Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Luke 1:39-56


Dear Luke,
I’m afraid I must chuckle at the tone of your last letter.  If you think that what you’ve heard now is challenging to the mind, you will be amazed by what comes later.  By the time we reach the climax of the story, a miraculous birth or two will seem almost commonplace! 
But I readily agree that it is a lot to try and wrap your mind around.  Having a background in faith that you do not, I was prepared for God to be doing miraculous things.  For me, miracles are merely reminders of God’s powers over the earth God created.  For others, such as yourself, who know about God but do not readily attribute creation to him, it is a larger leap of the mind and senses to accept that things like miraculous births happen.  I have been hearing about miraculous births since I was a child, listening to my father recount the tale of Abraham, the father of our faith, receive the news from angels that his wife Sarah would bear a child in her advanced age.  To me, these tales merely affirm God’s wondrous joy in doing the unexpected.  To you, I can understand that your mind is being stretched beyond its comfort level.  Perhaps that is a good thing—it will prepare you for what is to come. 
To accept Jesus as Lord is not an easy task.  Many believe that it is simply about saying the right prayer and then moving on with life, but the Lord I have heard about and believe in demands more than that.  He demands a faith that is seated deeply within the heart and radiates out into every aspect of life.  If you are going to undertake this investigation with thoroughness and integrity, you have to be ready to set everything on the table and offer it to him.  I do not expect you to do this before the story is complete, but you should not be expecting this to be easy.  I believe God asks a lot of us.
God certainly asked a lot of Mary!  While having God’s baby sounds exciting, the reality of getting pregnant outside of marriage must have been terrifying.  I doubt she fully realized this when she accepted the angel’s proposal, but surely the danger of such a thing came home to roost before long.  While I can’t imagine Joseph’s reaction, I can say that, as a father, I would have been furious with her.  I wish I could say that I would have accepted her story and trusted God, but I know myself too well for that!  It is not a surprise that Mary went to visit the only person who would understand her story—she went to see her cousin Elizabeth in the hill country. 
It must have been a strange scene—two women, both pregnant, neither one should be pregnant, each having been visited by an angel.  I am sure they wondered what God had in store for them and their children, but when Mary arrived, it is said that Elizabeth’s child jumped in her womb, as though it knew precisely who was there.  Elizabeth herself felt the presence of the Holy Spirit overtake her and she proclaimed that Mary was blessed among women, as is the fruit of her womb.  She wondered aloud why the mother of the Lord had come to visit her, for she knew by the leaping of her own child that this was a spectacular thing.  She also pronounced a blessing upon Mary for believing that what the Lord spoke would be fulfilled.
It was quite a greeting, and Mary, in response, poured out her soul to her cousin Elizabeth:
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in my Savior, my God.  This low servant was looked upon with favor by him, and I will be called blessed by the generations that follow.  The Holy God has done great things for me, and the mercy he pours out is for those who fear him.  His strong arm scatters those whose hearts are filled with pride, and the powerful are brought down while the low are lifted up.  The hungry are filled and the rich sent away empty.  Out of mercy he has helped Israel, being faithful to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and all his descendants.
Can you believe that prayer?  It should cast away any doubt that Mary is some simple-minded girl who didn’t know what she was getting into!  Clearly, she was a woman of faith who took seriously what she had been asked to do—carry the child of God!  I have read that prayer time and time again, and I am sure it will settle upon your heart, too.  God clearly is working with a different agenda than simply magnifying the rich and those in power—God has a different idea of who is blessed and who is not.  I’m still trying to figure out what effect this has on my life, and on the life of our faithful community.
Mary apparently stayed with Elizabeth for about three months.  What I would give to have been a fly on the wall, to hear the stories they told!  Perhaps they talked about the appearance of the angel Gabriel, or maybe he came back and gave them more instructions on how to raise these special children.  I don’t have any idea, and I have asked around to see if anyone else does, but it seems that these two pronouncements are the only information we have from that meeting.
May your search keep you up at night, Luke.  I say this not out of meanness, but I hope that these tales get under your skin and destabilize you, that they become more than just tales, but something real that changes the way you live.  I will be with you on the journey, and we shall take each step together.  Perhaps you will notice that by the end of this journey the way you see the landscape will have changed.
Sincerely,
Theophilus 

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