Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Luke 1:39-56)
And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Tonight is our final gathering together on these Wednesday nights during Advent. And tonight’s reading we read the passage where Mary goes to visit Elizabeth.
Last week’s reading was the passage just before tonight’s reading, and this told of the angel Gabriel coming to Mary to announce to her that she would be pregnant with Jesus. And the event which happens in that reading is commemorated in a special church festival called the Annunciation, on the 25th March, 9 months before Christmas.
The event in tonight’s reading, where Mary visits Elizabeth, is also commemorated with it’s own special church festival, called the Visitation, which is celebrated either on May 31st or July 2nd. And like the Annunciation, the Visitation used to be a major church festival in the Lutheran Church, but is often not celebrated any more.
But by our modern standards, there’s not an awful lot that happens, and we might think, what was the fuss all about. But that’s precisely the problem: “by our modern standards”. In different times of history people would look at this passage in Scripture and see a lot going on.
So let’s see what happens in our reading tonight.
We read: In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
First of all, Israel is not a large place. In fact, it’s quite a similar size to Gippsland – to get from the south of Israel right up to the top is about the same distance between Pakenham and Cann River (a 5 hour drive). But Mary’s a pregnant woman, and she travels from her home in Nazareth to visit her relative Elizabeth. We would assume that Elizabeth and Zechariah lived somewhere close to Jerusalem. Now the distance between Nazareth and Jerusalem is similar to that between Bairnsdale and Traralgon (an hour ½ drive). Now here we have a pregnant woman travelling that sort of a distance back in those early times. Now anyone without a car or a train would take a long time to travel between Bairnsdale and Traralgon. Nothing is said how Mary travelled between Nazareth and Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house. In fact, there’s not a lot said about this journey at all. We’re not actually told where Elizabeth lives, except in the hill country. Now Jerusalem does have a lot of hills around it. We’re not told exactly how Mary travels, but we would assume that she takes fairly humble means to get there.
And with all of these physical, geographical barriers, we read that: she went with haste. She was eager to get there. It’s almost as if as soon as the angel had left her, she rose up to her feet and went off to see Elizabeth. Also, it’s not said exactly how Mary and Elizabeth were related. This bible passage is very much like the Apostle’s Creed: It doesn’t go into a lot of detail, and just tells us the bare minimum. So everything that it does say is significant.
So we read: Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.
Did you catch what made the baby leap in Elizabeth’s womb? Mary’s greeting.
We’re not even told in this reading what Mary said to Elizabeth. It simply says: She greeted Elizabeth.
In the New Testament, there are all sorts of greetings. In last week’s reading about the Annunciation, the angel comes and greets Mary. He says: “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you.”
As Christians, we should always be careful that what we say we mean and what we mean we say. This is very important, not just because of how other people perceive what we say, because they are not the only people who hear what we say. God is listening, and the angels are listening. Jesus himself says: I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak. Now in our culture today, greetings have almost become part of that category which we would call “careless words”. And it is so important that what we say we mean, and what we mean we say.
We go to the supermarket, and the person behind the counter might say: “How are you going?” but in actual fact they have no interest in your life, and no interest how “life is treating you.” If you say, “fine thanks”, that would be the polite thing to say. If you sometimes actually told them the truth when you’re feeling lousy, and that’s the reason why you’ve just bought half the products from the medicines aisle, then the person feels awkward, and thinks: “Well, all I asked was ‘how are you’! I didn’t want a full-blown lecture. After all, I’m not a psychiatrist!”
All this testifies to the fact that when people greet each other they don’t really mean what they say. But this also testifies to something else, that there was probably a time in history when people began greeting each other with the words “How are you?” because they were genuinely interested in how the other person was.
It’s the same with a whole heap of greetings. “Good morning”. “Good day”. “Good evening”. “Hello”. And then of course, there’s that well-known Irish greeting: “The top of the morning to you!”
In fact, apart from “hello” – I don’t know if anyone really knows what the origin of “hello” is – most greetings are a king of prayer. “Good morning” can mean, “I hope you have a good morning”. But also it means, “May God give to you a good morning.”
All these greetings that we use in day-to-day life are significant and they mean something and they come to us as part of our cultural heritage from a time when people really meant these things! The greeting between Mary and Elizabeth is so significant, even when we don’t know the exact greeting Mary said. As soon as Jesus is conceived, the first thing we read about in Luke’s gospel is how peace on earth begins to take shape. The angels come down later in Luke chapter 2 and say: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Every Divine Service we sing these words: and here in this greeting between Mary and Elizabeth we begin to see peace on earth begin to happen with a simple greeting. God has taken on human flesh, and the first thing this makes people do is greet one another with words of peace.
In the second letter of St John, we read the words: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”
You can see that there is something from this time of the New Testament, where greetings were not the throw-away standard catch-phrases that we use today, and that they were significant. They were real, physical bestowals of a gift from God. They were prayers, but not just prayers. They were wishes, but not just wishes. They also brought a gift to the person from God.
So think about this next time you greet a person: “Good morning” or whatever you say, and remember that it is God the Father, through you, and through your greeting who bestows upon that person all the blessings that a “good morning” entails.
In the church too, there are also many greetings that we use in the church. Notice how in the regular divine service, that we do exactly the same thing as Mary and Elizabeth. We sing the song of the angels: “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth.” And then we enact peace on earth together. The pastor says: “The Lord be with you”. Think about this greeting and what it means. And the congregation say back to the pastor: “And also with you” or in the older language people would say “And with your spirit.”
