Sermon, 4th Sunday of Advent

"Blessed are you among women…and happy is she who trusted the word of the Lord." (Luke 1:42,45)

Anybody who has exchanged emails with me should know, by now, my closing salutation: "Blessings." Preparing for this sermon, I started to wonder if, to be totally honest, I should change my closing salutation; so that any letter, any email you get from me would have me saluting you with, "Mixed Blessings." The truth, I'm coming to see, is that there may be no other kind of blessing. How many times have you heard of someone who won millions of dollars in the lottery, only to lose it all? Relatives who pestered the winner for handouts, or investments that went bad: lawsuits by "exes." What a gracious favor they had, that turned into such a mixed blessing.

Or if you like, look no further than Mary. "Rejoice, O Lady of divine favor! Indeed, God is with you," the angel Gabriel told Mary. Of course, Mary's first reaction was not joy or relief. "But she was confused and troubled at this saying, and tried to figure out what sort of greeting this was." Mary understood that be favored by God's grace was not a blank check, an excuse to relax. She knew that God's blessings were always mixed blessings, full of grace yet also full of new challenges. And this blessing was no different: a new life to grow inside of her, a life full of promise. But not one that came in the socially accepted way: a pregnancy that, if the Law of that society was strictly enforced, would not survive Mary's death by stoning.

Mary, full of God's grace, accepts the Lord's blessing: "Here I am, the slave of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word." But like anyone else who receives a mixed blessing, she needs the reassurance offered by Gabriel. And so she travels about 80 miles to see her older cousin Elizabeth. And already the connection between these two preborn children is so strong that through their mothers, they can somehow know of each other's presence. All that is needed is for the voice of Jesus's mother to flow into John's mother, and John hears already the call of Jesus. And so we hear Elizabeth, in today's Gospel, exclaim, "Blessed are you among women!"

Elizabeth is not naïve. She knows that it is a mixed blessing for Mary: that the blessing itself is not a completely easy or happy occasion for Mary. And so Elizabeth also says, "Happy is she who trusted the word of the Lord." By saying in both cases that Mary is "blessed," the translation we heard obscures the fact that two different words are used. In the first instance, Mary is, indeed, "blessed" by God. But in the second instance, the word that Elizabeth uses means something closer to "fortunate," or "happy." Very truly, Mary was "happy." She knew what obstacles the evil one would place in her path. But she trusted that God's word would guide her through those obstacles toward the completion of God's loving purposes for her, her people, and her world.

Our only happiness comes when we trust in God's mixed blessings. Our only happiness comes when we trust that though God's blessings may ask a great deal of us, though the road down which God's blessing takes us may occasionally be dark; eventually we shall come out into a place of light, warmth, peace, and love. This Parish family has been blessed. We have been blessed with a beautiful worship space, traditional yet intimate. We have been blessed with a lack of debt. We have been blessed with a love for each other that has seen us through death and division. We have been blessed with a passion and energy to love others as we have been loved by Jesus.

So, what do God's mixed blessings have in store for us? I don't know for sure. But I do know this from today's "Good News." Happy are we who trust in the word of the Lord.