I’d like to begin with an exercise to expand our awareness of the love that holds us in this space. I want to invite you to take a moment to become aware of your body. Be sure that your feet are on the ground. Uncross yourself if you must. Consider the feeling in your limbs and hands. Be aware of the air around you. Take a breath and consider how it is cooler as it enters your body than when it leaves.
If your tongue is pressed to the roof of your mouth, let it drop to the bottom. Just breathe and be present in this moment. Now I would like you to close your eyes and think of someone who loves you unconditionally. I want you to imagine that person coming into the sanctuary and sitting near you. Imagine this person holding your hand and looking you in the eye and telling you that you are ok just as you are.
Regardless of what you have done and what has been done to you – with all of your brokenness and all of your wholeness – the only thing that can define you in this present moment is the love that holds you. Now, I invite you to breathe deeply once more and open your eyes.
How blessed are you! How beloved are you to have come to this place, and who am I that I should be in this place to receive you and share in that blessedness with you! I can only guess that this might be how Elizabeth felt when Mary came to her, and their meeting is not without parallels to ours.
Some things that are unique to their meeting are of course that they were both pregnant with children foretold by the angel Gabriel. We were told in the reading a few weeks ago that Gabriel told Mary of Elizabeth’s pregnancy as a “proof of concept” (if you will) that Mary’s pregnancy was also legit. The part we did not read was the experience of Elizabeth’s husband, Zecharia, in 1:1-24.
Gabriel came to Zecharia – a priest, no less – to announce that Elizabeth would bear a child. He said, “Nah. Thanks, but we are too old. That’s just not in the cards.” So Gabriel struck him mute and he was unable to tell anyone about it until the child was born. We don’t know if word got around, but we do know that Mary came to Elizabeth because she knew that she could trust her and that Elizabeth’s pregnancy would confirm what Gabriel had said. This is important because pregnancy out of wedlock was a stoneable offense, and Mary needed someone to receive her with unconditional acceptance and support.
Barely had she crossed the threshold when Elizabeth shouted to her, “Oh, girl, you made my baby bump-jump!” Scripture reminds us that this was a confirmation of the Holy Spirit of God. This was a confirmation that they were not acting alone but in the very presence of God! I also love the fact that the text reminds us that this was Zecharia’s house and that all he could do was to bear silent witness to the events that were unfolding around him.
Not only that, but his silence – as a person of power – was as much a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit as the baby leaping in the creative and generative space of Elizabeth’s womb. When Elizabeth spoke she repeated the words of Gabriel, calling Mary “blessed among women” and naming the child as “blessed” and again telling Mary how blessed she is for believing that God will do what God has promised to do.
Before we get to Mary’s response I want to share a reflection about threshold meetings like these from Dr. Christine J. Hong, Assistant Professor of Educational Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. She writes, “My parents are Korean immigrants. My mother used to say that back in the days of their immigration, whoever met you at the airport decided your destiny. In other words, whoever greets you at the threshold as you become a new immigrant determines the direction your life moves. I remember her words and reflect on them whenever I reach significant impasses in my life—a new job, a move, or when I became a parent for the first time.
Each significant milestone feels like a threshold. When I prepare to cross those thresholds, I look for the people and communities waiting on the other side, people and communities to anchor me and hold me in the nebulous spaces of change, uncertainty, and fear. When my parents crossed over from being Korean to being Korean American, it was the local church pastor (also a Korean immigrant) who greeted them at the threshold, after they made their way through borders and customs at LAX.
He picked them up in his car and took them to an apartment complex to get them housed. He took them to meet members of his church who worked at ticketing at LAX. My parents worked the next few years at Korean Airlines ticketing and baggage claim, hourly jobs that paid the bills and gave them a footing in a new country. The final stop was the Korean immigrant church that would be their community as they settled in a new country, with a new language, and, in some ways, a new understanding of the Christian faith. It was the Korean immigrant church folx who anchored them to this new land.
My parents arrived and were greeted by Korean American people who embraced them, settled them, and invited them to participate in building sustaining faith and peoplehood together. Elizabeth greets Mary on the threshold, not only of her door but the threshold of something new in Mary’s life and for the world. Mary is met by her cousin who greets her with welcome, anticipation, and a powerful blessing.”
So rich was the blessing and the greeting that Mary burst into singing about the goodness and mercy of God! Having said that, I realize how weird that sounds. I can’t imagine actually doing that, but maybe that’s just a cultural and historical gap. I can tell you that in my family as a child we had a special whistle that we greeted each other with when we came home. How many of us also greet people we know and love with a sing-song tone when we say, “Hell-oh-o?”
Maybe it was like that, or maybe it was that the author of Luke’s gospel knew about the ancient promises and the things that matter to God and God’s people. The rhythm and meter are much like a psalm, and the content – there is no other God like this God, God saves God’s people, God brings the poor to the same level of abundance as the rich – is about the same as we find in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 when Hannah dedicates Samuel to the service of God in the temple.
