Support System

The sermon given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, December 18, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:39-56.

            The Bible verses we read today are a part of the Christmas story we tend to overlook.  And I’ve been as guilty of that as anyone.  Even though I preach about Advent and Christmas every year, I don’t think I’ve ever preached on these verses.  We tend to skip right from Mary and Joseph’s conversations with angels right to the trip to Bethlehem and the birth in the stable.

            But of course, that skips right over at least nine months of Mary’s life, right?  Mary had to go through the whole pregnancy.  She had to go through everyone knowing she was an unmarried woman who was going to have a baby, and of course that was a lot more of a scandal in Mary’s time than it is today.  

            Mary obviously knew she had done nothing wrong.  She knew about her conversation with the angel Gabriel.  But nobody else knew about it.  We don’t know if she told people.  I mean, she must have told someone at some point, or Luke would not have found out about it.  I would think she probably told Jesus about it at some point, although the Bible does not tell us that.

            But at this point in the story, we don’t know if she’s told anyone, or how they reacted if she did.  We don’t even know if she’d told Joseph yet.  What the Bible says, right after giving us the account of Mary’s conversation with Gabriel, is “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.”

            Elizabeth, as you probably remember, was a relative of Mary’s.  Gabriel had told Mary that Elizabeth, a woman well past child-bearing years, was going to have a baby.  

            And when you think about it, that’s probably why Mary went to Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was already going to have a child in a miraculous way, although not in the same way Mary was.  So if there was anyone in the world who was going to believe Mary’s story, it would be Elizabeth.  Mary went to the one person who she thought would accept her and believe in her.

            And of course, Elizabeth did.  In fact, Elizabeth more than accepted her, she welcomed her.  She was thrilled at what had happened to Mary.  Listen again to what she says:  “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear.  But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.  Blessed is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her.”

            Can you imagine how Mary must have felt, when she heard that.  Elizabeth believed her!  Not only did Elizabeth believe her, she thought it was wonderful.  And she rejoiced that Mary had believed what the angel told her.  Mary had been afraid of what was in front of her, but the way Elizabeth looked at it was that Mary had been given an incredible honor.  That of all the women in the world, Mary, was the one chose to be the mother of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

            That had to be so incredibly affirming for Mary.  It had to be such a relief, to know that someone believed in her, to know that someone would be on her side.  To know that she would not have to go through this alone.  That even if everyone else thought she was lying, and looked down on her, and would have nothing to do with her, there was at least one person who knew she was telling the truth and would be there for her.

            And once she hears that, Mary can respond the way she did.  She responds with this wonderful song/poem we heard today, what’s become known as the Magnificat.  She says, “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.  From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me–holy is his name.”

            Think about that.  Mary went from being scared about what was going to happen to her–so scared that she left her home and traveled at least several miles, on foot–to being excited about what was going to happen to her.  She felt honored.  She felt privileged.  She was no longer scared about what was going to happen.  She rejoiced in it!  She said God had done something wonderful for her.  She believed all generations would call her blessed.  And that entire attitude transformation came because of one person who was there for her, who believed in her, and who she knew would be on her side no matter what.

            You have heard me say many times that God put us into families, and into communities, and into churches, for reasons.  And one of those reasons is that God knows life is too hard for us to go through alone.  We’re not supposed to go through it alone.  We’re not supposed to try to go through it alone.  We need each other.  We need to support each other.  We need to encourage each other.  We need to love each other.  We just plain need to be there for each other.

            You know, God would not have had to create the church.  God could have found other ways to spread the gospel message.  After all, God is God–God can do anything God chooses.  God created the church as a gift.  The church is a gift to us, to you and to me.  The church is a place where we can find that support, that encouragement, that love.  The church is the place where we can find people who will be there for us, and who need us to be there for them.

            Now, I know the church is not perfect.  The reason the church is not perfect is that it’s made up of people, and people are not perfect.  Anything that involves people automatically becomes imperfect.  Whether it’s a government, or a corporation, or a community club, or a school, or a sports team, or anything else, if it has people in it, it will be imperfect.  That’s just the way it is.

            But here’s the difference between the church and all those other groups.  The church has God.  That’s not to say people in those other groups don’t believe in God.  But none of them is led by God.  None of them has serving God as its top priority.  None of them has the love of God and the love of others as its primary goal.  The church does.  In its bumbling, imperfect, sometimes even sinful way, the church does try to serve God.  The church does try to be faithful to God.  The church does try to show love to God and show love to others.  

            That’s why we need the church.  That’s why we need even a bumbling, imperfect, even sometimes sinful church.  Again, that’s the only kind of churches there are.  But we still need them.  Because the church is where we can find people who are trying, in their imperfect way, to be faithful to God.  And they show that faithfulness by supporting each other.  By encouraging each other.  By loving each other.  By just being there for each other.  

And people like that are people we all need in our lives.  Even Mary needed someone like that in her life.  And you and I need people like that in our lives, too.

I pray that all of us will always be part of a church, so we can have those people in our lives.  If you’re watching on the livestream tonight, I pray that you can be part of a church, and have those people in your life.  And in fact you are part of a church.  This church.  We are here for you.  We want to support you, and encourage you, and love you.  All you need to do is contact us.  You can leave a comment, you can send a direct message through facebook, you can send a text, you can give me a call.  Our church’s number is on our facebook page.  My facebook page is under Jeff Adel.  If you’re watching on the livestream tonight, you are part of this church.  We want to be the people who are in your lives to support you, and encourage you, and show love to you, be there for you.

Because when we have that support, and that encouragement, and that love, we can accept the challenges of life.  And we can do more than just accept them.  We can do what Mary did.  We can embrace them.  We can thank God for them.  We can feel the honor, and the privilege, that it is to be chosen by God, and to be allowed to serve God in whatever way God asks us.  Maybe we will even feel blessed, the way Mary felt blessed after she received that support and encouragement and love from Elizabeth.

Let’s find ways to be there for each other.  Let’s find people who will be there for us when we need them, and let’s be there for them when they need us.  And then, let’s reach out to others who need people to be there for them.  When we do that, we will still be an imperfect church.  But we’ll be a lot closer to being the church God wants us to be.