1. Mary Visits Elizabeth

Today we will observe Christmas worship and give thanks to the birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ by reading Luke 1:39-45. The passage is called “Mary Visits Elizabeth” and to begin with Luke describes the apparition scene of the angel Gabriel who carries God’ message to Zechariah, future father of John the Baptist. Gabriel says that Elizabeth was pregnant. (see Luke 1:5-25) Then, 6 months later, the angel visits also Mary, girl of Galilee, to tell her that she would be mother of the Son of God.(seeLuke 1:26-38)

Today’s lecturing part is the scene in which those two women see each other. Elizabeth had been childless for longtime and was considered to be too old to get pregnant. She had given up the hope of becoming mother. Nonetheless Gabriel announced her pregnancy as God’s will. Luke tells us that God’s power is almighty which can make the impossible possible. Mary also get pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, Luke wrote. But Mary received the message rather reluctantly.

Now we read the passage in which two women get together through supernatural phenomena. Luke recorded that Elizabeth was Mary’s relative (see Luke 1:36). She might be one of Mayr’s aunts. Mary should hear that her old aunt gat pregnant also in a mysterious way and wanted to see her to share joy. When Mary visited Zechariah’s home Elizabeth exclaimed in a loud voice ; - “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! “(Luke 1:42)

The expression gave afterwards “Ave Maria,” a traditional Catholic prayer, then the Latin lyric for one of Bach’s compositions.
Luke wrote also ; - When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)

By the meeting of two women the Gospel writer suggests the future encounter of Jesus and John the Baptist. Two holy men were spiritually related each other before their birth ! Then Elizabeth says ; - “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"(Luke 1:45)

Considering Jewish ethic of the time, those women must need enormous courage to accept pregnancy out of normal relation with their husband as God’s blessing.

2. Pregnancy by the Holy Spirit

Luke explains how Elizabeth arrived to curry a baby (see Luke 1:5-25). The angel Gabriel announced God’s words to a priest named Zechariah “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John.”

But Zachariah thought that it was incredible because his wife was longtime childless and already old. But it became real. So Elizabeth praised God this way ; - “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."(Luke 1:25)

Her words filled with joy show very well that she suffered longtime without child. Because Jewish people of the era considered sterile women to be shameful.

6 months later, Gabriel appeared before Mary of Nazareth. Then ; - The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)

However Mary was filled with fear so he tried to reassure her ;- “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.(Luke 1:30-31)

The name “Jesus” was derived from Yeshua, which also means “God is the Savior” in Hebrew*. But it seems natural that Mary was rather upset than rejoiced by the announcement.

Because getting pregnant before marriage should be condemned on adultery by Jewish law of the time and men and women who had sexual relationship without being married were stoned to death(see Deuteronomy 22:23-24). Therefore Mary’s reaction should be understandable ;- “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?"(Luke1:34)

And Joseph, her future husband, had in mind to divorce her quietly. He was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace (see Matthew 1:18-19).

But ; - The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."(Luke1:35-37)

By hearing “nothing is impossible with God” Mary responded faithfully ;- “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said."(Luke 1:38)

Thus she accepted God’s will even though she could not understand why God accorded her such a destiny.

3. Going Beyond difficulties

Today’s invocation verse is Luke 22:42 ; - “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Jesus said the words in the garden of Gethsemane where he prayed the night before the crucifixion. Though God’s will would lead him to the death on the Cross Jesus’ young body must desire to live. Jesus might think that he could work for God in life on the earth. But God remains silent during the prayer. Therefore Jesus finished his prayer with the expression, ” Yet not my will, but yours be done.” The phrase is similar to Mary’s response to the angel.

Both of two show the willingness to accept God’s decision even if they could not understand why. That is the very faithful attitude toward God.

Elizabeth and Mary recognized that nothing is impossible with God. Therefore Elizabeth exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”
The passage gives us very important messages. First one is that pregnancy is a blessing of God. Jewish people of the time thought that the parents had babies by help of Holy Spirit. In contrast, we who live in the modern world think it is only father and mother who take decision to give birth to the new life. Majority of us think that pregnancy concerns only human affair. As aresult, according to statistics, 25 cases in 100 pregnancies ended in intensional abortion in Japan. It shows that we think that birth of new lives are depend on only humans’ will and humans have right to choose. But it is not true. We must keep in our mind the importance of any life by acknowledging that new lives come through work of the Holy Spirit.

Second one is that nothing is impossible with God. Such a faith led Elizabeth and Mary to believe the unbelievable words then to say, “May it be to me as God has said.” From that very faith the new and magnificent history began.

God plans all. Therefore any following problems should be solved by God after all. And it is you who must choose the faith or not. Now I present a novel for reflections on the issue, ‘ Lamentation’ by Ayako Sono*.

Heroine of the story is a catholic nun, Haruna, who had been sent to Rwanda as a missioner. While she was working in a monastery for regional people Rwandan civil war broke out. And the Hutu regime operated genocide against the Tutsi , a minority of the population*. Many of Tutsi people sought shelters inside the monastery and the annexed institution for which Haruna. But Hutu soldiers invaded in to kill those refugees. Furthermore soldiers spoiled buildings and raped women not only of Tutsi but also catholic sisters. Haruna was one of them. And she became pregnant.

Being completely exhausted, Haruna came back to Japan. But the religious order received her reluctantly. Haruna felt lost and thought about abortion. She tried to consider the disastrous incident to be a nightmare. She wanted to go beyond by abandoning unborn-baby. Actually, in case of pregnancy by rape abortion should be legal.

In contrast, it must be very hard in Japanese society to live as a single mother, even ex-nun. Besides life of children of mixed race is very harsh here. However, before taking decision, she asked a priest an advice and his response changed her mind.

The priest said, ” God is always takes responsibility for his acts. He must be in charge of whatever he begins.” It means that even the baby was given in a very unhappy way she will understand someday why God’s aim. She decided to accept the baby by enduring secular disadvantages in keeping with God’s will .

The advice of the priest led her to focus on the new life of the baby instead of her own. Many of persons of secular common sense though that she mad a stupid choice . But it should be appreciated from faithful point of view. She took the baby for her way of living prepared by God. This way, difficulties in future must be meaningful. Jesus said, “I lay down my life—only to take it up again.” (John 10:17) To die secular death is to receive a new spiritual life as Jesus was resurrected to have a new life. There would be no resurrection without the Cross. We are weak but we can arrive to live a new life by bearing the Cross which symbolize death. Jesus came to us on the day of Christmas for that. And thanks to the act we also will receive a new life. We commemorate that on this very Christmas day.
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* Yeshua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeshua_(name)#Etymology
* Ayako Sono http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayako_Sono
* Rwandan Genocide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide