Pastor Tom Johnson, 12/23/12
Both Mary and Elizabeth are pregnant. In Elizabeth’s womb, she carries John the Baptizer, the greatest born of humanity who comes in the power of the prophet Elijah. In Mary’s womb, she carries the Messiah who is both God and unborn child. This story has challenged people since the very beginning. When Mary became pregnant, her fiancé Joseph was prepared to break things off. The Law of Moses threatened to take her very life. She might very well have gone to Elizabeth’s house as a kind of first century witness protection program.
Today, our challenge may be the sensational story of two unborn children who are already preaching in the womb before they ever stand in a pulpit. Or it may be because we sing this beautiful song of Mary called “The Magnificat;” we are, after all, the Church who is called the Bride of Christ. But together as God’s people—male and female—adult and child—we find our Gospel femininity. Together, we nurture the Christ child and treasure up in our hearts the developing story of our Savior. And together, we trust in the Mighty One who has done great things for us by the strength of his arm.
In the days of Caesar Augustus, Elizabeth and Mary did not text, facebook, email, or tweet one another. Elizabeth had no warning of Mary’s arrival or pregnancy. So, when Mary greets Elizabeth as two expecting women, they do so with loud cries of delight. Mary enters Elizabeth’s house, probably saying the customary greeting, “Shalom…peace, Elizabeth!” And, her voice startles both Elizabeth and her in utero child. And Elizabeth says that John was not merely surprised by the sound that reverberated in John’s amniotic sac. No, John sensed the exhilaration of his mother. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit saturated her unborn son. And like the prophet he was conceived to be, he preached his first sermon without words.
That was something I learned about being a parent. There is a lot of personality developing weeks before children are born. You can sometimes tell if a person is a night owl or an early bird long before they are placed in a crib. One baby already likes to sleep in hours after mom is up and moving around. Another child gets up at the crack of dawn and wakes the mother up. Another child already shows their love for kicks and punches on the uteran wall. Linguists will tell you that children already recognize their native language and the voice of their parents—especially the voice of their mother. Children are born with trusting hearts and immediately look in faith toward their mothers for nurture and milk.
If newborns trust in their earthly parent from the womb, why is it difficult for us to imagine their trusting in their heavenly parent? Rather than underestimate their potential for a relationship with God at such an early age, Jesus says, holding an infant in his arms, “Unless you become as this little child, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Luke 18:15-17).
The angel said in the first chapter of Luke that John “will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.” It is why we believe that infant baptism so epitomizes the Gospel—what better reveals the Good News of Jesus Christ than a baby who is forgiven, adopted, and full of God’s potential and promise. There is a stirring of the womb of Christ’s Church when we witness the new birth of a child of God. There is a stirring of the womb of the Bride of Christ when we have a little taste of the great feast to come at the Lord’s Table. There is a stirring of the womb when we realize that Christ was born two thousand years ago so that he would come into our hearts and be born into our lives today. It’s in our individual lives, and our lives together as the Body of Christ, that he is conceived by the word, water, and Spirit of Holy Baptism. And like Mary who carried her Son and the Eternal Son of the Father, so we too are united with Christ in our life together as Christians. And like the unborn prophet and unborn Messiah who were already impacting the world around them, so Christ in our hearts makes an impact on the world around us.
Christmas is the day after tomorrow for us. For Elizabeth and Mary, it was weeks away. But already, the Christ Child was bringing hope, joy, and light to the people of God. In the Christmas season, we also anticipate the day when Jesus will come back again…not through Mary’s birth canal…but in the clouds. But he is not absent. Christ is with us. He is fully present and growing in the hearts and lives of his people. He is stirring in the womb of the Bride of Christ. And soon he will be born in the clouds to make all things new. And, like John, we leap for joy when we hear the Word. We don’t underestimate what God can do through little people—even the unborn. And we anticipate God doing great things. And so we pray, “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
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