What makes us leap, not with fear, as if leaping away from the frog that jumped at me when I opened the back door the other day, "Yipes! I screamed as I leaped! What was that?" A little frog sleeping in our door frame. For heavens sake! The poor guy was more afraid than I was as I leaped away from him leaping at me! And not the leaping we do when crossing the street and someone going too fast and not paying attention, bears down on us, "Yipes! Save my life from being squooshed!" No, not that leaping either! But let it be the joyful, "OK!" kind of leaping. The "Yes!" kind of leaping! The "give it all we have" kind of leaping. It’s what Mary did when an angel told her she would bear a child by the Holy Spirit. I am sure there was some measure of "Riiiggght…. the Holy Spirit…. OK tell me more." But when the angel explained the child will be called the Son of the Most High, she must have recalled the words of Samuel and Isaiah… Hannah gave birth at an awfully old age and gave the child to God. Mary might have thought as she proclaimed, "God’s will," to the angel, "So I will too." She was accepting the greatness of God as she had heard from the Old Testament. When the angel told her that her old cousin was pregnant (there’s that … "oh no she’s too old" in our minds,) but instead, Mary leaped up! She arose and started out to help her cousin. She had no doubt, rather Mary cooperated with God’s will. Giving it all she had, marching off on foot up to Jerusalem. Unafraid. Joyful. God’s grace helps us to move and to overcome fear. Grace gives us incredible strength. God gave Mary incredible strength to bear and then to give up her child. From rest, Mary leaped into action. Elizabeth and Mary sang a song of Joy that you can read in the first chapter of Luke! Let us all sing with Mary: "My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord." From the womb, John leaped in his mother’s womb! Imagine he was singing: "It’s Jesus!!! Hi cousin! You will be the Lamb of God! I will die for you."
God wants our response to the angel’s greeting. He wants us to leap with joy. But many of us aren’t joyful are we? We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Covid is over-filling our hospitals and our friends are dying. We are tired of being out of work caused by shutdowns and a worrisome economy. Tired of borrowing too much money. Political angers are wearing us down. We feel like we are pushing a big rock uphill. We try to talk, but we can’t. We disagree so badly. One Congressman said on TV, "People believe things, and they can’t be convinced otherwise. They can’t even talk about possible facts."
Our tempers are at hair trigger tension. A man walked out of a garage in Columbus, Ohio with a cell phone in his hand. Two Police officers, called for a noise complaint, arrived with no lights and sirens, their dash cam not on, their chest cameras not on, shot the man to death. This is hair trigger on the really dangerous side. What can we do right now? How can we leap up? Would that we all could turn and go, on our separate sides if need be, and find a sacred space, and kneel there. Kneel to the Christ who makes every space a sacred place. Kneel and look at the woman who quietly sacrificed herself by saying "Yes" to God. She humbly arose and went to serve her cousin. She went to the altar, and when he was 33 years old, she gave her child to God. Make a quiet place and sit there and relax. Pray for peace. One friend said that one thing on our list should be "world peace," and I answered that i want to achieve peace with my neighbor! (I’m thinking we could reach peace, but we must try to both give up our hard stances and accept God’s will rather than advocate tearing our nation apart). Pray for healing in our country to get through the next 4 years peacefully, in brotherhood. No guns. Empty hands on both sides. Healing peace. Let us sit quietly, on separate sides if need be, let us look quietly at the Christ. Let us pray for peace in our own hearts.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Some people have decorated. Some people were too late getting out and all the trees were gone. Oh there are still straggly trees out there, but this is an odd year that has made us prickly and sluggish. But at least, I’ll bet there are angels singing at a manger. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.