These same words that we call the Magnificat because of the Latin form of the beginning refrain, my soul magnifies the Lord, have been sung through the generations to give hope for those who are hopeless and to remind us all that God is active and present and we are not alone!
German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis, called the Magnificat “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.” In the 1970’s it was embraced by Liberation Theologians in Central America, particularly by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, and these words ring true today in spaces where there is inequality and oppression because they are the words of the woman who bore the very one who will make them come true!
While it should go without saying that we, as the church, embrace these words as well, it must also be said that we have to figure out what part we play in the present tension around rights and privileges and conditions of justice and equality. While that may seem to confront and troublesome, it is nothing new.
What truly matters is that we are willing to ask the question of where there is suffering here and now and what we can do about it. There are some things about which we can do very little. There are other things that we can do quite a bit. What gives me the most hope is the fact that we are able to do far more together than we can do apart. What gives me hope is the way in which we recognize our limitations as strengths as demonstrated through the way we greet one another on these thresholds.
Meals on Wheels for the elderly and homebound, Wesley United Campus Ministries, food drives for the United Christian Outreach and the Campus Cupboard, and our pollinator garden with the UL Native Bee Lab are all examples of the way we enact the words of Mary through care for the elderly, the disenfranchised, those who hunger, and even the earth itself! None of this can we do on our own, but all of it we can do through vulnerability and partnership. (By the way, in part because of our efforts, UL has earned a designation as a Bee Campus!)
This is where, as I mentioned before, I believe that our stories and Elizabeth’s and Mary’s are not without parallels. Rather than telling you what I mean by that, I’m going to leave you with a few questions. As we move toward the creche and the celebration of Christ’s birth, let us ask ourselves how we can greet one another as Mary and Elizabeth?
What confirmations of the Spirit can we give? How can we allow others to nurture us, anchor us, and bring something new out of us, and how can we do that for those in need? How can we embrace others and invite them to participate in building sustaining faith and peoplehood together?
I imagine it starts at the threshold, and I hope you feel that you were greeted today as one who is blessed and beloved by God. I also believe that even if the person that you imagined earlier did not walk through the door this morning, there is someone to your right and left, before and behind you who would say the same to you – that you are beloved by God.
I want to close by asking you to place your hand on your chest, not in any pledge of allegiance but just to feel it rise and fall as you breathe and to be aware that deep inside beats a heart of a being that God loves. In that beating and pumping of life-giving blood and oxygen, I am assured of the work of God between you and me – here, there, and everywhere – and to God be the glory for that, now and always. Amen!
If your tongue is pressed to the roof of your mouth, let it drop to the bottom. Just breathe and be present in this moment. Now I would like you to close your eyes and think of someone who loves you unconditionally. I want you to imagine that person coming into the sanctuary and sitting near you. Imagine this person holding your hand and looking you in the eye and telling you that you are ok just as you are.
Regardless of what you have done and what has been done to you – with all of your brokenness and all of your wholeness – the only thing that can define you in this present moment is the love that holds you. Now, I invite you to breathe deeply once more and open your eyes.
How blessed are you! How beloved are you to have come to this place, and who am I that I should be in this place to receive you and share in that blessedness with you! I can only guess that this might be how Elizabeth felt when Mary came to her, and their meeting is not without parallels to ours.
Some things that are unique to their meeting are of course that they were both pregnant with children foretold by the angel Gabriel. We were told in the reading a few weeks ago that Gabriel told Mary of Elizabeth’s pregnancy as a “proof of concept” (if you will) that Mary’s pregnancy was also legit. The part we did not read was the experience of Elizabeth’s husband, Zecharia, in 1:1-24.
Gabriel came to Zecharia – a priest, no less – to announce that Elizabeth would bear a child. He said, “Nah. Thanks, but we are too old. That’s just not in the cards.” So Gabriel struck him mute and he was unable to tell anyone about it until the child was born. We don’t know if word got around, but we do know that Mary came to Elizabeth because she knew that she could trust her and that Elizabeth’s pregnancy would confirm what Gabriel had said. This is important because pregnancy out of wedlock was a stoneable offense, and Mary needed someone to receive her with unconditional acceptance and support.
Barely had she crossed the threshold when Elizabeth shouted to her, “Oh, girl, you made my baby bump-jump!” Scripture reminds us that this was a confirmation of the Holy Spirit of God. This was a confirmation that they were not acting alone but in the very presence of God! I also love the fact that the text reminds us that this was Zecharia’s house and that all he could do was to bear silent witness to the events that were unfolding around him.
Not only that, but his silence – as a person of power – was as much a testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit as the baby leaping in the creative and generative space of Elizabeth’s womb. When Elizabeth spoke she repeated the words of Gabriel, calling Mary “blessed among women” and naming the child as “blessed” and again telling Mary how blessed she is for believing that God will do what God has promised to do.
