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Micah 5: 2-5a; :Luke 1:39-56

Two women once made plans together for Christmas. Th= ey didn’t quite know that was happening of course; Christmas did not yet exist among = the people of God. But they were about to help it happen! They were cousins and there were plenty of conversations going on in the small towns where they lived, for they were both pregnant. One was too old, so the village gossip went, to be expecting a baby. The other was too young, so the gossip went, = to be expecting a baby. The old one was Elizabeth, and the young one, perhaps only 12 or 13, was Mary.

The angel Gabriel had been a busy guy, about importa= nt business. One day he had encountered Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, in the templ= e. Gabriel brought good news about the birth of a son to this elderly couple. = When Elizabeth conceived, she said: “This is what the Lord has done to take away my disgrace.” For Elizabeth= was looked down upon in the village, for she did not have children.

Then Gabriel went off to the = village of Nazareth= to speak to Mary. Mary was a young peasant girl, and there was nothing to k= now about her that would propel her to the center of this story. But like Elizabeth, she kn= ows something unusual is happening to her. There was the promise of God’s protection and presence with her and within her, and the news that she would have a baby. For Mary this is not good news. She is engaged to Joseph, a village carpenter. They were not yet married. This news of a baby is puzzli= ng, and how would she share this information with Joseph? In the simplicity of = her being, she accepts this situation in her life.

Luke is the only gospel writer who thought to save f= or us this remarkable story of two women preparing for Christmas. Luke is writing during a time of deep darkness in Israel. Jerusalem had been all but destroyed. T= he Jewish historian, Josephus reports: “Throughout the city people were dying of hunger in large numbers, and enduring indescribable suffering. In every house the merest hint of food sparked violence, and close relatives f= eel to blows, snatching from one another the pitiful supports of life.” So Luke turns to these stories of hope. And contrary to every expectation then= and now, the central characters bearing the hope of God, are women. And out of = all the possibilities of women of faith in Israel, Gabriel went to two s= mall villages and singled out two peasant women who were cousins. Elizabeth would bear the baby who would mature into John the Baptist.

This is revolution from the bottom up! Notes Charles Talbert: “God = did not go to the top (to Caesar or Pilate) to get things changed; nor…to= the left to the Zealots, much less to the religious right (the Pharisees, or the Sadducees.) God went to the poor, to the outcasts, simply Mary. God goes straight to the center, straight to the heart, and creates there, joy, hope= and understanding. That’s worth thinking about for a congregation in transition.

God does not head for “top dog” mentalit= y or CEO aspirations to save his people.

Well, Mary needs to have some conversation with some= one about all that is happening, for she senses this is not just happening to h= er, but somehow to the world. So Mary runs off to visit her cousin Elizabeth. G= irl talk is what they did. Girl talk indeed!&n= bsp; But it was unlike any girl talk you have ever imagined, but then my imagination in girl talk is born of generations of too much male prejudice = and ignorance. After all, they were not just girls. They became involved in conversation guided by the very Spirit of God. And when we have that kind of conversation amazing things are revealed. For they were women into whose li= ves the hope of the world has been entrusted! Can you imagine that? That God picks two women off villa= ge streets and entrusts them with the hope of the world…the universe…for all eternity?! No search committee. No community involvement. No advertised job criteria. No open meetings. God made the decision, and now the women are go= ing to have conversation about it! According to church tradition, their talk went something like this:<= o:p>

“Blessed are you among women,” said the = older to the younger. “When I heard your voice, the baby leaped in my womb!” Now I do not know this for certain, being a man, but I have be= en told every mother knows what we must learn, that it is God who inspires the leaping of the unborn child. At the moment of the first movement, I am give= n to understand, there is no doubt that the will and purpose of God is unfolding= .

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rej= oices in God my Savior,” says the younger to the older. Not like any girl t= alk I ever imagined, but how am I to know? My gender is not to be trusted in su= ch matters. The will and grace of God was unfolding. The women were getting re= ady for Christmas! They were waiting in the presence of God. There is this overpowering personal miracle for both of them, and there is overpowering j= oy!

But Mary does not stop there. She begins a conversat= ion about a revolutionary God whose vision seeks to reach beyond their small li= ves, to restore a whole humanity, humbled and lost. It is no wonder that Mary continues to be the hope and energy for poor women all over the world.=

Guided conversation in the Spirit of God creates new worlds! Go back to the beginning of the biblical story and God’s conversation with the heavenly hosts and things begin to happen; order out = of chaos; the appearance of sea and land creatures; all of creation, including humans, comes from that conversation. This isn’t out of science, it i= s a faith matter. And now we have= this conversation in the midst of the world’s darkness.

And it is in the second portion of the Magnificat th= at we realize that this is not about personal salvation, but a total transformati= on of the structures of society. Mary exclaims: “God has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”

How do we hear this conversation in a society where = over the past 10 years the income of the top 1% of Americans has increased 157%, while that of middle income Americans rose 10% and the income of people at = the bottom increased not at all. And that is just us! Across the globe over a billion people live on a dollar a day and 15 million African children have = lost one or both parents, orphaned by AIDS. And what about the land where Mary lived? No peace, and very little hope. But that is never the end of the con= versation.

Heidi Husted Armstrong tells the story of Simon Ibra= him form Tim Dearborn’s book, Beyond Duty. Ibrahim, a follower of Jesus l= ived in Cairo, Egypt, a city of majority of = people are caught in grinding poverty. Ibrahim asked his garbage collector if he h= ad ever heard of Jesus. Well, no he hadn’t. That conversation began a friendship that lead to the garbage collector’s conversion. Some time later Simon Ibrahim started a little church among the garbage collectors ca= lled The Coptic Orthodox Church of St. Simon the Tanner, tanning being another despised profession in that part of the world. Years later this church among the marginalized and outcast garbage collectors is famous for it health clinics, schools, vocational training camps and advocacy for fair wages for workers. Mary’s vision fulfilled; moving from seeing to doing!

Joanna Adams says that Mary had double vision. Notic= e she puts everything in past tense. She knew the reality of human life, but she = saw that reality converging with the reality of God; in her heart it had already happened, the future flung into the embracing arms of God. That is the commitment which can come from conversation. What Luke holds true about God= is that God is not afraid to get involved in the flesh and blood of human life. The Roman Catholic theologian, Lawrence Cunningham, says that there is an “almost outrageous particularity” about recognizing God’s presence in the world, localized in the womb of an unmarried girl from Nazareth. To claim that God is enfleshed; th= at God has a birth date and a death date, is the scandal of the Christian story. In Mary, the church needs to tie a string around its finger to member that Mary’s ordinary nature keeps God’s coming to us scandalous. This safeguards the integrity of the gospel story.

To quote Joanna Adams again: “I do not know of= a better viewing device than Christmas. Behold the majesty of God in a manger.” Amen.