Too Slow, Too Fast

Sermon from 12/20/2009: Too Slow, Too Fast
From Scripture Reading: Luke 1:39-45
4th Sunday of Advent


Luke 1:39, 40

“In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.”

Today’s third Scripture reading features two women, Mary and her relative Elizabeth. Both were Jewish. Both were miracle mothers with miracle babies. Both were relatives. Both were the talk of their respective towns. They had a lot in common, but they also had a lot of differences.

Mary was from the north of the Holy Land. Elizabeth was from the South. If the United States were the Holy Land, Mary would be from Michigan and Elizabeth would be from Georgia.

Mary was young. Elizabeth was very old. If Mary were Miley Cyrus then Elizabeth would be Barbara Walters.

Mary was poor. Elizabeth was middle class.

Mary was single. Elizabeth had been married for 40 or 50 years.

There was at least one more difference. For Elizabeth most of her life had been on what we would consider “too slow mode.” She and her husband Zechariah wanted children when Elizabeth was young, but a child never came. In their middle age years, they continued to hope that Elizabeth would conceive, but it didn’t happen either. Then in their silver hair years, they pretty much gave up on ever having children. It was one of those many things in life that was just not meant to be.

Maybe we can relate to Elizabeth. Things often seem to move so slowly. Especially here in West Hawaii. Products from the mainland take weeks, months to get here. Residents in Kona have been waiting decades for just one or two more north/south parallel roads. A branch campus for the University of Hawaii or the Community College was promised years ago but still no buildings. Building permits take extra long.

Living in Hawaii takes the kind of patience that God gave to Elizabeth who kept trusting in the Lord in spite of what seemed to be too slow a pace.

On the other hand, if Elizabeth’s life appeared to move too slowly, young Mary’s life was just the opposite. Elizabeth had to wait 50, 60 or more years for her to have a child. The angel Gabriel told Mary who may have been even a teenager that she would have a baby and Mary was not even married yet.

For Mary things were all happening at internet speed. She probably never imagined that she would be with child before her wedding day, but she got a child anyway. She went straight from being engaged to being a mother and bypassed a wedding. Her mind was probably spinning thinking of all the responsibilities suddenly thrust open her.

For many of us, our experience has probably been that God seems to move too slowly. But there are times when it seems that life is moving oh so quickly. We have a project deadline at work before Christmas. We have a big payment that has to be made before the end of this month. We have guests coming in this Wednesday and we have many things to clean up around the house. We have a huge event coming up in early January, and we haven’t even planned for it yet. Life is just going too fast for us.

Luke even uses the word “hasten” or “hurry” in chapter 1, verse 39 of his Gospel. He writes, “Mary went with haste into the hi to a town in Judah country. . . “ to visit Elizabeth.

Here is the setting:

Mary is about three months pregnant and she hurries to visit her relative Elizabeth who lives about 70 miles south. Why does she hurry to see Elizabeth? We don’t know. Maybe because of all the gossiping that is going on in Nazareth where Mary lived because Mary was pregnant and was not married? Maybe because Mary heard that her relative had a miracle birth, too, and the both of them could support each other in way that no one else could? Maybe Mary hurried to see Elizabeth because Elizabeth was much older and much more mature than she was and Elizabeth could be a mentor and a role model for her?

We don’t know exactly where Elizabeth lived, but some scholars like the founder of the Crossways Bible Study Curriculum says that Mary spent the rest of her pregnancy with Elizabeth in southern Israel just a few miles from Bethlehem and that Mary never went back north to Nazareth. According to this theory, Mary and Joseph then went to Bethlehem directly from Elizabeth’s house and not from way north in Nazareth. There are weaknesses to this theory though because the account of Jesus’ birth in the book of Matthew seems to indicate that Mary and Joseph made the trip from Nazareth in the north and headed southward to Bethlehem.

In any event, Mary rushed to see Elizabeth and her fast paced urgency to get to Elizabeth’s place was indicative of her life.

The main point of the sermon

The true account of Mary and Elizabeth reminds us of the two circumstances in life which we may be going through. On the one hand, God may be working too slowly in our lives. Getting a job is taking too long. Getting out of debt has been too slow a process. On the other hand, things may be happening too quickly and we are dizzy at the speed things are moving in our lives.

In either case, God is working at His pace according to His schedule. It doesn’t matter if we think God is moving too slowly or too quickly. God is going to work things out according to His timetable independent of ours.

Just as God decided that the perfect time to send His promised Son to be born of the virgin Mary would be during the reign of Caesar Augustus and that the perfect time for Jesus to die would be under the jurisdiction of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, so did God set in place the events that took place in Elizabeth’s and Mary’s life.

And so it is with our lives. Just as Jesus was born at the right time and the right place and just as He died and rose from the dead at the right time and the right place, so are you right where God has placed you and so are the events surrounded you just as God had it planned.

The test for us is to trust in God’s perfect timing and schedule. On our own we cannot trust in God’s cadence and pace. We will want to either try to run ahead of Him or we will lag far back behind Him, but by the working of the Holy Spirit, God will give us the kind of faith that Elizabeth and Mary had to place their lives into His schedule. God gave to Elizabeth and Mary the gift of believing that all sequences of events in our lives take place for God’s reason and purpose.

We remember Jesus who placed His life completely into the time table of His heavenly Father. 30 years as a self-employed contractor or carpenter. Not a problem. 3 years as a rabbi and prophet. Not an issue. Suffer and die on the cross. Extremely painful but let’s get it done.

We pray that God would give us the submission of Christ to just accept and not to moan and groan about how slow or how fast God is moving in our lives. The pace that God has set is the right and only pace for us.

Lord grant us such obedience to you in Jesus’ name. Amen.