The red flag on the parking meter was visible, and sure enough, Scott Seomin found a souvenir on his windshield. It wasn't a ticket from the city of West Hollywood, California, however. Instead it was a poem that went like this:

The meter was red, as time had expired.
In the rush of the season, we knew you'd be tired.
A parking ticket would just make you blue,
And in the holiday spirit this just would not do.
So during this time of friendship and good cheer,
Season's greetings to you and best wishes all year. (1)

What a pleasant surprise. When Christmas affects even the meter police, we know it's having a positive effect on society.

We noted a couple of weeks ago that there is something about Christmas that lifts our spirits and gives us hope.

Our story today begins with a priest named Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. Luke says that "both of them were righteous before God . . . But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years." (NRSV)

But one day in the temple the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah and said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John . . . he will be great in the sight of the Lord." Thus the birth of John the Baptist was foretold.

John's birth was overshadowed six months later when the angel Gabriel was sent again by God, this time to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.

Mary was perplexed by the angel's appearance and by his greetings. And Gabriel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus . . . He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?"

The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God." This prophesied the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Two women--Elizabeth, an older woman married to a priest and Mary, a teenager engaged to a carpenter--were joined by the bond of an angel's announcement that they each would bear a son. Two women whose sons were destined to usher in a new era in human history. Then we learn something even more surprising. The two women were relatives. Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins of the flesh as well as of the spirit.

In spite of the difference in their ages, Mary and Elizabeth were very close. As soon as Gabriel left her, Mary grabbed up her things and headed to Elizabeth and Zechariah's home. This was no leisurely stroll. We're told that the hill country between Nazareth and the place where Elizabeth lived was rather bleak. "The eastern slopes were mostly impassable desert, stretching 10 to 15 miles from their highest point, 3000 feet near Hebron, down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth at 1,300 feet below sea level. The vast wasteland was broken only by imposing cliffs and canyons and a few forts and oases . . . It was an area fit for fugitives, rebels, and hermits, but certainly not for a pregnant woman." (2) Given the difficulties and dangers that the landscape posed, it was obviously very important to Mary to share her mind-boggling news with Elizabeth. And so, with the impetuousness of youth she made the journey.

Elizabeth was overjoyed to see her: "Blessed are you among women," she said enthusiastically as she greeted Mary, "and blessed is the child you will bear . . . Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

And Mary launched into a song, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant . . ."

Two women joined by a promise that God would do great things through them. Elizabeth's words are especially appropriate on this Sunday before Christmas, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

This is one of the few times that a feminine pronoun is used with a blessing in the Bible. Almost universally we read, "Blessed is he . . ." but not here. We read, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"

Christmas elevates women. Let the literalists argue that the rib taken from man's side in the Genesis story consigns woman to a secondary role. We will take them to Bethlehem and show them the Son of God born of a woman. In fact, if you accept the doctrine of the virgin birth, a man played absolutely no role and had no part in our Lord's birth. Only God and a young woman named Mary. Yet even today there are people who thump their Bibles and insist that woman is supposed to be subservient to man.

People get the strangest ideas about what the Bible teaches. If we were to stop right here with this story of Mary and Elizabeth, we would say that woman, not man, was favored by God. However, I don't believe the Bible teaches that either gender is superior. We're not saved by the shape of our flesh, but by the sureness of our faith! What has gender got to do with it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. God loves little boys and little girls the same. But still, this is one passage in which woman is definitely in the superior role.

People are so funny. I heard about an old guy years ago who was convinced that all women were bad drivers. He would growl as a car cut into his lane, "Another woman driver!" If he happened to pull up beside the offending vehicle and observed that it was a man at the wheel, he would growl, "No doubt his mother taught him to drive." You just can't win with some people. It isn't my intention to get into the gender wars on this Sunday before Christmas, though it is often amusing. I like comedian Elayne Boosler's definition of the difference between men and women. She says, "When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Maybe that's not so funny after all. Maybe it is all too true.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, has always had an exalted role in the life of the church. She has inspired women through the ages with her purity of character. Elizabeth recognized that Mary's son was special even before he was born: "Blessed are you among women," she said enthusiastically as she greeted Mary, "and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored," Elizabeth continued, "that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." That's quite a witness. Two women of faith were chosen by God to elevate the human race. Christmas elevates women.

