Our this Fourth Sunday of Advent, which also happens to be Christmas Eve, our Scripture reading hails from the first chapter of Luke, verses 39-55.

Hear the word of God:
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb and why has his happened to me that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting the child in my womb leapt for joy and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord. And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.’
And Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home.

Elizabeth, wife of priest Zechariah, beyond the expected age of child-bearing,
greets Mary, her teenage cousin, who has recently been engaged to be married.
Both women are pregnant, pregnant with child and pregnant with anticipation,
for both have received a promise and a blessing from God.

Elizabeth had waited so long, she had nearly given up hope for a child.
Elizabeth had known grief and suffering in her life. She had become wise and experienced by the years.
Mary was thoroughly surprised by the news of her child yet to come.
She was young and inexperienced, and she had no idea what paths her life might take.
Both women were caught up in the larger purposes of God.
Both would participate in events that would alter the world as they knew it.
Both would bear sons who would change the hearts of humankind.

These two women, holding tight to God’s promises and God’s blessing,
would visit together for three months during an “in between time”.
The in-between time is a time of hopefulness regarding the future,
but also a time of grief over what has been left behind.
The season of Advent is an in-between time.
The in-between time is when we are straining forward to what is yet to come,
but also letting go of the things that are past.
Much of our lives is lived in that in-between time,
a time of uncertainty about what is to come, and time of letting go of that which is no longer present.

I have heard many of you say over the past month that you are ready to let go of 2017.
For many among us, and for a wide variety of reasons, 2017 has been a difficult year.
Many of you and many of your friends and loved ones have suffered – in body, mind, or spirit.
Many of you have spent the greater part of your year caring for another person in need,
praying for someone’s healing, shuttling your loved one from one doctor’s office to another,
from one treatment or therapy to another.
For others among us, 2017 has been a relatively good year, thanks be to God!
For many, 2017 has been a year of financial security and emotionally stability.
Many have found some new direction this year, and have gained new confidence in their future.

Whatever kind of year 2017 has been for you, here we sit, on Christmas Eve, in the in-between time.
The past is gone and will not return. The future is yet unseen.

What does Elizabeth do in the in-between time?
In our biblical encounter for today, Elizabeth proclaims a blessing on the young Mary
and praises Mary’s humble faith.
Some of you knew my professor of theology, Dr. Shirley Guthrie,
Shirley taught at Columbia Seminary for 40 years.
I can still remember Shirley’s comments on the biblical word “bless”.
He exclaimed that to bless someone is to “call down Gods’ gracious power upon them”.
And to call someone “blessed” is to “claim God’s covenant promises” on their behalf.

There were many things that the older and more experienced Elizabeth could have said to young Mary.
There were a number of responses Elizabeth could have had to her visit.
What Elizabeth did was to call her blessed, to “claim God’s covenant promises” on her behalf.
What Elizabeth did was to “call down God’s gracious power” upon her young cousin.
Times and circumstances have changed greatly since the first century,
but people’s basic needs and desires are not all that different.
Young people need for older people to believe in them, and to recognize when God is at work in them.
Young people need for older people to encourage them, not criticize them.
Some of you will remember sage advice offered some years ago by Dorothy Law Nolte:

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn…
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive…
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy…
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy…
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty…
But…
If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence…
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience…
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation…
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect…
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
(Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte)

Elizabeth extends loves to her young cousin Mary, and how does Mary respond?
“My soul magnifies the Lord!, she cries, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior!”
For many years, there was a quote affixed to the refrigerator in my parent’s home:
“You have the right to choose your attitude in whatever circumstance you find yourself.”
On this Christmas Eve, in this in-between time,
you have the right to choose your attitude in whatever circumstance your find yourself.
You have the right to choose joy. You have the right to choose blessing and assurance.
You have the right to choose hopefulness over despair.

