Epidode 13: 12/08/08

Readings:

Psalm 15
Isaiah 5:13-25
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Luke 21:20-28

Sermon:

At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. (Luke 21:27)

During the Holy Season of Advent we look back to the historical events of Our Lord’s first coming to Earth, His Incarnation, while at the same time we look forward to His second coming, His coming in glory, when He shall reign as King of Kings.

We are all so familiar with the Christmas story, with the baby in the manger surrounded by oxen and donkeys, that we may not reflect on how unusual it was for God to choose this manner of coming into the world. Why couldn’t the God who created the heavens and earth have arranged a more suitable entrance for Himself? Why not skip the manger scene and go for the palace? Why cover Himself with obscurity when He could have gone straight for the King of Kings scenario?

The Second week of Advent is when we traditionally remember the Visitation of Mary the mother of Jesus to her cousin Elizabeth. Last week we saw how the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, and that she would be the Virgin who would give birth to a son, as prophesied in Scripture. Although Mary accepted this news with humble submission, she must have trembled in her heart, wondering how she would tell her parents and even more importantly, her betrothed, Joseph. While she trusted in the Lord to fulfill His purpose in her, it meant the end of her earthly plans and ambitions. Now there would be no joyous wedding feast, like the one she later attended at Cana, or like the ones that figure prominently in Our Lord’s parables. She would be divorced before she was ever married, left to spend the rest of her life at home with her parents, a disgraced daughter that no decent man would want to marry. And she would face being reminded that she should be grateful for even that --- in that time, as in some parts of the world today, girls who found themselves pregnant outside of wedlock were likely to be the victims of honor killings, designed to wipe the stain off the family’s legacy.

Instead we see her this week in the position of many other young women in her situation, being packed off to visit a relative in the country, away from the accusing stares from the friends and family back home. Even this visit, which should have been quiet and uneventful, culminating in her giving birth and giving the baby up for adoption, didn’t turn out the way it would have been expected. Her cousin Elizabeth had conceived a child in her old age, and the joy surrounding that blessed event provided a marked contrast to the shame and secrecy surrounding Mary’s.

Elizabeth was the latest in an honored line of women throughout Scripture who had been specially favored by the Lord for their piety and faith. The deep longing of their heart, to give birth to a son, which had been denied for so long, was finally being fulfilled. Like Hannah, the mother of Samuel, like the mother of Samson, like the Shunammite woman who was rewarded for helping the Prophet Elisha with the gift of a son, Elizabeth was a heroic figure. Scripture does not tell us how old she was, but it was obviously past the age when she could have been considered just a late bloomer. Her friends and family correctly attributed this unexpected conception to God’s favorable intervention, and she and her husband Zechariah basked in the glow of admiration and concern for her well-being.

Perhaps gratitude for this unexpected blessing made Elizabeth look kindly on her younger cousin, even if she didn’t believe the story of a miraculous conception. But as they came face to face, the Holy Spirit filled her heart and showed her the true worth of Mary’s baby: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1:42-43) And her baby, the future John the Baptist, performed his first prophetic act, leaping for joy in his mother’s womb as his Savior approached in His mother’s womb.

And yet even this miraculous revelation did not result in Mary being recognized by the community as a heroic figure, as the mother of a King. She eventually returned home and married Joseph quietly, in time to travel to Bethlehem with him and give birth in a stable, surrounded not by joyous well-wishers such as those who attended John the Baptist’s birth, but by farm animals and greeted by shepherds fresh from watching their flocks. God seems to have gone out of His way to ensure that there would be nothing outwardly compelling about His Son that would force people to recognize Him for who He is.

When Jesus returns again, whenever that may be, there will be no mistakes about His true identity. Men will faint with terror as He appears from the heavens, and no one will be able to deny Him His true worth. And yet to those who, then and now, recognize the true worth of that baby, He becomes their Savior, Redeemer, and Lord, the King of Kings. While others are in anguish and perplexity, they will be able to stand up and lift their heads, for they will know that their redemption is at hand.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.