Advent IV: A New Hope

The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson

Luke 1:39-55

Advent IV: A New Hope

A long time ago, in a hinterland far, far away...

It is the period of their engagement. A young girl betrothed to a man named Joseph – he a descendant of Israel's greatest king. But that matters little now. His people, her people, are once again an occupied people, struggling to follow the God of their forebears in the days of the Empire, Rome.

Their story matters to us now.  But not then, not there, not in the Empire.  This couple, they were not wealthy.  They were not powerful.  They were not important.  She was an unmarried, pregnant teen. He worked with his hands, a common laborer. They were nobodys, lost in a vast Empire that, at that time, spread from northern Africa all the way to the British Isles, spread beyond even the reaches of their imaginations.

They were unknowns – certainly unknown to those who mattered, obviously unknown to the Emperor; and yet, the most amazing thing: they were known to God.  And it was more than just a platitude, more than a theological conjecture; one of God's messengers actually appeared, appeared to the girl. And spoke to her an unbelievable message – a message that would change everything, a message that had to be shared: in her young body she now carried the world's only hope.

Young Mary races to the home of Elizabeth, a member of her own tribe.  According to the messenger, Elizabeth is something of a co-conspirator. Like Mary, Elizabeth has been recruited to play a significant role in God's mysterious plot, a plot long foretold by seers of old, and now unfolding in their own time.  The Great Prophet and the Savior were coming into the world of mortals – and they would enter by the most unlikely of means: one through a barren womb and one through a virgin womb.  

Although God had many times before liberated them from powerful Empires, there always seemd to be another around the corner.  The darkness always seemed to be gathering.  But while it was a dark time for God's people, there was still a spark of light – and where there is light there is still a chance, still hope.  So in the dark they cried and prayed and waited, waited for the light to overcome the darkness and save them, to save them completely and totally. And now this message...

Before he left Mary, the messenger said something very important. He said, “Nothing is impossible with God.”  His last words.  The last words young Mary heard before she started running, to the hill country, to Elizabeth's home.  Nothing is impossible with God.

Now little does Mary know that the darkness will conspire against the fruit of her womb. Powerful people will hunt him like an animal – prey in a world of predators.  Kings will slaughter innocent children to stop the tiny savior growing in her body.  The light inside of her will clash with the darkness, setting off violent reactions and bitter hostility.  There will be days in which her heart will be pierced by the sorrow of it all, crushed by the weight.  But for now, today, it is joy. 

Elizabeth and Mary: caught in a moment, in that perfect moment when the impossible becomes reality.  The words of the prophets were being fulfilled.  The hope of the ages was coming true.  After all of the crying and prayers and waiting, salvation was happening – and they could feel it, stretching their olive skin.   

Through her, from her, the savior was coming.  They were the beginning of the resistance.  Somehow that little baby growing in her teenage womb means the proud will be scattered and the powerful will fall from their thrones.  This little one means the lowly will be lifted up and the hungry filled with good things.  This baby was more powerful than the Emperor; his kingdom will have no end.  The violent world of the Empire would fall beneath the power of his love.  He was God's impossible dream come true. 

Her people had cried and prayed and waited.  And now God was acting.  The plot was unfolding, with each tiny limb stretching and pushing against her insides.  Salvation would enter this darkness through her birth canal.  The light would finally shine; the light would finally win.  The promise God made to the children of Abraham was coming true.  And it was in her: God's Savior, a new hope.