A new version

"My soul is alive with thoughts of God..."*

Advent 4C - Micah 5:2-5a, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:39-55

The angel Gabriel made two visits to announce pregnancies. The first was to an old man named Zechariah. The second was six months later to Mary, a very young woman, maybe even a teenager.

For different reasons, both told Gabriel that the pregnancies were unlikely. When Zechariah asked for a sign, Gabriel put him on mute until his wife gave birth. Mary may have asked for a sign too, (or Gabriel knew she would), so he offered one: the fact that her older cousin, Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was already very pregnant.

I suspect that Mary visited Elizabeth to check on the sign Gabriel offered. Good for her for not dismissing Gabriel out of hand.

That is not to throw shade on Mary.

God speaks to us in so many different and unpredictable ways. Angels seem to be part of God’s vocabulary, but it takes a little life experience to recognize them. Or what to make of their messages. As I heard a preacher say last week, God always shows up: never early and never late. But it’s hard to believe that when you’re seventeen. I’m sure I didn’t.

I am looking forward to this year’s Christmas Pageant. Pageants are always fun. As I watch, I will be thinking about ways to talk to young people about faith, so that when they have outgrown pageants, they will have a better idea of what faith can feel like.

The young, teenage Mary needed a sign before she could trust the angel’s message. Of course she did! She did not yet know that God shows up in many ways. Predictable and not. Immediately recognizable and not. As the hoped-for and prayed-for intervention, and not. Sometimes as something unimagined and joyous or worrisome as a late-in-life pregnancy.

Those of us who have a bit more life experience might think about looking for opportunities now and then to share with the young people in our lives what we know and believe, and how we came to believe it. It might help them to know that we have sought and found God’s presence and help. That waiting was not always easy and by no means passive. That it can be hard to ask for help, and even harder to accept the help offered. And of course, sharing those experiences might help us too.

When Mary saw that Gabriel’s prediction had come true, she doubtless remembered what she had heard in psalm after psalm in the Temple or in the synagogue – songs of joy and confidence that God would show up in the most surprising ways, people and places. And then she sang us a new version.

Peace.

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Photo by Yarden on Unsplash

*“My soul is alive with thoughts of God...” is from a 2019 interpretation of the Magnificat by Rev. M Barclay, cofounder and director of enfleshed, an organization that creates prayers, liturgies, art, meditations, teachings, and other spiritual resources for collective liberation. The entire text can be found here.