Fr. Richard

12-24-06

 

Luke 1: 39-49

 

 

We were thinking about having reserved seating only for this service this morning, but I think it’s worked out okay that we didn’t do that.  How many are happy to be here this morning? 

 

And the good news is that I’m delighted; I say this from my heart: I wouldn’t want to be any place else but here at St. Thomas on a Sunday morning with my brothers and sisters.  And the good news is, I get to come back two more times today and gather for worship ..... yep, I know, so do you.  Even the choir is happy.

 

See, joy is what should characterize us as Christians, and joy erupts in today’s Gospel reading.  On Mary’s arrival at her relative, Elizabeth’s home ..... the miracle child, on hearing Mary’s voice, the Bible says, leaps in Elizabeth’s womb.  Elizabeth, herself, delivers an extraordinary greeting to her kinswoman, whereupon Mary ecstatically praises God for the miracle child now growing within her.  Mary realizes her status as blessed by God, and goes on to truly magnify God’s nature as the healer and reconciler and redeemer of everything.  Joy erupts.  And since we are so familiar with this passage, and the story that follows, we can easily neglect to ask the question: why?  Why is there all this joy at this meeting?  Why is the fetus, John the Baptist, why is the old woman who is his mother, why is the virginal, pregnant Mary filled with and bursting forth with joy?

 

It cannot be because life is all that rosy -- at least by human standards.  Think for a moment; think, you women who are ..... to put it as delicately as the Bible does ..... you who are beyond child-bearing years, if you were suddenly pregnant, you might feel bewilderment and fear, but you would likely not burst into song.  Well, the sopranos might, but . . .  And, think: if you were a young woman ..... in fact, just having reached the age of fertility, never having been with a man ..... and now you are pregnant.  And even if an angel says it’s okay, you would certainly have a great deal of impossible explaining to do ..... particularly with your chaste finance.  Praise to God might get a bit choked on the way out.  For Elizabeth and Mary and the not-yet-born, John, joy overflows.  Their response tells us where true joy comes from.  Joy, this joy, is a byproduct of living the right kind of life, of doing the right thing.

 

Search for and practice right living, and happiness will be the result.  From our Christian perspective this is simply a great fact.  Right living is expressed in the stories and writings of the Bible, most particularly the New Testament.  Right living is expressed in the long tradition of the church’s theology and experience.  And right living is expressed in the movement of the Holy Spirit in our own day.

 

We are to allow God’s revelation to define our corporate and individual lives.  Let’s be honest.  It is not that we don’t know the kind of life to which God calls us; it’s that we do not have the will to want it.  Mary and Elizabeth and John responded to God’s purpose for their lives and, in the response, found joy which no human cloud could dim.

 

We settle for diversions and lesser goods that we hope will satisfy.  At their best, they give us only momentary happiness.  Giving oneself to any creature comfort without also giving oneself to the Creator, will never satisfy, will never result in the joy which God intends for us.  Life is sometimes a march of duties during dull, dark days.  Life is sometimes surrounded with fear, confusion, and regret.  Yet happiness comes, even as we labor for the right, as we give ourselves as faithfully as we may to God’s purposes for oneself and others.  True happiness is always the byproduct of a life well lived.

 

This is the ground of joy for Mary and Elizabeth and John.  May you know happiness, not simply for our Savior’s birth, but for his purpose in your life.  I pray that you may seek for and live according to Christ’s perfect will for you.  For there will be found true joy.

 

Amen