“Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” So cries an exasperated Charlie Brown in the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas. Amid the commercialism, the materialism and the general confusion of the holiday, Charlie Brown seeks merely to understand. Understanding has been our goal over the last two weeks. By looking at how the gospel writers prepare for the coming of Christ we are looking for ways to prepare our lives for the Child to be born anew in our lives. In Matthew’s Gospel we pondered the dilemma of Joseph as he was asked by God to open his life to Mary’s infant. And in our pondering we asked whether we were willing to open ourselves up to the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. Last time we considered the appearance of John the Baptist, who like the three spirits in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, urged us to be ready to change our attitudes and actions in light of the prophet’s call to prepare the way of the Lord. Today we turn our attention toward the more familiar account of the Christmas story, that given us by Luke. But our chosen text is not perhaps as familiar a one to us in the Church today.
Nestled between the angel Gabriel’s birth announcement and Mary’s song of praise are seven short verse that are often hurried over as we rush on to shepherds and angels and stars. Somehow the meeting of two relatives doesn’t quite message up to the coming of the Three Wiseman. Yet I am convinced that here lies the heart of the Advent Gospel for Luke. In these few verses we can find the answer to Charlie Brown’s question - What is Christmas really all about?
The text begins: “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judah...” Having just received an angelic announcement from Gabriel, Mary cannot wait to share her news with someone. And who can blame her? Its not everyday an angel makes a housecall. So off she goes to see her kinswoman Elizabeth. Why Elizabeth? Because earlier in Luke’s Gospel, Gabriel had spoken to her Husband Zechariah the priest and had given another birth announcement. And since the angel had told this to Mary who better to believe the good news than one who had good news of her own. So seeking encouragement from an older and wiser woman, Mary rushes to find Elizabeth.
Now, the text goes on to say “...where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the babe leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled wit the Holy Spirit...” I have often wondered what did Mary say? What could have elicited such a dramatic response? Many a minister would dearly love to know what words could fill a person with the Spirit of God! But the Scripture doesn’t record Mary’s words, rather Luke expands upon the response of Elizabeth by recording her psalm of praise. “In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
We come now to verse 43 which seems to me to be the key verse in getting to the heart of Luke’s Advent Gospel. Pay attention to the words here. Elizabeth speaks: “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Let me read that again: “Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” It appears that the thing which elicited the response of leaping joy and praise was not what Mary said when she came - but who she was when she came. What Mary said is unimportant - but who she was is not. For you see Mary is not longer just the girl betrothed to Joseph the carpenter...rather see is now the mother of God’s son! She has been divinely appointed to bear the Savior. She has been chosen to become the human means by which Christ will come to his world. Mary has become literally the Christ- Bearer. The one who brings Christ to the world. This is the key that unlocks the Good News of Luke’s Advent Gospel. Because of what Mary is doing - the baby leaps in Elizabeth’s womb and the Spirit fills her to sing a song of praise.
So what does this mean for us? Is it just a nice stop on the way to the manger? Or is there something deeper to be found for us in this scene? And what is the relevance for us today? One of the Christmas songs we sing during the Advent season is Come O Come Emmanuel. And we know that Emmanuel (as the prophet’s foretold) is the name given to the one who brings the good news that “God is with us.” Advent is the proclamation that Emmanuel has come. That God is now indeed with his people. But too often I feel that we confine this grand in-breaking of God into his world to a single spot in human history. That once upon a time, a long time ago in a far off land, the baby Jesus was born in a stable and a bright star lit up the sky to lead shepherds and kings to the manger. But that attitude is nothing if not wrong! Advent is no once upon a time. Advent/Christmas is not solely a remembrance of things past...or merely a hoping for things to come. Advent is here! Advent is now! In a real and tangible way.
And this is what Luke is trying to say to us in this passage. Just as Christ’s first Advent came through the humanity of the Virgin Mary - Christ’s continuing Advent - the news that God is with his people - must come through our humanity.
Advent cannot be - must not be - confined to some past event or four Sundays out of a year. Christ’s presence can come anytime, anywhere and in any way - but He chooses to come through us. While Mary was chosen to bear Christ physically, we have been chosen to bear him spiritually to the world around us. We too are Christ-Bearers! Did not Jesus himself commission us to act in “His name”? And not only do we do all things in the name of Christ, we do them because Christ is living by the Spirit within each of us. Whether we are conscious of it our not, we are revealing Christ again to the world around us! I cannot over-emphasize this: We reveal Immanuel to the world!!!
Paul writes in First Corinthians: “Consider your call, brethren, not many of you were wise...not many were powerful, not many of noble birth, but God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong...” Weak and frail, inadequate as we may feel, friends God has chosen us to bear his Son to a dark world.
If we strip away the tinsel, the twinkling lights, the pretty packages and the holiday hype - there cradled in a stinking stable, held in a young mother’s arms and in the believer’s heart is the true reason for the season. God has come to us! That’s the good news!
But what we do with that news is up to us! Some people like to talk about Christians as Easter people - but I think first we ought to be Advent people! People called by God to become the means of Christ’s continuing incarnation. We are become the hands and feet, the eyes and mouth of Jesus.
And I don’t know how that makes you feel, but it scares me. Perhaps as much as it scared Mary when she heard the news. If I am to reveal Christ this Advent, I better make some changes in my life. I better be aware that my every action reflects the presence of Christ for ill or good. Every word I speak becomes charged with spiritual importance. Every person I meet from now on becomes an opportunity to proclaim again Immanuel - God is with us!
I think the heart of Advent for Luke is the recognition that we are Advent people. People, like Mary, like Zechariah, like the shepherds who spread abroad the Good News that Christ is born! We are chosen - chosen to bear God’s Son into the dark and miserable places of this sin scarred world. God appointed messengers of Immanuel. Not before you say - well the world is so big what can I do? - Look at Mary. She started with just one person. She took the good news that God had come to his people to one person...to Elizabeth. That’s where it begins.
A Peter, Paul and Mary song entitled “Christmas Dinner” shows us the impact of the Advent message:
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And it came to pass on a Christmas evening, while all the doors were shuttered tight; outside standing a lonely boychild, cold and shivering in the night!
On that street every window, save one was gleaming bright, and to this window walked the boychild, peeking in he saw candlelight.
Through other windows he had looked at turkeys, ducks and geese and cherry pies, but through this window he saw a gray-haired lady, table bare and tears in her eyes.
Into his coat reached the boychild, knowing well there was little there. He took from his pocket his own Christmas dinner, a bit of cheese, some bread to share.
His outstretched hands held the food and they trembled, as the door it opened wide. Said he, “Would you share with me Christmas dinner?” Gently she said, “Come inside.”
The gray-haired lady brought forth to the table, in glasses two, the last drop of wine. Said she, ”Here’s a toast to everyone’s Christmas, and especially yours and mine!”
And it came to pass on that Christmas evening, when all the doors were shuttered tight; that in that town the happiest Christmas, was shared by candlelight!
Friends, Advent is about letting people know by our actions and words that God is still with us. He has come and he remains with his people. Will you bear that message this year? Amen.
