WELCOMING THE HOLY CHILD INTO OUR HEARTS

Luke 1:26-55

December 18, 2011 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

For the Grinch, it was the singing, but not just any singing… singing in the midst of the loss of all the trappings and trimmings of Christmas. All the previous years, when the “Whos” gathered for their annual Christmas sing, the Grinch could only hear noise… “noise, noise, noise, noise.” But when the presents were gone, the decorations whisked away, the feast stolen from under their noses… when there was nothing to sing about really, only then did their song touch the heart of the Grinch.

For Ebenezer Scrooge, it is a little more complicated to say what unlocked his heart, but the sentimental answer is readily agreed upon. Clearly Tiny Tim and the premonition that this sweet child would die unless some kindness interfered with the course of events. We see Scrooge gradually change as the three spirits lead him through Christmas’ past, present and yet to come. And the final scene of his own unredeemed death surely exercised a powerful influence, but I like to think that the little child worked the change in his heart.

What is it that unlocks our hearts? What transforms noise into song? What unleashes the generous and celebratory spirit hidden beneath a calloused heart? I don’t imagine that any of us are really any competition for the super-grump Grinch or the miserly Ebenezer, but we each have our moments. We foster some impediments to Christmas cheer. We hesitate to open wide the door to the Christ-child. Though our hearts may not be cold, they’re not as warm as they might be.

But then Mary makes a rather slow beginning. She doesn’t appear to be thinking clearly. When the angel Gabriel appears before her, she doesn’t ponder the oddity of an angel appearing to her, but the “sort of greeting” he offers. She finds his way of saying “hello” a bit strange.

Maybe she’s met an angel before or read up on them, and this is not what she’d been led to believe. She clearly feels some hesitation which Gabriel promptly mistakes for fear or he realizes he messed up the greeting and now supplies the standard angel opening: “Don’t be afraid,” or “Fear not” if he’d chosen to speak in the inspired King James English. We can excuse him for then launching directly and tactlessly into the message. The last and only other time he makes an appearance on the human scene was back in the book of Daniel and then it was a message of judgment which of course one should never dither about. So the amateur archangel gets right to it: “Mary, you’re going to have a baby. Call him Jesus and by the way, he’s going to be the greatest thing to ever walk the earth.”

I don’t think this news opens Mary’s heart. I imagine that there must have been a great deal going on in her mind at this point but somehow she knows that you don’t press angels too much, so she tactfully just mentions the one mechanical problem. No point in bothering Gabriel with how this could mess things up with Joseph. Ordinarily it wouldn’t be a problem. Couples commonly consummated the relationship during the betrothal period. It would have brought no shame on Mary, except that Joseph apparently wanted to wait for the wedding. Also no point in mentioning that though Mary probably came from a well-respected family in the community, she still belonged to an oppressed people under occupation. Odds of someone of world-wide renown coming from her womb were quite low. Maybe she thinks if she just mentions the technical problem, the rest of it will go away. In any case, I don’t hear any great enthusiasm in her question: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?”

How can this be, since we have no experience in these matters? How can this be, since we’ve left no room in our hearts for the holy child? So many distractions. So many obligations, previous commitments. So much work to do, so much energy required to make our way through the complexities of life. So busy, busy, busy this time of year. Presents yet to buy, the Christmas feast to think about, the bills piling up to worry over, the scheduling of time with extended family, the barrage of appeals for year-end giving. And the job continues with its new deadlines, and the flat surfaces at the house continue to gather dust, and the cat needs to be fed everyday, and the kid’s homework still needs to be followed up on, and there are still appointments and activities being squeezed into these shorter days. And the muscles around the heart grow more and more calloused with the noise of the season… the noise, noise, noise, noise.

“How can this be, since I am a virgin?” Such a mechanical question that must have hidden a great deal of turmoil in Mary’s heart. “How can this be…?”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you….” Do you suppose Mary was happy to hear this answer? Would you have been happy to hear it? Are you happy to hear it? This is what Jesus promises the disciples at the end of this gospel and again at the beginning of the book of Acts. Does this promise begin to soften the calluses around the heart? Does it offer the key to unlocking the heart?

I hear Mary’s reply to this and I know that Luke intends it to be an example of a faithful response, of the way in which we ought to respond, but still it lacks energy for me. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” These words have inspired some great sermons, some beautiful reflections, and if they’ve come to have great meaning for you, I say “Amen” to that. But this year, for me, they fall a little flat. They feel like submission, which is not necessarily a bad thing if you’re talking about submission to God. But I want Mary to embrace the child who will grow within her, not merely accept her fate. I want this because when the heart is fully released it wants to embrace something. It doesn’t want to offer a perfunctory welcome, but a hearty one. I hear Mary’s reply to “the Holy Spirit will come upon you” as more like “Well, okay.” She accepts, but she doesn’t sing… yet. The heart is thawing, but it’s not quite as warm as it might be.

But let’s “Read on.” Gabriel’s part is finished and we’ll leave it up to God’s judgment as to whether he’s done it well or not. As I’ve implied, he doesn’t seem to have brought Mary fully on board with the plan, but she does not remain idle. There’s an important lesson for us here. When we feel the heart begin to warm a little, we should do something to fan the flame. And that’s just what Mary does. She hears that something marvelous has happened with her much older cousin Elizabeth and as the shepherds did when hearing about Mary’s child, she makes haste to see this thing which the angel Gabriel had made known to her.

When you can’t sing, when the heart is only a little warm, find a partner… and be quick about it. Mary walks into Zechariah’s house and greets her cousin, Elizabeth. And that’s when things start happening. John does a little somersault in the womb and the Holy Spirit comes upon Elizabeth and she is ecstatic. She was content before, now in her sixth month of pregnancy. But she’d kept to herself that whole time and with Zechariah suddenly mute, the house would have been very, very quiet. Mary changes all that and releases Elizabeth to embrace this moment, to celebrate her blessings. For now she has been visited by “the mother of her Lord.” The child within leaps for joy and she cannot restrain herself. Without the angel Gabriel, she recognizes the child within Mary’s womb and welcomes him with his mother with all her heart. And now Mary sees it all in Elizabeth’s joy… and she sings:

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” I want that to be my song. I want to be that happy. It is the most beautiful song in all of scripture, and nothing less will do to welcome the holy child into our hearts. What will it take to unlock the heart? How can we turn the noise into song? How can we warm a heart grown cold with disappointment and pain?

We don’t have a village of “whos” to sing to us when we’ve lost the “stuff” of Christmas. We don’t have spirit guides to soften the heart with the contagious joy of a tiny Tim. But we do have Elizabeth in whose eyes we just might see reflected the joy of the Holy Child.

If you’re struggling a little this year, not feeling up to welcoming Jesus as you have in years past, find your Elizabeth. Make haste to her who has also been blessed in a miraculous way by the Lord. She may be here. She knows that the Holy child desires to be born anew in you, in your heart. She knows because she is the sister or brother of your Lord. And she calls you “blessed” and rejoices that Christ has been born in you. Won’t you sing with her? Amen.