Mary, Elizabeth, And The Art Of Waiting

Hope doesn’t wait for perfect conditions; it starts singing while the future is still hidden. We open Advent with Mary’s Magnificat and Elizabeth’s blessing, Isaiah’s blueprint for peace, and Jesus’ invitation to keep watch without fear. Along the way, a childhood story on a frozen Chicago platform becomes a parable for church: when anxiety rises and the crowd presses in, we wait together, make space for one another, and look for the signs of good coming down the tracks.

We explore how patience is formed in real life—through small obediences, shared readings, and breath prayers that trade panic for presence. Mary declares God’s faithfulness before outcomes arrive, and Elizabeth names the holy before the world can see it. Isaiah calls us to reshape what we build and fund, turning conflict into cultivation and weapons into tools that feed communities. And Jesus points to a fig tree, teaching us to read the nearness of renewal not by rumors of doom but by noticing tender buds of life.

John the Baptist reminds us that Advent is for the weary and the wonderfully weird, for those on the margins and those carrying threadbare hope. We talk about holding hope for each other when it’s too heavy to carry alone, celebrating moments of goodness, and gathering at the communion table where hunger meets provision. If you’ve been waiting without answers, or saying yes to God without details, this conversation offers language, practices, and community that help you see in the dark and trust the dawn that’s already breaking.

If this resonates, share it with a friend, subscribe for more weekly teachings, and leave a review so others can find their way to hope with us.

Transcript

Welcome And Advent Framing

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the First Love Church podcast. This is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Ocala, Florida. Blessed Advent to you and in this beautiful remembering and hearing of hope. Hope with us. God with us. And I hope that you do allow maybe someone else's hope to be yours this morning. Maybe your hope is threadbare. Maybe it was something before, but now after all this time, it is worn thin. It is one of the goodnesses of gathering together when we allow the hope of Christ to be resurrected among us. One of the things that we do together in Advent is we read the prophets, we read the longings, and together we read the Magnificat. We read and we remember the words of Mary. And so together we're going to read from Luke chapter 1. Oop, we're not going to read that. That's in the wrong place. We could read all the way. This is how we end up in Genesis, beloved. I just start a little bit further back. Ah, no, I did. I intentionally started with this one. This is Elizabeth talking to Mary. When I heard your greeting, the babe in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. May that be true for us. May someone's testimony be, you are blessed because you believe the Lord will do what he said. And Mary responded, and we're all going to read together. Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he has made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. I love this particular part, and we read it again during Advent. Mary says, the Lord has done great things for me, and all generations will call me blessed. This was, as she just got the news. She's not at the end of her life declaring this. She's at the beginning of something incredible that she has no idea how it's going to turn out. And so I am with so much hope this morning inviting you into this practice that allows hope to form patience in us, allows us to be good at waiting. Culturally, we are not good at waiting. In fact, we will choose another whole store if we have to wait too long at one. We are tired of people and their behaviors, and we will just abandon them. And this is the intention that in us be formed patience. I remind you of this scripture. You know it from 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Love is. What is being formed in us is love. The invitation of Advent is that each one of us would recognize that we're invited to birth the holy. Each one of us carry Christ in us. Good news to the poor. Good news to those who are marginalized and those who do not know that there is a table set for them. Each one of us invited into the beauty of Advent. I read to you from Isaiah chapter 2. In the last days. It sounds a lot like the See if you start in Isaiah and then you go to Joel, in the last days, in the last days. You start hearing the sounds. You know what I was going to say in Joel, where it says, In the last days, the Lord says, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men and your young men. And this idea that inclusion, that equity comes to everyone, that the Spirit of the Lord coming means that we are all filled with Christ. We don't go to Joel this morning, Isaiah chapter 2. In the last days, the dwelling place of God will be the most important place on the earth. And people from all over the world will come to worship. And God will teach us God's ways. That's a hopeful thought, beloved. Because the pain that we see, the pain we experienced, that's because it's another way other than love. Anything that causes us pain is a way that is not from God. And so God will teach us God's ways so that we may obey Him. For in those days, the Lord's teaching and his word will go out to all people. And the Lord will settle international disputes. This is my great hope, beloved. This is why I love Advent. I hope that you love Advent too. When you look around and you say, How will we all get to be one mind? How do we hear each other? How do we find ways to love each other? This is the way, the way of Christ. But in the prophet Isaiah, in those days, the Lord's teaching and his words will go out. The Lord will settle international disputes. All nations will beat their swords into plowshears and their spears into pruning hooks. All wars will stop. All military training will come to an end. Come, people. Come, people of the world. Let us walk in the light of the Lord. Years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah said, This is the plan. Not that we would be people of war, but that we would be people of peace. That God would send God's own son so that we could know peace. This is a hopeful thought. The other text that we have today is from Matthew. This is a scary text. If you are a person with anxiety, I just want to tell you. Good news, I'm going to tell you the end. Spoiler alert, it's all good. But if you're a person, and I am a person who understands that kind of thing, especially when I first heard this as a little person, we'll talk about it. Don't panic. Stay with me till the end. Learn a lesson from the fig tree. These are the words of Jesus. When its buds become tender and the leaves sprout, you know that summer is near. So just when you see events starting to happen, you can know the return of the Lord is near. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will remain forever. However, no one knows the day nor the hour when these things will happen. Not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself, only the Father knows. And when the Son of Man returns, it will be like in the day of Noah. In those days before the flood, people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right until the time that Noah entered his boat. People did not have awareness of what was happening, of what was going on until the flood came and swept them away. This is the same thing that will happen when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field, one will be taken, the other left. Two women grinding flour at the mill, one will be taken, the other left. So be prepared because you do not know the day that the Lord is coming. Know this: a homeowner who knew exactly when the burglar was coming would stay alert, and he would not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected. Again, that can be an anxiety-driven text. But good news. If you look at the text and he tells us it's like in the day of Noah, Noah didn't have anything to be concerned about because God had already given him a plan. Just work the plan that God gave you. And the invitation is that the rest of us would work the plan that God had given us. But together we learn how to wait and we learn how to watch. This is the invitation of Advent. Learn how to watch. I was thinking about this because not only do I love Advent, but I've been practicing a long time to try to follow the ways of Jesus, and I have found anxiety to be a part of my life. I don't know if anyone else has ever found that. It's let me just tell you, it's