Dear Friends,

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” …For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)
 
The Daily Lectionary this week has us reading the first Chapter of Luke’s Gospel, hearing again the familiar account of two mothers and their babies: Elizabeth, the older woman, who has in her womb the one we know as John the Baptist; and Mary, the mother of Jesus, carrying in her womb the Son of God.
 
Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, had not been able to have children and they were quite elderly. Zechariah was a priest and one day while he was on duty in the Temple, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and told him that, in answer to his prayer, his wife would bear a son and the child was to be named John.
 
But Zechariah doubted this message, and for his failure to believe and trust this word from God, Zechariah was told that he would be silenced until the word was fulfilled.
 
Then the scene shifts six months later to the town of Nazareth, and this time it is the young Mary who is visited by the angel Gabriel.
 
Gabriel greeted Mary as the one who had found favor with God. “Don’t be afraid,” he told her, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:30-31).
 
And then the angel told her about Elizabeth’s pregnancy. He said, “Your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
 
And Mary said “yes” to God. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord,” she said, “let it be to me according to your word.”
 
But take particular note of what Mary did next. She immediately rose and traveled to her older relative, Elizabeth. She went to support Elizabeth in the final trimester of her pregnancy. In spite of the fact that Mary was facing a crisis pregnancy, in spite of morning sickness, and no doubt feeling very vulnerable, Mary graciously went to serve.
 
And one cannot help but think that the older Elizabeth offered wise counsel and support to her younger cousin as Mary worked through her encounter with the angel and the whole idea of bearing the Son of God.
 
It’s a wonderful picture of discipleship, isn’t it? The older woman and the younger one—both giving what they had, both receiving what they needed.
 
It’s all too easy to think that at any given time in our lives we will either be in need of help or be in a position to offer it to others. But Mary and Elizabeth show us that a faithful disciple both gives and receives. Even in times of adversity, there will be ways we can bless others through our witness, our prayers and our acts of service.
 
Recently, I spoke with a woman in our diocese who has been in a long battle with cancer, and I was so encouraged by her testimony of ministry to other patients and to staff during her hospitalizations and radiation. God gave her many opportunities to listen, encourage, pray and share the message of Jesus’ love and mercy. She prayed that she had been a faithful witness and she continued to pray for those she had met, even after her treatments ended.
 
You may recall the Apostle Paul’s profound words about his own experience of suffering. He came to see that God could yet work through him, manifesting his power through Paul’s frailty:
 
“Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8–10).
 
The faithfulness of my friend, and of Mary and Elizabeth and Paul, challenges me to ask God how he would use me for the sake of others, even in my own times of pain. And the converse is true, as well: even as I minister to others, the Lord would have me humbly receive the ministry that others offer to me.
 
May God give us the grace to know and to live out the truth of his Word, that when we are weak, in Christ we are truly strong.

Faithfully yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. John A. M. Guernsey