Faithful Women
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Last week I talked to you about the visit of Mary and Elizabeth and how the impact of their babies was felt and caused the world to change before they were even born. I thought it was important to once again talk about these two women because without them these two men would have never been born.
So I looked at the texts surrounding the one we read last week and noticed that in our usual readings we don’t hear the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah and how they her and respond to the news that they are going to have a baby. I think that it is very helpful story for us to hear because it gives us some great parallels to the story we hear about Mary and Joseph.
Now most of the story that we hear today is about Zechariah and I do want to touch on him and Joseph because they are a contrast to the two women I want to talk about. Zechariah is in the temple as is his duty as a priest and Gabriel appears to him to tell him he is going to have a baby through Elizabeth and we finally have a person who reacts the way that I would react. He is uncertain and wants to know how it is going to happen. For his questioning he loses his voice until the day that his son John is born and he agrees with his wife that they should name him John.
We hear Joseph’s story of uncertainty in and what he wants to do is divorce her quietly so that he doesn’t disgrace her. He does this to try to be as righteous as possible, but the Lord comes to visit him in a dream and tells him to take Mary as his wife because it is their son Jesus that will save people from their sins. Both men are uncertain of the news that they get, but they follow through with God’s plan and stand by their wives.
In contrast we see the women of the birth stories in a much different light. Last week we saw the great joy and excitement Mary and Elizabeth had when they found out that they were both pregnant. And they began to praise God for everything that God was doing in their lives. And even before their meeting both women had very powerful and yet simple statements about the miracles of their being with child.
Elizabeth feels blessed that God would remove her disgrace of being barren and allow her to carry a child. Even though Zechariah was a priest and would have likely had God’s favor, there must have been some kind of sin that they had committed because they had never had any children. But now God has blessed her not only with a child, but a child that will bring people to God and to prepare them for the coming of God’s Son, Jesus. Then when we move on to Mary we hear how Mary declares that she is the servant of her Lord and that she will do what God requires of her.
Both women are so open and receptive to the idea that God has chosen them and will do great things through their children that they are carrying. It is the faith of these women that help to bring about God’s ultimate plan to make God’s love known to everyone. The men work on trying to understand the situation and how they might fix it or work through something that seems impossible. The women on the other hand understand that God can do great things and seemingly impossible things through them.
How often are we as open and receptive to the idea that God can and wants to work in and through us to do great things? Or how often do we instead tell God that we are too busy or that we don’t have the skills to do that? Are we more often eager to dismiss the idea that we could or should do something, when maybe we should instead open ourselves to the idea that we are being asked for a very specific reason?
Joseph and Zechariah went that route. They wanted to opt to be out of the situation instead of being open and accepting of it., but Mary and Elizabeth opened themselves up to the idea and possibility that God could and would work through them. I’m not saying that the the two women didn’t have doubts or uncertainties around what was going to happen or what kind of mothers they were going to be but they trusted that God would be at work in their lives throughout everything they were doing for the Lord.
God is always at work in and through us and God can and will do great things in the world if we are willing to open ourselves up to God’s calling. Honestly who ever feels ready or qualified to be a parent when they find out they are going to have a child? With God’s help and guidance we can do incredible things in our church, in our town and in this world. As we prepare for the birth of Jesus, who is our light, may we open ourselves up to the idea that God is calling us to do the Lord’s work and that through God all things truly are possible.
Amen.