The Piercing Truth

The Sermon Study Guide is here.

Luke 1:39-45

December 10/11, 2011 • Portage First UMC

Sometimes, you’ve just got to do something—or at least, I do. When I’m fretting over something or thinking through something, it helps to have my body active, focused on something other than the worry or the issue. So I can relate to Mary in the Gospel lesson this evening/morning. You remember how Mary has just received word that she’s going to become a mother, and that the baby conceived within her is from the Holy Spirit. That’s a lot for a 13-year-old girl to take in, and so as we continue looking at her story from the Gospel of Luke, we’re told she “got ready and hurried” (1:39). She wasn’t just going to sit around; she needed to do something. The angel, Gabriel, had told her that her relative, Elizabeth, was miraculously pregnant in her old age, and so Mary decides she’s going to go help Elizabeth. Luke says she “hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,” which, according to tradition, is the town of Ein Karem, a small village about an hour’s walk from Jerusalem, not far from Bethlehem, but a long way from Mary’s hometown of Nazareth—about eighty miles, in fact. A journey by foot from Nazareth to Ein Karem would have taken about nine days, so Mary would not have made the journey alone. She would have joined a caravan heading in that direction—both for companionship and safety (Hamilton, The Journey, pgs. 62-63).

Nine days across three mountain ranges—it would have been a long journey, but an important one for Mary. I wonder if, at this point, she has even told her parents about the angel’s visit, or exactly when in this timeline she told Joseph, her betrothed. Perhaps he came to visit her when she was at Elizabeth’s house—we don’t know. But Mary needed to see Elizabeth. She needed someone who was not her mother to talk to, to gain perspective from, and so she heads to Ein Karem under the story of helping Elizabeth during the last three months of her pregnancy.

Ein Karem was located about five miles southwest of Jerusalem; today it is part of Jerusalem, one of its neighborhoods with a population of around 2,000. Today it is home to academics and artists, but in the first century, it was perhaps home to priests, being close to the Temple and to Jerusalem. Elizabeth’s husband, Zechariah, was a priest who would serve periodically in the Temple courts, and he and Elizabeth had made their home in this village. Elizabeth is described as a “relative” of Mary’s (1:36), but we don’t know any more than that about what the particular relationship was. The word can be as narrow as “cousin” or as broad as “of the same nation.” So we don’t know the exact relation Elizabeth and Mary had, but we do know that Elizabeth is the one person Mary felt she could talk to, one who would understand, because Elizabeth, too, was experiencing a miraculous pregnancy.

You may remember from the beginning of Luke 1 that Elizabeth and Zechariah, were old and childless. Doubtless they had prayed for a long time to have a child, and yet God had not answered that prayer the way they wanted him to. By now, they had given up, and then one day, when Zechariah goes to serve at the Temple, an angel shows up and promises him a son—and more than a son, a preacher who will prepare the way for the Messiah. Zechariah doubts, and is made mute for nine months, but apparently he found a way to get the message across to Elizabeth, because she did, in fact, conceive in her old age is now in her sixth month. She’s been in seclusion, probably because, like many who have struggled with infertility, she’s undoubtedly been through many miscarriages and failed pregnancies. So Elizabeth is staying safe this time until Mary arrives. Now, remember, this was in the days before e-mail or snail mail for that matter. Elizabeth probably doesn’t know Mary is on her way, nor does she know Mary is pregnant. Probably no one knows that except Mary at this point. Yet, when she hears Mary’s voice, the Spirit of God fills her and the baby within her, whom the angel said would be filled with the Spirit even before he was born (1:15), leaps in her womb. And Elizabeth joins the ranks of those Old Testament prophets, who speak words for God, when she says to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!…Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” (1:42, 45). Elizabeth doesn’t give Mary a blessing; she recognizes the blessing God has already given to Mary (Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. IX, pg. 55).

Two weeks ago, we talked about what it means to find favor with God. The idea of blessing, here, is the same thing. To be blessed by, or to find favor with, God is not a path to the easy life. It’s not some sort of spiritual superiority where your faith is deeper and better than someone else’s. To be blessed, as the Bible defines it, means you find yourself as a part of God’s plan. You are part of what God is up to in the world. It’s not about getting more material stuff, which is the way we usually think of blessings. This time of year, it’s not about having more presents under the Christmas tree than anyone else. To be blessed means you believe what God has said to be true (Culpepper 55). To be blessed means you follow with your whole heart what God has called you to do, whether it’s easy or not. At the beginning of the year in a couple of weeks, you’re going to be invited to again pray the prayer of John Wesley, to renew your covenant, your relationship with God, and part of that prayer says, “Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering” (UMH 607). It’s not an easy prayer to pray, but it is one that leads us to the truly blessed life. A Bible teacher from an earlier generation, William Barclay, put it this way: “The piercing truth is that God does not choose a person for ease and comfort and selfish joy but for a task that will take all that head and heart can bring to it” (qtd. in Hamilton 68). So Mary is blessed, Elizabeth says, because she’s willing to do what God calls her to do, no matter what the cost. And Mary, I have no doubt, needed to hear that word from Elizabeth; to hear that word of encouragement might have been the main reason she made this long trip.

