"Does anything leap for joy within us? Can we feel the stirring of new life? Of age old hopes? Of the impossible longing to become possible?"
Year C, Season of Advent
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Sunday Between December 18 and December 24 Inclusive
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
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In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country.
Luke 1:39
"Those days" are the first days of Mary's pregnancy - of the pregnancy of a young girl - probably less than 15 years old - of the pregnancy of a young and unmarried girl living in a small village where such a thing would bring untold shame - no, not UNTOLD, but rather frequently told gossip, that would shame her, her family, and her child for ever. In THOSE days, Mary flees her village and heads for the far away hills.
As Bruce Malina (page 229) succinctly puts it:
Travel for other than (religious purposes) was often considered deviant behavior in antiquity. While travel to visit family was considered legitimate, the report of Mary traveling alone into the "hill country" is highly unusual and improper.
Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will ... make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
Luke 1:15-17
This is the child - whom we know as John the Baptist - who leaps in his mother's womb at the sound of Mary's greeting to Elizabeth.
Again, Bruce Malina comments (page 229):
Normally speaking, matters having to do with the womb are not talked about in public. This is women's talk and it is usually kept carefully within the private circle. ... The fact that Luke reports such female conversation here suggests that he considers the reader a family insider.
Therefore, before moving too quickly to the magnificence of Mary's Magnificat, it is perhaps wise to pause and sit within the intimacy of these two women's conversation. To consider ourselves not as distant outsiders, but as invited and welcomed extended family into a blessed conversation between these two women.
Does anything leap for joy within us? Can we feel the stirring of new life? Of age old hopes? Of the impossible longing to become possible?
And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.
Luke 1:45
And blessed today are we who also believe.
Mary's song of praise, Verses 46-55, pretty much summarizes the teachings of Moses and the Prophets.
Anyone who thinks the Good News of Jesus Christ is only about one's personal, individual salvation / forgiveness / justification / redemption will have a hard time preaching this text. This is a text about social reversals / transformation. Those of us who are proud, smart, powerful, high status, and well-fed have a tough text to hear today.
But the text today has moved from a young girl fleeing in shame from her home to that same young girl's soul magnifying the Lord, and her spirit rejoicing in God her Saviour.
We may not need to flee in shame, but the text is calling us to also move; to also move from whatever space we are in to a space of seeing and naming and rejoicing in all the deeds God is doing to restore the creation to its fair balance.
David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca
* Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Bruce Malina, et. al., Social Science Commentary on ... The Synoptic Gospels; The Gospel of John; The Book of Acts; The Letters of Paul; The Book of Revelation; and others.
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