Season’s greetings. There are so many ways to greet people, whatever the season: “Hello,” “Hi”, “Good day,” “How’s it going?”, “What’s Up?”, “How are you?”
What kind of greeting is that? Your face sometimes reveals the answer. But it’s an open-ended question: “What’s on your mind?” “What’s going with you?” I do not keep up well in this season of savoring all the Christmas cards, visits, and greetings. But greetings are more than cards and more than words. Greetings come as a smile, a handshake, an embrace, a kiss, a pat on the back and in text messages, emojis, carols, and phone messages. Scientists say something chemical is changing in our brains and in our bodies when we greet a friend.
So as we share the peace or greet people at other times, be sensitive and gracious. You don’t always know how the greeting will go or how it is received. Things keep changing; we do the best we can, and sometimes we find life bringing unexpected news and events. Will the greeting come across as a bow, a smile, a fist bump, a little elbow bump, or sometimes a handshake?
Luke’s gospel, though, is announcing good news! Season’s greetings, indeed. Notice the greetings in today’s beloved gospel. Earlier Mary had been greeted by the angel Gabriel,
altering her life for all time. She pondered what sort of greeting this could mean.
After all, how much consent did she have to what God was doing in her life? Trying to take it all in, she goes with haste to visit Elizabeth. Can you imagine the greeting between these two pregnant women? A former preacher of mine imagined that the greeting in the Gospel was likely a belly bump between these two pregnant women: Mary and Elizabeth.
Poet Anne Giedenhammer speaks in Elizabeth’s voice, “months into the heaviness of child-carrying,” as she hears Mary approaching. She goes on: “I raced out to see her standing there/ Glowing with sweat, her body just beginning /To take on a mother’s curves beneath her robes / And then the child that nestled sweet / Beneath my heart / Leapt—not a simple turning, not a kick / But jumped as if some new and secret joy / Had set him dancing: and it was then I knew— / Knew who it was she bore within herself / Later some would call it solemn, grand; but truthfull, / We laughed as we embraced: breast to breast / Cheek to smiling cheek, / And I know that both our sons / were laughing too / in that way of old friends meeting / after years, /when all time seems as nothing / and the space /between lives collapses / into grace.”
The greetings between these two women have inspired artists, musicians, poets, and preachers. The blessed event of the two women greeting one another has been simply dubbed through the centuries by painters, poets, theologians, and teachers as “The Visitation.”
Upon receiving some challenging news, the very young Mary goes to visit the mature woman Elizabeth.
Mary and Elizabeth by greeting and visiting with one another offer something unique in the encounter right from the moment they embrace in Zechariah’s courtyard and fetus John the Baptist leaps for joy. Each woman can be grace and peace to the other, simply by knowing such a different—but trusted—perspective on a shared and bewildering experience.
I imagine there are a lot of feelings stirring in Mary as she heads to the hill country and ponders what is happening in her body: new life and God’s glory, alongside the nausea, fear, and exhaustion. But the first word Elizabeth greets her with is “Blessed!” Mary, of course, responds with her greeting the revolutionary words of the Magnificat, foreshadowing the ministry of the son in her womb, and a God who lifts the lowly, dethrones the powerful, raises the poor, and fills the hungry with good things.
Despite all the unknowns, Mary knows it is going to be alright, in part because her trusted friend tells her so—with her words and by her very presence alongside her and the child leaping in her womb. Elizabeth suddenly knows that things will be OK for her as well, even though she and her husband have not been able to exchange a word since before her strange pregnancy began (1:20). Elizabeth then goes on to give a greeting in the form of song to Mary that has been on repeated for centuries and centuries:
You’re so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed!
This is the gift of a relationship at its best: giving and receiving the reassurance we need, even when we can’t quite see it for ourselves.
Mary is the first disciple in the gospel of Luke, the model for us of faithfulness, surrender, and openness to God working. Mary is blessed among women, but later in Luke, Jesus will say those who are truly blessed are those who hear the word of God and respond!
Martin Luther notes that God looks with favor on lowly Mary, and all of us, not because of any merit of our own, but out of pure grace. Even as we seek to bring down unjust systems, we do so from a place of humility, aware of our pride, privilege, and self-motivation.
As Poet Malcolm Guite writes: “Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’, / Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’ / They sing today for all the great unsung / Women who turned eternity to time / Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth / Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.”
We don’t always see the “best” these days. Sometimes the stress brings out the worst. Every greeting “How are you” is a complicated question… right?
The promised one is among you this day, greeting you with a tender embrace, greeting you with words of forgiveness, words of hope, and words of perseverance.
The Holy One assures you that you are highly favored, and treasured by God. Nothing in all creation can separate you from divine love.
So here again the greetings that have echoed throughout all the generations:
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Peace be with you. And also with you.
As God’s holy people, please know as we greet one another today something is leaping deep within us, something is coming to birth. As we declare the word of faith to one another in relationship, we birth God’s presence in Jesus among us. Even in such unsettled times, how can we keep from singing? From celebrating the grace of these days and joining in Mary’s song?
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
Season’s greetings, indeed. Greetings from the One who has come to set us free. Greetings from the One who comes among us in bread and wine. And greetings from the One whose coming is certain and whose day draws near.
