Isaiah 40:1-11
“How Does a Weary World Rejoice?: We Find Joy in Connection” preached Sunday, December 3, 2023
“A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.”
So goes the line from the Christmas carol, “O Holy Night” that our Advent and Christmas worship is based on. We are asking, HOW does a weary world rejoice? This week we answer with “We find joy in connection.”
Which brings me to the two women in today’s Gospel lesson. Mary and Elizabeth.
First, Mary. She is newly pregnant, and the Scriptures say she made haste to see Elizabeth. For when the angel Gabriel visited her and announced her divine pregnancy, the angel also shared Elizabeth's miraculous conception.
Now, every pregnant woman's experience is different. In January of 2020 I was just weeks pregnant with Agnes and I was absolutely and utterly physically miserable. I was exhausted. I was hungry every 5 minutes. And I was also throwing up what seemed like every hour. At the time I was watching online as colleague’s shared pictures and videos from a trip to the Holy Land and I was giving thanks that I was on my couch, that I wasn’t on that trip.
But Mary, newly pregnant, makes haste to see Elizabeth. The accepted location of the annunciation was in Nazareth and Elizabeth lived in the hill country, Ein Karem, which was about 80 miles from Nazareth. That’s about the distance from here to Cleveland but with no cars and no tunpike. Not an easy journey to take even if your body isn’t going through the slog of early pregnancy.
Why was she rushing to see Elizabeth with such haste?
I can think of perhaps two reasons.
First, Mary needed to talk to someone who would “get it.” Who else could she talk to in her life who would even begin to understand the circumstances around her miraculous pregnancy? I think of how many times a day I pick up my phone to text, to message, to call, or to make plans to meet someone - who gets it. Another young mom. Another young clergy women. That small overlap of young clergy who are moms. A best friend who knows me well. All those people in my life who “get it.” Whatever it is I am going through - I know they will see me, hear me, support me. Having people in our lives who “get it” is so important. Two of the most powerful words in the English language are “me too.” When we say “me too” to someone we are saying, “I see you. You are not alone.”
Who else could this person have been for Mary other than Elizabeth? The angel didn’t have to tell Mary about Elizabeth…but he did. Perhaps because God wanted Mary and Elizabeth to connect, to not be alone, to be there for each other in a way that no one else could. God knew that they would need each other and so God made the connection possible.
Call to mind the people in your life who “get it.” Who support you. Who, when you see them, your soul rejoices. Now give thanks to God for them! Thank you God for putting these people in our lives!
So that’s one reason why Mary could have gone with such haste to see Elizabeth. The second is simply this, perhaps Mary was excited to celebrate with Elizabeth. She couldn’t pick up her phone and facetime with her, she needed to go see her in person to share her joy. We know Mary and Elizabeth were cousins with an age gap between them. But we don’t really know what their relationship was like. They obviously knew each other well and cared about each other. Maybe they were cousins who were like sisters, or because of the age gap, maybe Elizabeth was like a caring aunt for Mary. Maybe, in addition to being relatives, they were friends. Perhaps Mary knew of all the hardship that Elizabeth had faced. Her heart breaking alone with Elizabeth’s, month after month, year after year, when she didn’t have a child. And now, she wanted nothing more than to rejoice with her.
So that’s Mary’s motives for making haste to go see Elizabeth. Now let’s talk about Elizabeth.
Elizabeth found out she was pregnant and then went into seclusion for 5 months. I want to stress that this is not typical. This wasn’t cultural practice. So why did Elizabeth do it? Was she having a difficult pregnancy in her advanced age and was basically on bed rest? Was she uncomfortable in her older pregnant body being seen by her neighbors? Or was she afraid? We just know she experienced many years of infertility - we don’t know if, perhaps in those years, Elizabeth suffered from miscarriages. So many moms who experience pregnancy after a miscarriage have spoken openly about their fear. Their fear to hope. Their reticence to feel joy. Because what if this pregnancy ends in miscarriage too? Keeping themselves from hoping, from rejoicing, they are trying to protect their hearts in the case of another loss. For whatever reason, she was in seclusion for 5 months and remember her husband, Zechariah, was experiencing muteness so she didn’t even have him to talk to.
