BABIES, A SHARED JOY

When I was a primary school teacher, it sometimes seemed like there must be a secret rota for getting pregnant. Every few months there’d be another rumour in the staffroom, then an announcement, then a baby shower. We’d sign a card and give a gift. Then the new family would come into school: we’d all cuddle the baby while the tired parents had a cup of tea. More than once, the first time we met one teacher’s new baby was at the baby shower for another teacher! It sometimes felt like too much, but that school recognised something important. Rather than seeing the new babies as an inconvenience that took away its teachers, the school had a culture which delighted in the arrival of each new person.

ELIZABETH’S EXPERIENCE

I imagine that where Elizabeth lived, people loved babies too. That they were thrilled when they heard of a pregnancy, that they looked after new mothers with hot meals and practical help. So now that Elizabeth is finally pregnant after so much waiting, why does she hide away? Luke tells us that she remained in seclusion for five months; more than half her pregnancy.

Why does she not join her neighbours and let them fuss over her? Elizabeth is old. She has a whole life behind her of being the childless one, the odd one out at baby showers. The downside of a culture which honours motherhood is that it can exclude women who aren’t mothers. We know from the book of 1 Samuel how painful it was for Hannah, who didn’t have children, when she was taunted by Peninnah, who did (1 Samuel 1:6- 7). Was Elizabeth taunted for being childless in the past? Perhaps, having been on the outside for so long, it is hard to know how to share her joy.

MARY ARRIVES

While Elizabeth is shut away, Mary goes out – from her house, her village, her familiar countryside. She heads to the hill country where Elizabeth lives. Like Elizabeth, Mary is pregnant. Unlike Elizabeth, Mary is not married. Mary’s community will not rejoice in her pregnancy. And yet, in Mary, Elizabeth finds the one with whom she can rejoice. John’s leaping in the womb tells her that Mary’s baby will be Christ, the Lord. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth exclaims, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!’ (Luke 1:42). Mary responds: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour’ (Luke 1:46-47).

REJOICING TOGETHER

‘Rejoice with those who rejoice,’ St Paul tells us, and ‘weep with those who weep’ (Romans 12:15). Each of these can be difficult commands to follow. It is usually easier to see the point of weeping with those who weep, even when if putting it into practice is costly.

Rejoicing with those who rejoice is also hard, and important. We sometimes feel there aren’t enough blessings to go around. Like the labourers in the vineyard who worked from early in the day, other people’s blessings can make us feel dissatisfied with our own. ‘Why can’t I have what he’s got? Hers is better than mine.’ Life, unlike a football match, doesn’t have winners and losers, but we still tend to think in those terms. This kind of thinking gets in the way of enjoying our own blessings and other people’s. It makes us protective and encourages us to define ourselves against one another. It cuts us off from each other.

In contrast, Mary goes out to meet Elizabeth, and the two rejoice in each other’s joy. Each could say of the other ‘if she’s the one with a miraculous pregnancy, divinely ordained, against all probability – then who am I?’ The zero-sum thinking we are prone to is simply irrelevant in God’s reality, as Mary and Elizabeth show.

There will be lots more weeping, as well as rejoicing, for Mary and Elizabeth as they watch their sons grow. Neither child will be successful by the standards of the world, but both will participate, more than their mothers could have imagined, in bringing in God’s Kingdom of abundance. John the Baptist’s generosity in pointing people towards Jesus expresses the confidence in his own position as a beloved child of God. He can only say ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30) because of this confidence. I like to think that he learned this generosity from his mother, who expressed it first of all in her meeting with Mary.