The Unexpected Joy of Elizabeth

Isaiah 61:10-11, Luke 1:39-55

Have you ever received a gift, maybe a Christmas gift, that was completely unexpected? You opened it and thought: “Is this someone else’s gift?” You check the tag to make sure your name is actually on it. Yep, there’s your name. You look to the giver for an explanation while also trying not to seem ungrateful. Maybe you’ve come down to the tree on Christmas morning and found things left by Santa and wondered if Santa had gotten your house mixed up with someone else’s.  Has this ever happened to you? One Christmas when I was in elementary school, I noticed a big box under the tree on Christmas morning with my name on it. The tag said it was for me from my big brothers who by this time were 20/21. I was probably 6-7 yo. I could hardly wait to see what was in it. I had no idea, but they usually gave me pretty fun gifts at Christmas. Maybe it was lightbright, or a Barbie something, or some new art supplies…. The box was finally handed to me to open and tore off the bow and paper… and there on the outside of the box was a picture of a race-car track with two  race cars.  This was unexpected! I was very surprised, a little confused, but before I could even inspect the gift very closely, both brothers were on the floor with me, explaining what we needed to do, and how we needed to set it up… and oh how thoughtful they were that the cars were already charged and ready to race. Was the gift really for me? Well, the unexpected thing was that they played with me all afternoon racing cars. And that was fun! They were acting like joyful kids on Christmas day again… At some point in the afternoon, one of them let it slip that “the red car used to go faster than this.” I didn’t know how he knew that. But later I learned that they had set it up at a friend's house and been playing with it for several days before Christmas.

What is joy? When have you observed joy, felt joy recently? Turn to your neighbor and see who can share a joyful moment first!

Joy is a bit hard to define with only words. Scholars at Yale[1] studying joy are all over the place when they try to describe it. It’s sudden, it’s lasting. It’s from within, it’s spontaneous. It’s not the same as happiness. It’s the culmination of gratitude and happiness. Brene Brown (researcher, author, speaker) writes that joy is sudden, unexpected, short-lasting, and high intensity. It’s characterized by a connection with others, or with God, nature, or the universe. Joy expands our thinking and our attention, and it fills us with a sense of freedom and abandon.

Today’s scripture passage from Luke 1 tells the story of Elizabeth’s unexpected joy. It wasn’t just the fact that she got pregnant very late in life; long after she had given up the will to dream that dream! Her unexpected joy was the role she would play in the unfolding story of Jesus, not only his birth, but his life and the movement he would take over from her son John. What she never imagined was the role she would play in God’s dream. God’s unbelievable, unimaginable dream. This baby that she carried, wild at heart,  would be the one to prepare the way for his cousin to change the world as they knew it. Elizabeth trusted God and was given a life to carry who would cut a path in the wilderness for God’s son to walk. Elizabeth’s boy, John, would invite people from all walks of life into waters of repentance and new life.

This Advent theme of ours, The Will to Dream, seems much more accessible, understandable (to me) in the life of Elizabeth. Elizabeth has heard the stories all her life that God would send a Messiah. She believes it, but she doesn’t have a when or a where. But WHEN she finds herself unexpectedly expecting and WHEN Mary walks into her kitchen and her baby jumps for joy in her womb; the when and where God might send a Messiah is more real, more possible, than it ever has been before.  Elizabeth is suddenly and certainly willing to dream God’s dream. According to verses 44-45, she says to Mary, “As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.”

N.T. Wright said, “In the Jewish tradition, joy is something that happens when God finally does something that people have been waiting for.”[2]  I wonder what could make our hearts, our guts reflex with unexpected joy again? What are you waiting for God to do? 

