Before considering the important part of the sermon, let’s take a look at today’s Gospel lesson and ask, what’s wrong with this picture? What takes place in our Gospel story that does not reflect the way things usually happen in the world?

If were teaching a class, I would now stop talking, and there would be a long period of silence, while you look through the biblical text on your bulletin insert, to try to find something unusual.

But to ensure that this sermon ends before it’s time for Sunday School to begin, I’ll save some time by pointing out that it is highly unusual for two pregnant women to meet and for one to say to the other, “You’re going to be the mother of someone whom I’ll be calling ‘Lord.’ Normally, Elizabeth or anyone else would not know such a thing in advance. Right? The reference is to Jesus, of course.

Elizabeth calls him “Lord,” and that fact provides a clue to what is going on here that you, as an average person-in-the-pew, would not even begin to imagine. At least, I didn’t, until I went to seminary.