Portrait of Two Blessed Women

Advent IV; December 24, 2006

Luke 1:39-45

This famous encounter is classically referred to as the Visitation. You will sometimes see a group of pictures containing the Annunciation – when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary – and the Visitation and the Nativity. Pictures of the Visitation show the two holy women together, usually at the moment of Mary’s arrival and greeting.1 It is easy to distinguish the two: Elizabeth is older and six months along, Mary is younger and not quite beginning to show. Right after the greeting, the Holy Spirit takes hold of Elizabeth and she prophesies.

That’s right: prophesies. Although in the mind’s eye it is lovely to hold a picture of the two pregnant women visiting one another, even more significant is the work of the Holy Spirit in this visit. Both women are blessed; both women are prophets.

Mary’s prophecy is beautifully captured in the song ascribed to her, the Magnificat (Luke 1:46b-55). God gives her a vision of what her pregnancy means, and it’s more than just a nifty trick and much more than simply the sign of hope that every baby brings. God shows Mary that her pregnancy means that God does take sides in the doings of the world, and it’s not the side we necessarily approve of. “He has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”

The mercy of God is on those who fear him, not those who use his name for their own political ends. God scatters the proud and overthrows the powerful, lifting up the lowly. God feeds the hungry and sends the rich away empty. Now, let’s be honest, as much as we love the poetry of her song and as much as we admire the portrait, is that really what we want to happen? Do we want CEOs and church authorities and powerful nations overthrown, while line workers and humble religious people and weak nations are exalted?

Mary sings under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which has come upon her and filled her with the anticipation of the Son of God. She knows that what God is doing in her own life is not just a remarkable pregnancy, but God is giving a sign to the world: in this baby God is inaugurating his kingdom. In the Kingdom of God, humility is more important than power and the fear of God more significant than wealth.

Now, Elizabeth is the one who says that Mary is blessed; what makes her blessed? It is no picnic to be the Mother of the Son of God. It is certainly no cakewalk to be pregnant in any case, as any woman who has been through it will remind us. A couple of entertainers I know of sing a wonderful, funny song in which they ask what it was really like for Mary. Did she have morning sickness? While she’s having contractions, does she try to strangle Joseph?2 What makes her blessed?

Being the Mother of the Son of God will certainly lead to remarkable heartbreak for Mary. Simply to be a parent is, I know, a risk; you give birth, you do your best, and you hope. As this story unfolds, we see the terrible things that Mary has to endure as Jesus’ Mother. When she is standing at the foot of his Cross, hearing him cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” we might wonder how blessed she feels.

Yet she is blessed, says Elizabeth, because she believed what God said to her. Through the angel, God told Mary that she was chosen for a special responsibility, one that would bring her grief and joy. Then, in her joy, Mary hurried to the home of her cousin Elizabeth so they could rejoice together. The angel’s words troubled her and mystified her, but ultimately she believed the promise of God and she rejoiced.

Is that so hard? Can you and I believe the promise of God and rejoice? God promises blessing, peace, joy, purpose, life together in his kingdom where the proud and the powerful are overthrown and the lowly are lifted up, and ultimately eternal life. I want to believe the promise of God; I want you to believe the promise of God. Believe with Mary, hurry with her to the town in the hill-country of Judea, and hear the prophet say that we are blessed.

The Holy Spirit gives the prophet Elizabeth enormous insight; she is apparently the first to see the importance of Mary’s child. She says, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Now, that phrase “fruit of your womb” really grabbed my attention because of last week’s Gospel reading (Luke 3:7-18). You will notice that we are not reading these in chronological order; last week John the Baptist was about thirty years old and preaching and baptizing at the River Jordan. This week he’s six months into his gestation. We’re reading these not in chronological order but in theological order, and so this notion hit me. John preaches to the people, “Bear fruits worthy of repentance!” and his mother, thirty years earlier, looks at this young cousin Mary and says, “Blessed is the fruit of your womb.”

Of all the fruit of repentance that anyone could bear, what could be better than the fruit that Mary bears? My friend Linde Grace White wrote in a recent email to me:

Everybody knows Advent is crazy-time, and not just because Christmas is coming. We have to adjust to the cold weather, the winter routines, no daylight to speak of, etc., etc. Advent is supposed to focus on repentance, anyway. Repentance isn’t popular any time of year, but now, we have a chance at Christmas to really turn over a new leaf if we want to and mend relationships and give away our treasures so they aren’t rusting in our basements or somewhere. But then, I have a touch of Ebenezer Scrooge in me when it comes to the trappings of Christmas. You might point out to those folks who are ready for the angels that the first thing any angel in the Bible ever says is, “Be not afraid.” That tells you a lot about angels. Those shepherds were “sore afraid” all right – they had a good reason! What with the Slaughter of the Innocents and strange guys traveling for years because they saw some funny light in the sky, a newborn in a cattle barn surrounded by animals that might stomp on him if nothing else – sounds more like a horror movie than a sweet and tender love story! When you figure in the political situation, it’s a wonder we’re around to complain about commercialization, etc.! Maybe we should pay more attention to that repentance, mending our lives kind of thing – fewer calories, costs less, no trans fats!3

I doubt Mary had to be concerned about trans fats or too many calories, but it is clear that she turned over a new leaf: she became the chosen of God. That was not part of her training when Joachim and Anne were raising her. Still, there was something special about Mary: Linde Grace is correct that whenever angels appear they have to reassure the people who see them, but not Mary. Zechariah, the priest of the Lord and the big, rough shepherds are terrified when the angel appears; Mary is not.

The final thing for this morning’s message is something right in the middle of the reading, one other thing the Holy Spirit reveals to the prophet Elizabeth. She says, “Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” Elizabeth knows who the child will be, knows that the child is the Lord. Expectant women often feel the unborn child move and interpret the experience; Elizabeth feels her own child move and under the influence of the Holy Spirit interprets the experience as the presence of the Lord who is to come.

She has waited a very long time to bear a child; that waiting is coming near its end. Yet even the joy of finally becoming a mother is overshadowed by a greater joy: that her Lord is coming. That Elizabeth sees her people’s longing coming to reality and that she is filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit shows that, whatever she may say about Mary, she too is truly blessed.

O Lord, our Lord, you have spoken your truth through prophets and holy people for ages upon ages. Thank you for the witness of Elizabeth and Mary; may we be blessed with them and recognize the Lord when he comes. Amen.

Robert A. Keefer

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Clarinda, Iowa

[1] Here are some beautiful pictures from the British Library: http://www.imagesonline.bl.uk/britishlibrary/controller/subjectidsearch?id=10524.

2 Hey Nunnie Nunnie, “The Mary Query”

3 Linde Grace White, in a personal email, December 12, 2006; used by permission.