Readings:
Sermon:
Does any one like watching repeats on the telly? Or do you prefer to catch up on an old drama or sitcom via Freeview or a streaming service? There is a risk that we just engage with the Christmas story like we would catching up with a Box set - or do we binge the story because of the busyness of the season? Why can’t we just wait? Do you remember the days where you had to wait a week for the next instalment of Dr Who? We know the Christmas story, we engage with it via school nativities, School Assemblies, Nine Lessons and Community Carols over and over again. We know how it turns out. How can we then recapture the initial shock of the news: God is coming in the flesh to show us what real life looks like.
For the past couple of weeks John the Baptist has been the messenger of that news. If you’ve been listening in to other diocesan sermons on line, or going to church, you’ll know that the news has not been all that good. There has been a lot of talk about axes, pitchforks and unquenchable fires - you brooding vipers! So it is a real relief to hear news from a different messenger – who will turn out to be Mary the mother of Jesus.
Mary & Elizabeths’ story is a beautiful and a moving one. It’s a story of friendship, of a young girl visiting an older woman and them walking together, being alongside one another, supporting each other to bring new life to birth.
It’s a story of great joy. Elizabeth feels her baby leap in her womb and pronounces God’s blessing upon Mary. Mary will respond with her own song of praise. It’s a story of joy of new life and a new Mission for God on earth. It is not a 6 week TV series but a true story that lasts and forms us for ever.
It’s a story about bodies. It’s about two women whose bodies are changing as they play their part in God’s story – which will of course continue to be an embodied story. We might imagine Mary and Elizabeth as they meet, laughing as they greet each other, hugging, perhaps placing their hands on each others’ pregnant bellies.
It’s an intimate story within the huge and cosmic story of God coming to earth, A story of encounter, of touching, of kindness. This is the context in which new life is felt and blessing is pronounced.
Two women are responding from the bottom of their hearts to the greatness and goodness of God, despite the strange and frightening circumstances they find themselves in. Two women whose bodies leap for joy as they recognise the presence of God with them.
When did you last leap for joy, I wonder? We will all have our own moments of heart leap: perhaps it is upon a piece of news that is a great relief to you in some way; perhaps, it is the presence of unexpected person in a time of your the time of great need ; perhaps it is reading something or hearing a piece of music that moves you in a way that cannot be expressed; perhaps it is something about the stunning and silent splendour of the natural world that makes your heart leap and laugh. Maybe you are leaping for joy as the World Cup comes to an end, regardless which countries reach the final.
What seems to make people leap for joy is becoming aware of the presence of God in their lives. But we can only become aware of the presence of God if we’re attuned to it and ready for it, if we are prepared to look for it. The fear is that very often we’ve closed our receivers or set top boxes down and are not expecting to encounter the living God - so we don’t.
We need to practise our presence to God. To remember him in the midst of ordinary life, to glance in his direction while we are decorating the Christmas tree, humming a Carol or waiting in a car parking queue. If we can do ordinary things in the name of Christ and recognise Jesus for a moment in each other, then God may break into our lives and steal our hearts away.
The child leaped for joy in his mother’s womb. The child in us can leap for joy too as we come close to Christ, who was carried in the womb of Mary, for us and for our salvation.
Question:
Reflect on the following over the balance of Advent
- As we hear this beautiful story of friendship and joyful connection between two women who found themselves caught up in God’s saving plan, ask yourself this - who will walk with you and support you in your journey of faith so that you can faithfully leap for joy for experiencing the love of God in your life?