We come to the fourth Sunday of Advent with eager anticipation. We know that Christmas is just around the corner. But after the splendor and excitement of angel visits and prophetic songs, we come to a seemingly ordinary and mundane moment.
A newly pregnant Mary leaves Nazareth and rushes to visit her cousin Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is miraculously pregnant. Six months before this moment, an angel appeared to a very ordinary priest named Zechariah while he was performing his ritual duties in the temple. And the angel announced that, even though they were beyond child-bearing years, he and Elizabeth would have a son, and they were to name him John.
After that, Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her that she too was going to be miraculously pregnant, even though she had not yet had marital relations with her fiancé, Joseph. She was to name her son Jesus.
It’s not hard to imagine the shock and confusion of both Elizabeth, pregnant in her old age, and Mary, pregnant as an unmarried, young woman.
So, it’s not hard to imagine why Mary traveled with haste to her cousin Elizabeth’s house. Because if anyone was going to understand, it was Elizabeth.
And immediately upon seeing Mary, before she even entered the house, the child inside Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy. And Elizabeth declares, “Blessed are you among women…and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” And then Mary sings that magnificent song of praise we call the Magnificat.
This visit to Elizabeth’s house might seem rather ordinary and mundane, but I think it reminds of something important. In the midst of fear and unknown, in the midst the unexpected and unchartered, we need one another.
As they stand in the doorway, they exchange stories, and they affirm God’s work in the other. It’s only than that they both erupt in praise. Elizabeth worships by pronouncing her blessing on Mary’s fierce faith. And, in turn, Mary finds her own voice and bursts into a hope-filled song that soars with promise not only for the child she carries, but for the whole world.
Even if just for a moment in time, as Mary and Elizabeth stand in the doorway, they perceive the world as God perceives it and they can’t help but worship. Because they know something even greater is just around the corner.
And so, even as our anticipation grows for the familiar story of the birth of Jesus Christ, may we linger here in the doorway to behold what God is about to do.
Grace and peace,
Kimmy
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