Advent 4C. 19 December 2021. The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz
Micah 5:2-5a He shall be the one of peace.
Hebrews 10:5-10. I have come to do your will, O God.
Luke 1:39-56 From generation to generation.
O God of “she who believed”, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.
Our Gospel reading this morning depicts an amazing scene, rare in its proclamation in the church but much celebrated in art and music. It’s an extended dialogue between two loving women in the Biblical narrative (only Ruth and Naomi have similar prominence). Here is a story of two pregnant prophets, one a crone and one a maiden, whose lives have been turned upside-down, and who sensed that the children they carried were prophets also and would someday and forever turn other lives right-side up. Here are two pregnant prophets pronouncing blessing and singing a version of an old song, Hannah’s song from 1 Samuel, about the glorious impossibility of how God works and what God has done.
Elizabeth said, “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” For me, those are two of the very best lines in all of scripture. I feel so lucky that I was ordained to the priesthood on May 31st, the Feast of the Visitation (lucky because I didn’t get to choose the date; the date chose me!).
In her book Just a Sister Away, Renita Weems writes about Mary’s encounter with her kinswoman Elizabeth. She says of the two women: “To be chosen by God is a humbling experience. To be used by God is an awesome experience. To be blessed by God is a joyous experience…most of the time.”[1] Weems writes that because the blessings that Elizabeth and Mary received were not without their considerable burdens. The first burden has to do with receiving a blessing that is no longer expected; that was Elizabeth’s burden. It’s easy for me to imagine that she had long since given up on having a child. I also imagine that she had grown accustomed to not having a child and had made a certain peace with the way her life had turned out. What happens when we give up on expecting something? We stop looking for it, or we change the way we feel about what we want. We get tired of missing it; we give up, or we steel ourselves to guard against the pain of longing. Sometimes we create elaborate rationalizations about how it’s better that what was once hoped for didn’t happen. Sometimes I hear people attribute the lack of fulfillment to God’s will. It can be very hard to switch gears to go from resignation to enthusiasm when one has worked to stop hoping for something. A blessing that arrives too late can be difficult to recognize and difficult to accept.
The second burden, Mary’s burden, has to do with how to receive a blessing before it is expected, before it is even wanted. It’s easy for me to imagine that Mary wanted to bear children, just not quite yet and not quite in this way. What happens when we receive a blessing too soon? We haven’t begun to look for it; we are unprepared. It might be scandalous, a stumbling block; or, we change the way we feel about what we wanted, because it’s too soon. Sometimes an early blessing seems like no blessing at all. It can be very difficult to welcome a blessing that comes before we are ready for it.
I imagine that Mary’s hasty travel to the hill country to see her cousin was just what Elizabeth needed to claim her blessing, because the story goes that she was filled with the Holy Spirit when she heard Mary’s greeting. [2] (No need to wait for Pentecost some three decades later after Jesus’ death.) Elizabeth was fully inspired with holiness, and the child within her leaped for joy. I imagine that Mary’s hasty trip to see her was just what Mary needed to claim her own blessing. The story goes that she realized that she had become an instrument of magnification for God’s grace. Upon hearing Elizabeth’s blessing, Mary became emboldened to sing what Dietrich Bonhoeffer called, “the most passionate, the wildest,…the most revolutionary Advent hymn ever sung.” “When we love, we let our hearts speak,” wrote the great bell hooks, who died earlier this week.[3]
Many of you know that at our monthly vestry meetings we spend a critical amount of time with one another, in the middle of the meeting, encountering the Gospel appointed for the coming Sunday. I think that the more items on our agenda, the greater our need to take time to study scripture. It helps us do our work together; it reminds us of what our work is about; it reminds us of who and Whose we are.
This week the Gospel spoke to us of the gulf between the overly full and the hungry, between the proud and the lowly, between the Church’s treatment of men and of women, between the powerful and those who are utterly undone by the misuse of power. [4] This week the Gospel spoke to us of the gulf between the promise of peace on earth and the reality of unspeakable violence, the lovely story of these two pregnant women and the sure knowledge, that Luke’s audience already knew, too, about how those babies would be murdered by the government. You know, whenever the powerful are brought down, the proud scattered, and the rich sent away empty, they don’t go quietly.
