What's Inside? Series

What’s inside?

Luke 1:39-56

Well, for all practical purposes it is here. Christmas has arrived. I think back to my childhood as I think about Christmas. I remember sneaking into the living room and digging through the packages sorting all the ones with my name into one section.

Shaking and feeling packages and wondering what was in them.

Sometimes my folks were just a bit mean. Some packages would have really strange shapes or seemed really heavy. On Christmas eve when we finally got to open one present , we would go for the odd package to find extra cardboard or bricks in the package just to make our curiosity peak. Inside might be a pair of socks or underwear, maybe a flannel shirt.

My folks played on our childish curiosity to trick us into opening the gag gift.

My folks knew that we were poking around constantly trying to guess what was inside.

Our scripture today picks up after Zechariah gets the news that he is going to be a dad and because he express the need for signs is suddenly unable to speak. He will wait 9 months or more before his speech will return.

Just before our passage picks up, Mary also meets an angel and is given the message that she is to be blessed by God and have a child which will be the Son of God. He will sit on the thrown of David. Basically, the angel tells her that she is to the mother of the long awaited messiah.

We have Elisabeth, a mature woman, old enough that she would not expect a child except by a direct intervention of God. Woman that would have been looked down on by her culture as having some hidden sin, making her unrighteous in God eyes.

She is pregnant and the perceived blight is clearly erased…everyone was wrong, Obviously God is blessing her. Obviously, this is a miracle.

Then we have a young woman, in her prime for having children, young, strong, and healthy. She is also going to have a child and everything would be great except that she is engaged and in her culture, engagement meant married with no un-chaperoned contact. She was to live in her parents home for a full year and then move to her husband’s home. This separation was a time a waiting and showed purity and righteousness for both the man and woman,.

In her case she is righteous and by act of God she is going to be perceived unrighteous. Like anyone is going to believe that she was pure. Come on, the evidence of her failure was visible for everyone to see.

As we read the story we know that a miracle happened That it was God and not man that conceived the child.

Both women were directly in the plan that God had established. Not by their choice. Not at their direct request. But by the choosing of God.

They were filled with the Holy Spirit and had the knowledge of God’s saving actions. And Ultimately understood that some how God choose them. They were both humbled by the experience. Both women are excited about the potential which is growing inside of them.

Would most of you agree with me that pregnancy is a miracle all in itself?

Even the most natural means and methods. Somehow a little human person comes into the world.

As if the little person was not enough. He or she is not blank; they come into the world with elements of personality.

Every child that enters the world has potential. It is either going to be good or bad.

Most of the time that shaping comes about from the parents and family influence as to what is important/ priorities, right and wrong, truth or lying.

The world plays roles too as so much influence comes from school and friends.

So today’s scripture picks up right after Mary gets the news and she packs up to go visit her older cousin in the hill country of Judea.

We don’t know if she is running from telling her parents and Joseph her husband what the angel said or if she is looking for a compassionate person that would understand her situation and Elizabeth is the most likely candidate.

Perhaps she is looking for confirmation; if Elisabeth is pregnant then she will know that it was not a dream but a real visit from an angel.

Have ya’ll heard the phrase, you can’t be just a little bit pregnant. Either you are or you’re not. But that does not always mean that some one can look at a person and tell, especially early on.

When Mary gets to Elizabeth’s home, she is probably only a few weeks along and yet by the filling of the spirit, Elizabeth knows. And on top of that she also knows who and what the baby is…She knows the full potential of Mary’s child.