And so the first thing we take away from this short episode in the Christmas story is that we need people in our lives who will say what we need to hear. Not necessarily what we want to hear, but what we need to hear. Today, we call them mentors, and we all need people in our lives we look up to, people we look toward when we need to make a decision or choose a direction or hear a word of encouragement. We all need an Elizabeth in our lives—a mentor, a guide, someone who can walk with us and also show us the way. When I was in seminary, one of the “classes” we were required to take was called Supervised Ministry. It was what it sounds like. We were assigned to a local church and learned from the pastor while being engaged in ministry. I was assigned to Harrodsburg United Methodist Church and the pastor was Mike Powers. Mike was fantastic to work with. He took me along on hospital visits, led me lead prayer meeting, let me preach and lead worship. He taught me more in that semester than I probably ever learned sitting in a classroom. It wasn’t that Mike had a set of notes he was going over. Rather, Mike walked with me, let me do things, let me fail sometimes. And sometimes we would just sit and talk about ministry. He invited Cathy and I into his family, and he shaped me, probably more than anyone else, into the pastor I am today. Who’s your mentor? Who do you turn to for advice, guidance? Who is the first person you want to call when things go well or when things fall apart? Mary hurried (1:39) to Elizabeth, because she knew Elizabeth would understand and would be there for her.

But just as Mary needed Elizabeth, Elizabeth needed Mary. With failed pregnancies and years of disappointment behind her, she needed someone to draw her out of seclusion (Hamilton 65), to encourage her. In some ways, Mary was someone she could invest her life in so she wouldn’t be so consumed with the fear surrounding her own pregnancy. Just as we need an Elizabeth, we also need a Mary, someone whom we can pour our lives into, someone we can mentor, someone we can share faith with. Who’s your Mary? Who is that younger person you’re pouring your life into? One of the great privileges of my life right now is the opportunity I have to serve on the Board of Ordained Ministry. In fact, for the last fifteen years or so I’ve been able, in a variety of ways, to encourage new pastors, people who are in the process of answering their call to ministry. Now, I hate meetings, and most of those things involve meetings, but it’s the one place in the Annual Conference I believe I can make a difference. When you pour your life into the future leadership of the church, you impact the larger church. I sometimes complain about the work, but I recognize it as a privilege to be able to mentor people that way. And then, when I look out at this congregation, I see the same thing happening.

[PF Hope] I see people who are giving of their time and energy and life to, in quiet ways mentor people here. I see a band that has, as part of its heart, developing new leadership and new musical talents. I see several people who have stepped up to give of their time in the nursery and in Kids Slam, to teach and encourage the youngest among us. And I know there are many other things going on that I’m not even aware of, connections that are made, relationships that are built, week after week.

[McCool] I see adults who pour their lives into the youth of our church—in Sunday School, in youth group, by taking them to camp, by encouraging them to sing and use their gifts in other ways. Every January, I watch as adults step up to work with the youth in our Confirmation class, helping them learn about Jesus and about the church. I think of those of you who, as we’ve established new styles of worship services, encouraged the leadership even though you don’t prefer that style of worship. You’ve stood behind the 11:30 service and PF Hope and you’ve offered words of encouragement when things get tough. And we’re counting on you to offer even more than that, to offer a helping hand when there is a need. That’s part of giving of yourself as well.

Like Elizabeth, we’re called to pour our lives into those God has placed in our path. So who’s your Mary? And who’s your Elizabeth? Who are you walking in faith with?

After Elizabeth greets Mary, Mary breaks out in song, a passage of Scripture we called the “Magnificat,” a Latin word that means “magnify” or “glorify.” It’s a song full of Biblical references, verses and images Mary would have learned growing up (Wright, Luke for Everyone, pg. 15)—but most importantly, it’s a song that celebrates the “great reversal” her son is coming to bring: the proud ones scattered, the humble lifted up, the hungry filled with good things, and the rich sent away empty. It’s a picture of a world turned upside down, or if we think in Biblical terms, a world turned right side up. When you read the Scriptures, you see how God has a heart for those who have no one else to stand up for them. Jesus came and he reached out to the least, the last, and the lost—the ones nobody else cared about. And so should we. Mary’s song reminds us again that those who follow the baby of Bethlehem are called to care for those who have no one else to care for them.

And that’s why, as I said two weeks ago, we’re going to again give away our Christmas Candlelight offering this year. Half of it will go to provide clean water wells in the community Lauren Falk is working in in Togo, Africa, and the other half will go to provide food for children in our community who live in “food insufficient households,” children who may only get food the school provides each day. Every penny we give during our Christmas Candlelight services will go to serve those whom Jesus loves, because it’s his birthday, not ours. What might happen if we give half of what we normally spend on each other to the offering? Or what might happen if we match what we spend on ourselves and give it away this Christmas? Christmas, after all, is not about getting. It’s about giving—about giving ourselves away to someone else as we mentor and encourage them, about giving what we have away for the sake of those whom Jesus cares for. That’s how we celebrate his birthday. Mary and Elizabeth teach us that, for they knew that the babies inside them were going to change the world, turn it upside down. That’s what God was about to give to the world.

[McCool] And so, today, as we think about and meditate upon their story, we are going to be reminded again of that great gift God gave, the gift of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, the gift of salvation for all who will receive, the gift of new life to all who believe. Our prayer this day: God, lead me back to Bethlehem so I might know again the hope and the peace and the world-transforming power this baby brings. Our choir is going to come and take us back to that ancient time and place, and help us remember.