Luke 1:39-47
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Child you will bear!43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!”
46And Mary said: 47My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”
LUKE 1:39-47 LISTENING FOR JOY
Springford Baptist Church: December 12, 2021.
ADVENT CANDLE OF JOY
We can light a Candle of JOY and we can talk about JOY at Christmas, but do we really expect to encounter and to receive JOY ourselves?
Sometimes our reality can feel like watching other families or other individuals laughing and talking and thoroughly enjoying their time, but feeling as if we are just observers, not participants.
We acknowledge that Christmas time is for some of us a very painful time of memories and painful disappointments and loss.
For some Christmas may be a time of recalling better days when there seemed to be more JOY at Christmas and when life seemed simpler and more hopeful.
There are those who will spend the Christmas season pretending that they are reasonably happy because they do not want to diminish the joy of those around them. Yet inside they are feeling empty and sad.
We are reminded that for those dealing with mental health issues, Christmas can be a very complicated time of feeling an even greater sense of not belonging in the midst of the party atmosphere of people celebrating and appearing to be full of JOY–JOYFUL.
JOY that is not real and heartfelt is not JOY at all.
This Christmas time, I want to urge us to be listening for the JOY that Jesus gives. I also want to urge us to be listening for the heartaches that people around us are carrying, circumstances that make it seem impossible to receive a gift of JOY from our God.
It will be necessary for each of us to be completely honest about our own struggles and uncertainties in order for us to listen for the JOY that only God can provide.
How can Mary, the mother of Jesus and her experience guide us in discovering the depths of JOY available to us?
In today’s Scripture (Luke 1:39-47), Mary has just been told by the angel Gabriel that a miracle will cause her to have a baby named Jesus who will be God’s own Son.
Never lose sight of the magnitude of this miracle-only to be explained as a God initiated fact.
Mary had agreed to what the angel had told her was her life purpose. Remember her words of acceptance, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” (vs. 38)
Recognize with me that this is the source of JOY. It is in the discovering of our life purpose and in our acceptance of God’s purpose for our lives that JOY steps forward to be welcomed and realized.
If all life has held for us is repeated attempts to make ourselves happy and to try to satisfy the emptiness inside us with an endless round of self gratifying activities then JOY will continue to escape us.
I am thinking of a plant in one of our upstairs bedrooms that had not been watered in awhile. Plants in our living room get regular attention and are thriving. This plant upstairs had been overlooked and when I felt the soil, it was really dry. Not unlike our condition if we have not been regularly watered with God’s loving presence by seeking Him and the JOY that he can offer.
If we arrive at Christmas and expect to be drenched in JOY but have not been spending time with God and welcoming what He wants to say to us as we carefully listen, then no wonder JOY appears absent.
One of the other things about Mary that I notice is that she does not permit unanswered questions or potential adversity to drown out JOY in her heart.
As she got ready and hurried off to visit her relative Elizabeth, she must have had a swirl of thoughts in her mind. I know that I would have. Would people believe that the baby inside her was God’s own Son? What would Joseph say? How would people treat her?
None of these considerations appear to have submerged Mary’s JOY that Jesus is to be born and that she will be His mother.
We are not told what Mary’s greeting was to Elizabeth, but we are told that as Elizabeth was listening and heard Mary’s greeting that the baby (John the Baptist) inside her womb leaped and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit gave Elizabeth a perspective on JOY that she could not have received by herself.
Elizabeth exclaims in a loud voice,
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Child you will bear!43 But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!”
Mary is blessed because she has been chosen to bear this Child Jesus, who is the Son of God.
Mary receives JOY because she is willing to be the means of JOY entering our world through Jesus, God’s Son.
How will you and I receive JOY as we are willing for others to encounter JOY, God’s JOY, through us?
If Mary had stayed home and kept this news to herself, then she would have missed the JOY and so would her relative Elizabeth.
Especially now during this pandemic, we may be tempted just to stay home and away from other people. How will we find effective ways to share with others the JOY that comes to us because of Jesus?
There is something else about JOY for us to learn from Mary, the mother of Jesus.
Mary believes and trusts God for what God says will happen. In the words that the Holy Spirit gives to Elizabeth, she says to Mary,”45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!”
This results in a tremendous JOY filling Mary’s heart.
Mary replies, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” (vss. 46-47)
Whatever our story and our circumstance as we come to this Christmas, we like Mary can believe that God has plans and purposes for our lives. We can be listening for the possibilities for JOY that God is arranging for us.
God listens compassionately to us as we describe the heaviness of our hearts. God then invites us to receive in a fresh way the miracle of Jesus’ birth that signals reason for JOY, reason to rejoice in God our Saviour.
Will we believe as Mary did that God will fulfill His promises to us? These are promises that will secure JOY that can only come into our world through Jesus, God’s Son!