A few years ago, I had car trouble on Interstate 80 near Fairfield. There was space in the center divide for me to come to a halt, which was something to be thankful for. And although it was before the era of cell phones, there was an emergency phone nearby, so there was more cause for thanks. All the same, my mood wasn’t thankful. As I watched countless cars speed by while I waited for a tow truck, I had an aching hallow feeling in my stomach. I was in the midst of a steady stream of humanity, but no one was at all connected to my distress. I felt horribly lonely. If I could feel that way over a small thing like a fan belt, or whatever it was, think how Mary must have felt. In the culture of the time, her unexpected pregnancy could lead to dim prospects for marriage (best scenario) or stoning (worst scenario). That was bad enough, but then there was the visitation from Gabriel. On its face, it addressed the first problem, but if you’ve ever had a supernatural experience, you know it can leave one feeling quite anxious. Was this real? Do I dare tell anyone? Will they think I am out of my mind? These questions would plague anyone in Mary’s position.
Can you imagine the complete relief she felt when hearing Elizabeth’s greeting? Here was a soul-mate so complete, only God could be responsible. No need to debate what to reveal, because Mary didn’t need to say a thing! Elizabeth had her own divinely gifted way of knowing. Divinely gifted because God knows none of us can thrive without it. God knows we are designed for connection with God and with one another. There are countless examples of God’s readiness to give a human connection in Scripture: Moses was given Aaron and Miriam; Jeremiah was given Baruch; Naomi was given Ruth. We humans display our need for connection in countless ways for good and for ill. Gangs are not a recent phenomenon; they are ageless.
Elwyn Gibbs recently told me about an experience he had that beautifully captures the power of human connection to enliven and sustain us. He was at the Post Office in one of those endless holiday lines, and there was only one clerk on duty. The clerk was working hard, but everyone seemed to have a special problem. When Elwyn reached the “on deck” position with only one person in from of him, that person turned out to be particularly difficult. There was no language barrier, but she still seemed unable to hear or accept the clerk’s explanations. Elwyn said the clerk looked like he was on the verge of throwing up his hands and walking out. Then he happened to make eye contact with Elwyn, and Elwyn winked. The clerk smiled. Someone understood. Someone knew what he was going through and stood with him. Somehow that made all the difference. He was able to go on with new energy.
We are just a few hours away from celebrating the “wink” of all the ages. We are just a few hours away from celebrating that God chose to be born among us, so that we might all know God is part of all we go through and stands with us. It’s hard to take in, and so we return to celebrate the event year after year, hoping each year that it will sink in a bit further.
What can we do in these last few hours to ready ourselves this year? What can we do to pry open our hearts just a little bit further, that this year, there might be room for the baby Jesus to be newly born there? Mary has to be our proto-type for this mission. She received God made flesh into herself fully, and so she must have something to teach us about the mission. I have always loved Mary’s hymn of praise contained in today’s Gospel, The Magnificat, but this year, I noticed something about it that had never caught my attention before. To ready herself for the coming of Christ, Mary gave thanks for wonders of God as yet unseen. She cried with all her soul in thanksgiving that God had (past tense) scattered the proud and filled the hungry with good things. To our eyes, none of that was visible yet. Jesus had not healed one lame person, nor taught one lesson, nor preached one beatitude, nor fed one person, much less a multitude, nor overcome any suffering, nor claimed the victory over death. Somehow, giving thanks for wonders as yet unseen helped give Mary the eyes to see those wonders and the heart to endure until their coming.
We have time. We have time right now to magnify the Lord for the favor shown to us all: for the fact that God has met all our needs for the year to come, our needs as individuals and our needs as a community, for the foment of the Spirit in this parish, for the wondrous celebrations of this night, for the hearts coming near to ours and the privilege of offering Good News to them, for the human connections that are God’s gift to us. May our thanksgivings open our hearts and make a place for Christ to newly be born this year. May our thanksgivings open our eyes to see how God is inviting us to be blessings to others in the year to come.