John 1:1-3, 14, 16
Luke 1:26-45, 56
Christmas is a time of saying, “I love you.” A time of sharing with the people we love in family traditions and celebrations. Sometimes saying those words can be difficult and other times the words “I love you” roll right off your tongue. Think of a time you were told I love you more as a matter of course than deep expression. I often say it to my kids while I am leaving their room right after a brief chat. “I love you.” Now think of a time when your soul was filled when someone you care deeply about looks into your eyes and says, “I love you.” Your souls connect, your heart sings. A completely life changing moment. Same words, but a seismically different experience.
The incarnation is much the same way. We can say the Word became flesh and dwelt among us as a theological truth or we can let that divine reality change our world forever. You just heard from the gospel of John, the same gospel where Jesus said, God so loved the world…. You heard a mystical account of the incarnation of God in Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Or as a modern translation puts it, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (The Message). God becomes your next-door neighbor, God intimately knows what your life is like and lives there with you. William Brown a professor of Old Testament at Columbia Seminary shares two thoughts about this. First, he notes God comes in fullness, not limitation. The word fullness is “pleroma” in the Greek meaning God’s outward-extending abundance made manifest in the flesh. He likens that to the aroma that fills the room, much like the warm and hearty aromas from Christmas culinary. I remember waking up to savory and sweet smells wafting into my room on Christmas morning. The incarnation of God in Christ is both God looking into your eyes saying I love and the comforting smells of a Christmas dinner. Secondly, Brown places the incarnation within the human experience and beyond. Through the incarnation, “The creator becomes created. To be human is, as with all of life, to be created; to be conceived, gestated, birthed, to grow up and to die. God in Christ does all of that, experiences all that. God in Christ experiences created life, from heartbeat to headache” (Sacred Sense, p. 116). He concludes with, “For John, the cross marks the beginning of a new completion, a new sabbath, for the world that God loves. Christ’s incarnation initiates it; Christ’s death completes it, and a new creation is given birth. Like a child in a manger” (p. 117).
From the divine wonder of the incarnation let us turn now to the practical and human story of Jesus’s birth. Today’s second passage is to start with “In those days,” and so I needed to back up a bit and see what precedes it. The story felt very different when I did. Yes, it is when Mary learns she will be the mother of God. It is also how God communicates through an angel and how two women respond. I want you to note how time is conceived in trimesters, it starts with the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy.
Two Women and God. Joseph is mentioned as the betrothed and Zechariah the priest owns the house, but this wonderous moment when God tells of Jesus’ birth happens with only the women. Women need to be involved if the creator is to be created. Women need to be involved if God is to become flesh and live next door. But you say Mary is all that is needed. Then I ask why is Elizabeth such a vital player in this story? Elizabeth becomes the first human witness to the good news the angel Gabriel brought of the annunciation. Both women are pregnant with significance, for between them they bear the messenger and the message.
For us to better understand the incarnation I think we need to see the humanity of the women who brought it to life. Mary responds in faith saying, “let it be with me according to your word.” Yet as a young girl, million questions must have flown through Mary’s mind. Why me? What will Joseph think? Will he leave me? What will my mother say? How can this be happening to me since I am a virgin? As she struggles with all of this, Gabriel answers by sharing with her another amazing pregnancy, that of her barren relative Elizabeth. Gabriel points her in a direction and offers her help.
Mary goes quickly to the hill country, traveling the 80 miles to visit her relative Elizabeth. Some say this is to be with her and offer support, but I also think it must be a time away for her to accept what is about to happen. She spends the first trimester of her pregnancy away from Joseph, away from her family and would be critics and spends it with the woman who will give birth to John the Baptist. With wisdom and counsel found from this older woman because not too sure how her Mom will respond. It also feels like a retreat of sorts to regroup and prepare for what is about to happen. She has a chance to accept life on life’s terms. Because even when we are faithful, we still get to come to terms with the things that we find hard to understand or bear. Things like the diagnosis of a serious illness that alters our life, the chaos of addiction within our family, the pain of relationships ending, the wild choices our children make. We can struggle with these facts of life much like Mary might have struggled with her new pregnancy, but in faith we can share them with God and seek to find acceptance of God’s plan and accept life on life’s terms.
Have you ever noticed that when we are struggling with something, very often we get confirmation through people in our life? Gabriel had just told Mary she is going to conceive a son even though she is a virgin. As soon as she arrives at Elizabeth’s house, her holy pregnancy is confirmed, her new-found reality is validated. “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of our womb.” This even before Mary had a chance to tell her about God visiting her! It reminds me of the times when I was a kid and my mother would tell me some truth that I had a hard time believing. But as soon as a friend said the exact same thing, I heard it! I believe it! Elizabeth was her confirming friend. Even from the womb, John leaps for joy confirming Mary’s place and divine pregnancy. Confirming the fullness of God coming to dwell in Mary so Jesus could be born into the world God so loved!
Christmas might be a time filled with joy for you or you might be struggling with something in your life. Either way God sent his Son to live next door to you, to all of us, so that we can celebrate to the fullest and find comfort and confirmation in the struggle knowing that Jesus is right here with us. Born in a manger, the creator becomes created, so that you will know you are loved this holiday season and all year through. Hear the comforting and confirming words of the angel: “the Lord is with you,” “Nothing is impossible with God” so that you can reach the same acceptance of life on life’s terms and say you believe in the fulfillment of God in Christ just like Mary did once she had her time with Elizabeth. The incarnation is not abstract theology. God choosing to share the fullness of his divine nature with the fullness of the human experience means we have a God who knows us and Savior who has walked in our shoes. Christmas is more than Jesus’ birthday. Christmas is the day you have confirmation of God’s love for you and the divine reality of God the creator becoming the created so that you will never be alone. Amen.
