In a recent article entitled "Biotech Babies," Lutheran medical ethicist Gilbert Meilaender notes how far some will go to have a child of their own. Consider, for example, a few real life cases documented by Meilaender:

• A woman unable to have a child of her own had her ovum fertilized with her husband's sperm in the laboratory. The resulting embryo was then implanted in the womb of the woman's mother, who having carried the pregnancy to term, gave birth to her own "grandchild."

• A husband and wife who thought that they wanted a child of their own contracted for the conception of a child who would be conceived from sperm and ovum that came from anonymous donors and who would then be gestated in the womb of a hired surrogate. Shortly before the child was born, the husband and wife who had wanted the child divorce. A judge felt compelled to rule that the baby girl actually had no legal parents at all.

• A woman undergoing infertility treatment in order to have a child of her own conceived triplets. For medical reasons she was advised to undergo "fetal reduction"-that is reduce by abortion, the number of fetuses she was carrying to one. She did, but a few weeks later, having undergone amniocentesis, she learned that the one surviving fetus had a genetic defect. She therefore aborted that fetus as well.

• A young woman about to undergo chemotherapy for leukemia but hoping nevertheless some day to have a child of her own had her ova harvested and fertilized with donor sperm before treatment-and the resulting embryos frozen. After she died of leukemia at the age of 28, her parents sought a surrogate who would agree to gestate the embryos. In this search they used the Internet and an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show, intending that their son and daughter-in-law would raise the child if the pregnancy could be successfully carried to term.

• A 63 year old woman, wanting a child of her own had implanted into her hormonally primed uterus an embryo made in the laboratory from her husband's sperm and an ovum from a younger donor. She then completed the pregnancy and gave birth to a child.

In today's Gospel, we see two women who are pregnant. In many ways, they could not be more different. Elizabeth is an old woman, well past the age of giving birth. Yes, she and her husband the priest Zacharias had prayed for a child but none had been granted. Then in God's time, He answered that prayer as Zacharias and Elizabeth became pregnant in their old age just as their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah became parents at an age when it was biologically impossible. With God nothing is impossible. He demonstrates this by giving a son to Abraham and Sarah and he repeats the miracle by doing the same for Zacharias and Elizabeth.

Mary, on the other hand, was a very young woman. No more than a teenager and she was still unmarried. No doubt she dreamed of being a mother someday after she and Joseph were married and settled down. That would come in the future. God in His wisdom and mercy interrupts Mary's life as He sends to her the Angel Gabriel who announces to Mary that she will conceive without the aid of a man and carry in her own womb the very Son of God. Both Elizabeth and Mary come to know that the sons that they conceive and carry in their wombs are not the products of their own efforts, but gifts of God.

After Mary receives the word from the Angel Gabriel that she will be the mother of the God-Man, Immanuel, she had to tell someone. She had no telephone or Internet, and so she travels up to the hill country to the home of Elizabeth, her aged relative. She tells Elizabeth the good news of the Son that has been conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. Pay attention to the joyous exchange between these two, an unwed teenage mother to be and a pregnant senior citizen. The baby in Elizabeth's womb leaps for joy at the sound of Mary's Spirit-filled words. This narrative from Sacred Scripture should put to silence the lie that the unborn child is not yet a human being. This Word from God should put to silence those who claim that infants are incapable of faith and therefore cannot be baptized.

Elizabeth marvels. "Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Her wonderment confesses Who it is who carried in Mary's belly. It is the Lord. He has hallowed our conception, our time in the womb, and our birth by coming to us as the Child conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. Then Elizabeth speaks a word of blessing, a word of benediction on Mary. Elizabeth says "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord."

Mary is indeed blessed for she believed the words told her by the Lord. Martin Luther says that there are three miracles in the Christmas Gospel. The first is that a virgin should become pregnant without the aid of a man. But this is a minor miracle for the God who created the heavens and the earth by His Word. The second miracle is a bit greater. The Lord whom the highest heavens cannot house becomes a little baby carried in His mother's body and nursed at her breasts. The third miracle, Luther says is the greatest of all and it is that Mary believed the word of the angel and so conceived. If she would not have believed, she could not have conceived. Mary is blessed for she hears the Word of God and keeps it. And in doing so, she is the model of faith for all Christians for faith comes by hearing the Word of the Lord.

The Child that Mary bore was not "a child of her own" but the very Son of God. He was born of Mary to be the Savior of the nations, the redeemer of a sinful world. He was born to be your Savior, the Lord who carried your sins to His death on the cross. Learn from Mary how to receive Him as the gift that He is. We rejoice today that Ansel and Lorien have heard that faith creating Word and so come to confess that Mary's Son is their Savior and their Lord.

We are given Jesus. He is not a child of our own making. He is the Son of God come in our flesh and blood to give us birth by water and the Spirit into the life that is eternal. Blessed indeed are those who believe, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told them by the Lord. Now come to His table to taste the fulfillment of these things in the body and the blood that were born of Mary. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.