It’s October 26 when I write this, and I find myself wondering what changes will take place in the next two months. On the day after Christmas, 2012, what will we look back on? What hopes were realized? The General Election will have come and gone (thankfully). There may be more terrorist activities. Maybe we will have already had a huge winter storm and we will be shoveling out our driveways. Perhaps some will be dealing with a job lay off. Some will be experiencing the first Christmas without a significant5 loved one. Possibly a new baby has come into your family or a child or grandchild has married. It could be, if we take seriously the Mayan calendar as it’s popularly understood, we won’t even be here and you aren’t really reading this!
The people of Israel had been hoping for a particular event for a long, long time. They were waiting for a Messiah. They were hoping that God would keep the promises he had made for centuries. Mary knew that an angel had told her that she would be the mother of the Messiah. She believed it. She went to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth who lived in a small Judean town some eighty miles from Mary’s hometown, Nazareth. These were two pious Jewish women who knew the Scriptures and beliefs of their people well. Elizabeth becomes full of the Holy Spirit and makes the statement that Mary is blessed. Both women had confirmed to them, in that moment, the assurance that God was meeting the hopes and dreams of his people.
I always find it encouraging that the God of the Judeo-Christians uses regular people for his work. These women were not rich. They did not live in a big city. People like me who are about half an inch left of center in both politics and theology might say they were part of the 47% of recent discussion: insignificant in the eyes of the world. However, God chooses whom He will, whether rich, poor, or in between. The important thing for me this year as I study the Advent Scriptures (with the help of Feasting on the Word, my favorite commentary) is that these two believed what God told them. They had been raised on the teachings of the promised Messiah. Somehow, in a way that is incomprehensible to us, God revealed to them that they were part of his plan. They believed that promise.
That promise in a nutshell is that God is with us. No matter what your hopes or fears or dreams this Advent and Christmas season, surely there is no more powerful promise than that. It is so simple yet so profound. God is with us as we celebrate joys; as we deal with hurts; as we worry about the job market; whatever our particular situations happen to be. God is there no matter where we find ourselves. Let us strive to have that kind of faith, that simple trust that these two women had! There is no greater gift we can give or receive this Christmas. May it be so.
Rev. Dorcas Linger ConradWest Liberty United Methodist Charge
West Liberty, Bethany, and Wellsburg, WV; Independence, PA
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