And then having greeted one another in Christian fellowship, in the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit, we come to pray together the prayer for the day and hear the holy Word of God. We say the same words at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Sacrament. “The Lord be with you!” “And also with you!” “Lift up your hearts!” “We lift them up to the Lord!” And after the consecration of the bread and wine as the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we exchange a greeting. “The peace of the Lord be with you always!” With all these different words, your desire to see the face of your maker, your desire to receive to receive the sacrament, and to die a blessed death should be inflamed within you, like a child leaping in its mother’s womb.
Do you see, everything has a meaning! When people say, the liturgy is just a whole lot of empty ritual and it doesn’t mean anything, we testify to the fact that as these different parts of the liturgy were woven together over time, they were put there because people actually meant what they said. When people say things like this, it testifies to the fact that we have deteriorated in our understanding from an earlier time.
We also see the many greetings of St Paul in all of his letters. In fact, each sermon I begin with the words: “Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” I’m not saying these things to be polite. I’m saying these things to you because with the greeting comes a precious gift from God. It’s not a throw-away remark. I would encourage you to go through the New Testament and try and find all the greetings at the beginning of the epistles and meditate and think about each one and how each one is different and what each one conveys.
So we see here in our reading tonight, that it’s right at the foundation of our life together as Christians in the New Testament that we greet each other with words of peace.
And so we read: And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped for joy in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came into my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Notice the great joy in our reading! Greetings, exclamations with loud cries, and later on, singing. What an event this was!
And so Elizabeth speaks words which are inspired words, words of the Holy Spirit. She recognised that the she is the mother of her Lord. She recognises that it is her Lord, her master, who is the fruit of Mary’s womb. It is the same Lord who spoken to Moses from a burning bush, and gave his name, Yahweh or Jehovah, “I am who I am”. The bush was burning but was not consumed. Here in our reading tonight, Elizabeth recognises through the presence of the Holy Spirit that Mary’s womb contains the very same “Lord of light who made the stars”, as we sung earlier tonight. And the Lord of light is in her womb and like the burning bush, her womb is not consumed by the holy presence of the eternal God.
So Elizabeth says: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came into my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
And then finally she commends Mary. She repays her greeting. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.
We can see here that Mary is given to us as a model and an example of faith. Blessed is she who believed. Blessed is she who made no contribution, no effort to the fact that she became pregnant. She simple bowed her head in submission to the angel’s words: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word.”
And when faith puts out its hand and receives, when we offer nothing to our Lord but place before him our empty bags, our empty hearts, he fills them with gifts, grace upon grace, forgiveness upon forgiveness, and Jesus Christ himself even comes to make his home inside of us, and become participants, partakers, sharers in his divine nature. And so what a natural thing it is as a Christian to greet a person! Because every greeting has its origin in the greeting that God have given right from the very beginning of creation, and when every new day begins, and sees everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Good morning! Good afternoon! Good evening!
Lamentations says: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning!
At the end of our reading, we have a song, the Song of Mary. Traditionally, this song is called the Magnificat. My soul magnifies the Lord! In the history of the church, this song was always sung at Vespers, as we will do in our service later on. It is a song filled with joy and happiness at the incarnation, the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. And unfortunately, this song is not all that well known in the church. It’s a beautiful song, one that has been sung in the church right from the early times in the NT, and needs a revival. If you like, you could use it as a night-time prayer before you go to bed for a few weeks, and see how it grows on you.
But to go into detail into the words of the Magnificat is a subject for another sermon for another day. But we also see that singing is something that people do when they are in the presence of God, and the Holy Spirit sends Mary the words here. All sorts of professors and scholars and know-it-alls who want to sit and analyse the poetry in the Magnificat like they do with a piece of Shakespeare have to realise that the beauty which comes from the poetry is because of its inspiration by the Holy Spirit, and not because Mary was necessarily an educated poet. All poetry and hymnody and psalms and spiritual songs all have their origin in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So many of the words that the Scriptures call “prophesies” are in actual fact “songs”.
So many of the regular songs we sing in church come from these first chapter in Luke. Here in our reading tonight, we have the Magnificat, the Song of Mary, which was always used in the church at Vespers, in the evening service. Later, when Zechariah the priest regains his voice, he gives voice to another song, the Benedictus, or the Song of Zechariah: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, for he has come and redeemed his people. This song has always been used at Matins, in the morning service, and our parish has been learning a version of this song regularly at lay-reading services. Then in Luke 2, there is the Song of the Angels, the Glory to God in the highest, which we sing every Sunday, confessing that the true glory and majesty of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ has descended upon our gathered congregation in the flesh in our Divine Service. When he was a baby, he was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. Now, he is wrapped up in water in baptism, in the read, preached and absolving words of God, and in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. No wonder we sing “Glory to God in the highest”. And then at the end of Luke 2, we read about the Song of Simeon, where Jesus was brought by his parents to the temple and the old man Simeon took the baby in his arms and sang: “Now Lord let your servant depart in peace”. We sing these words every Sunday after we receive the Lord’s Supper. Just as all of Simeon’s desire was fulfilled in holding the baby Jesus, so also all our desire is fulfilled here on earth as we approach God’s sanctuary and receive his body given for us and blood shed for us for the forgiveness of our sin. As Luther said: “When we go to the sacrament, we should go to it like we’re going to our death, so that when we die, it will be just like going to the sacrament!” And so we sing: “Now Lord let your servant depart in peace!”
So as we look forward to our Christmas services at the end of the week, sing for joy! Sing to the Lord a new song, all the earth! As St Paul, be filled with the Spirit, singing hymns and psalms and spiritual songs.
So: Greetings! The Lord be with you! A blessed Advent to all of you! A blessed Christmas to all of you! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is he who greets you and forgives you and sanctifies you in the name of the Lord! Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, what joy there is in your conception and in your birth. My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour! Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! Now, Lord, let your servant depart in peace, according to your word! Amen.
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