In 2004, a CitiBank commercial portrayed two women at the
grocery store. They are in the produce aisle looking at the apples when the
first woman looks at the other. She slowly starts to smile and says, “Ooooh!
You must be having a boy! When are you due?” as she reaches down to pat the
other’s belly. The other woman responds, “I’m not pregnant!” “You’re not?” “No!
Why?” You can watch the commercial here.
A word to the wise. Don’t do that!
Many women begin to "show" sometime in the second
trimester, between 12 and 16 weeks into a pregnancy. She gets that little
telltale bump, which is, I hear, as much evidence to her as it is to the world
that she is pregnant.
In our gospel reading, Elizabeth is in the sixth month. She
probably had a good baby bump by then. Mary, however, is very early in her
pregnancy. There is no visible sign. It must have been a little unreal to her.
(Not that she didn’t believe what Gabriel had told her, but try to wrap your
mind around being the virgin mother of God the Son!)
As Mary and Elizabeth meet, Mary greets her, and at that
very moment, Elizabeth’s baby, John, who would grow up to be John the Baptist,
leaps … leaps for joy! Then the Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth, and she gave a
great cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Why is this given to me that the mother of my Lord might come to me? For
behold! As the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby in my womb
leaped for joy! Blessed is she who believes there will be fulfillment of what
was spoken to her from the LORD.”
It's just marvelous! Although they are at different stages
of their pregnancies, they are both performing essential work that only two
women could do: bearing and preparing to give birth to the Savior of the World
and His prophetic forerunner. Neither looked for this honor. Neither considered
their situation possible. But there they were.
And here you are! Have you ever considered that your story
has some striking similarities to Mary’s and Elizabeth’s?
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Both heard God’s promise and believed. You?
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Elizabeth is in awe of standing before Mary, who
has the Son of God in her womb, has come to her. Are you in awe that Jesus has
come to you?
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Elizabeth points out that Mary and “the fruit of
her womb” are blessed. And that Mary is blessed for believing that God would do
what He said. These are actually two different words – blessed as in God did
something good for you and blessed as in a special state of goodness through
obedience to God’s Word.
At some point, God’s Word came into your ears, and – joy of
joys! – the Holy Spirit created faith in you. Romans says that faith comes by
hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. This is a great mystery.
Tangent: Young ladies. If you ever have the privilege of
bearing a child into the world. Come to church. Come during the pregnancy. Come
when the baby is little. Notice that John responded to Jesus’ presence even
before he was born. When you sing hymns, confess your faith with the Creeds, and
speak the Lord’s Prayer you are witnessing to your child even before he or she
is born! What powerful influence Mothers have to witness to their babies!
For all of us, Jesus dwells in us. It’s not like Mary’s pregnancy,
but His presence with us fills us with hope and we bear him to the world. We
also get to share that hope with people who come to believe as we greet them
with Jesus’ words, too!
And how do we respond to this good news that comes to us. Can
Elizabeth’s words guide us? She is in awe of the grace that has been given to
her. “Why is this given to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
And, by extension, her Lord has come to her! Have you ever sat back in awe and
wondered, “Why did Jesus come to me? Why do I get to live in His grace? Why am
I blessed to believe this good news? Why do I get to rest in God’s grace even
though I still sin much and in no way deserve His forgiveness?” It is good to
be amazed at what God has done, is doing, and will do in your life.
Wonder that at the mystery that before the foundation of the
world, God had determined to save you from sin and death. Be in awe of God’s
salvation … and how he accomplished it. Peter says that angels long to look
into these things that we have received. Jesus is God in human flesh for you. The
infinite became finite, the immortal mortal to redeem you. He won the victory by
losing His life and being dead lives forever. And if that weren’t enough, the
Holy Spirit dwells in you as a comforter, counselor, teacher, and source of
power as you live in the faith He gave you.
How can we not, like Elizabeth, cry out at such marvelous
things that have happened to us. Your Lord comes to you. This is the story of
Christmas, the Cross and the Empty tomb. He came in history and won your
salvation. He comes to you now in the mystery of the Word which proclaims
Christ and delivers Christ: a word that God even connects to visible elements like
water, bread and wine, to deliver Jesus to you. And He will come to you in
glory in one last great act of salvation.
You are blessed, like Mary, because of what the Blessed One
she carried did for you. But you are also blessed because you believe that what
the Lord has said to you will be fulfilled. Mary believed that she would
conceive and bear a son whom she would name Jesus because He was the savior of
the world, and what God promised, He delivered.
What has God promised you? Salvation. Peace. To teach you
His ways. To guide you in His paths. To comfort you in adversity. To lead you
through the valley of the shadow of death. To defend you. He gives you hope and
a future. He gives you His Word and guides your lips when you share the hope
that is within you. He has promised you resurrection. He says, “Be faithful
unto death, and I will give you a crown of life.” You are blessed!
A little later in Luke 1, it says that Mary stayed with
Elizabeth and her husband for three months. That means that when she went home,
she was quite likely “showing.” It cannot be helped! That’s how pregnancy
works. She might have tried to cover the bump, but at some point, it was
obvious, “You must be having a boy!”
What about you? Christ has come to you. His grace is working
in you. His love is poured out on you. You are baptized and clothed in Christ. Are
you “showing”? There might be times you try to cover up your faith, or the
evidence of Jesus in you is hidden by your sin, but in the end, yeah, you are
showing. You confessed your faith. You pray. You come to the Lord’s Supper and,
in so doing, proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. And this, more than
anything else, is where you “show” – when you trust in Jesus’ mercy and
forgiveness, then that forgiveness moves you to behave with grace, mercy, and
compassion for Jesus’ sake.
Blessed is she who believes there will be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Amen.
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