Preparation and Laboring: Elizabeth, Mary, and John Luke 1: 39-45, 53, 56

Waiting. A word that may of us don’t want to hear. “You have to wait your turn”. “Not now, you have to wait.” I think we don’t like to hear the word ‘wait’ because somehow we have come to associate it with the word ‘no’. If we can’t get exactly what we want, when we want it, then we think we are being denied something. Yet, Advent is the liturgical season of waiting. We are preparing to wait for the birth of the Christ Child and we remember that we are waiting on the return of Christ the King. We are waiting for God to come to us again, for the full reign of Christ, and to be in holy communion with the Lover of Our Souls. 

Perhaps another reason we don’t like the word ‘wait’ is because we think it is passive - a time when we do nothing other than sit down and twiddle our thumbs, as if we are a toddler on time out. But really, Biblical waiting isn’t passive at all - it is anticipatory - as it actively seeks out God’s growth and guidance. In the words of devotional author Enuma Okoro, “When God is calling us to a season of waiting, we rarely put all other aspects of our lives on hold”. Instead it is a time to be attentive to what God is doing in our lives, individually and corporately, in order to grow closer to God.

But most notably, waiting can be painful. Waiting for news from test results. Waiting for the birth of a child. Waiting to hear the court decision. During those periods of waiting it can feel like something is tugging at our hearts, encouraging us to shed our old selves. If anyone knows about inviting people into a painful period of waiting, it was John the Baptist. John told those who would listen to him to use this time of waiting for the One who was to come to repent, to change their thoughts and practices in order to be prepared to live a fuller life. However, this wasn’t something anyone could do by their own efforts - it had to come from seeking God and God meeting them in their deepest need. 

John offered the invitation to allow periods of waiting to act as a refining fire - removing the impurities from one’s life in order to get to the most pure, most holy, part of who you are - your soul. Of course there was a catch, even after the period of waiting and refining was over, each person still needed to choose to be holy and repent of any thoughts or actions that would block them from being so - for holiness was an ongoing process, not a one time event. 

However, I find it humorous that John is one of the Biblical figures of urgent, expectant, waiting - when he could not even wait to express his joy for the Christ child in the womb. God used the pregnancy period for both Elizabeth and Mary to be a holy time of provision. In only the perfect way that God can orchestrate, Mary and Elizabeth, cousins years apart in age, became pregnant six months apart. Both women knew the potential shame that could come with their pregnancies - Mary, engaged to Joseph, but pregnant by the Holy Spirit, and Elizabeth, well beyond the age of being able to conceive, but God met them in their need by giving them each other. They intentionally sought each other out in order to be in community together. They were the voice to each other reminding each other, in the midst of their waiting, that they were blessed. 

We are told in this morning scripture lesson that Mary went with haste to see her cousin Elizabeth. By now, Elizabeth would have emerged from her time of seclusion and the family probably had started to hear rumblings about what was happening. Elizabeth, the barren one, pregnant. Zechariah, unable to speak a word. Something stirred in Mary’s heart and she knew that Elizabeth was the person she needed to seek out, as if Elizabeth would know something about God ordained pregnancies. When Mary finished her journey and arrived at Zechariah and Elizabeth’s house, upon calling out her greeting, John leapt in Elizabeth’s womb. Not just a kick. But leapt with uncontainable joy. John was so moved, even in the womb, by the presence of Jesus, as if he could not wait to meet him. Could not wait to proclaim that this is the one he would be born to announce the coming of. 

But even if John was impatient in this moment, the women had to wait. Wait out the duration of their pregnancies. Even though Mary and Elizabeth are both noted in scripture as women of profound faith, they probably still had hard days - days filled with periods of restlessness, worry, and anticipation. But God had provided them with each other during this period of waiting, as holy companions to strengthen one another’s heart. We are told that Mary remained with Elizabeth for three months, probably until the birth of John, before returning home to resume waiting.

Fast forward about thirty years to John embracing his call. We find John in the wilderness, we don’t know why. We aren’t told what happened to Elizabeth or Zechariah, or what John’s life was like up to that point. Because he was selected by God for this special task we can assume that he lived a disciplined life since childhood. But now we find him in the wilderness - a good image for periods of waiting, especially during Advent, that seem rough and dry and uninhabitable. 

John had been waiting - waiting for the time to be upon him to announce the coming of the one who would redeem Israel. John knew that his call wasn’t about him - it was about his relationship to Jesus. He knew that he could resist the call or let it move through him for the sake of his people. So he began to cry out in the wilderness for people to repent. And some people listened! They started to turn away from themselves and their sin in order to move towards the Kingdom of God! The time was upon them.

Waiting is hard. Facing the unknown, the barren, the rough, the dry, the uninhabitable part of our lives. We all have them. And we have a choice whether to let such times consume us or to allow God to use them to refine us. Like John, we can be refined or resist. 

One possible way during seasons of waiting to allow ourselves to be refined can be found in the example of Mary and Elizabeth, to enter into holy friendships. Friendships that encourage us to look towards God and to be patient, even when it is the last thing that we want to do. For God will never call or invite us into a period of waiting without giving us both human support and holy strength, as he gave Elizabeth and Mary. 

What is God wanting to do in your heart during this Advent season? Where are those rough edges that being in the wilderness can refine? And who is God providing as accompaniment during this journey of holy, precious, waiting? Amen.