Read Luke 1:39-56
If you think things were tough for Mary, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, spare a thought for Joseph, talking to his mother-in-law.
Anna: You're taking her where? I don’t believe my ears.
Joseph: Bethlehem. I have to go there, so I'll take her with me.
Anna: My daughter. Nine months pregnant. You want to walk to Bethlehem. You want to take her with you.
Joseph: Not want to take her with me. I'm going to take her with me. The gossips can't pin down the date of birth if she's out of town. Besides, a son of David should be born in David's town. Where else?
Anna: A son, is it? Where else, you say? On the road there, maybe? If the robbers don't get you first, God forbid. Joseph, nobody knows when this baby is due. This isn’t the moment to take her on a walking tour.
Joseph: It’s a long way to walk. I could try to find her a donkey.
Anna: A donkey? Why not a chariot? And this is supposed to be an improvement? You should try being pregnant, and riding a donkey. Joseph, be reasonable. Leave her here. In a mother's care.
Joseph: She's in my care, now - I'll take care of her. The angel said to take her, and how can I take care of her, if I leave her behind?
Anna: You 'II take care of her! Suddenly you're a midwife, as well as a carpenter! Joseph, this is her first baby. The only one that knows less about it than her is you.
Joseph: Don't try to frighten us out of it. We were both told, 'Don't be afraid', by the angel.
Anna: Did the angel mention any other details? Like how she was to manage? In her condition, in a strange town, with no help, no mother, only Joseph, the midwife carpenter, who dreamed it would be alright. On your head be it!
Joseph: I dreamed I was told not to be afraid to take her. So, if I have to go to Bethlehem, then she's coming with me.
Anna: (heaviest sarcasm) Oh well, if an angel comes into your dreams, with a personal message... then why listen to the voice of common sense? I'm amazed the angel didn't tell you that you were pregnant, too. Why not?
Joseph: (grins) He told me it was going to be a boy, and to name him Jesus.
Anna: Jesus? MY grandson? What about Reuben? Reuben, after my father? Or David, even? Why Jesus? What sort of a name is that?
Listen to your mother-in-law! A radio sketch from The Angel and the Paper Bag and Other Sketches by Cecily Cupit (Melbourne: Joint Board of Christian Education, 1993).
Preparation for Christmas can be difficult: difficult for Mary, for Joseph, for Mary's mother, Anna, for Elizabeth, and for us.
Are you ready for Christmas to come? Cakes baked, house cleaned and tidied for guests, travel arrangements in place? Are all your gifts purchased and wrapped, and the tree decorated? I confess I'm usually late on a lot of those things, and probably some others I've yet to remember. During Advent we talk a lot about remembering to prepare for Christ to be born in our lives. It’s easy to get behind on that one too. We need to ensure that we get our Spiritual House in order as well.
After reading today's lessons, though, I wonder where Jesus will choose to visit -- Will it be the well-prepared house with all the perfect colour-coordinated decorations and the beautifully wrapped gifts? Is Jesus looking to be born in the soul that is really prepared for his birth? The person who’s really got their act together? The one who has neatly ordered his spiritual life? Does our God search out the people and places who are perfectly prepared and in control of things?
In Luke’s Gospel, we hear that our Lord is going to be the child of an unwed teenager. Elizabeth might logically have greeted her young pregnant cousin with "Mary, what have you done? You've ruined your life!"
Our imagined dialog between Joseph and his mother-in-law paints a picture of God coming into people’s lives in radically unexpected ways. Right in the place that one is least prepared: A carpenter is going to be a midwife? Surely our God has a sense of humour. Showing up where least expected.
Instead of pointing out our strengths, God shows up and magnifies the lowly places in our lives.
Did you really hear Mary's familiar song -- the Magnificat? It's not an affirmation of the good stuff of the status quo. It's a radical turning of the world upside down. The proud are scattered. The powerful are brought down. The rich are sent away empty. The lowly on the other hand are raised up; the hungry are fed. Apparently when the Lord is magnified, the ‘down and outs" are magnified also.
God seems to prefer the needy have nots, to those who have it all. He chooses strange and unexpected ways to make history. This most important event in all human history happens not to a powerful and wise man, but to a powerless teenage girl. It’s announced not by an assembly of royal heralds, but by an elderly pregnant woman.
The miracle is not the virgin birth. The miracle is that God spoke and Mary heard. God spoke and Mary heard AND obeyed, and the result of that obedience is a miracle. God sends totally unexpected miracles in unexpected places to unprepared and needy people. God sees human need and answers our deepest longings.
So instead of looking for God in the beautiful, well kept part of our lives. Let's take time to consider our neediness. The unprepared places.
When you look at your life, where is it that you are truly needy? Where is your life broken? Where do you feel inadequate and unprepared for life? Where are the empty spaces? Where do you hunger? Maybe it's loneliness or alienation? Poor health or financial stress? Depression or overwhelming fears? These are the mangers of our lives where God is asking to be born. Listen carefully in the broken places of your life. God is looking with favour on your lowliness.
Hear God's unexpected word promising to fill your greatest needs. Hear and leap for joy. The Lord will do great things for us and Holy is God's name,
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