Two women make this scene, with two new lives within them. Two expectant relatives meet for the first time since their startling news of being with child. Churches like to have what they term living nativity scenes (Nativity means birth, of course).  Here are two living manger scenes talking to each other. I wonder how clear it was to them that the new lives they carried would create a vast change  for generations to come.  When I was little, one of the first prayers we learned was the Hail Mary. Its first words are drawn from Elizabeth's inspired greeting. Even early, religious language confused me. What did fruit of the womb mean? Elizabeth is certainly not blinded by pride with her miraculous conception, but she is able to see Mary as carrying a very special child as well. Their words carry  the narrative here; no male speaks. Of course, Zechariah is still mute, and Joseph is nowhere to be seen. God notices a lowly pair of women. God favors them both with a miracle. God hears the words of two women, often silenced in their day and time. One of the newer Christmas songs is "Mary Did You Know"  with some thoughtful lyrics. Two spring to mind: "when you kissed your baby boy you kissed the face of God, and the one you delivered would soon deliver us."

 

In her burst of praise for God, Mary doesn't express fears and doubts about being the mother of Messiah. Now she may well have done so over the years, but we are not privy to it. Mary slides from the personal to social. Like Hannah on the birth of Samuel, she sees herself as a representative of a people. She is the chosen instrument of a new future. Mary imagines a generous social realm, where Scrooge is transformed but so is the system that makes and rewards Scrooge. Mary imagines a world were the rich get a taste of their own medicine, but the poor, whom she terms the lowly, get more than their share for once.  God sees an invisible one, oppressed by invisible forces, the idea that human beings have some sort of right to violence and exploitation of those a rung below them on the social ladder. She sees mercy as an act of God to life people hope; the rich and well-born don't need much material help; they are already filled with good things./.

 

The words, to take Israel  by the hand, imagines a people still in childhood.. As their children grow, they will take them by the hand, to help, to guide, to lead, to protect. It has the sense of course that this old ethnic and religious group is still like a child.Even in the womb, the future John the Baptist has a connection to the arrival of Jesus. A major moment in expecting a child is when the baby kicks, but to say the child leaped in womb leaped for joy is a special connection. In its ancient roots, the word gladness refers to shining. That fits this season of craving light at the time when the days are so short.

 

Every generation faces a time pregnant with meaning and change, where we are expectant for something. With the election of President Obama, we take a new direction as a country. Christmas, though, is intensely personal for us, and we anticipate what it means and brings. Mary, did you know that people would be gathered in church over 2,000 years later, in a country you did not knew existed, would gather together and read of you? Mary did you know that the fruit of your womb would continue to bear fruit for all of these years. Mary did you know, that we would celebrate the birthday of your baby boy as Christmas all of these years later?