The Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year C,
December 24, 2000

By
The Rev. Ann M. Smith

Based on the Gospel reading: Luke 1:39-45

It is all happening very quickly. We are rushing headlong into Christmas. This Sunday falling as it does on Christmas Eve cannot help but be coloured by anticipation of the events to come. We are almost there. The preparations – at least the physical ones – are almost complete. So the gospel may take us quite by surprise as it goes back in time to the story of Mary's acceptance of her role as the Christ bearer. It tells in mythic terms what we know to be true – that God brings salvation in the most unexpected ways.

Consider Mary! Barely a teenager, an angel has appeared to her bringing the news that she is to birth the son of God. It did not take her long to respond to Gabriel, but her response has left her confused. She knows what lies ahead for her in the community. Even with the support of her fiancé, Joseph, it will not be easy for her. She leaves her own community to find acceptance and understanding. Unnoticed, she hurries through towns and villages, along roads and over rivers to find the right person with whom to share the good news. Out of her body, she knows but cannot quite take in, will be born someone special. It seems strange that everything is going on around her in the usual way. It is one of those times when it is as if everything is happening at once; yet at the same time it is as if nothing at all is happening.

She passes a stranger on the road: "If only you could guess," she says to herself. She goes to buy food. "If only you knew," she thinks. But nobody guesses. Nobody knows. She knew and believed from the moment that Gabriel told her about God's plan. Joseph knew and believed when God spoke through an angel to him. Now she needs someone else to know and believe. And so she seeks out her cousin Elizabeth. Elizabeth is pregnant. She will understand. What a relief it will be to Mary to be understood. In the newness of her situation she needs support.

But the story is about more than mutual support. For as the women meet, the stories of John the Baptist and Jesus come together. Mary and Elizabeth are bringing to birth God's new age. The kingdom of God is indeed breaking through. John will go before Jesus to prepare the way