St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Fourth Sunday in Advent/Year C: December 19, 2021
Gospel: Luke 1:39-55
There exists a phenomenon that quantum physicists, scientists who study the particles that comprise atoms, call quantum entanglement. The idea of quantum entanglement is that at the subatomic level, far beyond what the microscope can detect, there seems to be a universal connection among particles. This connection operates, unrestrained by space and time, and allows the particles to be “in contact” with every other particle within the universe in ways that scientists do not yet understand.
In the 2008 experiment which proved this phenomenon, two particles were sent streaming away from their shared source in opposite directions. With a distance of 20 miles between them, the scientists witnessed one particle producing an instantaneous, identical change in the other particle, thereby proving this inherent connection between the particles known as “entanglement.” 1 The phenomenon of quantum entanglement might help us to enter into our gospel passage in the first chapter of Luke, and how the actions of one being can catalyze reactions in another.
Today we witness a joy-filled encounter between the pregnant Elizabeth and her cousin, the pregnant Mary—an encounter known by the church as the Visitation. But we witness far more than the greeting of relatives. Far beyond what the human eye can detect; we enter into both the temporal reality and the eternal reality for the women and the children gestating in their wombs.
During this visitation, the cosmic experience of God’s kingdom “Now” and the “Not Yet”—fully-realized kingdom of God had come near to Elizabeth and her child. Taken up in the presence of the “Nowness” and the “eternalness” of God the Holy Spirit, the two women and the two unborn children were inextricably entangled in the one reality of the Holy Spirit. Let’s explore the simultaneous reality of the Holy Spirit’s powerful movement within each being in the narrative.
The first person has not yet been born—the prenatal John had already been filled with the Holy Spirit prior to our gospel passage today (v.15). The second person, Mary, was told by the Angel Gabriel that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Most High would overshadow her, resulting in the birth of a holy child—the Son of God (v. 35). The third person, Mary’s relative Elizabeth, was filled with the Holy Spirit when the child in her womb joyfully responded to the divine presence of God at the sound of Mary’s voice (v. 41).
Still there is a fourth being who was only identified by Elizabeth as the fruit of Mary’s womb (v. 42). This child is like no other child born of a woman. The Holy Spirit, which acted upon John in the womb; Elizabeth and Mary, is a distinctive expression of THIS child’s divine nature because THIS child is God himself. And in the real presence of THIS Christ child—God incarnate—human beings are moved to action.
The evidence of this human movement to action is Elizabeth’s reporting to Mary that she experienced a physical reaction by the child in her womb who leaped for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice. And, the filling of Elizabeth with the Holy Spirit immediately followed. It is this filling of the Holy Spirit within Elizabeth that caused her to exclaim with a loud cry her blessing over Mary. “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb…” (v.42).
Elizabeth’s blessing is, in a very real sense, a testimony to what she has not only witnessed but what she felt in the moment—that the kingdom of God had come near to her in and through the holy vessel of Mary. The child’s leaping in her womb affirmed for Elizabeth that she was in the midst of the most holy God-bearer. She was witnessing to the fact that God had indeed blessed Mary. She was so excited that the mother of her Lord came to visit her that the Holy Spirit within Elizabeth so stirred her that she broke out in praise to God.
The way the narrative flows, it is as if Elizabeth’s spirit-filled blessing catalyzes Mary’s response. Mary’s Song of Praise begins with “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” (vv.46b-47). Caught up in the exuberance of the Holy Spirit’s divine activity visibly before her in the persons of Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s unborn child leaping in her womb—and the divine activity of the Holy Spirit moving within the depths of her own being—Mary’s response, like Elizabeth’s was PRAISE!
Perhaps these responses of praise to the Lord by the unborn child, who would grow to be John the Baptist, Elizabeth the mother of John, and Mary, the bearer of God, can be seen as actions that prepared the way for the Lord even before John the Baptist grew into his calling as God’s prophet.
In this sense, all of creation, inextricably entangled with God the Holy Spirit, is moved to act in praise which God uses to prepare the way of the Lord.
Mary’s Song of Praise testified to the goodness of the Lord in her own life and for the life of the world. Why should it not be so for us? Joyfully testify to the good news of God in Christ that is inextricably entangled with you. Testify to the truth of Jesus when you show up and engage in the worship, leadership and fellowship of the church. Testify to the truth of Jesus when you exude the compassionate love of Christ for all people.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, we are keenly aware that we are inextricably entangled with all people in all place. We will soon gather around the altar to experience the real presence of Christ in the Great Thanksgiving. Listen closely to the Eucharistic Prayer. Just before the Holy Spirit is invoked over the bread and wine, there is a prayer of oblation which begins, “We celebrate the memorial of our redemption…in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving (BCP, p. 361). As we eat and drink of the holy sacraments of Christ’s body and blood, the collective soul of this gathered congregation leaps with joy and responds with praise!
In all that you are and in all that you do—let your soul magnify the Lord and may your response to God’s divine action, in and through you, be PRAISE! Amen.
Notes:
http://blogs.christianpost.com/creationvsevolution/quantum-entanglement-a-type-of-the-god-connection-1406/. Retrieved on March 9, 2013.
