We know news travels fast in this age of instant updates on the Internet and 24-hour news channels. Yet the fastest, and sometimes reliable, method is word of mouth: friends telling friends and neighbours telling neighbours. A grapevine is connected to itself, which is why the saying of “hearing it through the grapevine” makes sense. The news doesn’t have to be advertised, it just travels through the stems and branches because everything is connected. Each grape knows what is going on and how it’s going to be affected because it’s already experiencing the same thing. The news comes to us in different ways. Sometimes we just know, with our being, without proof.
The condition of Mary wouldn’t have been broadcast, yet her cousin Elizabeth somehow knew when Mary appears on her doorstep. In the verses immediately before this greeting, we learn that Elizabeth had put herself into seclusion for 5 months once she learned of her remarkable pregnancy. You may remember that during this time her husband Zechariah couldn’t speak. So how could she know about Mary’s news?
And how did the baby John, in utero, know? I know it is possible for babies in the womb to hear sounds, perhaps even distinguish familiar voices, but this was a situation where his mother had been in seclusion and his father couldn’t speak. Mary’s voice may well have been the first voice of someone other than his mother that he would have heard. And he leaps for joy because she is carrying the Saviour of the world within her.
In the face of this life-changing news and all the implications that impending motherhood brings to a family’s life, Mary offers her response. Her soul magnifies the Lord. We can see that in a couple of different ways, how she heaps magnificence upon the Lord to extol or glorify God. That is the Old English understanding of her words and why the church refers to this particular piece of scripture as “the Magnificat”.
Yet I find it compelling to imagine how our souls might magnify the Lord, how we might amplify and enlarge God’s presence in our lives and in the world. Her song of praise reminds us of what Hannah professed, of Zechariah’s song, all celebrating the power of God to equalize the world. God will bring up the low and cast down the proud, feeding the hungry, tending to the poor and needy so that all will have enough.
In this season of preparation and celebration and joyous family times, the sacrament of communion reminds us of many things. Like a feast of roast turkey or whatever traditional meal is observed in this time, we celebrate an important occasion, through a gathering of family and friends. Through the broken bread and the spilled drink from the vine, we are reminded that life is a complicated and messy endeavour. We cannot hope to escape without facing some difficulty. Communion today is a reminder that the baby in the manger has a very important message and mission to fulfill. We know that later in the story of this infant, hatred and greed in the world would conspire to silence his message.
But throughout his life, Jesus assures us that all will be fed, no one turned away, because God’s grace and goodness is more than enough. When we come to this table it is with awareness and admission that we are part of a greater story, that with those around us, we believe in the power of Christ’s message, of God’s power and the Spirit’s presence.
There is support on the way, for those that gather around this common table, open and available for all. Mary goes to Elizabeth, someone else whose pregnancy has an unusual origin, maybe for comfort and support. She spends 3 months there. There is speculation that she goes away to hide her condition, that first century Palestine was no place for a pregnant, unwed, young girl, engaged or not.
Elizabeth’s words to Mary speak about her deep faith. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord”. May we be blessed by our belief that what is noble, righteous and good in life will come to pass, that God’s way of being will happen.
In communion we connect to the holy aspects of ordinary everyday things. We are reminded that we are part of a bigger mystery, that we too carry the mission and message of the Christ child within ourselves. Such is the gift of this season and what we are compelled to share in this time. As the world joins in the celebration of Christ’s birth, we know that certainly on this day, we are not alone.
Monday, December 25, 2006
sermon excerpts: Through the Grapevine
Posted by
Arkona-Ravenswood
at
10:16 p.m.
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