Over the last few weeks we’ve been making preparations for Christmas. We’ve put up Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and Christmas decorations. We’ve listened to Christmas music, bought Christmas presents, and perhaps tried to be a little nicer to others. We’ve said our prayers to God, thanking him for his blessings and petitioning him for things we need and things we think we need. Whether we realize it or not, as we make preparations for Christmas a lot of what we do is based on what we’ve learned and done in the past. Over the years we’ve learned to decorate from watching others and then practicing ourselves. We aren’t just spontaneously doing completely new things. But rather we have traditions, Christmas traditions. Some things we do almost by rote after doing them so many times. Other things are newer, but still adaptations of the old. Through it all we are dependent upon the past. But as we build upon the past, there is a present imperative. And that imperative is Get Ready!
The first thing we can discuss this morning in connection with our sermon theme is the question “Get ready for what?” The short answer for this is God. Most of you here have heard the story of how an angel appeared to Roger and Doris Ishee as they were walking in Bayou View Park in March of 2010, just prior to my arriving here in June of that year. If you haven’t heard this story and want to some time, let me know and I’ll send you the written description of it. At any rate, this angel asked the Ishees if they would pray the Lord’s Prayer three times per day since our country and our world need it. I still try to follow this angel’s prescription, although I don’t always pray the Lord’s Prayer three times per day and don’t always do it very well when I do. But recently in my prayers I have reflected on the first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. These three petitions would have been appropriate even if Adam and Eve never would have fallen into sin. Adam and Eve were to hallow God’s name by looking up to him for blessings, they were to participate in the coming of his kingdom as they served each other and increased and multiplied on the earth, and they were to look for God’s will to occur on earth in the sense of worshipping the Son of God and looking for him to finally come and become a man on this earth and lead them to eternal life in heaven. They were to look up to God, live in the Spirit on earth, and follow the Son’s leadership all the way to heaven. Since the fall into sin, we pray these petitions in a different way from one perspective. But from another perspective, God’s will from the beginning still stands. And so when we ask the question at Christmas “What should we get ready for?” the best answer I can give is to get ready for God.
I also think this is the setting of our Gospel text this morning and really the setting of the entirety of the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel. In the first chapter of Luke, Mary and Jesus make an appearance to be sure. But they are muted appearances. Mary is innocent and seemingly lacking in resources to deal well with what is happening to her. And Jesus is mainly just quietly conceived in Mary’s womb. The real human actors in the chapter are Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. As I mentioned last week, Luke’s Gospel begins where the Old Testament ended, at the temple with priests serving in it. Luke picks up the story of the Old Testament, even as later on Acts will pick up where the Gospel of Luke leaves off. Luke, as fitting for one writing for a Gentile audience largely unfamiliar with the Old Testament, starts out with recent history, picking up where the Old Testament and even intertestamental literature left off. And then Luke shows the depths of these characters Zechariah and Elizabeth, explaining in great detail how what happened to them fits into the story and theology of the Old Testament. And what Luke clearly teaches in these things is that God was fulfilling his promises to his people. God fulfilling the hopes of those at the end of the Old Testament was ultimately God fulfilling his will from the beginning of the world where he created it. Even Gentiles can look at the angel Gabriel abruptly and powerfully stepping onto the scene and sense that something great is happening, for many of their heroes had legends of miracles accompanying their birth. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s stories teach us all to get ready for God who is fulfilling his will as Creator.
Our text for this morning helps show us how Zechariah and Elizabeth encourage us to get ready. Prior to our text Elizabeth has conceived John the Baptist in fulfillment of the angel Gabriel’s words to her. It seems reasonable to conclude that Mary probably heard about these remarkable events that happened to her relative Elizabeth. Already this would have started to prepare Mary for Gabriel six months later to announce the conception of Jesus in her. The Old Testament was preparing for the new; God the Creator was preparing the way to send his Son into the world through Mary. Here it’s significant that the last thing that Gabriel tells Mary, who is likely 13 or 14, is that her old relative Elizabeth miraculously conceived a child six months ago. Again, I tend to think that Mary already knew this; it was likely public knowledge since many people saw something had happened to Zechariah at the temple and everyone could see that Elizabeth was too old to have children. And so I think that Gabriel isn’t telling Mary something she didn’t know; rather he’s guiding her about what to do. 13 or 14 year old Mary is now pregnant before marriage, and her baby is the Christ. Just maybe she needs a bit of advice! Again the Old Testament was paving the way for the new. And so it is that our text this morning immediately follows Gabriel’s words to Mary about Elizabeth and states, “In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” The impression given is that Mary departs almost immediately for the house of Elizabeth after Gabriel departs.
