Visitation
Lk
1:39-45
7/2/17
As many of you know, today after the
10:15 a.m. service, Amy and I are leaving for New Orleans in order to celebrate
our twentieth wedding anniversary on July 5.
We are going to New Orleans because that is where we went on our
honeymoon. After being married in
Danville, IL, Amy and I boarded the Amtrak train, the City of New Orleans, in
Champaign and traveled in a Pullman car.
Ironically, when we took that train
we had no idea that the trip was taking us through a place that would become part
of the area in which we would nine years later.
The City of New Orleans stops in Carbondale. We did not know that beginning in 2006 we
would see the Carbondale station all the time as we drive over there on S13 for
the kids’ sports and for hospital calls.
A few of you may recall that we went
to New Orleans ten years ago for our tenth anniversary. I was talking with Chuck and Wanda Cohoon
about the upcoming trip when I visited Chuck this month. We made reference to that tenth anniversary
trip, and as we were talking, Wanda asked: “Last time you went there, didn’t
you come back with Michael?” Wanda doesn’t miss much.
For yes indeed, we went to New
Orleans to celebrate our tenth anniversary and when we returned, Amy was
pregnant. And believe me, no one was
more surprised than we were because we didn’t believe it was even possible for
her to get pregnant. It’s no secret that
we have twins because Amy wasn’t able to become pregnant, and so we did those
aspects of infertility treatment that we found morally acceptable as Christians.
But after having the twins we certainly didn’t believe she could ever become
pregnant again. Michael was a complete
surprise.
In the Gospel lesson for the Feast
of the Visitation we have not one, but two
babies who were complete surprises. First we have Elizabeth. She was pregnant, in spite of the fact that
she was an aged woman well beyond child bearing years. And yet, the angel Gabriel appeared to her
husband Zechariah as he carried out his priestly duty in the temple and
announced that Elizabeth would bear a son and they would call his name John.
This in itself was amazing. But then
the angel went on to say, “And
you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will
be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he
will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.” Sure there
would be joy and gladness at the birth of baby to this aged, childless
couple. But the big news was that he
would be great before the Lord and would be “filled with the Holy Spirit, even
from his mother's womb.”
This was
not your ordinary pregnancy, because this child would be a prophet. Gabriel told Zechariah: “And he will turn
many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him
in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the
Lord a people prepared.”
And then,
in the other half of the Visitation, we have the pregnant virgin Mary. This is, of course, not how things normally
work. The angel Gabriel had appeared to
her too and told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with
God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall
call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most
High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he
will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no
end.”
Mary
learned that she was going to give birth to the Messiah. But the real surprise
was still to come. A virgin who was betrothed but not married, Mary asked how this
was going to happen. And Gabriel told her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be
born will be called holy--the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth
in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her
who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary’s
response to this news that was going to turn her world upside down was simple.
She said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord;
let it be to me according to your word.” She believed and trusted God’s
word. And then in our text we also learn
that she acted because of it. We hear: “In
those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in
Judah.” She believed God’s word that
this seemingly impossible thing had happened and so she quickly went to see
Elizabeth. She couldn’t call Elizabeth to ask if she was pregnant. She couldn’t check Elizabeth’s Facebook page
to see if she had posted some clever and cute picture announcing that she and
Zechariah were going to have a baby.
Instead she quickly made the trip to see her because of the word from
the Lord.
Mary entered the house and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of
Mary, the baby John leaped in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy
Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and
blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the
mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your
greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her from the Lord.”
Elizabeth is filled with the Holy
Spirit and so she is able to understand what this sudden movement by the baby
John means: he is already while still in the womb playing the prophetic role
that Gabriel had described. And the
Spirit gives Elizabeth the ability to identify the child in Mary’s womb as her
Lord.
In a way,
what we have today is “Christmas in July.”
On this first Sunday in July our Gospel reading for the Visitation sets
before us the incarnate Son of God in the womb of the virgin Mary. Paul tells us, “But when the fullness of time
had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to
redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” The Son has been sent forth – conceived by
the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary.
He has entered into the world in the incarnation in order to redeem us
from the judgment against sin and to give us the status of sons and daughters
of God.
In our Gospel
lesson Jesus in the womb meets John the Baptist in the womb. It is not the last time they will meet in
Luke’s Gospel. The next time, John the
Baptist will be engaged in his ministry.
He will be in the region around the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus and John will meet again as Jesus comes
to be baptized by John. After being
baptized the heavens will be opened,
the Holy Spirit will descend on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice
will come from heaven saying, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well
pleased.” Jesus will be anointed by the Spirit as the Christ. And in his baptism he will take up the role
of being the suffering Servant for you.
He is the One who has suffered and died for yours sins. While in the womb of the virgin
Mary, this was already the course that had been prepared for him by the
Father. He came to be numbered with the
transgressors for you.
In our
text, the incarnate Son of God is in the womb of Mary. He emerged from the womb at Christmas as he
was born to begin his saving work for you.
When he had offered himself for you on the cross, he was buried in a
tomb. And then on the third day, he emerged
from the tomb. He went forth as the One
who has defeated death – the One who has begun the resurrection in which you
will share when he returns on the Last Day.
When
Elizabeth met Mary, she said, “And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her from the Lord.” She heard the word of the Lord through Gabriel
and she believed. She trusted in God and
his ability to work everything out because as the angel said, “nothing
will be impossible with God.”
The challenge for us is to believe
and trust in this word from God that our sins are forgiven because of Jesus
Christ; the challenge is to believe and trust that the circumstances of our
present and future rest in God’s hands. There are times we fail. There are times when guilt plagues us. There
are times when worry controls out thoughts.
When this happens what we must do is
return and listen to that word of God again.
The Lord speaks his comforting word of forgiveness and love in more than
one way. He surrounds us with means by
which he applies that word of the Gospel to us.
In the word preached and read; in the water and Word of baptism; in word
of absolution spoken in private confession we hear this Gospel word again – a
word that the Spirit uses to strengthen faith and build us up.
And as we receive and believe that
word it does something else. Mary heard
the word of the Lord through the angel. She believed, and it set her in motion
with haste to visit Elizabeth. That word
of the Gospel does the same thing for us.
The love received in Christ prompts us to love and care for others. Sometimes it sets us in motion to visit a
person in need of care and support.
Because Jesus has put our needs first in order to save us, now we too
put the needs of others first.
In the Gospel lesson for the Feast
of the Visitation we have two surprising pregnancies. The incarnate Son of God is in the world in
order to bring salvation. John the
Baptist is in the world to prepare the way for the Christ – a prophetic role
that he begins to fulfill while still in the womb. They will meet again at Jesus’ baptism and
our Lord will go on to fulfill his saving mission for us by his death and
resurrection. Baptized into his saving
work, we are forgiven now and will share in his resurrection. And so, blessed is he and she who believes
that there will be a fulfillment of what has been spoken to us from the Lord.
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