Expectations. We all have them. We expect that our employers will be timely in their payment of our services, or that our pensions will be deposited into our bank accounts or the post office box when they should, we have an expectation that the financial institutions will look after our money, that the hospital staff will give us adequate care, that our ministers will look after our spiritual well-being and that those we love will love us in return. Expectations. We all have them.

This is the time of year when our expectations tend to peek. There are many of us who place an expectation upon ourselves to seek out the “perfect” Christmas. The Christmas where everyone loves the gifts they receive, that we will bake treats which are very good and sweet and sugary. This is the Christmas that the turkey will be roasted to perfection, we work hard to ensure that the house is clean and shiny for the guests soon arriving, the beds are all made, the walks are cleaned and the driveway is clear for the cars or trucks to fill it.

It is our ultimate hope that this will be the year that when the whole family gathers everyone will get along including Cousin Fred who had a falling out with Cousin Bert. And then there is Aunt Edith who has promised not to start singing Christmas carols at the top of her lungs after she has downed her third glass of Holiday cheer. Yep, expectations, we all have them.

Mary had expectations too. She was a 14 year old virgin. A slave, she had been betrothed to a man named Joseph. Mary expected to become a mother at some point for that was an expectation placed upon her. She expected to marry Joseph, to leave her own family and create a new one with Joseph.

What Mary and, I’m sure, her family anticipated was not at all what took place as we know. Mary becomes pregnant and whether it was by Immaculate Conception or rape or consentual we will never really know the truth. However, for Mary it spelled disaster. She would surely loose not only her family but also the man to whom she had been betrothed and she would surely loose her life.

According to the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph upon hearing the news of her pregnancy had every intention of not marrying Mary. Not wanting to cause her embarrassment as we are told in the scriptures, he was going to dismiss her quietly. The story goes that Joseph had a dream in which an angel came to him and encouraged him to marry her anyways. The Gospel of Matthew says that Joseph married her but chose not to have sexual relations with her until she delivered the child.

In the Gospel of Luke, from what is known as the story of Jesus’ birth, we are told that Joseph was engaged, not married, to Mary when she gave birth; two Gospels, two different stories.

Mary’s life changed, the pregnancy would not have been a welcomed one, and for her this news could have meant her death as a consequence. We do not know if Mary was sent away for a time in order to protect her. And that in reality her cousin Elizabeth and Zechariah took her in but whatever the reason this morning what we have is a pretty story without the mess of the realities of life in those days.

Mary supposedly set out with haste to a Judean town in the hill country that was 4 days away. Remember Mary was only 14 years of age; she was a slave and most likely would not have been allowed to travel on her own.

Surprisingly, her cousin Elizabeth who was thought to be beyond the child bearing years was pregnant with John. Elizabeth and Zechariah lived in the hill country. The hill country of Judea is the last place you would expect to find a prophecy fulfilled or a miracle revealed. This is a land that does not offer spectacular vistas, beautiful beaches or exotic inns. It does not produce great riches or claim powerful armies.

It is, in fact, a rather forgotten place, a land of high plateaus cut by deep gullies. It is a mosaic of bare hilltops rising above rugged valleys. The land is rough, secluded, sometimes unforgiving. It is about the last place anyone would expect to discover God.

The season before Christmas for Christians is known as Advent. Advent means waiting. And over these last weeks the scriptures have been encouraging each of us to take our personal inventory in order to fully prepare our hearts, minds and souls for the celebration of a baby who came to change the world.

But Sunday is only one day of the week when we leave here and enter into the world beyond our doors it is not hard to become swept up into the busyness and the preparations for Christmas. We hear Christmas carols, T.V. ads for everything imaginable tempting us to spend, spend, spend. It is filled with expectations, anticipation, hope, there is a buzz in the air, a sense of magic. After all it is to be a holly, jolly Christmas, the best time of the year!

However……….., it is not a buzz that is welcomed by all. Rather than a hopeful season Christmas for many feels hopeless. Many of us mourn the loss of a loved one, family differences are heightened, instead of being a season of hope, peace, joy and love this time of year for many of us is a season of loss, unrest, sadness and loneliness. I wonder then how do we, in the midst, of all these expected celebrations how do we honour ourselves when we are feeling sad, lonely, hurt or simply want to take a time out?

I once knew someone who would honor her loved ones no longer with her by naming each one and lighting candles for them. She would hold them close to her as the flame burned the candle down and when the wick had burned out and it was left smoldering she would once again move to a place of celebrating who they were and how because of their touch in her life she is the person she is today. She moved from a place of sadness to a place of gladness. This ritual enabled her to celebrate those who were lights in her life. Honour yourself by honouring your emotions, find the balance between the nighttime of your emotions and the light of the celebration.

I imagine that Mary, also, was also looking for the light amongst the news given to her that day.

So often it is true that in the last place you would expect to find God; God chooses to surprise and for Mary and Elizabeth the legend tells us that when two surprising babies met, each in their mother’s wombs they danced to the beat of their mothers’ joy.

It was not Mary’s expectation to become pregnant nor was it Joseph’s her betrothed. It was no longer Elizabeth’s or Zechariah’s hope to have a child so late in life. However, Elizabeth is an example to each of us that God is with us, no matter how barren or forsaken we might feel. Elizabeth shows us how to stand unafraid in the place called “Empty” and wait for the coming of the Lord.

Elizabeth and Mary serve as reminders to us that we are wholly loved, wholly blessed, wholly redeemed.

They remind us that no matter where we walk, we will find that God has been there before us. God’s name is written everywhere, on every layer. They remind us that God’s glory still shines on people and places that the world might ignore and that sometimes, despite our expectations, our need to control and that in the midst of night time shadows, Mary and Elizabeth remind us that God who is with us, surprises us.