Pregnancy (Joy 2)
Joy, not because circumstances are resolved, but because God is near.
What would Advent be without remembering prenatal Elizabeth & Mary?
It’s easy to overlook the phenomenon of pregnancy. But it is exactly the right image for the season of Advent. Further, it’s on-point for understanding joy in scripture, and in particular, the gospel narratives.
Someone could write a book on this alone and all the layered intricacies of Mary and Elizabeth’s pregnancies. Surely someone has already. Mary is impregnated by the Holy Spirit. The Christ-child is, quite literally, the fruit of the Spirit That the Spirit’s work in an individual and all that they encompass - body, mind, soul - is on full display in Mary and her motherhood of Jesus. While none of us will be impregnated by the Holy Spirit, the call to receive the work - the fruit - within and through us is the same. Can Christ be borne of us?
But our specific purpose today is joy. Elizabeth & Mary’s story together is the epitome of joy. Elizabeth herself spells it out - the baby in my womb jumped for joy. This is a really interesting moment and phrase. We might expect that almost 2000 years of translation and culture shifts would render such a phrase a contemporary interpretation. But it’s not. Luke indeed wrote something like, “leaped/skipped/sprang” with “great joy/in exultation.”
It’s further interesting because in utero babies don’t tend to encapsulate such awareness and response. And yet…so many of those who’ve knowingly carried a human in their uterus note that there is indeed personhood and impulse reaction to various stimuli.
What did the preborn John know of Christ? We don’t know. But he knew something and it resulted in joy. Despite all we said about joy yesterday - that it’s not simply happiness or feeling, mood, or emotion - this moment is undeniably physical. It is a bodily elation that cannot be contained in just the heart and mind.
It requires a leap.
Yet remember Elizabeth & Mary’s circumstances. Elizabeth is old. Mary is young. Neither is well-known or with a comfort of wealth. Both are pregnant women and survival is hardly guaranteed - either for the baby or the mother, especially 2000 years ago. There’s weird stuff going on for both of them, angelic visitations, callings from God to do something special (how could they possibly believe such things?). Yet, that’s the thing with pregnancy in this story. They were told, and signs began to emerge (namely…the pregnancy!). So the possibility - the hope - that the word of the angels was true was growing within them, both figuratively in their hearts and literally in their wombs.
…until it almost burst forth in joy in their bellies when they came to be in the same room together.
This is the joy of Advent - that something is not yet, but you can begin to feel it through signs of the hope coming to fruition. This is the joy that is a fruit of the Spirit - not all is well, but things are shaping up. Joy here is not because circumstances are resolved, but because God is near.
Don’t miss or forget Mary’s song here, which immediately follows today’s passage. It so beautifully expresses biblical joy, without even using the word. Mary declares her circumstances and declares the state of being she has within them now, recognizing what God is doing in her midst.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant. Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Luke 1:39-45
Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. She entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. With a loud voice she blurted out, “God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.”
Prayer
God,
You have looked with favor upon the lowly and you have not turned away from ordinary lives. You have chosen hidden places - wombs, waiting, weakness - as the very place to bear the your work of salvation.
As I seek to live today, let my life magnify you, not because everything is settled, but because you are near. Teach me to rejoice not in outcomes, but in your presence taking shape within me.
Help me to trust the work you are doing even when it is unfinished, unseen, and fragile. Give me a joy that does not deny fear or pain, but leaps in recognition when your promise draws close.
May your Spirit form Christ in me, that my life might bear fruit before the world understands what you are doing.
Holy Father of all creation, I see your loving justice in Jesus of Nazareth. By your Spirit, make me more like him.
Amen.