She is in isolation. That is, until Mary comes to visit. When Mary walks in and greets Elizabeth - Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, the baby inside her leaps for joy, and her seclusion, her isolation turns into joy for Mary and the child in her womb as well.
Elizabeth is rejoicing for Mary. And Mary is rejoicing for Elizabeth. Together they move from fear, from isolation, from the unknown - and together they move toward rejoicing, gratitude, laughter, blessing.
Through their connection with each other, they cleared the path to rejoicing. They made straight the path through the twists and turns of their lives, so that, together, they could rejoice.
Our other reading this morning from Isaiah contains that well-known line:
“A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
We connect this passage with John and Jesus, those two babies in the wombs of Elizabeth and Mary, that John is that voice in the wilderness that makes the path to Jesus straight.
And, we too can read this passage as a command to us. We are to make a straight path to God for others.
…but how? In our weary world…how?
In Bible Study on Wednesday when talking about this text from Isaiah we talked about the piles of rubble in Gaza. We talked about babies escaping from bombed out hospitals. Although not all of them did. We talked about hostages being returned…and still those who are being held. We talked about cancer diagnoses. We talked about those we love and those we are praying for who are facing non-straight paths, filled with twists and turns, for whom the future is hard and unclear.
The path to God, which is also the path to peace, the path to love, the path to joy…seems anything but straight, doesn’t it? We look out at our weary world and we see mountains and valleys, we see piles of rubble from bombed buildings, we see a whole lot of sin, of atrocities, of violence and heart-break…there is so much in the way of our anything-but-straight paths to the God of Connection, the God of Joy, the God of Peace.
A straight path to God?
It may seem impossible.
And yet, Gabriel’s words to Mary were: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary and Elizabeth did not have a straight path to get to each other but when they met, when they connected, their weariness was set aside and they rejoiced together.
Any way, any time, we can, within our own lives, our own communities, our own spheres of influence, bring people together, build connection, build community; any way and any time we can say “me too,” say “you’re not alone.”; any way and any time we can rejoice with one another. In those small but powerful acts, we are making straight the way. We are making a path to God.
Think of the child that we baptized this morning - and all children - their paths are unknown and in our weary world, likely anything but straight.
And yet! In Baptism, we say, we promise to this child, to one another, to God:
“I will surround you with love and care.”
“I will show you God’s love with how I live my life.”
“You are part of God’s family and therefore, you will never be alone.”
This is how we make straight the path. We connect with each other, support each other, rejoice with one another. And then we keep on making paths to connect with others, widening our spheres, connecting and rejoicing with more and more people. Until that day when we are all drawn to God and experience more connection and more joy than we’ve ever known in this life.
And until that day…we will keep making paths of connection and paths of joy.
May it be so. Amen.
Who else could this person have been for Mary other than Elizabeth? The angel didn’t have to tell Mary about Elizabeth…but he did. Perhaps because God wanted Mary and Elizabeth to connect, to not be alone, to be there for each other in a way that no one else could. God knew that they would need each other and so God made the connection possible.
Call to mind the people in your life who “get it.” Who support you. Who, when you see them, your soul rejoices. Now give thanks to God for them! Thank you God for putting these people in our lives!
So that’s one reason why Mary could have gone with such haste to see Elizabeth. The second is simply this, perhaps Mary was excited to celebrate with Elizabeth. She couldn’t pick up her phone and facetime with her, she needed to go see her in person to share her joy. We know Mary and Elizabeth were cousins with an age gap between them. But we don’t really know what their relationship was like. They obviously knew each other well and cared about each other. Maybe they were cousins who were like sisters, or because of the age gap, maybe Elizabeth was like a caring aunt for Mary. Maybe, in addition to being relatives, they were friends. Perhaps Mary knew of all the hardship that Elizabeth had faced. Her heart breaking alone with Elizabeth’s, month after month, year after year, when she didn’t have a child. And now, she wanted nothing more than to rejoice with her.
