|
|
Monday, December 13, 2004
There are nativity scenes all over our community. There are plastic ones in neighbor's yards. There are plastic ones in front of businesses. There are ones that are blown up by some sort of leaf-blower type of machine. There's even an on-going "live" one at a local church, complete with all sorts of petting zoo animals.
I'm not against this by any stretch. I think it's pretty cool how a story about peasants born in the Middle East and the baby they nurtured creates all sorts of interest/chaos some 2000 years later. Not a problem at all.
The problem I have is that most of these nativity scenes always seem to involve halos. You know. Halos around the baby. Halos around Mary. Halos around Joseph. It gives the impression that this was some incredibly "spiritual" time in history, when I find that Scripture points to exactly how "real" these events were. Real historical events. Involving real, historical people. Who have real, historical reactions.
In Luke 1: 5, we get our first glimpse at this reality. Right off the bat, we're given a historical time clue: Herod was king of Judea. It's a fact. He was indeed appointed by the Roman emporer and reigned from 37 to 4 B.C. We know where we stand.
We're also given two real, historical people: Zacharias, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth. The Bible notes that Zacharias is from a particular division of priests, and his wife is a descendant of the priesthood of Aaron.
We can also make some observations about them from the next few verses:
They were both righteous before God.
They walked in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord.
They were childless.
They were elderly.
This might not seem too odd at first. A couple of childless senior citizens who walked in faith.
But it would've been odd if you got the historical background of this particular situation. See, God had not spoken through a prophet to the nation of Israel in some 400 years. 15 or 20 generations of Israelites had been raised without a prophet and direct revelation from God that was worthy of record.
If you've ever been to Western Europe, you've see what has happened with only about 4 generations of people who have begun to live a life without God: 400 year old cathedrals are now bars or concert halls...or abandoned. The people view Bible stories as they would view Aesop's fables or other fantasies you'd read as a child and then discard as you became "more educated." There are few younger people in the mainline denominations. Any religion, once focus fades from one generation, becomes watered down in the next. And so on. And so on. For 15 or so generations.
But there was a remnant. There always is in Scripture.
A couple of faithful people, who even though God hadn't blessed them personally with children (a terrible humiliation in that culture), walked humbly with their God. As for them and their house, they served the Lord faithfully.
And in our culture that is happening somewhat. It almost seems like there's this commercial Christmas mind-set, complete with obligatory nativity scenes, in which we nod politely at the origins and history of our faith, but we miss out on the authentic walk with God that makes the story able to pierce our souls...change our lives.
And my hope is that this Christmas study will make this time of season as "real" for you as it was for this faithful, elderly couple. Not a story of halos, but a story of people who walk with God in an authentic way, no matter what trends come down the pike or what books happen to list the key steps to a deeper walk or what Christmas movies show us, but rather walking with God His way and His time.
Real people, having a real walk with God, having a life-changing encounter with Him. And that's where we'll pick up the story tomorrow.
Brent 7:27 AM
|