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Of all the characters in the Christmas story, my favorite is Mary’s kinswoman Elizabeth. We are not sure whether she was Mary’s aunt or cousin, but we do know that Elizabeth made a difference in the life of Mary: she saw through the apparent shame of what seemed to be an illegitimate pregnancy, and identified God at work in this young vulnerable girl.

Elizabeth was one of those rare people who practice the art of embracing the holy.

I often find myself wondering why the angelic birth announcement to Mary is immediately followed by the story of her pilgrimage to Elizabeth’s house. Mary lived in Nazareth – up north, in the province of Galilee. Elizabeth lived in the south – in the area called Judea, probably in the city of Jerusalem. Why would a young pregnant girl make such a long and treacherous journey all by herself?

Perhaps Mary’s parents sent her there – a pregnant daughter sent away in shame to live with relatives in another city. Or perhaps Mary herself – confused and ashamed by the experience of having a baby out of wedlock – utterly and completely rejected by the only man she’d ever loved – perhaps Mary made the decision to get away from it all. Maybe she ran away from home.

There is something in this fact – that Mary left the comfort of home where a young woman ought to be when going through such an important time as the birth of her first child – there is something in that fact that should give us a clue that, at the heart of the Christmas story, is some overarching sense of shame.

And when you understand this, you can almost visualize Mary, stepping out the door of the big Greyhound bus at the terminal in the bustling city far away from home. And, under the load of a tattered suitcase held together by bands of duct tape, slowly making her way through the cobblestone streets to the front door of Elizabeth’s house. And perhaps you can imagine her knocking at the door, heart pounding as loud as the doorknocker, not knowing the kind of reception she will receive when Elizabeth sees that she is pregnant.

Picture the doorknob turning, and the door creaking as it swings open, and the image of a woman standing inside the doorway, pregnant herself – but legitimately.  Her face lights up with joy at the sight of her young relative, but soon dims as she notices the tattered suitcase, and the swollen belly, and the rivers of tears flowing down the cheeks of Mary.

And fighting down the urge to say what unthinking people sometimes say in circumstances like this, Elizabeth puts all her faith-resources to work, struggling to find some appropriate response. And just then, her own baby leaps within her womb. The child she and Zechariah had long waited for. The child they had prayed for even when she was too old to have a baby. Oh, the child who was everything a gift from God could be – that miracle baby of hers and Zechariah’s – leaped within her womb! And in that movement inside her belly, Elizabeth was reminded of her own experience of God’s holiness. And Elizabeth suddenly knew what to say.

“Mary, you are the most God-blessed woman in all the world! And your baby is a miracle from God!”

And with those words, Elizabeth embraced the holy within Mary, and opened her arms, and welcomed Mary to the safety of her home.

Who knows what might have happened if not for Elizabeth’s gift? Mary might have been picked up by the religious authorities and stoned to death for the crime of fornication. Or, unable to support herself and a baby, Mary might have been forced to sell her boy-child to someone who needed cheap labor. Or, Mary might have simply run away from it all – leaving behind the endless days and sleepless nights – walking out into the desert until she could walk no more, and finally collapsing in the hot sand to fall asleep at last – and find some measure of peace – forever.

The Christmas story would not be as we know it if not for the gift of Elizabeth!

“Mary, you are the most God-blessed woman in all the world! And your baby is a miracle from God!”

Luke says Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months – healing from the wounds caused by the shame and rejection – being nurtured and strengthened with unconditional love – learning from Elizabeth about motherhood and trusting God with your life – and preparing for the most difficult thing she would ever have to do. And the Bible tells us that, after three months, Mary did it.

Mary went home.  Home to face her family not as a woman disgraced, but as a woman blessed by God. And – even more importantly – home to face Joseph, and even to forgive him for being such a royal, hurtful jerk.

Oh, Christmas would not be Christmas but for this remarkable woman named Elizabeth. And the way Elizabeth enabled Christmas to happen was by practicing the art of embracing the holy.

If you are interested in becoming such a person yourself, there are a few things you must learn to do.

First, you have to decide what you truly believe. You have to come down on one side or the other of the question, “Is the sinfulness of humanity greater than God’s redeeming grace, or is God’s redeeming grace greater than the sinfulness of humanity? And that’s not an easy choice to make because our human tendency is to be skeptical of the power of God’s love to change peoples’ lives.

There is a true story of a seminary student named Sam who described himself in his younger years as “the teenager from hell.” He made his parents’ lives utterly miserable. When he went off to college, his irresponsible ways caused him to flunk out of school. He had to go to work at a fast-food restaurant. While working there, he met a girl and they married, although against his parents’ wishes. But they stuck together. After a time, they began attending a little church. Gradually, Sam came to the surprising awareness that God loved him and had a plan for his life. He accepted Christ. And then Sam began to sense a calling to the Christian ministry. So he went back to college, and started working to finish his degree in preparation for seminary. He told no one about this – least of all his parents – because he was sure they would only laugh.

But the day came when Sam knew he needed to tell his folks about his changed life. So he went to their house and told them the story of the surprising turn of events. He shared with them how – though his life had been a tortured series of mistakes and irresponsible behavior – he had been transformed by Christ, and now believed that God wanted him to become a pastor. When he finished telling the story, Sam waited for his parents’ response.

