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At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah\\u2019s home and greeted Elizabeth. \\xa0When Elizabeth heard Mary\\u2019s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: \\u201cBlessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!\\u201d (Luke 1:39-45)

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Upon receiving the news that she would give birth to the Son of God, Mary packed her bags and hurried to Elizabeth\\u2019s house. \\xa0Ever catch that? \\xa0She hurried! \\xa0And very, very strangely, there is no indication that anyone went with her on this journey. \\xa0What on earth is an unmarried girl doing running through the hills of Judea all alone in the ancient times of the Bible? \\xa0That\\u2019s a three-day journey on foot through hills filled with robbers like the ones from Jesus\\u2019 later parable of the Good Samaritan. \\xa0No wonder she hurried.

But even if she traveled in a more culturally appropriate way\\u2014like, not alone\\u2014there is probably more to her sense of hurry than just the danger in the hills. \\xa0

She had just heard that she was favoured by God, that God was with her, and that God had chosen her to bring life into the world that would bring all God\\u2019s promises of life to the whole world. \\xa0Somehow or other, she managed to say yes to all that. \\xa0But as Pastor Michael noted yesterday, it was not so much a yes of \\u201cI understand and I\\u2019m ready\\u201d as a yes of \\u201cI will trust and follow even though I don\\u2019t have it all figured out.\\u201d \\xa0Then the angel left her and just like that, it was all over. \\xa0What a surprising and confusing revelation!

Heart pounding and face flush with excitement, confusion, or maybe just adrenaline, Mary packs her bags and hurries out to the only words that did make sense to her in the whole thing: her relative Elizabeth. \\xa0Old, wise, faithful Elizabeth. \\xa0If there was any peace be found to calm her pounding heart and nerves and make it all real, surely it would be found in the home of Elizabeth. \\xa0

Ever wonder why God chooses two people that happen to be related to one another? \\xa0Why didn\\u2019t God choose women who were perfect strangers to each other to be the mothers of John and Jesus? \\xa0No answer is given, but I think he did it to honour their humanity.\\xa0

God not only chose to need Mary\\u2019s willing participation, care, and nurture to birth and nurse his cosmic salvation plan to life, but He also chose to create a context within which Mary herself could be cared for and nurtured within a human community of those who could sympathize and understand these strange, supernatural happenings together with her. \\xa0

I mean, come on: Zechariah had been struck speechless and post-menopausal Elizabeth was in her third trimester. \\xa0Nothing made sense in their house either. \\xa0What better people to put on a pot of tea and welcome this confused, pregnant-out-of-wedlock teenager than them? \\xa0

And indeed, upon Mary\\u2019s arrival and through a Spirit-powered baby kick, Elizabeth bursts into that same kind of wonderfully odd and exuberant act-of-God-talk that reassured Mary that she wasn\\u2019t crazy. \\xa0This was a work of God after all. \\xa0She had heard it right. \\xa0She could exhale now and drink it all in. \\xa0This was a time for joy and singing\\u2026\\xa0

God was knitting together home and hospitality, a loving context of grace within which His grace could be birthed into the world. \\xa0This Advent, remember that the nurturing gift of human community and hospitality\\u2014as simple as an understanding conversation over coffee or tea\\u2014is precisely the context within which God births His promised gift of life into this world. \\xa0

"Though you walk in darkness, may you see the great light. Though you live in a land of deep shadows\\u2014may you see light! sunbursts of light! May God increase your life, expand your joy. May you be glad in his presence! May God give you the joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings" just as Mary & Elizabeth did! (cf. Isaiah 9:2-3 MSG)

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