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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The principal feast of Christ that we observe today is called “The Visitation”, and it recalls the Virgin Mary and her unborn baby Jesus’s going to see her kinswoman Elizabeth and her unborn baby John the Baptizer. The appointed Gospel Reading we heard three times refers to Mary’s “greeting” Elizabeth, but, appropriately enough not the words of Mary’s greeting to Elizabeth are recorded by the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke in his unique report, but Elizabeth and John’s responses—and their responses, not to Mary’s greeting, but to the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. As part of her response to Jesus’s presence in the womb of Mary, Elizabeth declares Mary and Jesus “blessed”, and, we can add declarations that Elizabeth and we are also blessed. Tonight we consider primarily the Gospel Reading under the theme “Blessed Mary, Jesus, Elizabeth, and Us”.
Perhaps at least part of Mary’s purpose for her about three-month visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1:56) was to do the kind of things St. Paul describes in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 12:9‑16) as part of our presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship (Romans 12:1). Surely Mary loved Elizabeth with sisterly affection, rejoiced with her, lived in harmony with her, and was not haughty but associated with the lowly, like Elizabeth. Not that Mary was perfect or without sin, of course, for, in her song magnifying the Lord that follows today’s Gospel Reading (Luke 1:46-55), Mary refers to God as her “Savior”, recognizing both her own sinfulness and her blessedness only in the great things that God had done for her.
Can and do we say similar things, recognizing both our own sinfulness and need for the Savior and our blessedness only in the great things that God has done, is doing, and will do for us? The Holy Spirit can all too easily use the “to do” list of the Epistle Reading to show us our sin: our lack of genuine love, our abhorring what is good and holding fast to what is evil, our not loving one another with brotherly and sisterly affection, our not outdoing one another in showing honor, our being slothful in zeal, our being indifferent in spirit, our not serving the Lord as we should, our not rejoicing in hope, our being impatient in tribulation, our being intermittent in prayer, our not meeting the needs of our fellow believers, our not showing hospitality, our cursing those who persecute us, our not rejoicing with those who rejoice and not weeping with those who weep, our not living in harmony with one another, our being haughty, our avoiding the lowly, and our being conceited. We all sin in these and countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. For such sin and sinful natures, we deserve to be cast out of God’s presence, both now and for all eternity, if not for our repenting and believing in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Elizabeth humbly recognized her own unworthiness in the presence of the Lord, even as Mary in her song of praise referred to her own humble estate (Luke 1:48). Today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 11:1-5) tells how the Shoot that comes forth from the stump of Jesse, the Branch from his roots that will bear fruit, also will judge with righteousness the poor in spirit and decide with equity for the meek of the earth (confer Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20). So, God calls and enables us to be humble like Elizabeth and Mary, sorrowfully turning away from our sin and confidently trusting God to forgive our sin. When we so repent and believe, then God forgives our sinful natures and all our sin. God forgives all our sin, whatever our sin may be, for Jesus’s sake.
For, as the Old Testament Reading goes on to say, the sevenfold Spirit of the Lord is upon Jesus, and righteousness is the belt of His waist and faithfulness the belt of His loins. The Second Person of the Holy Trinity assumed into His Person a human nature, the fruit of Mary’s womb. Because of Who He is, because He is blessed, she is blessed, as the bearer of the eternal Word (Lutheran Service Book 670:2). He perfectly went through all the stages of our human existence (Pieper, II:84), dying on the cross for the sins of the whole world, including your sins and mine. And, after three days, He rose again, as one day we also will rise. No one would really be blessed—not Mary, not Elizabeth, not you, not me—if Jesus had not died for us and risen again. But, because He died and rose, as we trust in His death for us, then we are blessed with the forgiveness of sins that He won for us on the cross.
Every time we have a special midweek service—other than usual Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter ones—someone I know tells me that I am just making extra work for myself. Quite the contrary! As we faithfully follow the Church Year, including observing the principal feasts of Christ such as the recent Ascension of our Lord and tonight’s Visitation, we have additional opportunities for God to work in us, blessing us with the forgiveness of sins. In each Divine Service, He first serves us with the forgiveness of sins, and we then serve Him with our thanks and praise. Here in the Divine Service, more than anywhere else, is where God blesses us—from the Invocation of His Triune Name to the threefold Aaronic Benediction (Numbers 6:22-27). Elizabeth, her son John, and even her husband Zechariah may have been filled with the Holy Spirit in extraordinary fashions (confer Luke 1:15, 67), but, like them, you and I, regardless of our age are also filled with the Holy Spirit working through God’s read and preached Word, His Word applied with water in Holy Baptism, His Word applied with the touch of the pastor in individual Holy Absolution, and His Word applied with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. Faithful Lutheran congregations so offer the Holy Supper every holy day, on Sunday and on other festivals (Augsburg Confession, XXIV:34; Apology of the Augsburg Confession, XXIV:1), for, as we in faith receive especially Christ’s Body and Blood, we also receive life and salvation.
God’s forgiving our sins through His Word and Sacraments in turn brings forth from us the fruits of faith in keeping with our various callings in life. For example, seeing in the Gospel Reading how God blesses motherhood and children and, through them, all humanity—as He promised Eve (Genesis 3:15) and her offspring for generations (Genesis 24:50)—we think especially of our callings as children and parents (confer TLSB, ad loc Luke 1:39-45, 1707). Furthermore, all those things that tonight’s Epistle Reading earlier might have suggested that we do not do, in turn we at least try to do. And, mindful that the Visitation is regarded as “the festival of the poor and the neglected of the world” (Pfatteicher, Commentary, 317), we might also try especially to reach out to them, as we are able, helping to meet their spiritual and material needs. Ultimately, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins for our failures to do all those things, and we extend our own forgiveness out to those around us.
So, we have considered “Blessed Mary, Jesus, Elizabeth, and Us”. The Virgin Mary and the unborn Jesus “visited” her kinswoman Elizabeth and the unborn John, and, led by the Holy Spirit, they responded with the joy of God’s salvation through the Messiah, the Christ. We also respond with the joy of God’s salvation. Because the Lord has “visited” and redeemed His people (Luke 1:68), we praise Him here and now, as we will in heaven for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +