Get Excited!

Gospel: Luke 1:39-45

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Sermon: The Rev. Dr. Maryann Amor

Was that the Elizabeth you expected? Was that the description of Mary you expected? Women who are excited? Women who are fierce, outspoken, joyful—who even preach?

Often Mary and Elizabeth are imagined as demure and quiet. The image on the screen captures it well. They wear flowing robes, their heads are covered, their eyes cast downward in peaceful submission to God’s will. But the Elizabeth we just met was the opposite of this. She was full of life and energy, dancing with the absolute joy of all that she was about to experience.

And she knew. She knew that God’s dream for the world was coming through Mary’s child. She knew that she and Mary were chosen to bring something amazing to life. They are the powerhouses in this story—the means through which God acts.

And this is a significant point. Notice how God does not choose the most obvious people to work through—not men, not those with money, power, fame, or clout. God chooses women: one quite old, one quite young, both poor, both at the bottom of their social world. They are not the expected conduit of God’s reign at all.

And this detail fits the larger story Luke is telling. In Luke’s Gospel, those at the bottom of society—the vulnerable, the overlooked—are the ones given power. Luke offers an upside-down vision of God’s reign on earth. The marginalized are the ones who play pivotal roles. And so the saviour of the world does not come as a powerful king or emperor, but as a tiny baby who cries, who is completely helpless in the world.

And today, Elizabeth’s words tell us that this upside-down vision still holds true. Elizabeth tells us not to think God needs the big and powerful. Not to expect God to work through the things our world tells us are important. Instead, look to the weak, the oppressed, the vulnerable.

Look around you—right now—to all of us sitting here, in our own states of brokenness. We are the ones called to bear God’s dream into the world. We are the ones whose lives will call people to faith—through our example, our love, and the things we give up for others. This is how God becomes real in the lives of those around us.

So get excited. Get excited that God chose the elderly Elizabeth, the young Mary, the weak baby Jesus—and God chose us. Each of us, here today. God’s dream for the world was not limited to women in the Bible or to a baby in a manger. It is alive and well in us.

So let us go out into the world. Let us, like Mary and Elizabeth, preach the news we know to be true: the lowly are lifted up, the light is coming into the world, and God’s dream is coming true. Amen.

Elizabeth's script is taken from Illustrated Ministry's 2025 Advent Liturgy: https://www.illustratedministry.com/thewilltodream