Suddenly, his mother burst into tears. Then, she shrieked, “Oh Sam, I am so ashamed! I can’t believe this has happened!”

Sam was shocked by his mother’s words. “What do you mean ‘ashamed’?” he asked.

“I can’t believe this has happened to you,” his mother said, sobbing. “You know that before you were born I had several miscarriages. The doctors said I’d never have a child. I never told you this, but I made a promise to God back then. After the last miscarriage. I promised God that, if he would let me have a baby, and if it was a boy, I’d name him Samuel, just like Hannah did when she couldn’t have a baby back in the Old Testament. And I promised God that, just like Hannah’s Samuel, my Samuel would dedicate his life to serving God.”

Sam, now choked with emotion, heard all this with great astonishment. “Mom, why didn’t you ever tell me that story? You could have saved all of us a whole lot of trouble if you had just told me about this before I became a rebellious teenager.”

His mother replied, “Sam, think about it! We’re METHODISTS! I didn’t even know we even BELIEVED in this kind of thing. How was I to know that it would actually WORK?”

Now, it’s not just Methodists who have a problem with this. All humanity struggles to believe that God’s redeeming grace is greater than human sin.

But embracing the holy means trusting that God’s grace is the most powerful force in the world, and that it is at work somewhere in every human situation!

Second, embracing the holy means perceiving, and then identifying for others, the active presence of God in their lives.

Back on April 7th, 1972, there was a terrible accident involving one of the planes flown by Jungle Aviation and Radio Service – the aviation wing of the Wycliffe Bible Translators. That day, a twin-engine Piper Aztec lost its right engine, caught fire, and spun into the ground in New Guinea. All seven persons aboard were killed.

The chief aircraft mechanic at Wycliffe was stunned when he heard the news. Just one day earlier, the Aztec had rolled out of the maintenance hangar after a 100-hour inspection. Over and over, the mechanic replayed in his mind the work that had been done on the plane. Suddenly, he recoiled in horror. He remembered that he had been interrupted while tightening a fuel line, and had never returned to finish the job. As it turned out, that faulty connection allowed raw fuel to spray out, causing the in-flight fire and resulting crash. He knew he was the one responsible for killing the seven people on board – all of them dear friends.

The knowledge of this crushed the man. For days he wandered about in a near stupor, unable even to talk to others. Family members and friends tried to help, but to no avail.

Then, a week or so later, the widow of the pilot came in from the field to gather up her husband’s belongings for the sad journey back home to New Zealand. The mechanic knew he had to see her, and somehow express his sorrow, and seek her forgiveness.

When he met with her, this mechanic could barely speak for all the emotion pent up inside. Finally, he simply held up his trembling right hand and blurted, “This is the hand that took your husband’s life.”

There was a long, long, pause. And then this widow did an amazing thing. She reached out and took that hand in hers. Gently, she caressed it, until the hand  stopped shaking. And then, in a remarkable gesture of forgiveness and love, she tenderly brought that hand to her cheek and held it there for a long, long time before whispering, “But this is also the hand that helps bring Christ’s love to thousands.”

And that was the first step in a long, long process of healing. Because a remarkable woman reached past the failure of a mechanic’s hand, and identified the holiness at work in and through that same hand. And, I dare say, there are people in your life who are so caught up in the pain of their own mistakes, their own guilt, their own broken humanity that they have long ago lost sight of anything holy at work within. And those people need a special kind of friend. They need a friend who practices the art of embracing the holy, and who can gently help them see it for themselves. “You are the most God-blessed woman in all the world, and your baby is a gift from God!” Elizabeth pointed out to Mary. And this pilot’s widow did the same sort of thing. She embraced the holy in that mechanic’s life.

Oh, you have to believe that God’s redeeming grace is the most powerful force in the world. And you have to look past the sins of others, and help identify for them the holiness of God at work in their lives right now.

And finally, you have to believe in Christmas!

For the Christmas claim is simply this: the dwelling place of God has moved – from “up there” to “down here” – from among the heavens to among us humans – from the sterile sanctity of the sanctuary to the sin-stained secularity of the streets and the cities and the sad shame of broken homes and crushed lives and pregnant teenage girls.

 God is here among those who suffer from the consequences of their own weak humanity, among those who are sick with cancer by no fault of their own, among the gangs that terrorize our land, among abused and neglected children, among the homeless alcoholics who sleep on the floors of overcrowded rescue missions, among moms and dads who are overwhelmed by the complexities of raising children in this world, among the hardened prisoners on death row, among Alzheimer’s patients wandering the halls of the nursing home, and even among the junkies shooting up in the alley. God is here in the dirt and grime and ugliness of life in all its forms. God is here in a world where poor strangers are turned away at every door until they miraculously stumble upon a stable in which to sleep – and to give birth – to God-among-us.

Oh, you have to believe that God’s redeeming love is the most powerful force in life. You have to see past humanity’s brokenness and point out divinity’s work. And you have to look into the face of every human person – no matter how crumpled their appearance, or grievous their sin, or bloodshot their eyes, or hopelessly human their situation – and see the miracle of Christmas at work within.

There is God being born!

There he is!…There he is!…There he is!…There he is!

And then go gather Him up in your arms and embrace the holy now residing among us!

For when you do, you will see Christmas come to the people you touch – over and over and over again!

Friends, go into the world this week, and – like Elizabeth – embrace the holy!