Reka Nagy recalls the time when she was waiting tables and had a tray full of drinks, and then had the misfortune of crashing into her manager, causing them both to tumble to the floor.

Nagy, however, while falling, managed to keep the drink tray she was carrying horizontal, so that even as she lay on the floor, not a drop was spilled, not a glass was broken. It was such a spectacular performance that the customers, far from chuckling at her clumsiness, instead gave her a rousing cheer and round of applause! Unfortunately, such responses are rare.

Waitresses. They’re hauling heavy trays. Crashing into co-workers. Being poked and grabbed and yelled at. Having to smile and be nice to rude customers. Receiving lousy tips. It can be a brutal way to make a buck.

An honorable profession to be sure, and some wait staff make good money. But most work hard for their money with not much more than bruises and bunions to show for the effort.

Suzy Hansen, who has studied the restaurant business, argues that you could say that the world is divided into two kinds of people: those on the customer side of the tray, and those on the waitress side of the tray.

On the customer side are the proud and the powerful; on the waitress side are the humble and the harassed. Far too many customers assume that waitresses are low-class women without skills, beneath conversation and consideration. Too often, they are snubbed, underpaid and ignored. Welcome to life on the other side of the tray.

It’s the other side with which Mary, the mother of Jesus, was all too familiar. Along with other women of first-century Galilee, Mary was a second-class citizen, deemed not worthy of conversation or consideration. She had little or no authority, virtually no rank or status in her culture.

No, this is not to suggest that the waitress at the Cracker Barrel is a second-class citizen. It is rather to put her in the same company as Mary who saw herself as a "servant of the Lord" (1:38). A servant, one who was waiting upon the Lord.

Alison Owings, author of the book Hey, Waitress!, observes that waitresses "watch, witness or are part of every upheaval, uproar, tradition, trend, debate and issue." You might even say that everything that happens in the world happens on a waitress’s shift — things like business meetings, political conventions, wedding receptions, even protest movements. One of the first skirmishes in the civil rights struggle of the 1960s occurred at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, when black students defied the practices of the day by bravely sitting down and ordering a piece of apple pie.

Waitresses. From the other side of the tray, they have witnessed historical events and human conflicts, and through times of chaos and confusion have tried to remain good and faithful servants. Just like Mary.

When Mary races over to the house of her relative Elizabeth, she discovers that her encounter with the angel was no mere fantasy. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and cries to Mary, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." Elizabeth describes Mary as "the mother of my Lord," both an affirmation and confirmation of what the angel had told Mary.

In today’s text, Elizabeth is a huge help to Mary, giving support, offering encouragement and sharing a sense of overflowing joy. Throughout the gospel of Luke, joy emerges again and again, with the Christmas angels bringing good tidings of great joy, Jesus predicting that his followers will leap for joy, the seventy disciples returning from their mission with joy, joy being felt in heaven over one sinner who repents, and the apostles returning to Jerusalem after the ascension, "with great joy."

So, two themes begin to emerge: servanthood and joy. The one follows the other.

On this Christmas Sunday, we are reminded that authentic Christian living requires a sense of service; it will inevitably — if done right — put us on the other side of the tray, serving people, waiting on others, ministering to the needy, lifting up the fallen.

But such a life will also bear the fruit of joy: the joy of forgiveness, of healing, of mission, of new life, of inclusion in the family of God. So often we forget this, especially at Christmastime, when our joy is swamped by the pressure to feel happy about parties and pageants and presents under the Christmas tree. Christian joy, when you think about it, is both more simple and more significant than Christmas happiness.

Happiness is linked to festivities, while joy is tied to forgiveness; happiness is about new things, while joy is about new life; happiness comes from finding a way to keep the peace between assorted aunts and uncles after three days of Christmas togetherness, while joy comes from finding our place in the family of God.

Joy. It’s what Jesus came to earth to give us, and what Elizabeth helps Mary to feel as she discovers her destiny as the mother of the Lord. Not that we should be surprised that Elizabeth is in touch with joy — after all, she is rejoicing in the child she herself is carrying in the womb, believing the child to be a gift from God. There can certainly be joy on the other side of the tray.

After receiving Elizabeth’s blessing, Mary bursts into a song of praise. "My soul magnifies the Lord," she says, "and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant" (vv. 46-48). God could have selected a queen or a princess or an aristocratic heiress to be the mother of the Lord, but he doesn’t.

Instead, God goes for the weary teenager doing the swing shift at the Galilee Grill, trying to make her way through life the best she can.

It’s a surprising selection, but it shows God’s hand — it reveals the plan for God’s ongoing involvement in the world. "His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation," sings Mary. "He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away" (vv. 50-53).

God has "filled the hungry with good things," says Mary. It’s a fascinating line that suggests the image of God as Waiter, feeding those who are hungry and clearing the table of those who are already full. If you are in need, God will help you ... he’ll be with you in a minute ... but if you are self-reliant and proud and powerful, you aren’t going to receive any service from the Lord.

Jesus followed this same path when he matured and began to wait on the spiritually starving people of the world. After he broke bread and shared wine with his disciples at the Last Supper, a dispute arose about which one of his followers was to be regarded as the greatest. Now Jesus knew very well that a customer is usually regarded as being greater than a waiter, but he turned these expectations on their head when he said to his disciples, "I am among you as one who serves." (Luke 22:27).

I’m a servant, insists Jesus, not a customer, in effect challenging his disciples to take their place on the other side of the tray. Jesus certainly saw himself on the other side of the tray.

The description of Mary in verse thirty nine is a tribute to her enthusiasm and eagerness to tell Elizabeth the good news of her miraculous pregnancy. Our text tells us that Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah. We Protestants are usually quick to point out that Jesus in not like Mary, His mother. Jesus, human though he was, was without sin, whereas Mary, as pious as she was, was still a sinner.

But Jesus was very much like is mother. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, that is, when it came near to the time for Jesus’ death, resurrection, and especially his ascension, Jesus set his face, in firm resolve to go to Jerusalem.

When Jesus said that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised, Peter could not deter him. Peter’s suggestion "Far be it from you Lord" was rejected by Jesus with a stern "Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me."

His enthusiasm and his eagerness to reach his goal, his commitment to remain on the other side of the tray surfaced in his remarks: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work," and "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work."

Yes, we could say that Jesus too "In those days arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah." Like mother, like Son, because eventually, Jesus went to a very specific hill near a city of Judah – Calvary’s hill, that skull shaped knoll called Golgotha. It is there that he suffered the death of crucifixion and the death of hell to accomplish our salvation.

Tom Oden, theologian and well-known author of a number of books, says that "We lead by serving and we serve by leading." A. Roy Medley, in his address to the General Board of American Baptist Churches on November 16, 2001, noted, however, that there is a difference between servanthood and servitude.

• Servitude is imposed; servanthood is embraced.

• Servitude enslaves; servanthood emancipates.

• Servitude denigrates; servanthood uplifts.

• Servitude crushes; servanthood fulfills.

• Servitude despairs; servanthood rejoices!

And there is the key to Christmas joy. The little-known secret of Christmas is that our joy is full when we study and learn from Mary as servant, God as servant, Jesus as servant, and then become servants ourselves.

When we do, our joy will be full. Amen.