What kind of greeting is that?
Season’s greetings, indeed.
There are so many ways to greet people, whatever the season.
Hello, hi, good day, how’s it going, wassup, how are you.
Or the Craigian “what do you say” that mystifies some.
What kind of greeting is that, your face sometimes reveals.
But it’s really an open-ended “what’s on your mind,” what’s up?”
But greetings are more than cards, and more than words.
A smile, a handshake, an embrace, a kiss, a pat on the back.
Even before Covid, not everyone enjoyed the big go-all-in hug.
So maybe it’s good that Covid taught us to read the signs,
to notice the cues,
So as we share the peace or greet people at other times,
be sensitive and gracious.
Things keep changing.
We’re all doing the best we can,
and sometimes in different places.
Will it be a bow, a smile, a little elbow bump, sometimes a handshake?
I can’t resist asking who recognizes these greetings from an Emmy-award winning television show:
Blessed be.
Praise be.
Blessed be the fruit.
May the Lord open.
Under his eye.
A show of hands . . .
I admit, I’m late to the drama, “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel, set in a near-future New England,
in a strong patriarchal, totalitarian state that is ruled by divine law.
It is fascinating but incredibly troubling to watch.
Maybe some of you can let me know how you managed to stay with it, despite some of the torture scenes.
In any case, there are so many connections in “The Handmaid’s Tale” to today’s gospel centered around pregnancy.
In Gilead the plummeting birthrate causes a caste of women, called handmaids, to be forced into sexual servitude
as a way to repopulate the world.
Of course, Mary, mother of Jesus, is called a handmaid—
handmaid, in the scriptures, a feminine form of slave.
In Atwood’s story, a pall of hopelessness hangs over everything,
at least as far as I’ve got.
Luke’s gospel, though, is announcing good news!
Season’s greetings, indeed.
Notice the greetings in today’s beloved gospel.
Earlier Mary had been greeted by the angel Gabriel,
altering her life for all time.
She pondered what sort of greeting this could be.
After all, how much consent did she really have?
Trying to take it all in, she goes with haste to visit Elizabeth.
Can you imagine the greeting between these two pregnant women?
One preacher colleague of mine, imagined in a sermon years ago,
a belly bump between Mary and Elizabeth.
Poet Anne Giedenhammer speaks in Elizabeth’s voice,
“months into the heaviness of child-carrying,”
as she hears Mary approaching.
She goes on:
“I raced out to see her standing there,
Glowing with sweat, her body just beginning
To take on a mother’s curves beneath her robes.
And then the child that nestled sweet
Beneath my heart
Leapt—not a simple turning, not a kick,
But jumped as if some new and secret joy
Had set him dancing: and it was then I knew—
Knew who it was she bore within herself.
Later some would call it solemn, grand; but truthfully,
We laughed as we embraced: breast to breast,
Cheek to smiling cheek,
And I know that both our sons
were laughing too,
in that way of old friends meeting
after years,
when all time seems as nothing,
and the space
between lives collapses
into grace.”
Elizabeth then goes on to give a blessing to Mary
that has been on the lips of Christians for centuries and centuries:
Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Mary is the first disciple in the gospel of Luke,
the model for us of faithfulness, surrender, openness to mystery.
Yes, Mary is blessed among women,
but later in Luke, Jesus will say those who truly blessed are those
who hear the word of God and respond!
The greetings between these two women have inspired artists, musicians, poets, and preachers. The blessed event
is called the Visitation.
Mary, of course, responds with the revolutionary words of the Magnificat,
foreshadowing the ministry of the son in her womb,
and a God who lifts up the lowly, dethrones the powerful,
raises up the poor, and fills the hungry with good things.
We should give special greetings today to Martin Luther,
on the five-hundredth anniversary of his commentary on the Magnificat.
Luther notes that God looks with favor on lowly Mary, and all of us,
not because of any merit of our own,
but out of pure grace.
Even as we seek to bring down unjust systems,
we do so from a place of humility,
aware of our pride, privilege, and self-motivation.
As another poet (Malcom Guite) puts is,
“Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’,
Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’
They sing today for all the great unsung
Women who turned eternity to time
Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth
Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.”
We don’t always see that “best” these days.
Sometimes the stress brings out the worst in us.
With the pandemic rates surging again,
many wonder whether they should visit one another this Christmas.
And what is our greeting
amid the fear, confusion, impatience and grief we carry?
Even “how are you” is a complicated question, right?
The promised one is among you this day,
greeting you with a tender embrace,
greeting you with words of forgiveness, words of hope,
words of perseverance.
The Holy One assures you that you are highly favored,
treasured by God.
Nothing in all creation can separate you from divine love.
Not even pandemic, or climate change,
panic or exhaustion.
So hear again the liturgical greetings
that have echoed for generations:
The Lord be with you. And also with you.
Peace be with you. And also with you.
As God’s holy people,
something is leaping deep within us,
something is coming to birth.
Even in such unsettled times, how can we keep from singing,
from celebrating the grace of these days,
and joining in Mary’s song:
my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
Season’s greetings, indeed.
Greetings from the One who has come to set us free.
Greetings from the One who comes among us in bread and wine.
And greetings from the One whose coming is certain
and whose day draws near.
