Luke 1:39-45(46-55)
What is depicted in our Gospel passage today is the first Christian worship service in history, a gathering of two faithful people celebrating Jesus, Immanuel, the Christ, before he has even come into the world. The presence of the Word incarnate is so powerful that Elizabeth’s unborn son leaps for joy, alerting his mother to the nearness of God. Mary greats her relative, and in response she receives a blessing, a call and response we echo every time we say “The Lord be with you,” and hear the familiar answer “and also with you.” Mary proclaims the Gospel, the Good News of God, a hymn and a sermon that remains one of the foundational songs of praise in the Church across the world to this day. Mary, the first human being to know Jesus, becomes the first evangelist, and her cousin Elizabeth experiences the first conversion to faith in Christ, meeting the living God through her encounter with Mary. This story is the prototype of the church, the blueprint for all faithful people to build our worship.
The first Christian sermon ever given was a song of praise and revolution. The Common English Bible translates Mary’s first lines- “With all my heart I glorify the Lord! In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.” With all my heart, or as we’re used to hearing it, my soul. In the depths of who I am, my spirit. This is the first time a human being told another human being the Gospel, the Good News. She’s not a part of the temple priesthood like Elizabeth’s husband, she’s not seminary trained, she’s not a rabbi. Nevertheless, Mary preaches. She tells Elizabeth what God has done for her, for the world, for the poor and the oppressed. She shares the hope of promises kept, of mercy and help. An indigenous woman in an occupied land, she speaks of the powerful being dethroned and the lowly being elevated. A poor woman in a system meant to reward the few at the expense of the many, she speaks of hunger being satisfied and the rich knowing emptiness. Her sermon is dangerous, and brave, and honest. I cannot help but wonder if Elizabeth repeated it to John as he was growing up. His sermons seem to echo Mary’s words.
It is so important that we take a moment to bask in this scene. For the past few weeks, our readings have focused on the second coming, the end of days, the preparations that must take place before we encounter the Christ. In a couple of days, the baby will be born, we will give thanks and sing carols and move on to the turning over of a new year. But in this moment, right now, our savior is a beloved secret, a whisper of laughter and tears between two women being transformed. In this moment, Mary and Elizabeth know Jesus the way that we do, as a presence felt but not touched, a Word heard but not spoken, a present mystery and a promised future. Like Mary, the presence of Christ is within us. Like Elizabeth, we encounter that presence in others.
We believe that wherever two or three are gathered, Christ will come among them, and this is how we worship. In this first act of Christian worship, Mary and Elizabeth form the first quorum of the church decades before the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit births the Church into being. The size of the gathering does not limit the volume of joy. It is not a palace or a temple or a cathedral that holds this moment, but the intimate setting of a home. The worshippers greet one another in the name of the Lord in a doorway, a living room, a hallway. The preacher is dusty and weary from travel, and the newly converted is in her housecoat and slippers, unsteady on her feet as the child in her womb flutters and kicks. This liturgy has no dress code, no other sanctuary than the one formed by arms embracing.
We must linger here a moment because we are being given an opportunity to experience worship as if for the very first time. When we attend the same church week after week, recite the same prayers, sing the same hymns, we can sometimes lose touch with the wonder of it all. Even when we travel or wander, experiencing the diversity of worship in the Christian tradition, the novelty can quickly fade into routine. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. We are human creatures, we need structure, we crave stability, we seek out the comfort of the familiar and the predictable. The consistency of prayerbook worship creates a safe container for our varied emotional and spiritual states. The prayers will be the same whether we show up angry, or joyful, or depressed, or overwhelmed, and that is often a balm for our souls. The rhythms of the church year make space for the depth of our feelings and the breadth of human experience, from the joy of Christmas to the contemplative season of Lent to the grief and angst of Holy Week to the relief and hope of Easter, proving that no emotion is unwelcome in worship.
But, as with all things, the familiar can sometimes make way for boredom, a wandering mind, an unsettled heart. Perhaps you find yourself considering your to do list during the prayers, or zoning out during the readings, or checking your notifications at the Peace, or nodding off during the sermon. It happens to everyone from time to time. This is where Mary and Elizabeth have something to share with us.
Mary has an encounter with the Divine and learns that God is doing something amazing in her life. Immediately, she seeks out Elizabeth, someone to talk to and share this incredible experience with. Elizabeth receives her joyfully, gratefully, as if this moment together is all that matters in the world. Mary shares her experience of God, and Elizabeth listens and responds with hospitality and wonder. This is church. This is worship. This is what we are meant to do, both here and beyond these walls. The encounter with God is not confined to the church, or to the moment of worship. Sometimes, it happens amid our everyday lives, and we bring that encounter with us when we come into this place. When that happens for you, when God does something amazing in your life, do not keep it to yourself. Like Mary, bring it to your community and share it, that we all might know God a little better. When someone tells you what God is doing, whether directly with their words or indirectly with their presence, be like Elizabeth and listen, blessing God for the opportunity. These are the building blocks of a life of worship. So let us worship the Lord with all our soul, all our spirit, in the depths of who we are.
Mother A Writes 