Even more important is the fact that Christmas elevates faith. Notice again Elizabeth's amazing testimony: "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" Mary and Elizabeth were not randomly chosen to serve God. They were women who believed in God's promises.

Christmas is an act of faith. God the creator becomes an infant in a crib. Who could believe such a mystery? Yet that is the testimony of the people called Christians. The hope of the world was laid in a manger in a stable in Bethlehem.

It reminds me of a story Dr. Robert Kopp tells about an old woman who was nearing her death and wanted to leave her estate to someone who would use it for a good cause. So she went to see a popular televangelist whose show she enjoyed. But the old woman's eyes virtually popped out of her head when she approached the televangelist's house. It was more luxurious than anything she had ever imagined. After a few minutes of chatting with the televangelist, the old woman finally spoke up. "I was going to will my property to you when I die, but now I'm not so sure. After seeing your house, I think you're spending too much money on yourself." The televangelist, with a gleaming smile, replied, "All these wonderful things were bought for God's glory. You wouldn't expect Him to live in a barn, would you?" (3)

But that's exactly what Christians believe! The incarnate God born in a barn, and because God was willing to humble Himself that way, humanity itself is elevated. As Mary sang, "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty."

I don't know if you remember a particular story that was in the news many years ago. It occurred on Cyprus, the island in the Mediterranean that is divided between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. Ever since the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish and the Greek Cypriot people have been bitter enemies. Today, Cyprus is split into these two factions. The north of Cyprus is controlled by the Turkish Cypriots. The south of Cyprus is controlled by the Greek Cypriots, the original citizens of Cyprus.

But the two communities came together in a stunning show of cooperation for a good cause. A five-year-old Turkish child was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors said that her only hope is a bone-marrow transplant. Over 500 donors from both the north and the south of Cyprus came together to donate blood in the hopes of finding a marrow donor. (4)

This was not the first time that a small child has brought people together. In Bethlehem of Judea was born a child whose primary purpose was to bring people together with one another and with God. That babe has affected the lives of millions of people on earth. More than one billion people call him Lord. Who could possibly imagine such a phenomenon? It is not based on logic or philosophy or science, as important as these disciplines are to human life. It is based on simple faith. It comes from the heart as much as from the head. It is a declaration that we live in a God-invaded world. It is the conviction that love and light came down that first Christmas to bring hope and joy to the human condition.

Have you ever faced the Christmas season with the feeling that you just didn't get it this year? You had no Christmas spirit, and couldn't muster up any.

You just didn't feel the hope and joy and peace that seem to swirl around the miracle of Christ's birth. That's a painful feeling.

That's how Mary Ann O'Roark was feeling one year. She faced the joy of Christmas with a heart full of disappointment and cynicism. She found a few minutes of peace by stopping to view a nativity scene on the front steps of a local church. But the peace was soon interrupted by a homeless woman nearby who was screaming and cursing. Once again, Mary Ann's Christmas spirit disappeared.

A few days later, Mary Ann was passing by this same church when she discovered that the figure of the Christ child was missing from the nativity scene. Mary Ann wondered who would do such a thing. This only confirmed her cynicism. But as she turned a corner, she saw something that made her catch her breath. It was the homeless woman. She was holding the Christ figurine in her arms. The old lady had wrapped her own dirty blanket lovingly around the figurine, and as she rocked the Christ child, she sang softly to it, "Silent night, Holy night . . ."

Mary Ann O'Roark wrote, "I knew without a doubt that the spirit of the Christ child had never really been missing. It might be where I least expected it, but it was never far away." (5)

No, it's never far away. It's as close as opening our hearts to the purity and love of the Christ child. This is to affirm once again that Christmas elevates us all. It elevates women as we ponder the example of these two strong women of faith, Mary and her kinswoman Elizabeth. But it elevates all of us as it shows us that God has come into our world bringing grace and hope and joy to everyone who believes.

1. Steve Harvey in Los Angeles Times. Reader's Digest, Copyright (c) December 1999, http://www.readersdigest.com

2. The Word in Life Study Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1993), p. 206.

3. "Christmas at Center" by Dr. Robert R. Kopp. Dec. 24, 1999-Jan. 2, 2000, p. 23.

4. "Greek, Turkish Cypriots Unite to Aid Sick Child," The Knoxville News-Sentinel, March 7, 2003.

5. "Empty Manger" by Mary Ann O'Roark, Guideposts, December 2002, pp. 24-27.