When Mary received the news of her unexpected pregnancy, she replied:
“Here am I; the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your Word”
Later, after the child was born, when others went on their way singing and rejoicing,
“Mary treasured the words (of the angels and the shepherds) and pondered them in her heart.”
In this text, after Mary is blessed by Elizabeth, she cries out:
“God has looked with favor upon me. God has done great things…for me!”
My soul magnifies the Lord.
“My soul”, mon souque in the Greek dictionary, refers to all that makes up one’s life.
One’s soul, one’s souque, is all of who one is—
one’s character, identity, one’s people, and plans, and purposes.
Mary might have said my “all that I am” magnifies the Lord.
“To magnify”, mega lune, literally means to “make large”.
All that I am will make large the Lord, she sang.
All that I am will rejoice in God, my Savior.
If Elizabeth can serve as a model for the older generations need to bless the younger generations,
then certainly Mary can serve as a model for the younger generations
to respond in faith to life circumstances.

This scripture text is called the Magnificat due to the first word of the Latin text.
This ancient hymn, which preceded the writing of Luke’s gospel,
has been called revolutionary speech about the power of God to transform the world.
Also called the Song of Mary, the words proclaim God’s intentions to upend the status quo,
to turn the world around upside down.
Many a scholar over the years has written about the moral, social, and economic implications of this song.
This song has even been called radical in its implications.
But, as Mary and Elizabeth knew, any significant moral change, any hopeful social upheaval,
any massive economic reversal would not begin at the highest levels,
among the high and mighty, but would first begin in the hearts and souls of ordinary people.

This past Wednesday, at the DPCC preschool Christmas pageant,
Ellen McClure shared a special blessing with the parents.
Written decades ago by Armilda Keiser and shared with many a generation of DPCC families
by Mary Sledd, the blessing is as follows:
Blessed are the parents who know how big is Christmas – and how small.
Blessed are the parents who lead the way to the manger rather than the toy counter.
Their children will follow them.
Blessed are the parents who stop in the midst of the cookie-making and turkey-stuffing
and the card-addressing to hear the angels sing.
Their children will hear heavenly music.
Blessed are the parents who bring a share of their possessions to the cradle of the Christ Child.
Their children will follow them – none of them empty-handed.
Blessed is the family who knows how big is Christmas – and how small.
Their whole year will shine with joyful memories and a zest for living.

The implications of Christmas, of Christ’s birth, are HUGE for the world,
and yet they are lived out in such small ways, every day of the year.
Mary’s Magnificat claims that God comes among us in Jesus Christ to change us, to upend the world,
to lift up the lowly, and bring down the mighty,
to fill the hungry and send the full away empty-handed.
In the end, the promise is that all will be blessed by his presence.
The power of the mighty will be shared, so that all may speak their voice and know their worth.
The opportunities of the rich will be distributed, so that all have enough to live.
The promises of God will ultimately be fulfilled, that is,
that there will be peace on earth, and goodwill among all.
Do not be afraid, the messenger told Mary, for nothing will be impossible with God!

On this Christmas Eve, as we choose how we live and speak and respond to others
in whatever in-between time we may face, we recall Elizabeth and Mary.
We can appreciate the model of the older and wiser Elizabeth to bless the younger generation.
We can appreciate the humble and hopeful response of the young and less-experienced Mary.
Like them, may God give us also the grace not to sell ourselves short
as instruments of God’s healing in the world.
Like them, may God grant us also the grace to risk something big
for something good.
Like them, may God also give us the grace to remember
that the world is now too dangerous for anything but truth
and too small for anything but love. (from a benediction by William Sloane Coffin)
In your hearts and in your homes this Christmas,
may “all that we are” magnify, make large, the Lord, as our spirits rejoice in God, our Savior.

Remember, the light of Jesus Christ is entering the world once again.
This light will shine into whatever darkness you may face,
and the darkness will never put it out.

Amen.

Rev. Dr. J. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
December 24, 2017