Only a few days after I graduated from high school in New Jersey, I moved down to Maryland to live with my great aunt Martha.  She worked for the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and she had been able to get a summer job for me there.  Most people had interviewed for and gotten their job assignments in May, but since I couldn’t get there for an interview then, I interviewed when I arrived.  The first question they had was, ‘How fast can you type?’.  I answered honestly, “I don’t know how to type.”

        “Oh.” they said -- looking very disappointed.  “Most of the jobs for women were filled several weeks ago.  We can’t give you a job doing maintenance or lawn work and the only other job we have requires a year of calculus.”  “I have a year of calculus.”, I said and so I spent the summer doing statistical research.

        Every morning I would go to work at neonatal unit of Columbia Women’s Hospital in Washington, DC.  This is where all high risk preemies in the DC area came because they had the best intensive care unit.

        One of the studies I helped with required taking fluid samples from the placenta just after birth and so whenever a birth was imminent, we went running down the corridor to the birthing rooms to scrub up so that we could witness deliveries and take our samples.  Thus, for the course of the summer, I watched several deliveries a day, 5 days a week.  Ant I never got over the wonder of it.

        Even today I remember with great clarity just how privileged I felt to be one of the first human beings in the world to see a brand new person.   Just think!  All of the possibilities -- all of the potential -- why this little person might one day be a senator or a president.  He or she might be a great writer or painter -- perhaps another Billy Graham -- and here I was -- one of the first persons to see them in this world.

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        Many of you are parents and I am sure you also remember the wonder and awe of seeing your own child for the first time.  I stand here to tell you that every doctor and nurse in the delivery room with you feels exactly the same thing.

        The infinite possibilities of a child.  The boundless potential of each and every little one.

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        In our Gospel lesson this morning, we have before us one of the often overlooked stories in the long birth narrative in Luke.  On the surface, there does not seem to be much going on here. This is just a greeting and conversation between two pregnant women. There is no action here and so we never include it in any of our Christmas pageants.  There is no messenger of God, no cute long eared donkey, no manger, no shepherds and not a single little lamb anywhere.  But if we look below the surface, we can find that this is perhaps one of the most important portions of the birth narrative.  One that says more to our faith than those cute manger stories ever could.

        We read about two mothers -- both pregnant by extraordinary means -- proclaiming the possibilities of their offspring -- and this is not just motherly  pride -- these words are being spoken by the power of the Holy Spirit.  and this is not just wishful thinking -- these women speak with the certainty that can only come from hearts of faith which have been moved by the Holy Spirit.  These are not just possibilities -- these are future realities being proclaimed

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There is something mystical about saying something out loud.  Spoken words take on a reality of their own and like Carl Sandberg‘s seven league boots they go marching forth and cannot be recalled..

People who know me know that I’ll stew over a decision for a long time and not say much about it.  When the time comes and I make up mind -- then I tell people what I’ve decided.  I do that because the act of speaking something makes it more real and more concrete.  I am more likely to follow through on a decision when I can voice the intention.  It is more concrete if it can be formed with words. 

The Hebrews believed the same thing.  This is why the very act of cursing or blessing is such a serious matter.  To speak a blessing made it real -- to speak a curse also made it real.  It was not wishful thinking. 

        We see the power of speaking throughout the Old Testament.  In Genesis 1:3 we read that God SAID, ’Let there be light’.  God speaks and the creation becomes reality.  God speaks and worlds are formed from nothingness.  The voice of God speaking through the prophets was something to fear because of the absolute certainty of its fulfillment.

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Prophecy is not just foretelling -- it is also forth telling -- not just proclaiming a future event but proclaiming a current reality.  Mary and Elizabeth prophesy now and their words  prophesy in both meanings.

In today’s text we hear Mary and Elizabeth speaking with the voice of God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Let’s take a look at that they have to say.

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W      Elizabeth proclaims with the voice of prophecy, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”  Like Abraham before her, Mary believed God and it was counted to her as righteousness.  The blessing is hers because of a faith which has led to her glad obedience.

W      Mary speaks with the voice of humility when she says. “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”  She realizes first that God is her Savior.  On her own she can do nothing to warrant this grace which has been shown to her.  She confesses her lowliness and utter dependence on the Lord when she refers to herself as a slave and a bondservant of the Lord.

Mary speaks with the voice of rejoicing, when she uses a form of the verb that indicates continuous action as if to say she is always rejoicing or that she continues to rejoice.  By contract, when she speaks of the action of God, she uses the perfect tense.  He has looked with favor.  The action is accomplished.  It is a done deal.

W      Mary speaks with the voice of faith when she proclaims the mighty deeds of her savior with words that indicate the assurance of things accomplished.  The apostle Paul describes faith in just this way in Heb 11:1 when he says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Indeed by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible “.

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It is easy to dismiss this morning’s scripture as the overly emotional and optimistic musings of two expectant mothers.  After all, they live in a society that does not value women highly.  They live in a society where a woman’s standing in society is measured by her husband and the number of her sons.  Why, we are even told that Mary has come to the house of Zechariah not the house of Elizabeth.  Not only that, but this is a conversation between an old woman whose time had finally come and a young, starry-eyed teenager.  As first time mothers, they cannot really know all that is in store for them in the next two years -- midnight feedings, colic, potty training.. 

        But these two women are much more than just two sentimental expectant mothers.  These are two women elected by God for great acts of God because of their great portion of faith and their willing assent to the will of God.  These are two women whose great acts were not those of mighty preaching, great acts of charity or bravery.  But imagine the faith required each and every day to claim the promises of God spoken in these verses while faced with the reality of day to day living in a society that cannot share your faith and conviction about the future of your child.

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There is another child born of the spirit God; Another child with infinite possibilities; another child whose birth comes unrecognized and with little fanfare in this world and one of these children is born every day -- we are that child of God.  On that day when the spirit of the Lord descended like a dove upon us, each one of us was born from above.  Some of us can remember that day.  Some of us simply woke up one morning and realized that at some time in the past, it must have become a reality -- because it we can look at our lives and see that it has happened to us.  However and whenever it happens, we became children of God - we became filled with his holy spirit.  For the Lord knew each of us from our mother’s womb, and had a holy and eternal plan ready for us even then.

        Like any proud parent, our Lord spoke with certainty about the things we are destined to do for God’s sake.  Like any proud parent, our Lord looks forward to the time we will spend together.  The things we will learn from him; the acts we will perform in God’s name.

        We are probably not destined to perform mighty deeds others will be reading about 2,000 years from now, but we are destined for mighty acts we will be hearing about from the throne as the Lord says, “Well done my good and faithful servant“.  It is our prayers of intercession for the saints, quiet acts of charity, drinks of water given in God’s name.  It is those random acts of kindness, those unseen deeds done n the name of the Savior that will be our reward in heaven.

It is infinite possibilities.  Heavenly hosts will proclaim that he and we have done great things.

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As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child later this week, let us remember the great things God has done.  Remember too that there was great rejoicing in heaven at the birth of each of us as children of God.  And so let us go forth to serve God in such a way that when we see our God face to face he will proclaim the great things we have done in his name.

Amen.