Blessed is the One Who Believes - Fourth Sunday of Advent
Author: Pastor Carolyn Hetrick
December 22, 2024
Awhile back a guy walks into Grace in shorts, a hoodie
and ball cap, wanting to talk to someone about a fundraiser. Immediately I
prepared for a request of us but was surprised that when we sat down to talk,
he meant that his business was doing a fundraiser for families at Christmas and
he had come to us because, “We have a great business with a base of support in
the Penn State community, especially football. I’ve remade myself three times
and I just want to pay it forward. Our team is excited, but I’m embarrassed to
say we don’t know families we can serve.” That was a conversation I could join
in and fill in the blanks.
Joe Ford of Campus Steaks and I had a joyful hope-filled
conversation about possibility, one of several that then followed. I followed
up with basic information about situations I was aware of. Having never done
this before, he said he would get back about how much they had raised and the
support they could offer. And then time passed. The more time that passed, I
confess that I was wondering if there would be a fulfilment of these words that
had been spoken. But then lo and behold, I got a phone call- “our team had a
great conversation about families we could help. We wanted to raise more money
than we did. But some folks are just not in the same spot this year. We can
help two families in a big way and we have something for all those you told us
about.”
It was joyful again when I got to start generous
conversations of hope that they had not even known was coming. Hope which was
an answer to their own prayers. It’s not everything changing all at once, but
it feels like a holy conspiracy to in some way create the world we want people
to live in. It starts with belief.
That is the hinge in the gospel between the stories of
Mary and Elizabeth- “Blessed is she who believed there would be a fulfillment
of the words the Lord had spoken.” Blessed is the one who believes. I’d like
you to take a moment and imagine a descendant of yours a few generations from
now who is living in the world you imagine will be… Raise your hand if you
believe that world seems positive.
Our world today isn’t a whole lot different than Mary and
Elizabeth’s. They didn’t have much, and they lived as an occupied people. Even
more difficult to be a woman. Blessed is she who believed there would be a
fulfillment of the words of the Lord in that world.
So, let’s go back again to imagining that descendant this
time living in the world of our most positive, joyful, whole imagination as God
says. Can we truly believe in God’s word for us even though not truly seen?
Mary and Elizabeth engaged in what Mia Birdsong describes
in her book, How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community. They
dream with courage. In their songs there is boldness, hope and joy. They hold
up what they long for in faith in contrast to what they have. Between babies
leaping in wombs and Mary’s song of chosen-ness, it is all so improbable, yet
they are calling us in these “many generations later” spaces to dream with
courage, boldness, hope and joy. Because we are holding onto the blessing,
believing the words spoken by the Lord will be fulfilled.
Calling us to identify places WE can shift to align with
the future we envision, the vision cast by God’s words of a baby born who
fulfilled what prophecy meant for Mary and Elizabeth. He is the one that we
know- Christ. We are in a different generation where some things have been
fulfilled and others not yet. We await heaven come to earth. The future we long
for, Mary’s song, is the spark inside us.
When we believe, the blessing comes because we say “yes”
to joy and laughter and creativity. “Yes” to transformation and care. “Yes” to
vulnerability and our collective well-being. No more competing as if God’s
favor is rationed to the winners, or that we determine the blessing others can
receive. Say “yes” to love because this is, in the end, God’s fulfillment. The
God who so loved, sent the only Son, not to condemn but to save.
This is the vision. The more we feed this blessing, like
a baby growing, it will be sustained and strengthened to keep growing. It lives
in us and we in it.
We can be the ones in whom this future is born, in large
part, just by being in each other’s presence for awhile, like Mary and
Elizabeth. Faith is not a solo act. The women sing in their small community of
three adults (Mary, Elizabeth, a silent Zechariah and two unborn babies). They need
each other to believe the promises God has spoken. They encourage each other to
continue to travel towards the blessing, believing God’s words will be
fulfilled. For the liberation we all want, God uses our collective strength and
safety and connectedness to help us wait in hope.
It seems counterintuitive in our world but living the
good life where “I get mine” ends up making us feel isolated and unhappy. Where
only a quarter of us know our neighbors, we see the world as winners and losers
(notwithstanding football), far bigger than any injustices of race, class,
gender, values, beliefs or age, what separates us is that we deny that we need
each other. We need belonging. That’s a part of the fulfillment of what the
Lord speaks- we belong to God and each other. In fear we build walls, real and
emotional, instead of leaning on each other as the embodiment of the strength
of God’s words of fulfillment and love for us.
Remember when Mary needs to grapple with all that has
taken place, God sends her because she needs Elizabeth. Elizabeth enduring the
silence of her husband and probably her community, needs Mary. They sing this
world of liberating joy and love and belonging which is also the answer to
Elizabeth’s question, “Who am I that the Lord sends you to ME?” God does this.
This blessing is foundational and powerfully attractive to those who want it.
It is dangerous and a threat to those who don’t.
So, do WE believe God’s words will be fulfilled? Believe
in a future where we are all cared for and loved so deeply, where we let go and
give freely of ourselves because we believe we will truly be fed, where we
value being made dependent upon each other and God? It’s not a test, it’s a
blessing. Blessed is she who believes.
A lot needs restructured to live in a world where Jesus
and we embody a world of blessing that God desires for all of us. If we do not
REALLY believe that God so deeply loves you and me and everyone; if we do not
REALLY believe that Christ is the Savior of all nations and the Prince of
Peace; if we do not REALLY believe that God believes, that this world, chaotic
as it is, is worth saving and restoring, and that Christ comes and enters our
world now. If we do not REALLY believe these things, then we do not need Jesus.
But I think we do. We need more than nostalgia or
superficial distraction. We so desperately need the vulnerability of the unwed
pregnant teen and the woman far beyond the years of children who some might say
“What’s up with her that she thinks she’s pregnant?” We need the song of women
who despite everything that would say this can’t be how God works, or what God
wants, or how blessing comes.
We need these women to remind us of the audacity and the
incredible hope and joy that comes when we dare to believe in the fulfillment
of everything that we say each week
that God tells us.
When we keep imagining that world of God’s greatest
possibility and trusting, there is hope, peace, joy and love ready to burst
through ever more and calling us to the work and the song until everything we
long for, for ourselves and all generations, is fulfilled.
Copyright Rev. Carolyn K. Hetrick, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
Sermon Text: Luke 1:39-55
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Mary Visits Elizabeth
39 In those days Mary set out and
went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where
she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When
Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed
with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your
womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the
mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I
heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And
blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment
of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”
Mary’s Song of Praise
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47 and my spirit rejoices in God
my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowly state of
his servant.
Surely from now on all generations will call me
blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name;
50 indeed, his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their
hearts.
52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
53 he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.
54 He has come to the aid of his child Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
55 according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
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