So that’s Mary’s motives for making haste to go see Elizabeth. Now let’s talk about Elizabeth.
Elizabeth found out she was pregnant and then went into seclusion for 5 months. I want to stress that this is not typical. This wasn’t cultural practice. So why did Elizabeth do it? Was she having a difficult pregnancy in her advanced age and was basically on bed rest? Was she uncomfortable in her older pregnant body being seen by her neighbors? Or was she afraid? We just know she experienced many years of infertility - we don’t know if, perhaps in those years, Elizabeth suffered from miscarriages. So many moms who experience pregnancy after a miscarriage have spoken openly about their fear. Their fear to hope. Their reticence to feel joy. Because what if this pregnancy ends in miscarriage too? Keeping themselves from hoping, from rejoicing, they are trying to protect their hearts in the case of another loss. For whatever reason, she was in seclusion for 5 months and remember her husband, Zechariah, was experiencing muteness so she didn’t even have him to talk to.
She is in isolation. That is, until Mary comes to visit. When Mary walks in and greets Elizabeth - Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, the baby inside her leaps for joy, and her seclusion, her isolation turns into joy for Mary and the child in her womb as well.
Elizabeth is rejoicing for Mary. And Mary is rejoicing for Elizabeth. Together they move from fear, from isolation, from the unknown - and together they move toward rejoicing, gratitude, laughter, blessing.
Through their connection with each other, they cleared the path to rejoicing. They made straight the path through the twists and turns of their lives, so that, together, they could rejoice.
Our other reading this morning from Isaiah contains that well-known line:
“A voice cries out:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’”
We connect this passage with John and Jesus, those two babies in the wombs of Elizabeth and Mary, that John is that voice in the wilderness that makes the path to Jesus straight.
And, we too can read this passage as a command to us. We are to make a straight path to God for others.
…but how? In our weary world…how?
In Bible Study on Wednesday when talking about this text from Isaiah we talked about the piles of rubble in Gaza. We talked about babies escaping from bombed out hospitals. Although not all of them did. We talked about hostages being returned…and still those who are being held. We talked about cancer diagnoses. We talked about those we love and those we are praying for who are facing non-straight paths, filled with twists and turns, for whom the future is hard and unclear.
The path to God, which is also the path to peace, the path to love, the path to joy…seems anything but straight, doesn’t it? We look out at our weary world and we see mountains and valleys, we see piles of rubble from bombed buildings, we see a whole lot of sin, of atrocities, of violence and heart-break…there is so much in the way of our anything-but-straight paths to the God of Connection, the God of Joy, the God of Peace.
A straight path to God?
It may seem impossible.
And yet, Gabriel’s words to Mary were: “For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary and Elizabeth did not have a straight path to get to each other but when they met, when they connected, their weariness was set aside and they rejoiced together.
Any way, any time, we can, within our own lives, our own communities, our own spheres of influence, bring people together, build connection, build community; any way and any time we can say “me too,” say “you’re not alone.”; any way and any time we can rejoice with one another. In those small but powerful acts, we are making straight the way. We are making a path to God.
Think of the child that we baptized this morning - and all children - their paths are unknown and in our weary world, likely anything but straight.
And yet! In Baptism, we say, we promise to this child, to one another, to God:
“I will surround you with love and care.”
“I will show you God’s love with how I live my life.”
“You are part of God’s family and therefore, you will never be alone.”
This is how we make straight the path. We connect with each other, support each other, rejoice with one another. And then we keep on making paths to connect with others, widening our spheres, connecting and rejoicing with more and more people. Until that day when we are all drawn to God and experience more connection and more joy than we’ve ever known in this life.
And until that day…we will keep making paths of connection and paths of joy.
May it be so. Amen.
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