|
Reflections from your Pastors
December 21, 2023
Mary set out in those days
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled." Luke 1: 39-45
Mary and Elizabeth
A reflection by Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, a self-described "Yankee Jewish feminist who
teaches in a predominantly Protestant divinity school in the buckle of the Bible Belt.” She is committed to eliminating antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies.
Mary goes with haste to Elizabeth, since it is already Elizabeth’s sixth month of
pregnancy. I also think she goes because she needs Elizabeth. As we've seen, the
Gospels tell us nothing of Mary's parents. Perhaps Mary, newly pregnant, needs an
older woman, a trusted relative, with whom she can share her feelings, both physical and spiritual.
The house to which Mary travels belongs to Zechariah, but Mary greets not him, but Elizabeth. We can sense the excitement in that meeting: the two women with
unexpected but wanted pregnancies anticipating a new future. I imagine Mary later
greeted Zechariah, but Luke lingers on the meeting of the two women. They remind me of Ruth and Naomi, cleaving together, celebrating family.
The excitement grows. We do not hear Mary's words; these are reserved for Elizabeth. But we do hear of the reaction to them. Not only did Elizabeth hear Mary's greeting, but also Elizabeth's child heard. At the sound of the younger woman's voice, Elizabeth, in her sixth month, felt the baby move.
The notice of the baby's movement will become the frame for Elizabeth's praise of Mary. To this feeling in her womb, Elizabeth is, like many in Luke's Gospel, “filled with the Holy Spirit,” and it is her sense of divine presence, of something moving in the air that inspires her, that prompts her to exclaim, “God has blessed you above all women, and God has blessed the child you carry.”
Words of blessing appear over 500 times in the Bible. The first time blessed appears in the New Testament is in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 5, but Elizabeth's exultation is its first appearance in Luke's gospel. From here it will be repeated again by Elizabeth, by Mary herself, by Simeon upon seeing the baby Jesus, and then by Jesus, often. The text now becomes filled not only with joy but also with blessing.
Elizabeth not only feels the blessing in her body but also sees it and Mary, whom she calls “the mother of my God.” Elizabeth is offering a prophetic word on multiple levels. She is the first to announce her cousin's pregnancy, before Mary was likely showing. Just as Elizabeth’s child is a sign to Mary of the truth of the angel's words, so Elizabeth confirms the angel's words by noting Mary's pregnancy. This would not be the first time a wise, older woman mentioned to a young friend or relative, “I think you're pregnant.”
Elizabeth knows that Mary carries not just a beloved child but the heir of David. I doubt most mothers would say to another, “Your child is more important than mine” Clearly, the Spirit is at work here. Elizabeth confirms her prophecy by telling Mary what we readers already know: that Mary's voice, her greeting, caused the child to jump for joy. Elizabeth's last words in the gospel are to bestow a blessing on Mary: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by God.” Luke suggests that Elizabeth, through prophetic insight, discerned the message and celebrated the hope.
The visit is in part a story about hearing. The greeting that both mother and baby hear prompts action and joy. Words matter, and the sound of words matters. In ancient Israel, the ear rather than the eye was the locus of revelation. God creates by speaking, “Let there be light.” The watchword is “Israel, listen! Our God is the Lord!”, and the Gospel of John begins, “In the beginning was the Word.” In an age in which literacy was low, one listened to stories. Words have meaning and power. That’s why Jesus keeps saying, “Let the person who has ears, listen.”
*********************************************************************
I hope you can find time in the busyness of the season, to sit and reflect as we know
Mary and Elizabeth did.
Blessings,
Mother Rosean
| 