terrible. If you don't have to pick it up, don't. But if you do, then you will have compassion on me. And I will tell you that a lot of my anxiety I didn't earn. It was gifted to me as a small person. One of the times that I remember feeling overwhelmingly anxious was that I was in charge of my brother. And my brother, you have met him, is a wonderful man. I am a rule follower. The rules make sense to me. And one of the times that I was taking the we lived in Chicago and we were on the elevated L's tracks, which means the tracks go above the city. And my grandmother was standing there with us, we're waiting for the L. It was freezing cold outside. And she said, never step on the yellow. It's too close to the edge. There's an electric rail. If you fall, you'll die. For the rest of my life, I never stepped on the yellow. I don't need any other infrastructure in that. I don't. This one particular day, myself as a small child, was given the responsibility of my brother. My brother is two years younger than me. I think I was seven, he was five. I think that's too young to let small people go on an elevated train. This is a judgment that I have against the people that are in my life. It was my responsibility to take my brother home. My brother is not a rule follower. I was never taller than my brother. And my brother doesn't care what I say. But it's my responsibility to get him home and to not let him fall off the edge of the train track. I just want to I want to gift you with that anxiety. Here's a five-year-old boy. You need to bring him home safely. He's not gonna listen to you. You have no means to get him there, other than give him instruction. We were standing on this elevated train path, and the wind was so sharp that particular day. I don't know if you've been to Chicago or the Great Lakes, but it feels like your skin is on fire. And they have small little alcoves that you can stay in, not warmed, but just so that you're not out of the wind in particular. So I looked at my brother and I said, Stay here. I I used a lot of courage to say, don't move. And I think I had that kind of anger in my voice. Don't follow me. Stay here, or you will die. I threw that in because I'm hoping that the magnitude of what is happening would prevent him. And I was gonna go to the edge of the train and look and see if the train was coming. And let me tell you why I had to look. I couldn't just wait for it to be there. Because we were tiny, and all of the adults who were also waiting to get out of that freezing cold would rush into the train and we would be left outside of the train. So, again, more anxiety. Not just that you could fall to your death and be electrocuted, but that you would miss this train and you could stand on the elevated L tracks and just freeze to death. So I had all of this anxiousness, and I was telling my brother not to move or we could die. And there was an older gentleman, much taller, sitting on the bench next to us, and he goes, Are you guys going home? And I said, Hopefully. And he goes, I'm going home. He goes, My wife already has dinner for me, and the fire is already lit, and I can't wait to get there. And he said, Are you waiting for this train? And I said, Yes. And he said, We'll wait together. And he said, I'll tell you when it's coming. I can see it from here. I was tiny, I had to keep getting up and going to the edge. He was tall and he could see the train coming. Some people came and they stood in front of us, and this man said, Excuse me, please, we're waiting for the train. And they moved to the back. And then you could hear the train coming. And this man stood up and he held his arms like this for my brother and I, and said, When it gets here, I will remind you you'll get on first. And we'll go home. And I was thinking this week, this is what the church is like to us. All of us within anxiety that we would like to go home. That we would like to be again in the presence of love. That we would like to return to the source of all love. And sometimes life gives us brothers who do not listen to us and who don't care about rules. And now it's our responsibility to make sure they get home safely. And what the church is for me is the older man who says, Are you going home? I'm going home too. We'll go together, we'll watch together. And this is what Advent is. This is why I love this season. We'll watch together for what God is doing. We'll watch together for where love is growing. We'll watch together where peace is offered. We'll watch together. And when God comes, beloved and God is coming. We'll all get on that train together. Good news, in case you didn't know where the story was going, I'm fine, my brother is fine, we made it home. Now I'm sure that we could have scrapped our way into that train. We've done it before. But there was an invitation to wait, to wait with someone else who knew that good was coming. God is coming, beloved, and we wait together. We learn to watch together. We learn to recognize the signs of the coming. And it gives us incredible hope. This morning from Romans chapter 15, I pray that God, the source of hope, would fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. And then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. We've spent the last months studying the power of the Holy Spirit and what it looks like to be people who live in the Spirit. And I'm going to tell you, Advent is the culmination of this beautiful invitation to be people who live in the Spirit, who live with Christ. But this is a prayer for you. I pray that you would over yourself. I pray that God, the source of hope, would fill me completely with joy and peace because I trust in Him. Somebody asked me years ago. We were in a group, and they said, What is hope? People have told me what hope is for years. I just didn't forget this one. Somebody said, Hope is the trust that God has not forgotten the recipe for manna. I loved that. What is manna? We don't know. Did it always provide for them? Yes. Here's what I know and can testify to you: God has not forgotten the recipe for manna. Whatever it is that you have need of, love will be there for you. We just have to know how to look for it. And this is why I wait upon you, expecting your breakthrough, for your word brings me hope. This is one of the things that Mary and also Elizabeth, in the season of Advent, we look to this. And this particular year is year A in the Christian calendar, and we'll study and we'll listen to the words of John the Baptist. The Baptist who calls us and says, live differently, live as ones who have hope. But today we start with the story of Elizabeth and Mary because that's where the story starts. I ask that you would pay attention to how many times it talks about being filled with the Spirit, the invitation into the Spirit. I read to you from Psalm 130, I long for you more than any watchman would long for the morning light. I watch and I wait for you, O God, throughout the night. If you find yourself awake when you