Luke 1: 46-56
To Us and Through Us
Anthony Perry
For those of you who read books you may have experienced what I call the "Big Let Down". What do I mean by this? I mean the experience that comes when you read and enjoy a book so much that you get excited when you hear that it’s coming out at the movies. Unfortunately, when you see the movie you sometimes experience the "Big Let Down". The movie either leaves out scenes, or the actors don’t fit right in the role they are playing. Basically the imagery that is played out on the movie screen just doesn’t connect with the way you imagined it when you read the book.
I think it’s because for some of us our imagination is far better, farther reaching, more fulfilling and far more in tune with us than the reality of what is presented before us. This is why some adults play video games religiously. The imagined fantasy they live out in video games is far better than the reality they live in real life.
Have you ever experienced the opposite of this? Where the movie was far better than the book? In other words where the reality that was before you was far better than the one you could ever dream of in your wildest imagination.
Personally I like it when reality is blessed and made richer through the imagination.
This is something I hope to do with our scripture today. I want to present to you the reality presented to us in Luke chapter One and by using our imaginations capture the magnificence of the moment.
In Chapter One read that Marygoes to elizabeth to live for three months.
First of all let’s deal with our mental picture of the pregnant Elizabeth and the pregnant Mary that makes itself at home in our head.
When you think of Elizabeth what picture comes to your mind? Elizabeth, we know, is Mary’s relative. I usually picture her as a woman between thirty five and forty. In all probability when we think of Elizabeth we should think of a much older woman far beyond child bearing years? The angel Gabriel when talking to Mary says don’t begin to think that your being pregnant is impossible Mary, because just as miraculous is your relative Elizabeth, who in her old age, is pregnant with child and in her sixth month.
Can you imagine what Elizabeth must have thought and felt when she found out that her son, this miraculous impossibility, was a child that had a God given destiny? He was meant "to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
Her words are recorded in verse 35, “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
In these times to be a woman who couldn’t have a child was a public disgrace. The barren woman was seen as cursed by God, but now the barren Elizabeth stands amazed as she recognizes that God has removed the cause of her shame, and that God had remembered her.
Did you ever wonder how Elizabeth knew that the child within Mary was her Lord? When the old woman Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting, her miracle baby leaps in her womb, and she is filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God to the point that she has to shout out in a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will give birth to! She then turns to pondering the mercy and grace being shown to her and says, “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me.” Looking to Mary she explains her cry, “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, my baby leaped for joy. You are blessed Mary because you have believed in what the Lord said he would accomplish in you!”
Now let’s take a look at the image of Mary that resides in our head. What do you picture when you think of Mary. Do you see a soft, petite, feminine young girl? This is probably a false image. Young women at this time would have carried the brunt of the grunt work as they helped care for the household. Their daily life could have been filled with the hauling of water, the care over younger siblings, the grinding of the wheat, the cooking and cleaning, and daily watering and feeding of animals if they had them. In fact for a pregnant Mary to have traveled to one of the Priestly cities where her relative Elizabeth probably lived meant she was indeed an individual of strength and stamina.
We don’t often do the math. Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Mary showed up. How long did Mary stay? The scripture tells us three months for a grand total of nine months. It is very well possible that Mary went to live with Elizabeth to help care for her until she gave birth to John.
I utterly find it amazing that when these two women, these two family members, come face to face with each other they are so overwhelmed by God’s blessings that they just can’t contain themselves.
Even young Mary starts spouting off scripture. I say this because what she says sounds all too familiar, and is very similar to the Song of Hannah in the Old Testament. She may have claimed Hannah’s song as her very own. She may have claimed it as a response to her own blessing. It now becomes Mary’s song.
And Mary sings, “My soul praises the Lord; my heart rejoices in God my Savior, because he has shown his concern for me his humble servant. From now on, all people will say that I am blessed, because the Powerful One has done great things for me. His name is holy. God will show his mercy forever and ever to those who worship and serve him. He has done mighty deeds by his power. He has scattered the people who are proud and think false and great things about themselves. In this way He brings down rulers from their throne and raises up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent those who falsely think they are rich away with the nothing they brought with them. He has helped His servant, His people, remembering to show them mercy as he promised to our ancestors, to Abraham, and to His children by faith, forever."
When you hear this story don’t you get this sense that both of these women are still caught up in the awe and wonder of the moment? Don’t you get the sense that they are caught up in the magnificence of it all? Can you see that they are more than pregnant with child; they are pregnant with hope and that hope is pouring out of them? For me it’s like a little child so enamored with all the wrapped up presents, shiny paper and bows that their eyes are sparkling, giggles are bubbling up, as their hands randomly clap. They are full of anticipation, because they can’t wait to find out what’s underneath all that wrapping.
Let’s travel into the future to a more somber place in time for these women.
We don’t know how long Elizabeth lived after the birth of John. We don’t know if she ever had the chance to see or hear her John preach or watch him work as he prepared the way of the Lord and fulfilled His call and purpose in God.
And what of Mary’s hope! We find her showing up in many places in the gospels as Jesus ministered. She never seemed far from her son. Surely this means she was never far from God.
Can we imagine for one moment what Mary’s song must have sounded like at the Cross? Could we try and tap into the emotions she must have felt as she witnessed her son, the hope of Israel’s salvation, dying before her eyes? I wonder what went through her mind when she thought of the great purpose the Angel Gabriel said her son would fulfill. Her song must have become a song of weeping and hoplessness. I’m sure that Mary never have imagined that God’s salvation through her son Jesus would come with so much pain and rejection.
We know from hindsight her song of weeping only endured for night. Three nights might be a more correct way to say it. I wonder why no one ever recorded what she said after her eyes beheld Jesus her son, the Son of God, true God of true God, resurrected from the dead! What a song of hope that must have been! Missing things like this should constantly remind us that we only know a part of the whole glorious story. “For now we see dimly as if looking in a tarnished and faded mirror, but then, when he returns again, we shall see clearly."
When I read Mary’s song it sounds a lot like my song. For me it sounds a lot like our song, and our call as God’s family.
Mary begins her song with God’s actions to her, and her song moves to God’s actions through her. It is through her that God will fulfill His promise to His people.
Every one of us has a song to sing. It should be shared like Mary’s song that has been shared across the ages.
Like Mary this great work of God comes to our life, Jesus is born in us and we becomes partakers of the great miracle. This should inspire us to usher forth the magnificence of the moment. For this is the very foundation of the message of Christmas. A song like Mary’s should become our own, the excitement of what God has brought to us, and the anticipation of God’s salvation and mercy being realized through us should birth in us hope as it was birthed in Elizabeth and Mary.
To us and through us should be our motto. Born in us and birthed through us is the way we should live.
It is ever so heartbreaking when it comes to us and we never let it become realized through us. The message then becomes muffled, hope is not proclaimed, faith is left nothing to grasp, the Spirit is given nothing to build upon, and the love is never realized. The way is left dark and the future remains dim for all that need and want to hear what God has, is and will do for them.
Tonight when you go home and gather with your family, or gather on Christmas Day do me a favor. Remember to sing your song to your spouse, to your children, to your grandchildren, relatives, friends and neighbors. If your parents are still alive sing your song to them and let the magnificence of the moment live through you as it was meant to do.