Before we get to Mary’s response I want to share a reflection about threshold meetings like these from Dr. Christine J. Hong, Assistant Professor of Educational Ministry at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA. She writes, “My parents are Korean immigrants. My mother used to say that back in the days of their immigration, whoever met you at the airport decided your destiny. In other words, whoever greets you at the threshold as you become a new immigrant determines the direction your life moves. I remember her words and reflect on them whenever I reach significant impasses in my life—a new job, a move, or when I became a parent for the first time.
Each significant milestone feels like a threshold. When I prepare to cross those thresholds, I look for the people and communities waiting on the other side, people and communities to anchor me and hold me in the nebulous spaces of change, uncertainty, and fear. When my parents crossed over from being Korean to being Korean American, it was the local church pastor (also a Korean immigrant) who greeted them at the threshold, after they made their way through borders and customs at LAX.
He picked them up in his car and took them to an apartment complex to get them housed. He took them to meet members of his church who worked at ticketing at LAX. My parents worked the next few years at Korean Airlines ticketing and baggage claim, hourly jobs that paid the bills and gave them a footing in a new country. The final stop was the Korean immigrant church that would be their community as they settled in a new country, with a new language, and, in some ways, a new understanding of the Christian faith. It was the Korean immigrant church folx who anchored them to this new land.
My parents arrived and were greeted by Korean American people who embraced them, settled them, and invited them to participate in building sustaining faith and peoplehood together. Elizabeth greets Mary on the threshold, not only of her door but the threshold of something new in Mary’s life and for the world. Mary is met by her cousin who greets her with welcome, anticipation, and a powerful blessing.”
So rich was the blessing and the greeting that Mary burst into singing about the goodness and mercy of God! Having said that, I realize how weird that sounds. I can’t imagine actually doing that, but maybe that’s just a cultural and historical gap. I can tell you that in my family as a child we had a special whistle that we greeted each other with when we came home. How many of us also greet people we know and love with a sing-song tone when we say, “Hell-oh-o?”
Maybe it was like that, or maybe it was that the author of Luke’s gospel knew about the ancient promises and the things that matter to God and God’s people. The rhythm and meter are much like a psalm, and the content – there is no other God like this God, God saves God’s people, God brings the poor to the same level of abundance as the rich – is about the same as we find in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 when Hannah dedicates Samuel to the service of God in the temple.
These same words that we call the Magnificat because of the Latin form of the beginning refrain, my soul magnifies the Lord, have been sung through the generations to give hope for those who are hopeless and to remind us all that God is active and present and we are not alone!
German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by the Nazis, called the Magnificat “the most passionate, the wildest, one might even say the most revolutionary hymn ever sung.” In the 1970’s it was embraced by Liberation Theologians in Central America, particularly by the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina, and these words ring true today in spaces where there is inequality and oppression because they are the words of the woman who bore the very one who will make them come true!
While it should go without saying that we, as the church, embrace these words as well, it must also be said that we have to figure out what part we play in the present tension around rights and privileges and conditions of justice and equality. While that may seem to confront and troublesome, it is nothing new.
What truly matters is that we are willing to ask the question of where there is suffering here and now and what we can do about it. There are some things about which we can do very little. There are other things that we can do quite a bit. What gives me the most hope is the fact that we are able to do far more together than we can do apart. What gives me hope is the way in which we recognize our limitations as strengths as demonstrated through the way we greet one another on these thresholds.
Meals on Wheels for the elderly and homebound, Wesley United Campus Ministries, food drives for the United Christian Outreach and the Campus Cupboard, and our pollinator garden with the UL Native Bee Lab are all examples of the way we enact the words of Mary through care for the elderly, the disenfranchised, those who hunger, and even the earth itself! None of this can we do on our own, but all of it we can do through vulnerability and partnership. (By the way, in part because of our efforts, UL has earned a designation as a Bee Campus!)
This is where, as I mentioned before, I believe that our stories and Elizabeth’s and Mary’s are not without parallels. Rather than telling you what I mean by that, I’m going to leave you with a few questions. As we move toward the creche and the celebration of Christ’s birth, let us ask ourselves how we can greet one another as Mary and Elizabeth?
What confirmations of the Spirit can we give? How can we allow others to nurture us, anchor us, and bring something new out of us, and how can we do that for those in need? How can we embrace others and invite them to participate in building sustaining faith and peoplehood together?
I imagine it starts at the threshold, and I hope you feel that you were greeted today as one who is blessed and beloved by God. I also believe that even if the person that you imagined earlier did not walk through the door this morning, there is someone to your right and left, before and behind you who would say the same to you – that you are beloved by God.
I want to close by asking you to place your hand on your chest, not in any pledge of allegiance but just to feel it rise and fall as you breathe and to be aware that deep inside beats a heart of a being that God loves. In that beating and pumping of life-giving blood and oxygen, I am assured of the work of God between you and me – here, there, and everywhere – and to God be the glory for that, now and always. Amen!
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