should be sleeping, remind yourself you're in good company. You are in very good company. We pause here for a moment to thank you for joining us today. If you're finding this episode meaningful, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? This podcast is made possible thanks to the generosity of people just like you. If you would like to support the ongoing work of First Love Church and the continued work of our podcast, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org, reminding you to like, follow, and subscribe. We meet the text this morning in Luke chapter 1. The angel has appeared to Mary and said, God has a plan. He's wondering if you would like in on it. God didn't give a lot of details. I don't know if any of you felt like that too. You agreed to God's plan and didn't get the details. I certainly have. So she hurries down the hill to the country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. This is her family, her extended family. She enters the house and she is greeted by Elizabeth, her cousin, who is much older than her. And at the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is an incredible story, and Elizabeth is a person who has followed God. In fact, it talks about her ancestors, and we know a lot of Her the lineage, and she was a person who served God, and yet she had no child. And in those days, the belief was: if you didn't have a child, then you must have done something wrong. That somehow you were cursed. If you didn't have what you needed, it was your fault. I just want to tell you, Jesus came so that we could be reminded that is not the case at all. That is not what God says. So Elizabeth is a very old woman. And an angel also appears to her. It appears to Zechariah. I don't know if you know this part of the story, but I'll tell you. Zechariah doesn't believe what the angel tells him. And then God says, it's going to be best if you don't talk at all. And he doesn't talk for nine months. Sometimes that's the power of the Holy Spirit, beloved. If you are not going to go with the plan that God's had, don't talk at all. He didn't have a choice, and you do. So, you know, consider that as part of the Advent story. Elizabeth has a child, and I just want to remind you, this is before, like, you know, early home pregnancy tests. I mean, she's at the place where she wouldn't even have had a menstrual cycle. And she has been told that she's going to have a baby, people would have thought, you're out of your mind. Mary shows up into the house and calls out her name, and the babe leaps inside of her. She felt this baby. We don't know that she ever felt that baby beforehand, but she felt it in the presence of Mary. And it says that she's filled with the Holy Spirit. And Elizabeth gave a glad cry. Maybe it was I'm not crazy. Maybe it was I am not cursed. Maybe it was I did nothing wrong. I don't know what her glad cry was, but it was a glad cry. And she exclaimed to Mary, God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me? Beloved. Mary shows up and says her name and says it's Mary, and she has an invitation with the Holy Spirit. She's filled with the Holy Spirit, and then Elizabeth is the very first person to name Jesus Lord. This is a in the womb of a woman, and she says, Who am I that I am so honored? That my Lord would visit me. This is the practice of Advent Beloved, that we would find love in every situation, in every dark place, in every place where we've been told love is not. When I heard your greeting, the babe in my womb jumped for joy. And you are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said. This babe that jumps within her ends up being John, a cousin of Jesus, and we know him as John the Baptist. He's our beloved oddball. He is the one that all of us would have said, oh, what did Mary do wrong? What did Elizabeth do wrong? What is with these boys? Oh. John the Baptist, okay, we don't know tons about him, but we know some about him. We also know things outside of the text that is in other history books. And John dressed weird. I didn't come up with that. That's just what we know of him. Everybody else was like, why are you wearing that? That's what you're going to be known for? That fashion choice. We should, we would do well, not should, we would do well to check ourselves when we're ready to criticize someone else's fashion choice. Jesus tells us a little bit later that there is no man that has ever been born on earth that was better than John the Baptist. He ate weird things. Still, thousands of years later, that's what we know of this man. He dressed weird, he ate weird, he was weird. I just want to tell you, God loves the weird. God is the weird, beloved. When you find the weird, look for God there. Look for God there. John the Baptist said, I can't even deal with the city. The people and the way that they live, I have to move outside to the wilderness. The wilderness is not a place for people, beloved. There's jackals there. There's snakes. There's all kinds of things. And he's like, I would rather be outside with the animals than with the people that behave like that. But let me tell you about John the Baptist. He was such a light that people would leave the city and come out just to hear him talk. And to talk about a coming king. And to talk about a kingdom that wouldn't end. Advent is for the weirdos. It is. Advent is for the exhausted. Advent is for those who are on the margins. Advent is for anyone who is exhausted with waiting. Advent is for you. You are blessed because you believe that the Lord would do what he said. And Mary responded, Oh, how my soul praises the Lord! How my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, for he took notice of his lonely servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. I remind you that Mary was a young woman who was not married and who was pregnant. Society's curse was not a blessing to her. We do not know what it was like for her to carry the Son of God and be shamed by her own people. We look back now and we go, Blessed Mary. But listen, be mindful. Each one of us carrying the Christ. This is an invitation for us to live as ones who see differently. For the mighty one is holy and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. For he has made a promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. And Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home. Beautiful Elizabeth, an older woman who encourages Mary, who mentors her. I don't know what Mary's mother was doing. Maybe she was busy. Maybe it was going to take her a minute to believe that this was from the Lord. But there was an older woman in Mary's life who encouraged her, full of the Holy Spirit, who said, I see God in you. This is the invitation of Advent that we would learn to see in the dark. That we would not look at darkness and be afraid, but that we would look at darkness and say, I just need to learn how to see. