For a number of years, I ran an outreach ministry to mothers with young children.  One thing I quickly discovered was that if you put two or more moms in a room together, they can talk endlessly with each other about their pregnancies.  Get one started, and before you know it, you have heard about every pain, kick, and craving that each one experienced during the nine months of every one of their pregnancies.

 

And why not?  In the words of author Naomi Wolf, pregnancy and childbirth is the “most primal, joyful, lonely,… psychologically challenging and physically painful experience” that a human can face.[1]  It is only natural for a woman to want to share her experiences with others who know and can understand. 

 

We see this kind of “baby bonding” in this morning’s Gospel lessons from Luke.  The Christmas story is about angels and annunciations, shepherds and stars, fathers and Wise Men.  But most of all, the Christmas story about birth. 

 

According to Luke, two births are needed to transform the world – the birth of Jesus, of course, but also the birth of John the Baptist.  Before there is Mary and Joseph, Luke tells us the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah.  He was a priest from the line of Abijah, and she was a descendant of Aaron, the brother of Moses.  Despite this impressive lineage, there was a hole in their lives; they were childless and, as Luke politely puts it, both were "getting on in years."  Because of their advanced age, no one expected their situation or the lives to change, most of all Elizabeth and Zechariah.  But change they did, on the most important day of Zechariah’s life. 

 

He had received the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to burn incense in the Holy of Holies, the sacred place in the Temple built for the Ark of the Covenant.  As he was about to carry out his priestly duties, the angel Gabriel appeared and announced to Zechariah that Elizabeth would bear him a son whom they were to name John.  "He will be great in the sight of the Lord," said Gabriel.  "He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God." 

 

Zechariah was dumb-struck by Gabriel’s message, both literally and metaphorically.  Not only was the aging priest unable to comprehend what it all meant, but he was suddenly rendered mute, unable to speak a word.  But Elizabeth was more in tune with God’s plans than her husband, and she soon became pregnant.  And just as John is a forerunner to Jesus, Elizabeth’s miracle pregnancy is a forerunner to Mary’s.

 

In Luke’s familiar words which were used as our Gospel call this morning, Gabriel returns six months later, this time appearing to the virgin in Nazareth who is betrothed to Joseph.  The angel tells Mary she has found favor with God and she is about to conceive and bear a son named Jesus.  He will be great, called the Son of the Most High, to whom God will give David’s throne.  He will reign over the house of Jacob forever in a kingdom that has no end.   

 

Mary, trying to make sense of what makes no sense, wonders how this can be; she is, after all, still a virgin.  She listens as Gabriel explains: just as God’s Spirit once hovered over the formless void and the world came into being, now that same Spirit will overshadow Mary, and another act of creation will occur. 

 

Gabriel goes on to tell her that her barren cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a son and is six months pregnant.  Not just one miracle pregnancy, but two – for in the words of the angel, nothing is impossible with God!  Mary accepts Gabriel’s word in faith: “Be it done to me according to your word,”  and then she breaks into song, proclaiming, “My soul magnifies the Lord” – the treasured piece of scripture known as “The Magnificat,” which is the basis for our final hymn, “Tell Out My Soul.” 

 

Experts tell us that pregnant women… are often grappling with the deepest questions possible – questions about themselves and their identity, questions about life and death.[2]  During those nine months, a woman needs to connect with someone who can empathize, someone who knows what she is feeling.

 

Mary no doubt finds herself asking many questions and needing to absorb the angel’s life-altering news about the plans God has for her.  She needs help in understanding herself not just as a poor, pregnant teenager, but as the mother of God.  She needs blessing and assurance, comfort and support; she needs a sanctuary, a safe place and a wise person with whom to talk and share her hopes, joys, and fears – and who better than another expectant mom who is miraculously pregnant with a son by the grace and power of God?

 

And so, in our Gospel lesson, Mary – full of this great, frightening, awesome news and tipped off by the angel to her cousin’s pregnancy – quickly heads south to the Judean hill country to visit Elizabeth and engage in some baby bonding.  Mary must be a welcome sight to Elizabeth, who has been in seclusion for five months with only the silent Zechariah as company.  When her cousin first arrives, however, Elizabeth does not yet know that Mary is also pregnant – at least not until her unborn son John leaps in her womb at the sight of her.  Even before he is born, John is acting out his prophetic role of preparing the way of the Lord. 

 

Now a swift kick in an expectant mother’s side by her unborn child is pretty routine.  It’s not the kick that is the miracle, but Elizabeth’s response to it.  Filled with the same Holy Spirit that has caused Mary to conceive, Elizabeth becomes God’s prophet and the first preacher in Luke’s gospel; she is ordained on the spot by the Holy Spirit and the first to proclaim the Good News with these words: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!… Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" 

 

Blessed indeed is Mary – and blessed is Elizabeth, too.  These two women are blessed as pivotal players in God’s plan of salvation, they are blessed with two sons who will change the world, blessed with the privilege of being the first to convey the Good News which we call the Christmas story.  And Elizabeth and Mary are blessed to have each other.

 

In just a few short hours, we will once again celebrate God’s coming to us as one of us.  Like John in his mother’s womb, may our hearts leap with joy at the thought of Jesus being born in Bethlehem’s manger.  Like Elizabeth, may we proclaim the Good News of the coming of the Lord.  Like Mary, may we be open to God’s special purpose for our lives. 

 

And like the two mothers who are bonded by their miraculous pregnancies and by their willingness to serve as God’s vessels of grace, may we put our trust in God and open ourselves to divine surprises, to seemingly impossible possibilities, and to the ongoing mystery and wonder of God's inbreaking into the world.  Amen.

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