us. And we know families are not just parents and children, they are grandparents and children, and aunts and uncles and children. We adopt, foster and help raise friend’s children. Single parents, step-parents and half siblings and all kinds of relationships are what make up a family. In the Grand Valley there are more children living in households that are not two biological parents than those that are. What I mean to say is there are more families that look like the Holy Family- parent, step-parent and child than those that look like their cousins. And for those of us who cannot have children, we’re here to love, support and cheer you parents and caregivers on. Children teach me everyday how to be a better person both by their example and by pushing me to be more patient. I had a parent once tell me having children is the greatest spiritual exercise of their life. Amen to that I say, Amen.
I’m not 100% on this, but I believe we’re all closer to Elizabeths than Marys. We’re the ones with the opportunity to help others find faith through baptism and community. We’re the ones hosting the holy family as it grows. We’re the ones exclaiming, “You are blessed!” when we meet one another. Unless you all have something super important to tell me, I don’t think anyone here has conceived of the Son of God here. But we’re proclaiming Jesus in the way we love God, one another, and the world. This is the heart of Advent.
Mary and Elizabeth, indeed Zechariah and Joseph, were in for the ride of their lives having their first children. It wasn’t just that the boys they would bear would change the world- it was that they were bearing children. It is through children God is able to bless servants. It is through children God shows mercy from generation to generation. It is through children God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. God will bring down the powerful from their thrones and lift up the lowly; fill the hungry with good things and send the rich away empty through children. Thank you, St. Matthew’s, for putting children first. For the love you have for them and for the hope that is for the future of the church and God’s world I give thanks. Our metaphorical bellies are aglow with hope for our shared future.