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. You are in a bright room and someone turns the light off and then you feel startled. But if you get up early in the morning when there's no light and you're sitting, your eyes begin to adjust and you can see things that you could not see before. Advent is an invitation into presence, into sitting in dark places, into sitting in places that are tired and worn out. Advent is an invitation into hope. The good news of Advent is not that we are great at waiting, but God is faithful in coming. I also remind you that these two beautiful women who start the story of Advent for us, who remind us this is what the new year is about. The Christian New Year starts today with this understanding that it is when God all things are made new. Because of Christ, all things are made new. And this beautiful invitation this morning is for us to remember what it is like to long for something, to hope for something, to pray for something and have nothing change. Rome was an occupying force in their particular country, in many countries, but in their country, it was a terrible, oppressive empire. The brutality and the cruelty is what marked Rome. These women, along with everyone else, was praying, deliver us. And God sent them babies. We were hoping for something a lot more powerful. And these mothers raised these boys. These mothers raised these boys to hear the voice of God. Beloved, you know the voice of God. It is the voice of love within you. Not the voice of anxiousness, but the voice of love. That says we're going home. The word of the Lord came to Mary, the word of the Lord came to Elizabeth and said, I am doing a new thing. With joy, they entered into that. That empire killed both of those boys. That same empire murdered their sons. And yet with hope they said, The kingdom is here. The invitation is not to look around us and say, what needs to change around us? What needs to change here, beloved? How do we anchor ourselves in our love and in our belovedness and in the Holy Spirit who reminds us of this? One day we will give up quarreling. We will give up division. One day we will remember that all people, all people are made in the image of God. One day we will remember that everything that divides us is an illusion. And we will all go home. Home back to the source of love that created us. And the invitation in Advent is we can be people who will watch. For the anxious little people who are trying to get home and trying to drag their unruly brothers with them. Maybe you're the unruly brother. I love you. You do grow up and get it together. I appreciate that. Although you gave us our anxiety and we give it back to you in peace. The invitation that we have to practice stillness and hope. What does it look like tomorrow when you wake up and the first thought is not, the hope of the world is coming? You think about how you're going to pay the bills. Or you think about the doctor's diagnosis. Or you think about a separation between you and a family member. When that thing tomorrow wakes you up and it fills you with dread, I remind you of the power of Advent. And so a breath pair is I release my anxiety and I receive the hope of Christ. Jesus coming and being in the midst of us. We learn to wait and watch together. When Catherine was really tiny, my daughter, she planted a little tiny planter, and she waited every day for those seeds to do something. I think it took much longer because she was constantly digging them up. And as much as I told her to wait, yes, absolutely, I could see the dirt under her fingernails after I left the room, and also the dirt on the outside of the pot. I knew that my waiting meant nothing to her. She was digging up looking for life. But eventually, tiny little sprouts, and I am talking the tiny littlest sprouts that look like microgreens. And she invited everyone in to see this tiny plant. And she said, let's give thanks for our dinner. This is the hope of the world, beloved. When we find the tiniest shred of love, let's give hope. Let's say, let's give thanks for the love that is shed abroad. Let's give thanks for the goodness. Let's encourage each other and say, you can have hope. For those of you who experience the life as it is given to you today, and it is impossible for you to have hope. That's okay too. We'll hold the hope for you. That's the beauty of Advent. Even if you cannot imagine it, we'll imagine it for you. Beloved, you are welcomed in the presence of God. And there is a good God who has provided a way for all of us to go home. For all of us to return to love. For all of us to come back to God. One of the most holy things that we practice together all throughout the year, every time we're together, is we embody and we practice holy communion. We do this because this is something Jesus told us to do. And so as people who honor what Jesus told us to do, we honor the Holy Communion. And we reenact a big table. We reenact eating. We reenact drinking because you know what brings us to the table, beloved, is our hunger and our thirst. And if you are hungry this morning, sneak into the kitchen after church and get yourself some bread. A lot of it, whatever you want. I think there's like a thousand. It's not a thousand, it's a lot. There is pumpkin pies for all. Take them to your neighbors. Holy communion is again, we use the bread and the wine, Jesus did, but it can be whatever you have. Bless it, give thanks for it. Duane's sleeping this morning. God bless him, so he won't take Holy Communion. Two fistfuls is what he took last time. I thought, God bless him. You take however much Jesus you need. Some days I need a lot more of the presence of Christ. Holy communion is for us an invitation into presence, into remembering our true selves, our ones loved by God. And remembering you're not on the train platform alone. You do not have to figure this whole thing out. There are people who will watch with you and who will make sure that when it comes, you'll be on it. I remind you, this is the story of Noah. He made sure his family was on the boat. This is why we need family among us. I want to speak a blessing over us as we begin holy communion. To the Holy One who comes to us in love. Awaken our hearts to your nearness. Teach us how to watch without fear, but with a hope that rises like dawn. Where we have been swept away by distraction, anchor us again in your divine mercy. Where fear has sharpened our vigilance into self-condemnation. Speak compassion to our weary souls. Make us like Noah, steadfast, attentive, rooted in your promise amid all the noise of our world. Make us like an attentive family, alert, not because we fear you, but because we trust you. Come to us, Jesus, disrupt our complacency, startle us with justice, surprise us with peace, and make our lives small arcs of compassion in a world that is longing for renewal.

unknown 39:24

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 39:25

We hope you've enjoyed this week's sermon. If you would like more information about us, visit us online at firstlovechurch.org.