God invited these two women to play key roles in the unfolding story that would change the world. Elizabeth, who was married to Zechariah, the priest, was an older woman without children. She was probably almost invisible to her community. When she finds herself pregnant in this late stage, she remains quiet about it. It must seem too good to be true. She’s in that stage of waiting for the shoe to drop… Mary, who Gabriel called  favored and Elizabeth called blessed, called herself lowly.[3] These two women do not see themselves as powerful women with influence and clout. They are merely faithful, devoted to God; open to God’s vision; willing to dream. It is God who sees them and calls them. When they finally see each other, their shared joy isn’t only personal happiness, it’s a prophetic celebration of God breaking into the world. They rejoice together at what they believe God is doing, the transformation that God will bring – the hungry to be fed, the mighty brought down, the lowly lifted up.  This is joy that sees beyond present circumstances to God’s promised future. Mary’s song celebrates God’s great reversal – the proud scattered, rulers dethroned, the humble exalted. Elizabeth and Mary’s joy fuels their resistance. Their joy comes from recognizing that God’s dream turns the world upside down.[4] 

Yale Center for Faith and Culture has devoted a lot of resources and time to study Joy, saying, “the very idea of joy has all but disappeared from modern theological reflection, is all but ignored by the social sciences, and is increasingly absent from lived experience. The consequence is a “flattening out,” a “graying,” of human life and communities.[5] When I read some of your posts, or see our prayer list getting longer; when I hear the news, scroll the headlines, I feel the absence, the flattening out of joy… I feel the graying reluctance to allow myself to be joyful because here I am in my beautiful sanctuary when people don’t have a safe place to lay their head, or come out of the cold. Can I be happy and grateful that my 19 year old had a successful semester when the reality is that some kids his age are at war in Ukraine, or that some are fighting for the right to exist in some states with trans laws. Accessing joy can feel almost impossible some days. 

In her book Braving the Wilderness, Brene Brown wrote something that connects so vividly with today’s scripture and theme. She uses the phrase, wild hearted, referring to someone who chooses courage over comfort and stays emotionally open, who embraces their vulnerability as a strength. It strikes me differently as I think about Elizabeth carrying her wild-hearted son, John. Brene Brown writes: “The mark of a wild heart is living out the paradox of love in our lives, it’s the ability to be tough and tender, excited and scared, brave and afraid, all in the same moment. … A wild heart can also straddle the tension of staying awake to the struggle in the world… while also cultivating its own moments of joy.”[6]

Dolly Parton wrote the song, “I will always love you” but it was Whitney Houston that brought it world wide recognition and popularity. The last line of the song says, “And I wish you joy and happiness. But above all of this, I wish you love.”  Dolly wrote about Kevin Costner’s office calling her to ask to use the song in a movie that starred Whitney Houston. Dolly knew the producer doing the music for the film and so she said yes.  That was all she heard about it until one day driving home from her office, she heard a voice on the radio say the opening line, “If I should say…” I caught her ear, but she didn’t recognize it at first. Then Whitney started to sing and Dolly wrote that it got bigger and bigger and better and better and she had to pull over on the side of the road. In her book, Songteller,  she said she had never experienced a greater feeling in all her life than hearing her song proclaimed the way Whitney sang it. Unexpected joy. What’s funny is that Dolly wrote “Jolene” and “I will always love you” on the same day.[7] Clearly, the human heart has the capacity to hold a broad range of feelings all at the same time.
The spiritual life confirms this truth. We are built for peace and protest, for tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

So, if the woes of the world have you singing Jolene; or if you find yourself unexpectedly alone this season; dealing with unexpected stress, unexpected injury, unexpected loss, unexpected worries… Revisit this story. Elizabeth remained childless into old age and Mary was scandalously, unexpectedly pregnant. These wild-hearted women do not avoid hard truth or circumstance. They name it and dream beyond it. Their joy is their resistance!

May God give us wild hearts

To stand shoulder to shoulder with Elizabeth and Mary

In the unfolding story of Jesus. Amen.

[1] Theology of Joy and the Good Life, What is Joy?

[2] https://faith.yale.edu/legacy-projects/theology-of-joy

[3] Illustrated Ministry The Will to Dream commentary

[4] Glaze, Daniel,  While We Wait 2025

[5] https://faith.yale.edu/legacy-projects/theology-of-joy

[6] https://brenebrown.com/podcast/accessing-joy-and-finding-connection-in-the-midst-of-struggle/

[7] Brown, Brene, Atlas of the Heart, p. 204