Our gospel lesson this morning, is the story of two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth, Mary who was pregnant with baby Jesus and Elizabeth who was pregnant with John who later was called, John the Baptist. Mary went to see Elizabeth after she found out from the angel concerning the child who was to be God’s son. Mary, I imagine, had to find someone to talk with to help her sort out all that had happened to her. She greeted Elizabeth and the text says,"and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb. .." further the text says, as Elizabeth is speaking, "For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. "
Elizabeth knew the glory, the honor which God bestowed upon Mary so she says, "Blessed are you among women.. ." Mary has been honored through out the generations for her special privilege of being chosen by God to bring his message of love, his sign of love, his incarnation of love into this world. Some of the honor, some of the glory that has been bestowed upon Mary has been lost in this modern time. In the churches of the protest, the Protestant churches, Mary has not been looked at with any high honor or glory. In Lutheranism, even though Luther throughout his lifetime held Mary’s place as special, as honored, it seems we have ignored her special task, her special calling as God’s special handmaiden. In this very beautiful passage from scripture, in which Mary knows and acknowledges that God has chosen her because He wanted too, not because of anything she did, this passage has been ignored in many of our churches.
As one studies this passage closely, one finds it is Mary’s humble song of praise to God for being chosen by God so that God’s power of love, mercy and forgiveness may be manifested in this world. This is not a passage which praised Mary, but a passage in which Mary praises God for allowing her to be the bearer of this great news, This whole account in today’s gospel lesson is a scripture of joy at the impending good news of God as we await the birth of the Babe in that stable. Our hearts are as one with the babe as we leap for joy, as we lift our hearts to heaven, as we await the Christmas joy, God’s personal message of love God’s own son being born into this world.
This morning as we feel the joy, the celebration, the excitement of this text, we will see why this leap of joy has been experienced throughout the ages in all hearts as the fulfillment of the prophets came true that night in the stable.
There is a leap for joy because through the Christmas event we find that all things are possible with God. The virgin birth is a sign for us that God can ,when he wants to, puts aside the laws of nature, the natural order of thing to do his mighty will. Mary understood this greatness of God, Mary knew that God had done something great. Mary knew that her glory came not from anything she did or didn’t do, but her glory came from God himself. She knew and understood her’s was a borrowed glory, a glory bestowed upon her from God. So she says in that passage called the Magnificat, " My soul magnifies the lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour." God had accomplished something truly special with Mary and Mary gave Him the praise and the glory.
One of the Christmas presents I received last year was a recording of Handel’s Messiah. I especially enjoy the Hallelujah Chorus and the tradition that goes along with it At every performance of that work when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung the audience stands. They stand because at the first performance the audience applauded so loud and all turned toward Handel and as they did he a rose and pointed with his finger toward heaven, silently indicating that the glory for this magnificent piece of music should be given to God rather than to himself.
And in the same way, Mary’s praise of God indicates that she also knew to whom the glory for this special event should be given, the glory should be given to God. All things are possible with God even when our human minds and reason have a difficult time accepting it. But God is more than our minds and reason, God can and does work though the erected order, but he is not limited by it like the virgin birth. God chooses at times to work outside the natural laws, outside human reason and understanding and in those events we truly see his almighty power.
Not only did God reveal his power with Mary, but in the place of his Son’s birth God showed us his humility. For who would have guessed that God being born into this world would break into our history in such a backwater town as Bethlehem in a humble place as a stable. But with God all things are possible so our hearts leap with joy. God does not need what we consider grand and glorious’ God can use the simple, the common to show us his glory. So it is fitting, I think, that Jesus the Son of God was born in such a small town in a tiny country and born in such a unlikely place as a stable. It shows us the true nature of this God we worship.
That nature was seen in the Christmas event, but not only is it seen there, it can be seen in many ways in nature. For instance, I remember one winter at college, Wartburg had a tradition of having a winter festival similar to homecoming, which is celebrated in the fall. During this festival, snow sculptures were made by the dorms and other campus groups. I remember helping make one sculpture, it was a Snoopy. I remember thinking how can we get a Snoopy from this tiny snow flakes which were falling. But as we gathered them together, formed them shaped them and low and behold the figure of Snoopy began to emerge. When we were finished, there was almost a life size Snoopy created out of those tiny snowflakes. All around campus, there were sculptures some very large, some very small, but all formed from snowflakes. God had given us something very small and then gave us the ability, the talents to turn that into a work of art. With God all things are possible, also not only using the tiny events of life for his purpose, using his hand to make changes in life.
Who would have thought that a baby, would bring such changes into this world? Who would have thought that from a man dying on a cross, life would be given to those who believe, life for eternity?? Who would have believed that God could raise Jesus from that tomb?? But he did and because he did, death has lost its sting for those who believe in God’s power. Our hearts do leap for joy because indeed with God all things are possible. A changed life is possible as God forms, shapes and molds those lives which are turned over to his mighty hands.
