Advent day 24

Music: Simon Wester. 


Let Joy Resound
October 28, 2022
Advent - Joy
Emmanuel
has come!
Rejoice,
without a hint
of doubt.
Let joy resound,
and praises ring.
Hallelujah!
Christ is here,
and in the fullness
of the age,
returns to reign
as promised King.
Allan J. Gillespie

What news would make you literally leap for joy?
What would it take for you to jump up and down and throw your hat in the air?
It’s what people did at the end of WWII and at the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It’s what you might do if you won the lottery or found out that you’re cancer-free. When war ends and tyranny topples, when prosperity comes and sickness goes, it’s the kind of good news that elicits exuberant celebration.
The good news that Mary and Elizabeth celebrate together, is the good news that the kingdom of God is at last breaking into a world dominated by proud and brutal tyrants.
Elizabeth had endured long years of heartbreaking infertility—a sorrow made worse by the undeserved stigma associated with barrenness in ancient societies. Elizabeth describes her experience of childlessness as “the disgrace I have endured among my people.” (Luke 1:25) But now she is six months pregnant with a child who will be known to history as John the Baptist.
Mary is a much younger relative of Elizabeth and is carrying in her womb the Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. We can assume that the only other person aware of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy is her fiancé Joseph—and an angel had to explain the nature of her pregnancy to him.
We can also imagine that Mary longed for a trusted friend in whom she could confide, and this is why she made the long journey into the hill country of Judea to be with her older relative Elizabeth. As it turns out both of these women have quite a story to tell.

Both Mary and Elizabeth had just had their lives turned on its head, and they needed someone they knew and trusted to celebrate and process what was happening in their newfound and unexpected pregnancies.
When Mary arrives at the home of Zechariah and greets her relative with the customary, Shalom, Elizabeth responds with an astounding prophetic utterance:
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why am I so honoured that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me?” And at that moment John the Baptist in the womb of his mother began to leap for joy. What a beautiful picture of irrepressible joy. The anticipation of the coming of the kingdom of God is marked by unbridled elation. Truly the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
The two worlds of what we now know today as the Old Testament and the New Testament are at long last colliding in the form of two baby boys born to these two most unexpectant mothers.
John, theologically known as the second coming of Elijah, has come to close out the old testament and usher in the new kingdom brought by this baby being carried by Mary.

The old leaps for joy as the new kingdom is ushered in.

What we traditionally anticipate at Christmas is Hope, Joy, Peace and Love, but what can happen is the reality of this world can become too much to bear. What we anticipate at Christmas, can at times be a distant dream as opposed to the intended reality that Jesus came to bring.

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