We ourselves are both recipients of God’s grace as well as messengers sent with His word of grace for other people whom we encounter face to face, whether neighbors or close family members.
I participated in a tour throughout Israel a number of years ago. My wife was supposed to go with me, but her due date would have been too close to the trip. It may have been safe to travel, but it would have been uncomfortable for her to be on her feet and navigating the crowds so late in her pregnancy.
So, I made it my mission to find a “pregnant Mary” souvenir to bring back home. Such images and carvings are more available now than they were fifteen years ago. I searched the shelves in shop after shop, but none of the paintings or carvings of Mary showed any signs of pregnancy. Even when Mary held the infant Jesus, she appeared to have lost all the baby weight with the same heavenly intervention that allowed her to conceive in the first place.
Then I visited the Church of the Visitation in Ein Karem, just on the outskirts of Jerusalem. There’s a statue outside that church that I want to reflect on with you
As a preacher, you will need to make a choice about how you want to present the image to your congregation. You can show them the image visually in a variety of ways or you can present the image using only your words. Both options have strengths and weaknesses.
Displaying the Image Visually
Actually, showing the image engages another sense. Your hearers engage their eyes and, therefore, more of themselves in the moment. Images are vivid. People can leave with a memory of what the sculpture actually looks like. They might even walk away with a physical copy of the image if you print it in the bulletin or provide business cards or bookmarks with the image printed on them.
But images can also be distracting. Maybe the women look like aliens or robots. Maybe they are standing so close to each other that it makes your people uncomfortable. Maybe your parishioners wonder what kind of flowers are in the pot at their feet or what that word is on the wall behind them.
Creating the Image with Words
Here you have much more control over what your hearers imagine with the image. They only imagine what you tell them. You become like an artist with your words. You can move around the image, focus on details, and you do not have to worry about the distractions which the image itself may present. There is less cost with respect to printing and less technology required to display it.
But you lose some of art of it, as well as the concrete nature of the sculpture itself.
Proclaiming Christ
Here are a few main ideas that the image and sculpture invite reflection on. A sermon could be built around any one of these by exploring how the text brings us to these truths, how God is at work to bless us in them, and what they mean for our lives of faith. Or you could arrange a few of these ideas together and move around the image in a series of reflections with your people.
- We see a moment in time when God was working in the lives of real people.
It is a frozen moment in the midst of a much greater narrative. The biblical account is not just words on a page, but Spirit-breathed words about what actually happened with real people. Notice how Mary has her hand on her belly! She was not doing that a few months before, and in less than a year her hands will be holding her son. The sculpture captures a moment in a real conversation.
The biblical account is not just words on a page, but Spirit-breathed words about what actually happened with real people.
- God is at work through and for these two women.
God works through means. God works mediately. Through Elizabeth, God was sending the forerunner. Through Mary, God was sending the Christ. These women were agents of God’s saving work. But they were also recipients. In Luke 1:47 we hear Mary rejoicing in God her Savior, because she too needs a Savior!
We ourselves are both recipients of God’s grace as well as messengers sent with His word of grace for other people whom we encounter face to face, whether neighbors or close family members.
- Jesus was and is a real human.
Look at Mary’s hand on her belly again. Read the words of Elizabeth describing John’s movement within her. Inside each of these women, an embryo has developed into a fetus inside a uterus. Cells are dividing, a brain is growing, limb buds are taking shape, and a tiny heart is rapidly beating. It is the most fragile thing in the world, and this is God’s plan to save the world! As Dr. Rosenbladt used to say, Mary gave birth “placenta and all!” The scandal of the Incarnation is beautiful and full of awe.
- God works in real time.
The paragraph before our reading sets the stage. At the moment of the annunciation, Mary is a virgin. That is her present state, but God is at work. Elizabeth, her older relative, is now in her sixth month of pregnancy. Slow down and notice the real-time unfolding here. Elizabeth was barren and advanced in years. How many months went by, one at a time, where Elizabeth felt the grief, “Well, not this time...?”
God was not absent or sleeping. He was working in His time. “In the fulness of time,” as Galatians puts it.
Notice the different sizes of the two women. Elizabeth has a six-month head start. She is showing more. Mary’s not there yet, but she will be. Each of these women will experience something close to the standard forty weeks of gestation... in real time!
It reminds me of the Israelites in Egypt for four hundred years! Generations came and went, and it felt like God was absent, but God was with them and for them all along. Forty actual years in the wilderness. Forty actual days on Mount Sinai. Forty actual days fasting in the desert.
We ourselves wait for the Lord... in real time. Maybe it is for a pain to go away. Maybe it is for a health problem to be healed. Maybe it is for a family member to come to faith. Maybe it is for the resurrection on the Last Day.
We wait in real time. And God is faithful and active, in real time.
This sculpture gives us an image of God’s people waiting and living in faith, as God works in His time to graciously provide our Savior.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Luke 1:39-45 (46-56).
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Luke 1:39-45 (46-56).
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Luke 1:39-45 (46-56).
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
Lectionary Podcast-Dr. Arthur Just of Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, IN walks us through Luke 1:39-45 (46-56).
