Have you had a holiday recently? The Covid-19 pandemic has put that on hold for a lot of us over the last year or so. For many who have managed to get away, it's been somewhere rather more local than normal. Whether you've been able to get abroad, go somewhere nearby, or been cooped up for months on end, we all have times when we need a break, whether it involves going far or not. It might just be to refresh our minds routinely once or twice a year, but ocassionally there are other compelling reasons to escape normality.
When Miriam found out that she was pregnant, but not married, she had to find someone who understood. Perhaps her parents wouldn't. Her fiancé, who wasn't the father, might have an even bigger problem with it. Her cousin, Elisheba, on the other hand, was also pregnant and had a similar story to tell: although she was married, she was well beyond normal child-bearing age. So Miriam packed her bags and travelled south to the hill country of Judah to stay somewhere safe with someone who wouldn't judge her (Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, verses 39 - 56).
Of course, in England we normally know Miriam as Mary and Elisheba as Elizabeth. They had both had their pregnancies announced by the angel Gabriel, and it was he who had alerted Mary to the fact that Elizabeth was also expecting a baby. Elizabeth was clearly going to be the person to go to while Mary got her head around the situation. When they met, Elizabeth's baby recognized that Mary was carrying the baby Messiah, and both women were filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. So this was a meeting which God had his hand on, but other than that it wasn't seemingly a major happening. Why, then, did Luke consider it important enough to include in his Gospel, in which he missed out a lot of other events, and why does the Church even include it in its calendar?
Clearly, Luke 1 gives us the Magnificat, when Mary erupted into praise and thanks to God. Elizabeth confirmed who Jesus was, and so did John the Baptist, even though not yet born, so this helped to build up the story. These are all perhaps functional outcomes, though. What do we learn about our own lives?
Firstly, Mary needed somewhere safe to go. Once she was there, she was free to be herself and pour out her soul to God in the presence of someone who understood. We can sometimes become too isolated as Christians. Even if you do attend church regularly, do you have Christian friends who understand when you need somewhere to hide, or want to shout out to God? Do we too often feel that church means being 'proper' in some sort of Victorian sense or with a stiff upper lip. Mary was an excitable and, at the time, vulnerable young Jewish lady, at least with regard to her present position in society as an unmarried mother. Perhaps the Bible is giving us a role model here which wouldn't fit in a lot of our church gatherings, but is important in teaching us to be ourselves in the presence of God and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Another lesson is that children can experience God. John the Baptist, being unborn, wouldn't have been able to articulate that he knew he was in the presence of God, but when Mary walked into the house, bearing Jesus, he was fully aware in his Spirit that something amazing and greater than him had arrived. How often do we hive off our children out of the more spiritual aspects of church to send them to their own groups where they can learn the basics first? Yes, it's good for children to learn together with their peers and have structured programmes of teaching, so that they come to understand what Christianity is about. However, those groups should also involve teaching them to pray, commit their lives to God, be filled with the Holy Spirit, listen to his voice, operate in the gifts of the Spirit and more besides. Let's not assume that children have to be grown up before they can be proper Christians. The disciples were rebuked by Jesus for having a similar attitude (Matthew's Gospel, chapter 19, verses 13 - 15). If we need to approach God as children (Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, verse 15), then that means that children can do so as well, or even better than adults. If God is turning up in power in the main meeting, let's get the children in, unless he's also doing the same with them in another room!
For me, this passage by Luke is about those marginalized by society having a role to play and being released to do that. Eight years old, 80 years old, married, single, rich, poor, male, female, Jew or Gentile, the Church needs to provide the safe place for everyone to be accepted and grow in God.
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