Grace and peace to you from God, our creator and sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

After two weeks of hearing from John and his crying out to the world to repent and prepare for the One who will come, today we go back in time, back before John was born, and we hear how John himself was filled with the Holy Spirit, and we hear from what I believe might be the most incredible pair of witnesses in all of Scripture!  Today our text focuses on two women, who by virtue of their individual situations, should not have been in the positions they were in, pregnant.  Elizabeth was an older woman.  She had been barren all her life, and by now she certainly should not have been able to bear children.  Because she had not bore any children, she had lived her life in shame.  A woman’s role in life was to bear children for the family.  Last week, we heard John speak about the need for all of us to bear good fruit.  Well, for the ancients, a woman literally would bear good fruit by having children.  That was her purpose in life, and if she could not bear any children, then she lived a life of shame.  Mary, on the other hand, was a young girl, probably no more than 14 years old.  In the culture of her day, she was of age to marry and have children, but she was not married.  Yes, her family had committed her to Joseph, but they were still unwed, and to be an unwed mother was punishable by death in that society.

Scripture doesn’t give us all the details of how these two women came to believe that their situations were truly the work of God, but based on some subtle comments, we can make some educated guesses.  Elizabeth was old, and although she lived a shame-filled life because she had not conceived any children for Zechariah, becoming pregnant at her age would also have been somewhat shameful.  In fact, Luke tells us that for the first five months of her pregnancy she remained in seclusion (Luke 1:24).  But then Luke tells us that after that five months she proclaims, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people” (1:25).  Like her husband, Zechariah, who refused to believe the angel Gabriel at first that Elizabeth would conceive a boy, even in her old age, Elizabeth apparently also found it hard to believe at first, but in time she came to believe that God was at work in her life.  Yes, even through all the suffering and shame she had endured, God was still active in her life and using her to bring about His mission.  And so, in the sixth month of her pregnancy, Gabriel now goes to Mary and announces to her, “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus” (1:31).  Mary’s response is instant belief, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (1:38).  And then Luke tells us that she set out to go and visit Elizabeth, which is where we enter the story today.

I find it fascinating that in this story there are the two different responses to the news that God is acting in the lives of these two women.  The supposed wise, old couple initially denies the possibility of God’s presence in their lives; yet, the young, probably not-so-wise Mary immediately believes and she runs to her cousin to celebrate this great news.  When they meet, such joy is shared that Elizabeth and her unborn son, John, are filled with the Holy Spirit, and Mary sings out with joy those incredible words that Tracy sang so beautifully for us this morning.  To quote one New Testament scholar, “Elizabeth's joy at her own pregnancy after so many years of barrenness is overshadowed by the joy at Mary's visit -- or rather that the unborn Lord would honor her with his presence.”  Realizing that God is present and active, these two women, “explode” with joy.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could respond to God’s presence in our lives with such joy?  I mean, imagine realizing God is really present right now, which He is, and breaking out in song with such excitement that it moved us to cheer, and clap, and shout with joy.  That is what Mary, Elizabeth, and even John did that day.   Why don’t we do that?  When we gather for worship, we sit, and stand, and sing, but not too loud because someone might hear us.  We don’t clap with joy because it might be disrespectful, and yet, I believe it would be awesome to cheer for God in our midst.  You see, when we gather for worship, God promises to come to us.  We should be filled with joy.

So why aren’t we as excited to be in God’s presence as Mary and Elizabeth were that day?  Well, maybe, it is because we do not realize or truly believe that God is present.  Maybe we have been so tainted by a world that denies God’s existence and real presence that we just can’t experience God like Elizabeth and Mary.  Maybe we just haven’t taken the time to listen and study God’s Living Word to know that God is alive and well and what God has promised, that a new earth and a new heaven (Revelation 21:1) are being fulfilled NOW!  God’s Kingdom is near.  So how might we prepare ourselves to get excited?  I suggest that we should begin to prepare ourselves by committing to read God’s Word daily.

You know, when I mentioned the different responses that Luke describes between Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary, I wasn’t trying to make it sound like Mary was the better, more faithful person; I was simply pointing that there are different ways of coming to believe.  For Zechariah and Elizabeth, they apparently needed time to come to understand God’s promises.  They were people that knew God’s Word, but it took them some time to understand what God meant.  Mary, on the other hand, knew God’s Word, also, and believed immediately.  You might be wondering how we know that they knew God’s Word.  Well, those words Elizabeth spoke were the retelling what the prophets of old had foretold of a messiah that was to come, and that song that Mary sang echoes the song of Hannah that we are told about in second chapter of 1 Samuel that Hannah sang over the birth of her son, Samuel.

God’s Word was always on their hearts, and they knew God’s Word intimately.  God desires that His Word be on our hearts, also, and so I am going to issue you a challenge today.  As we prepare in this final week of Advent for the coming of our Lord, I am asking you to prepare yourselves for more than all those presents on Christmas morning.  If, through this Advent Season, you truly have come to repent, then, as John has challenged us, we must begin to live differently, and if we are to live as God desires us to live, we must start by knowing His living Word intimately.  Beginning Monday, January 4th, I am inviting you to join me in reading through the entire New Testament in 2010.  I am challenging you today to begin to prepare your lives in such a way that you create a little time every weekday to read one chapter of the New Testament.  If you read one chapter every weekday in 2010, by December 31st you will have read the entire New Testament.  We will use the weekends for a time of reflection and prayer.  As we begin this journey together two weeks from tomorrow, I invite you to begin to bring your Bibles to worship, to Sunday school, to meetings, and to dwell in God’s Word often.  Talk to each other about what you are reading and ask questions as together we discern God’s call for our lives.   Imagine the joy we will experience as we come to know God’s Word.

On Sunday, January 3rd, we will have reading guides available for everyone so you can track your progress, if you like.  Between now and then, get your Bibles out, dust them off, and practice reading.  Then, on January 4th, we will begin by reading the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.  Begin now preparing your bodies for a new life, a life filled with the Holy Spirit and the Living Word of God.  Amen