And so Mary makes a journey of about 80 to 100 miles from Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country of Judah. It’s the first great journey in the Gospel of Luke. Jews were familiar with journeys or pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish feasts. And Greeks and Romans who read or text likely would have been reminded of Odysseus’ great journey in Homer’s The Odyssey. Ultimately God the Creator of all has sent Mary on this journey. This is further confirmed when Mary arrives and greets Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s response to Mary’s greeting echoes the book of Deuteronomy (28:1, 4), which speaks about the blessing of the fruit of the womb if Israel is obedient to the voice of the Lord. As soon as Mary arrives she is immediately met by Old Testament Scripture and the rejoicing of those who symbolize the Old Testament. Even six-month-old John immediately jumps in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary with Christ Jesus in her womb. The angel Gabriel at the annunciation had already called Mary to Get Ready by directing her to relative Elizabeth and the Old Testament she symbolizes. And now upon arriving at Zechariah’s house she is further encouraged to get ready in connection with Scriptures. In fact, Mary spends three months with Zechariah and Elizabeth, learning the Scriptures and learning about God and his working. She would have learned all about Gabriel’s bringing about the conception of John the Baptist with aged Zechariah and Elizabeth. Mary would have learned about how this fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Mary would have learned about how these things ultimately can be traced back to God’s loving purpose for the world. And since Mary would stay for three months, she would have been present around the time when John would be born, which would further prepare her for what to expect when her own son would be born. In the face of such wonderful opportunities of learning about God’s love and God’s working in her life, Mary cried out with her Magnificat song where she praises God for so blessing her and declares that his love is from of old. Throughout her stay, Mary would be Getting Ready for Christmas.
What kind of lessons might we here today learn from these things? Well, first I think it would be good to ponder how God has helped us to Get Ready in the past. There was a time in the past when we stepped into an ancient story that we didn’t contribute to. We found God bringing us into his story. Like the young disciple Mary, we didn’t know much, and we were like lowly peasants with basically nothing to offer. And yet God preceded us and loved us. Long ago God decreed that he loved human beings, even as he loved his own Son long ago, even before the foundation of the world. When God brought us into his story and his family through his Spirit, he was doing so in fulfillment of his will when he created the stars of the heavens. And having brought us to himself he helped us to get ready. He surrounded us with Christians who modeled his love for us and taught us about him. Like young Mary he helped us to store up such things in our hearts and treasure them, knowing that we were being given gifts of infinite value. God called on us in our spiritual infancy to Get Ready for more teaching about his love. Like young Mary, we would be with Jesus for a long time, even learning in detail about Jesus’ death on the cross for sin, long after Old Testament predecessors had passed away. God called on us to stick close to him, to trust him, and learn to expect great blessings from him.
Finally, God calls on us to get ready today. Our eager expectation for God in the past has not been disappointed. And it won’t be disappointed now. Like young Mary we’ve journeyed with God and learned from him for some time with those he has brought us to. And now we know that more journeys with him are coming in the future. One such journey is nearing its destination. We have been Getting Ready this Advent season for celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have been reflecting on God’s love as evident especially in the Old Testament-like predecessor John the Baptist. As we’ve done so we’ve also been Getting Ready in the rest of our lives. We’ve contemplated God’s love as we’ve petitioned him in prayer. We’ve shared fellowship with others as we have together made preparations for Christmas. We’ve bought presents, decorated, and enjoyed fellowship. We’ve tried to share our anticipation for Christmas with others by loving them and serving them. But our journey is not yet complete, even as young Mary’s journey was not yet complete. We’ve journeyed to this point, we’ve gone to the Scriptures, we’ve gone to see Elizabeth and come back. But there are still some final preparations to be made. For there is one last journey left to make to Bethlehem. And so may we Get Ready!
