The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for Sunday, December 19, 2021 was preached based on the manuscript below as a response to Luke 1.39-55.
In writing to the Church at Corinth,
Paul writes about prophecies ceasing.
tongues being stilled,
and knowledge passing away.
He contrasts this with growing in faith,
and that while those things pass away,
behaviors that may puff us up,
three things remain:
faith, hope, and love.
Our passage from Luke today,
and the canticle we said preceding it,
are about faith and hope,
as is the entirety of this Advent season
which we close this week.
Just before our passage today,
Mary has accepted God’s favor
to bear the messiah —
even though she is not married
she will become pregnant.
God’s messenger tells her that her sister —
far too old to be pregnant
is pregnant nonetheless.
Mary goes to spend time with Elizabeth,
and John
who will be born first yet serve Jesus
like Esau born first
who later serves Jacob
leaps for joy.
Even in the womb
John the baptizer is preparing God’s way!
Someone just stepping into the story,
not knowing the fullness of God’s plan in Jesus,
may not have expected this reaction from Elizabeth
and certainly not from John!
This visitation story is the hinge
between stories of angels telling both Mary and Elizabeth
that they will both conceive unexpectedly
and those children being born.
Elizabeth is older, wiser, and holy.
You’d expect her to rebuke
her unwed pregnant younger sister!
Adding to the angel’s
“Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you”
Elizabeth says,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
Elizabeth’s devotion to God runs so deep
that she immediately knows
that Mary is carrying the savior
who will be called Jesus.
She concludes her blessing to Mary,
“And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
“You have had faith and now you have hope:
God’s promise is coming to pass.”
Then Mary bursts into a song,
modeled after the song of Hannah,
which Luke’s early hearers and readers
would have known.
Mary bursts into a song
and she begins to prophecy.
Mary bursts into a song,
begins to prophecy,
and bears witness to faith and hope
that she has in God and her to-be-born son,
Jesus.
She starts by thanking God for choosing her,
despite her lowly estate.
This is the beginning of what John preached on
last week:
that another way is even possible at all,
that through Elizabeth, Mary, John, and Jesus,
God is reversing the expected order of things.
Through Elizabeth, Mary, John, and Jesus,
God has reversed the expected order of things.
Throughout her song,
Mary gives thanks to God
speaking not of what God will do
but of what God has done.
She speaks in the past tense
because she is so confident in her faith and hope
that God is making all things well.
It is eternally true,
past, present, and future,
so true that it can only be spoken of
in the past tense.
“He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud
in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.”
This deep faith,
Despite Mary being younger,
is what prompts Elizabeth to say,
“And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Our passage from Luke today,
and the canticle we said preceding it,
are about faith and hope,
as is the entirety of this Advent season
which we close this week.
We’re winding down Advent,
and omicron is doing…something.
Just as we are meant to gather indoors.
Not just us here,
but us watching live
and those we’ll never know
traveling to see friends and family
whether to Eastern Washington
or to the East Coast.
Anecdotes are surging
about breakthrough cases
even as hard data is yet to be conclusive
about what and how the convey the most protection.
We still have our doors propped open
and we still have our masks on
and we here
in this church, in this community, in this state and region,
have very high vaccination rates.
It’s exciting to see all of you posting
about getting your boosters!
And we’ve passed 800,000 Americans dead.
I want to be cynical going forward,
with the breadth and depth of my Christian compassion strained.
But human suffering is bad.
It just is.
I can neither revel in it
nor be callous
nor indifferent to it.
I’ve felt this way before.
Feeling like I tried to share as much information,
and that I did my part to not just care for myself
but to act with the interest of the commons in mind.
100,000.
250,000.
Half a million.
800,000 dead.
Last month COVID19
was the number three leading cause of death
after heart disease and cancer.
A vaccine has been widely available
for most of this year.
Tempted as I may be to say
“A ha! God has scattered the proud
in the imaginations of their hearts!
They think they know better
and they’re getting their comeuppance”
that’s not my job or call,
not our job or call.
We are no more called to that cynical judgmentalism
than the old, wise, holy Elizabeth
is called to judging her unwed sister’s pregnancy.
I want to be cynical going forward,
with the breadth and depth of my Christian compassion strained.
But human suffering is bad.
It just is.
I can neither revel in it
nor be callous
nor indifferent to it.
Instead, God is breaking in a new way.
John the Baptizer is ending the age of prophets
and in Jesus’ coming,
God’s reign is coming near!
Despite her fear and likely repercussions,
Mary says yes to God’s favor
and prophecies about how the world is changing
how the world has been changed.
Elizabeth, in her deep faith says,
“And blessed is she who believed
that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
I don’t know how or when this will end.
The church has said that before,
about hosts of concerns:
biological, civil, and political!
Paul tells the church in Corinth
that knowledge, tongues, and prophecy will pass away
but faith, hope, and love will remain.
Our passage from Luke today,
and the canticle we said preceding it,
are about faith and hope,
as is the entirety of this Advent season
which we close this week.
In Jesus, born of a woman, fully human, fully divine,
God has shown us God’s infinite love
and Jesus the Christ has called us
to truly love one another.
Mary’s faith and hope
are the faith and hope that John and then Jesus preach:
the badness will come to an end
and justice will reign.
Throughout her song,
Mary gives thanks to God
speaking not of what God will do
but of what God has done.
She speaks in the past tense
because she is so confident in her faith and hope
that God is making all things well.
It is eternally true,
past, present, and future,
so true that it can only be spoken of
in the past tense.
As we wind down this advent,
may our own faith and hope be renewed. Amen.