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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. (Amen.)
U-S Vice-President Kamala Devi Harris and actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph last month took to a stage at Salus University in Elkins, Park, Pennsylvania, which University specializes in health and science. The appearance was another campaign stop on Harris’s tour in support of so-called “Reproductive Rights”, and, among other things, at one point the two women shouted back and forth names of different parts of the female reproductive system. (Philadelphia Inquirer.) Is that what two women talk about and do when they get together? Clearly not all of them. In today’s Gospel Reading appointed for the Visitation, the Virgin Mary and her relative Elizabeth take their turn on the stage, as it were, each blessed in their own way with a God‑given child, and their talk was about anything but their reproductive rights; rather, their talk was about what God was doing both through them and through, not two clumps of cells or two fetuses in their respective uteruses, but through their two babies—the Divinely‑inspired Gospel‑writer uses the same term for an un‑born child as a new‑born child. Those babies, those sons, already were people with their own rights, if you will, including the right to life that the U‑S Declaration of Independence said was an unalienable right with which they were endowed by their Creator (Wikipedia “life”). The right to life’s being unalienable means that it does not depend on cultural customs or on a government’s laws, and an unalienable right cannot be repealed, though enjoyment of it could be forfeited by violating someone else’s rights (Wikipedia “rights”).
Perhaps this scene of “Two women and their two sons” more than any other scene in the Bible provides the sharpest contrast with how society today views women and children. God had commanded that people be fruitful and multiply, and that was what sexual intercourse was for (Genesis 1:28; 9:1, 7; confer and compare Exodus 1:7). But, Elizabeth was barren, and both she and her husband Zechariah were advanced in years (Luke 1:7), so much so, that Zechariah questioned Gabriel’s announcement of John the Baptizer’s birth (Luke 1:18), and, even after conceiving John, Elizabeth kept herself hidden for five months (Luke 1:24-25). Much younger, the Virgin Mary was betrothed to Joseph, and both she and he likely were looking forward to having children, though after she conceived Jesus, she, too, in some sense hid herself away for some three months (Luke 1:56). After the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, the long-promised Seed of the Woman Who would bruise the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15), things arguably changed, so that there was less of a need for procreation (for example, 1 Corinthians 7:25-40). Regardless, still today God alone closes and opens wombs, as Old Testament women such as Sarah; Leah and Rachel; and Hannah, who sang a song much like the Virgin Mary’s, all knew very well.
How rebellious is society’s presuming to be in control of reproduction! Men and women have intercourse but attempt to prevent conception, and, if they fail, then maybe they kill the children. Or, if they are not conceiving, then maybe apart from intercourse they fertilize multiple eggs and kill some in an attempt to have one. Even if we as individuals do not fall into those categories we fall into others. For example, I know that I, as a single pastor, have not always promoted having a spouse and children as much as I probably should. You know better than I do your situation, and God knows us best of all. In one way or another, we all fail to lead sexually pure and decent lives in what we say and do, and husbands and wives fail to love and honor each other as they should. We sin against the Sixth Commandment and against all the other Commandments, for we are sinful by nature, and so we deserve nothing but present and eternal punishment.
But, out of His great love, mercy, and grace, the Holy Spirit calls and so enables us both to repent of our sinful nature and all of our actual sin and to trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake. As the Virgin Mary sang in her song, the Lord scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts, but He has regard for and exalts those of humble estate. The Holy Spirit came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, so she conceived and bore the Son of God and the Son of Man (Luke 1:35). As today’s Old Testament Reading put it (Isaiah 11:1‑5), Jesus is the shoot from the stump of Jessee, the branch from His roots that bore fruit, blessed with the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit would later fill Zechariah (Luke 1:67), the Holy Spirit filled both John the Baptizer in the womb (Luke 1:15) and his mother Elizabeth, so that even the six‑month‑old John could recognize the maybe days‑old Jesus in Mary’s womb and then do his fore-runner’s job, pointing his mother to the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29, 36), and so, even at that point, Elizabeth could confess Jesus as her Lord. Elizabeth blessed the Virgin Mary and the fruit of her womb, and the Virgin Mary herself sang both that God was her Savior and that God had remembered His mercy as He spoke to Abraham, in whom, God had said, all the families of the earth would be blessed (for example, Genesis 12:3). And, truly we are blessed, as Jesus grew up to live the perfect life that we fail to live and to die on the cross for us, in our place, the death that we deserved. As Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (for example, Genesis 15:6), so, when we repent and believe, God credits us with Christ’s righteousness. As the Virgin Mary sang, God’s mercy is for those who fear Him (or “believe in” Him) from generation to generation. Even the Virgin Mary herself ultimately was blessed not because she bore or nursed Jesus but because she heard God’s Word and kept it (Luke 11:27-28; confer Luke 8:19-21). As Elizabeth described, the Virgin Mary believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord by His angel Gabriel (Luke 1:26-38).
We also believe what is spoken to us from the Lord by those whom He sends. God’s Word of law and Gospel is read and preached to groups such as this group, and God’s Gospel is applied to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with a pastor’s touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When it comes to Holy Baptism, John the Baptizer is an example of how by the power of the Holy Spirit even babies can believe, something the Lord Jesus Himself later reiterated to His disciples (Luke 18:15-17). And, when it comes to the Holy Supper, as the Virgin Mary sang, the Lord fills those who hunger and thirst for righteousness with good things (confer Matthew 5:6). In all of these ways, we partake of the Lord’s free gift of salvation, and so we experience His joy.
More than just any “Two women and two babies”—far less the Vice President and an actress—with the Visitation we have the Virgin Mary and Jesus going to Elizabeth and John the Baptizer. The Virgin Mary is sometimes understood as having arisen and gone with haste to Elizabeth in order to wish Elizabeth joy, to rejoice with her, and to minister to her. And, we do likewise. As we heard in tonight’s Epistle Reading (Romans 12:9-16), we rejoice in hope with those who rejoice. John the Baptizer’s joy in Jesus’s presence and the Virgin Mary’s rejoicing in God her Savior were the joy of God’s ultimate salvation. That joy is also ours already now, and that joy can overcome any sorrow that we might feel, such as over our not having a spouse or children, and so we can be content in whatever situation we are in (Philippians 4:11). Like the Virgin Mary, we do good works in keeping with our various vocations. And, as we sang in tonight’s Psalm (Psalm 138:1-8; antiphon v.8a), the Lord will fulfill His purpose for us; His steadfast love (His “mercy”) endures forever!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +