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. The baby Jesus will become the Prince of Peace, the Saviour of humankind.

As incredible as it seems, God chose a young Jewish girl, very poor, who held no position or prominence among her peers to be the mother of the Messiah. It is God's act through Mary; God's coming to us through the birth of Jesus, that makes her, that young Jewish woman, and every one of us, significant as God's children.

If we think about it, we know and have experienced the unexpectedness of God at work in the world. As incredible as it seems, God continues to call ordinary, everyday people. Are there not moments in our lives when God is communicating with us? Have we not all experienced moments of closeness to God – times of insight and enlightenment?

It happens in any number of ways – through prayer, through worship, and through the grace of other people. In an amazing way, God is born in us and through the Spirit reaches out through us to accomplish God's purpose in our world. Think about how you came to know God. Where has your spiritual journey taken you?

The task for us today is to slow down our pace and prepare ourselves spiritually for the birth of Christ. For we are part of the story. The work of Christ is not finished. We look for a further birth of Jesus into the world. We know its sinfulness. We know its need. We know our need for Christ to be born in us. We know our need to constantly and consistently open our lives up to the Spirit of God.

Mary is a model for us of how that can happen. She did it in a wonderful way. She could have seen God's call to her as a terrible burden. After all she faced the stigma of being an unwed mother. She faced being cast aside by her fiancé. Yet she saw it as a precious gift. "My soul magnifies the Lord," she responded. "My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." Her spirit can rejoice. She can see the situation, difficult and frightening as it may be, as an opportunity for vocation and fulfillment.

The ways of God are paradoxical. God's ways are not always our ways. Our way of judging someone, our way of valuing something, is not necessarily God's way. God calls unexpected people. We need to be prepared to listen to God's call. We need to be prepared to recognize God's call to those in our parish family who need affirmation of their gifts and talents. Most of all we need to be aware in our own lives what God is calling us to do.

Sermons are updated weekly on Saturday morning.