This visitation scene in Luke was written with the back-story of the mother of one who was beheaded and the mother of one who was crucified, representing the mothers of countless others who had died violent deaths. Before he started writing, the writer of the Gospel of Luke knew what had happened to John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. The writer of Luke knew a lot about fear, grief, and despair. And yet, here’s the other thing that the writer of Luke knew a lot about: Love. Let me remind you of what happens to our discourse, and our whole lives, when we take seriously the Biblical teaching that God is Love. It’s a way for me to get out from under the oppressive weight of patriarchal theology. Taking the lead from 1 John, it helps me to exchange the word God for the word Love. Back to bell hooks and her teaching that, “The only way into really being able to connect with others, and to know how to be, is to be participating in every aspect of your life as a sacrament of love.”
In this encounter of the two pregnant prophets, we hear a story of allowing Love’s blessing in, of claiming Love’s blessing in, through, and after untimely events, and even in horrendous situations. We are given examples of how we might be inspired, filled with a spirit of holiness, and how our souls might enlarge the view of Love in the blessed and stressed situations of our own lives. We are given words to say, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by Love” and “My soul magnifies Love, and my spirit rejoices in Love my Savior.” These are words to say whenever we receive an untimely blessing or live through terrible and terrifying times.
The presence of Love is blessing. The presence of Love is justice, as John Golenski preached last week. The presence of Love does not mean the absence of suffering; indeed, suffering usually increases with Love. Obedience (that is, listening deeply) to Love has always meant blessing. Refusing to obey, refusing to listen to Love, has always meant damnation, individually and communally. The absence of Love is indeed punishing. Listen for the language of love when you hear today’s cantata, especially the idea of traveling in constant Love.
I think this encounter of the two pregnant prophets is teaching us about how Love has always been and always will be. Listen to the story this way: [5]
And having risen up in those days, Mary went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zachariah and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened that as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the babe in her womb leaped, and Elizabeth was filled with a holy spirit and cried out in a loud cry and said, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And where am I that the mother of my Love should come to me? For see as the voice of your greeting began in my ears, the baby in my womb leaped in joy. And blessed is she who believed that there will be a fulfillment of the things spoken to her from Love. “When we love, we let our hearts speak.” And Mary said, “my soul magnifies Love, and my spirit rejoiced in the Love of my deliverance because Love has looked on the misery of Love’s servant. For see, from now on all generations will call me blessed, for Love has done great things for me and Love’s name is holy. Love’s mercy is for those who are in awe of Love in every generation. Love has shown great strength and has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. Love has brought down the powerful from their thrones and Love has lifted up the lowly; love has filled the hungry with good things and has sent the rich away without handouts. Love has helped those who struggle with Love according to the promise Love made to our ancestors since the beginning of time and forever.
Now, for any who are feeling anxious or disturbed about the rich being sent away without handouts, I have to tell you that in a community context, the gap between those who are hungry and those who are overly full is a measure of the absence of Love. Any who continue to stay rich in a community where there is poverty, surely shouldn’t expect a handout from Love, too – at least Mary, the Mother of pure Love, didn’t think so. Here’s what I want you to know today: Our souls can enlarge and clarify Love and rejoice in Love’s saving power. We can give thanks for all that Love has done, in our time, in every generation. We can enact Love, expand Love, let Love make a way where there is no way. We can travel in constant Love, let our hearts speak, share more of our wealth, recommit ourselves, as this Advent comes to a close, to turning again away from (repenting of) our fear and our despair, and turn again toward Love. Please come with me.
[1] Just a Sister Away: A Womanist Vision of Women’s Relationships in the Bible, Renita Weems, p. 113ff.
[2] Although the place is not named, Ein Karem, spring of the vineyard, is the site associated with the visitation.
[3] Bell Hooks, All about Love: New Visions (New York: HarperCollins, 2001), p. xi.
[4] Or men and non-men, which includes non-binary people.
[5] Thanks to D. Mark Davis for his wonderful translating work at: http://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2012/12/two-prophetic-women-lord-and-leaper.html