Advent Devotion for Thursday, December 21
Based on Luke 1:39-45 (read it here: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=33726437 )
I’m always intrigued by this passage. Remember first that Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, had thoroughly blown it by failing to believe that the angel Gabriel was telling the truth. Gabriel, in response, had sentenced him to be silent until the baby was born. So when Mary shows up on Elizabeth’s doorstep, she is surrounded by two people who had seen Gabriel–one who had believed and one who hadn’t. And so I’m very amused by what she says to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed”–you can almost imagine her staring daggers at her sheepish husband–“that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” I love the comedy of that situation: Elizabeth still frustrated with her foolish husband and greeting her cousin by saying essentially, “I’m glad you’re not like him!”
But I’m also amazed by the babies. Elizabeth says to Mary that not only is she blessed, but also her child–“for as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my heart leaped for joy.” John the Baptist has not even been born yet, and already, he is excited at Jesus’ presence, leaping around, trying to show people that this Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
“Unless you become like little children,” says Jesus later on in the Gospels, “you will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” This seems to be taking it to extremes a little bit–“unless you become like pre-born children...” Still, look at the bare facts of it: salvation is coming and the wizened priest Zechariah cannot see it; but an not-yet-born baby leaps for joy, just sensing that the Savior of the World has been carried into the room in his own amniotic sac.
Who among us has ever seen God face-to-face? I know some people who have had visions, but they are few and far between. Most of us settle for seeing God like John the Baptist saw Jesus. That is to say, we don’t really see him at all. Jesus doesn’t walk the earth in physical form much anymore, and so we don’t see him physically. Rather, we sense him like John the Baptist did–even though they were separated by flesh and fat and fluid, something in him just knew that God was there. Just so, we also sense when God is present–something in us just knows it when God is there and working.
Trouble is, we’re too much like Zechariah and not enough like John the Baptist. When God is there, time is so precious. It’s so rare, and so sweet, and we ought to jump for joy. We should swim backflips like little John, going back and forth to the ends of the little world we know, kicking and punching and headbanging for glee.
God is coming! All creation rises to meet him, the born and the unborn.
I’m always intrigued by this passage. Remember first that Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, had thoroughly blown it by failing to believe that the angel Gabriel was telling the truth. Gabriel, in response, had sentenced him to be silent until the baby was born. So when Mary shows up on Elizabeth’s doorstep, she is surrounded by two people who had seen Gabriel–one who had believed and one who hadn’t. And so I’m very amused by what she says to Mary, “Blessed is she who believed”–you can almost imagine her staring daggers at her sheepish husband–“that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” I love the comedy of that situation: Elizabeth still frustrated with her foolish husband and greeting her cousin by saying essentially, “I’m glad you’re not like him!”
But I’m also amazed by the babies. Elizabeth says to Mary that not only is she blessed, but also her child–“for as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my heart leaped for joy.” John the Baptist has not even been born yet, and already, he is excited at Jesus’ presence, leaping around, trying to show people that this Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
“Unless you become like little children,” says Jesus later on in the Gospels, “you will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” This seems to be taking it to extremes a little bit–“unless you become like pre-born children...” Still, look at the bare facts of it: salvation is coming and the wizened priest Zechariah cannot see it; but an not-yet-born baby leaps for joy, just sensing that the Savior of the World has been carried into the room in his own amniotic sac.
Who among us has ever seen God face-to-face? I know some people who have had visions, but they are few and far between. Most of us settle for seeing God like John the Baptist saw Jesus. That is to say, we don’t really see him at all. Jesus doesn’t walk the earth in physical form much anymore, and so we don’t see him physically. Rather, we sense him like John the Baptist did–even though they were separated by flesh and fat and fluid, something in him just knew that God was there. Just so, we also sense when God is present–something in us just knows it when God is there and working.
Trouble is, we’re too much like Zechariah and not enough like John the Baptist. When God is there, time is so precious. It’s so rare, and so sweet, and we ought to jump for joy. We should swim backflips like little John, going back and forth to the ends of the little world we know, kicking and punching and headbanging for glee.
God is coming! All creation rises to meet him, the born and the unborn.
posted by Rev. Michael Jordan at 1:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home