It’s important to recognize God’s subversive choice in making Mary and Elizabeth prophets of Jesus and of God’s kingdom because that that is what they were – prophets. The scene before us today may seem cozy and domestic – and perhaps it was. But it was not tame.

for Luke, the world into which Jesus is born; into which John’s voice cries out is relevant to the story. God’s salvation does not come in the abstract, as a disembodied idea or a pretty theory, but in the real time, in real places, through real people and real events. As one commentator (Troy Troftgruben, from Working Preacher) puts it: “God saves not in Nevernever land or “somewhere over the rainbow” but in history.”

The young man in today’s story is not so different from many of us. Faithful, responsible, desiring of God – and also self-reliant, materially comfortable, practical. He heard Jesus’ invitation as a burden rather than an opportunity; as a price to be paid rather than a path to freedom.

How do you hear it?