Luke
1:39-56 Mary’s
Song
In
those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill
country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When
Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth
was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to
me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of
your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who
believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the
Lord.” And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in
God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One
has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who
fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he
has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down
the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the
hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his
servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made
to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” And Mary remained
with her about three months and then returned to her home.
****
What do you do when you have good news
to share? I remember going to the
grocery store one day to buy food for a family gathering. It was at a time when money was short in our house
and I was torn because I wanted to get special foods to share with the extended
family but at the same time I was worried about spending extra money. I debated with myself as I filled the wagon,
calculating in my head how much I was spending and getting more and more
anxious. After the groceries were rung
up I handed over my store discount card.
The cashier scanned my card and the register started beeping. For a
second the cashier looked surprised and then she said to me - “Wow, your
groceries are free today!” I couldn’t
believe it - what a relief and how happy I felt at this stroke of good
luck. All that day and probably for the
next week, the first story I told was about how my groceries had been
free. It was good news for me, a
blessing I had not expected and I couldn’t keep it to myself.
Reading Mary’s song today - in which
she recalls all the ways that God has blessed the people of Israel and blessed
her with the child Jesus within her, reminded me of how it feels to have good
news to share. How has God blessed you
in your life? What are the stories in
your history that you could share about God’s presence in your life? When we repeat our stories, we return to
those moments and in the remembering we are brought closer to the one from whom
all our blessings flow. Celebrating Christmas
reminds us that Jesus is with us, in every moment of our lives, good news that
we are called to share.
Prayer:
Present God, we
give you thanks this day for all the stories of our lives. Open our eyes to recognize your presence in
each one, so that we can be daily overwhelmed with excitement and share this
good news with everyone we meet. Amen.
Dawn Morello is a seminary student
at Luther Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota. She is currently serving as an
intern at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Mount Kisco, NY.
No comments:
Post a Comment