Speak Blessings

Read Luke 1:39-45.

1. Pastor Mick shared an excerpt from one of Bishop Palmer’s recent newsletter articles in which he shared Psalm 27:13-14. Read this Psalm and discuss why Bishop Palmer might have chosen this Psalm for the Advent season. Does this Psalm make you think about Elizabeth and Mary? If so, how?

2. Bishop Palmer said in his letter, “We would do well to claim afresh practices of active, disciplined, expectant waiting as the necessary prerequisite to receiving the fullness of all we long and hope for.” How does this kind of waiting reflect what Elizabeth and Mary are doing? How might you wait the way the Bishop describes?

3. In what ways are Elizabeth and Mary different from each other? In what ways are they similar? Why do you think Mary “hurried” to go and see Elizabeth?

4. The angel told Mary about Elizabeth’s pregnancy, but there’s no evidence that Elizabeth was told about Mary’s pregnancy, yet Elizabeth seems to know immediately what’s going on with Mary when she arrives. What happened when Mary greeted Elizabeth that let Elizabeth know something miraculous had happened to Mary?

5. What is the significance of John leaping in Elizabeth’s womb? What did this leaping tell Elizabeth? What does it tell us? How is this, in some way, reminiscent of Jeremiah 1:5?

6. What happened immediately after the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb? How is this a fulfillment of the angel’s promise to Zechariah in Luke 1:15?

7. Elizabeth speaks three blessings over Mary in today’s passage. What are those three blessings? Have you ever had anyone speak blessings over you? If so, how did that impact your life?

8. Pastor Mick said that neither Mary nor Elizabeth would have expected to be called “blessed” in their time. Why is that? What does their “blessedness” tell us about why, and for whom, Jesus came? How might this affect the way we see others in our world?

9. What does it mean to you to be blessed? Do you feel blessed? Why/why not?

Prayer for the Week:
Gracious and loving God, thank you for entering the messiness of our lives in a very personal way through Jesus the Christ. Grant us such faith that we might respond to you in obedience like Elizabeth and Mary, and thus receive the many blessings you have for us. Help us to use our blessings to bless others by pointing them to you, that they too might come to know and follow you, and be blessed. We pray this in the strong and holy name of Jesus. Amen.