Even changed lives are possible in God’s hands and we aren’t just speaking about spiritual lives, but whole lives, spiritual as well as physical lives are changed. A Jewish banker gives this witness of the power of God through Christ to change lives. He says, "A few years ago I was sent to a place in Puerto Rico to make some studies for the bank. It was the worst, the dirties city imaginable Two years later I returned and it was completely changed.
Everything was clean, there was pride,even the rough night spots were gone. I wondered what happened, a new mayor? A new city council ? No, I found that a Christian missionary came to the heart of that city and began a mission. I saw what the love of Christ and love for Christ can do to a city.
| gave him a generous check because I saw with my own eyes what Christ can do to effect change in a few short years. "
Yes, our hearts-leap for joy because all things are possible with God through Christ even changes which transform people’ s lives in a very dramatic way.
Our lives leap for joy at the impending Christmas event because of the gift of hope which the baby in the manger brings to our lives. There is a hopefulness about life because of Christ. No matter what the circumstanced in which we find ourselves, there can be hope because of Christ. Hope that says somehow we will be delivered, rescued, or given the courage and strength to endure any circumstance in which we might find ourselves.
Because of Christ there is hope, hope that somehow the situation can be redeemed. An example, "In late 18th century Poland, the Kaiser’s forces were burning all the Jewish villages. One village had been burned and nothing was left standing. As the sun came up the next morning an old Jewish gentlemen pounded a few boards together, made a sellers stall and opened it up for business. A young man walked passed, stared in disbelief and asked, "What are you selling among these ruins. The man smiled and said, "I am selling hope. You can sell water on a dry desert, so the place to sell hope is on the ash heap of destruction."
Our hope on the ash heap of our lives is the hope that unto us a child is given, unto to us a son is born. People who are winners, people who are self-reliant, people who feel they have the world by the tail need no hope. But people who have felt the brokenness of life, people who have felt the struggle of despair, people who have realized they cannot control life, people who have found in all reality they are more of a looser than a winner, it is to these people that the leap of joy of Christmas comes into their hearts with an awareness missed by many. When people realize that the struggle of existence cannot be won by them, when they realize by their own efforts they are really going backwards in life, when they realize that without Christ there is no meaning or purpose to life, then hope springs eternal because their hope is placed outside of themselves in a person, in the God who became man, into Jesus Christ. It is this awareness which is at the heart and soul of the Christian message, but it is the most difficult part. Our nature is not to surrender our control, our purpose of life outside of ourselves, but when we do this we are really living.
When we realize our lives are an ash heap, when we realize that alone without Christ we are only loosing life, then there is hope because we turn our burning, smoking lives over to Christ to redeem and save. By ourselves as Human beings hope does not spring eternal in our nature. We are a race of people given to despair. We are prone to give up on live, to quit, to find the easiest, painless solution to our problems. We are a generation of people who have gotten used to looking for the quick fix, the instant solution and when it doesn’t come, we give up, we throw up our arms in despair and complain about the unfairness of life.
There is a movie about the ultimate despair in life entitled "They Shoot Horses Don’t They". I saw it in college and again just recently on TV. The movie is about an actress who has a fallen career on the big screen during the 20’s. She enters a dance marathon hoping to win the jackpot then to use the money to launch a new movie career. As the marathon draws closer to the end, she realizes that she and her partner have a good chance of winning. During one of the rest breaks, the promoter calls them into the office, and explains to them that the winner has to pay for the expenses of the dance out of the $750.00 prize money.
She sees life is not worth fighting any longer, because when she thought she was winning, she was loosing. She gives up on life and the final scene of the movie shows her going round and round as if on a merry-go-round. She steps off and goes outside with her boy friend, hands him a gun and asks him to shoot her. As the viewer, you can feel her helplessness, but as a Christian you want her to live, to be redeemed, but the gun goes off. She falls to the ground, the police come and ask the boy friend why he shot her. He replies,"They shoot horses don’t they!!"
The hope of Christmas says no matter how desperate our lives seem, no matter how much hurt, brokenness, and alienation there is, because of Jesus there is hope. We as God’s children are more than horses being shot when our usefulness in life is through. Because of Christ, no life should be without hope. There is hope for the redemption of that life either through the strength to endure or the power to overcome. Because of Christ, in the long run of things, in each life, hope does spring eternal. Christ can do for us that which we cannot do for ourselves that is to redeem our lives now and in the future. Because of Christ, no life need end in a moment of despair, for with Christ every life can be and will be redeemed.
A story that has been around awhile speaks of this hope. A Sunday School teacher gave each of her students, a plastic egg before Easter to be brought back with something, which tells of the joy of Easter. One brought back an egg filled with a stone, another a flower, another a butterfly and one with nothing in it. The boy explained, it is empty just as the tomb on Easter was empty.
A couple of months later, that boy who had brought the empty egg to class was killed in g car accident. On his coffin among the flowers were plastic eggs all opened all empty.
Our hearts do leap for joy this season because with Go, all things are possible. Our hearts do leap for joy because of the gift of the baby born in the manger who brings hope into our troubled lives.
Leap for joy because our savior comes.
Amen
