Jane just read the continuation of the birth narrative that she preached on two weeks ago- the angel Gabriel coming to Mary the favored one and bestowing upon her the holy child. The angel also told her of Elizabeth’s unexpected pregnancy late in life. Mary is powerfully drawn to her cousin, for companionship, comfort and support. You just heard of her celebrated welcome and Elizabeth becoming the first human witness to the good news as her child leapt in her womb. Almost like a second movement in music, the scripture turns to her praise and prophecy. Listen now to the beauty and melody of Mary’s Magnificat.
James, my brother-in-law, loved music. He played percussion and keyboard. He also loved to sing. I would not say he was a great musician, never formally trained, but when his friends would come over to the house they would jam! They improvised, mostly jazz and R and B. No plan, no sheet music, just two or three guys sharing rhythm and chords, playing off of each other going wherever the beat and the melody would take them. James and my sister Beth have three daughters – which meant a few fights over bathroom time and a bit of drama. But when a new life event happened- they would share it with their sister; a new boy on the scene, a new activity at school, first job opportunity. You can bet they would come together for support and conversation. This female familial connection is most pronounced when experiencing all the changes of pregnancy for the first time.
When Mary a young maiden finds herself with child and hears tell that her older cousin Elizabeth, who was barren, is also with child she journeys to find community. I can’t imagine Mary’s mother or sisters are too keen on her situation bringing shame upon the family. She probably experienced great pain and rejection for being pregnant without being married to Joseph. So Mary seeks out her companionship in the one place she is sure to find it. In the company of a woman who has also received God’s blessing. Mary spends her first trimester with Elizabeth marveling in the wonders of pregnancy, helping Elizabeth in her final months, and forging a bond that goes deeper than family.
There is comfort in Mary, the mother of Jesus, creating community with people beyond the picture perfect family. She builds her connection through shared experience as much as family. During the holidays there is pressure to get along with family, even when someone drinks too much, or comes an hour late for dinner, or insists on watching the game, when others simply want conversation. Not to mention the undercurrent of grief when missing loved ones who are no longer with us. Navigating the holidays is hard. Yet it is heartening to know that when we find our family less than picture perfect or maybe just far away, that we can be like Mary and find our community in a new way. Our St. Andrew family can be your community with our family clusters- creating generational connections beyond the traditional family. Or you can find community with the neighbor down the street, or the friend that feels more like a sister than your sister.
My friend Ann is like that. We went to Hawaii together and have lots of fun playing golf, sharing wine or just laughing and talking. She has welcomed me into her family so the boys and I will be with her Christmas Eve and with my brother on Christmas Day. Christmas community, any community, is far beyond blood relations, especially when we believe in God. Elizabeth is like a prophet to Mary encouraging her to believe when I’m sure there were times of doubt. Yet Mary is faithful and ponders holy things in her heart. First God visits her, then she connects with Elizabeth and finds community and now she is ready to proclaim God, to magnify the Lord!
Almost a three beat rhythm- Visit, Community, Magnify!
After God visits, Mary looks at God as though through a magnifying glass, seeing all the wonder and love of God. Mary recognizes her humble place and God’s immeasurable greatness! She proclaims the upside down world inaugurated by the incarnation of Jesus: the powerful brought down, the lowly lifted up; the rich turned away empty and the hungry filled with good things. The final note is the covenant between God and God’s people- community and God’s faithful promise. Mary does not make this up on the spot. She finds inspiration from Hannah, another woman blessed by God with a son. Mary knows Hannah’s song, and so she improvises.
“The word improvise comes from the Latin for ‘not foreseen.’ Surely Mary did not foresee that one day… an angel would show up, announcing that Mary is pregnant with a baby whose father is God and who will be the savior of the world. While hard for Mary to foresee, pregnancy that is a gift from God also is not without precedent. And as Mary figures out how to respond to God’s action, she latches on to the precedent of Hannah” (Christian Century, 12/9/15 pg. 21). Mary takes the familiar chords from an earlier song and improvises. In 1 Samuel, Hannah sang, “My heart exults in the Lord” when God answered her prayer for a son (2:1). So like Mary’s, my soul magnifies the Lord. Hannah also speaks of God reversing the powers of the world. “But Hannah is drawing on a yet older song, the song Miriam sings after the Israelites cross the Red Sea and the powerful Egyptians drown… Hannah sings a variation of Miriam’s song- and years later, when Mary needs to say something about a strange action of God that will change her life and the life of the world, she takes the motifs of Miriam’s song and Hannah’s and she puts them together and sings….Mary knows Hannah’s song, and she improvises” (CC, pg. 21).
These three women all sang, all improvised, because God broke in and did the unexpected in their lives. Their songs magnify the Lord because they are living in the presence of God. God has touched them, transformed their lives and changed the history of the world. God is doing the same for us!
Visit, community, magnify! Visit, community magnify! The rhythm echoes.
God is visiting us still- that is what Advent is all about- preparing to receive God, to live the unexpected, the unforeseen.
God is taking down the barriers so that we might have that honest conversation.
God is breaking through the holiday masks that keep us from true community.
God is sending his Son, Emmanuel- God with us- so that we can find the bliss of community and then find our own way to improvise our own praise to God and truly magnify the Lord.
God IS visiting us- we come to St. Andrew for community of faith and support so that we can magnify our Lord. Just like Mary and Elizabeth, Zechariah and Joseph we want our story, our song, to be woven into the God’s song of salvation! Let your life become a praise song to Jesus – proclaiming Christ’s glorious presence in the world!
So the challenge this Christmas is to take all the notes of decorations,
the chords of celebrations,
the instruments of traditions
and blend them with the occasional minor key discord of family
and improvise into the harmonious family of God.
Allow the mysterious birth of Jesus, the heartbeat of every Christmas moment, to be the rhythm of it all! Let the Holy Spirit fill your soul so that you believe with a new passion and create a Christmas with a variation of God’s theme of love and salvation for the world. Amen!
