CHAPTER 1
First Week of Advent
The Christmas Gift of Hope
Scripture: Read Isaiah 6:8; Luke 1:30-31, 34-35, 38
A friend of mine who is a psychologist once told me that he had found the perfect formula for getting through Christmas. He said, "You just put your mind in neutral and go where you are shoved!" Of course he was just kidding around, but we know full well what he was talking about. The Christmas rush, the hectic pace, the heavy traffic, the long lines, the frayed nerves, the bills, the deadlines, the pressures all combine to cause some people to give up and give in and just stonewall through the season. They just "put their minds in neutral" and "go where they are shoved."
But please don't let that happen to you. Don't just endure the season. Enjoy it. Relish it. Savor it. Celebrate it. Learn from it. Share the joy of Christmas with others. Listen to what Christmas is saying; Christmas has so much to teach us.
Take Mary and Isaiah, for example. There is so much to learn from them. Isaiah lived in tough times. His people, the Israelites, were under attack, and they had gotten away from God—so far away that Isaiah knew that they needed a savior; that was the only hope now. Isaiah also knew that the people needed a prophet to call them back to covenant faith and to give them hope. He saw the need. He heard the call, and he responded, "Here am I, Lord; send me!" (Isaiah 6:8, adapted). Isaiah is the symbol for faith and hope.
We see it even more dramatically in Mary. Mary has so much to teach us about real faith and real hope. When we see her so beautifully portrayed in Christmas pageants and on Christmas cards and in Nativity scenes, she looks so serene and lovely, and the whole matter appears too simple and easy. But think realistically about it for a moment. Consider realistically what Mary, a not-yet-married young woman who had become pregnant, went through. It must have been incredibly difficult: the whisperings behind her back, the pointed fingers, the false accusations, the raised eyebrows, the questions, the gossip, the criticism, the family pressures, the crude jokes, the cruel laughter, the poverty, the heavy taxes.
Not even to mention the long, hard journey Mary and Joseph made to Bethlehem, to register for the census, mandated at a time when an expectant mother shouldn't have had to travel anywhere except to the nearest hospital. Then add to that the birth in a stable, with no doctor, no midwife, no medicine, and no anesthetic—nothing but faith and hope in God!
Mary was just a teenage girl from a poor family who lived in an obscure village in a tiny nation, which itself was subject to a despised foreign power. Then one day, out of the blue, an angel came to Mary with a message from the Lord: "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold you will conceive and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great. He will be the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world" (Luke 1:30-32, adapted). And all this was going to happen without Mary's ever having been with any man.
Now, be honest. Would you have believed that? The remarkable thing is that Mary did! That's real faith and real hope, isn't it? She was willing to hear God's word, obey God's will, and entrust the future into God's hands, even though it put her in an awkward, difficult, complicated situation. How would she explain this? How would she communicate this to her parents? How would she tell Joseph?
Mary and Joseph were legally engaged. They had not yet consummated their marriage, but they were considered "as good as married," and in those days, when you became formally engaged as they were, the only way you could be separated was through divorce. How could she tell Joseph that she was going to have a baby, and how would he handle it? And what would the neighbors say?
It was a tough situation for Mary, and under similar circumstances most of us would have asked the Lord to find someone else to do this job. But not Mary. Her answer to the angel was a model of real faith and real hope. Like Isaiah before her, she said, "Here am I. I am the Lord's servant. Let it be with me according to your word" (Luke 1:38, paraphrased).
In both Mary and Isaiah, we see powerful portraits—Christian hope painted with three bold strokes. Let's look at these together.
Mary and Isaiah Were Persons of Great Hope Because They Heard God's Voice
Both Mary and Isaiah were tuned in to God. They were listening with the ears of faith and, thus, were able to hear God's message and respond.
I'm convinced that God is speaking loud and clear today, but sadly so few people are "tuned in" to hear him. So many of us get so caught up in the hectic pace of living that we stop listening. We are so inundated by words and voices and talk and appeals in our noisy world, that we pull back into a hard shell and sleepwalk our way through life. Too many of us throw in the towel, retreat from the struggle, and give in to the sin of the closed mind. We don't want our world disturbed by new ideas, so we tune out. We have ears, but we will not listen and we do not hear.
There's a popular story that has been making the rounds. There may be some truth in it, while some of it may be legend. As the story goes, in the late 1800s, a conference of church leaders in Indiana held their annual conference on the campus of a local college. The president of that college addressed the assembled leaders, and he said, "I think we are living in such an exciting age. I think we are going to see things happen in our lifetime that right now are just unbelievable."
The presiding bishop was intrigued by the college president's remarks. The bishop interrupted him and said, "What do you see? What specifically are you talking about? What kind of new things do you mean?"
And the president of the college said, "Well, all kinds of things, Bishop. I believe we're coming into a time of great inventions. This is the year 1870, and I believe for example that one day soon we will be able to fly through the air like birds!"
"You what?" said the bishop. "You believe that one day we will be able to fly?"
"Yes sir, I do," said the college president.
And then the bishop expounded, "Why, that is heresy, sir. Just plain heresy. The Bible says that flight is reserved for the angels and the angels alone. Enough of that drivel. We will have no more such talk here. Flying! What a ridiculous idea!" And do you know what? When the conference was over, that same bishop, whose last name was Wright, went home to his wife and to his two small sons, whose names just happened to be Wilbur and Orville! The bishop had tuned out. He wasn't listening.
Now, put that over against this: Some years ago, our family gathered in Memphis at Christmas for a family reunion. A month or so before Christmas that year, my sister had given birth to her third child, a beautiful baby girl. Most of us were seeing the baby for the first time, so there was a lot of excitement about this new addition to our family.
Toward evening, we put the bassinet in the back bedroom of the house and put the baby to bed. All the travel and excitement had tired her out. She fell asleep almost immediately. We had our Christmas dinner, and afterward we exchanged gifts. Then people got involved in a variety of activities. Some were talking and visiting, others were playing electronic games, some were singing carols, and still others were watching a football game on television.
There was a lot of noise and happy Christmas confusion. In the midst of all the chaos, I noticed my sister quietly slip out of the room. Where do you think she was going? She was going to check on the baby. She had heard the baby cry out.
Isn't that something? In all the commotion, no one else heard the baby, but the baby's mother did. And you know why, don't you? Because she was tuned in to hear the baby. She was listening for the baby. Her ears were trained to hear her baby's cry. That was her number-one priority.
In the same way, Mary was tuned in to hear God. Listen! One of the great questions of Christmas is this one: Can you hear the baby?
Are you tuned in to hear God?
Above all the chaos, can you hear God?
Is that a priority for you?
Or have you closed your mind and shut the voice of God out of your life?
Mary's hope and Isaiah's hope were great, first of all, because they heard God's voice.
Mary and Isaiah Were Persons of Great Hope Because They Obeyed God's Will
In the original New Testament Greek, the word for faith is pistis, and it literally means "believing obedience," believing in God so much that we commit ourselves body, mind, and soul to the doing of God's will, come what may.
In one Peanuts cartoon, Linus, the statistician for Charlie Brown's baseball team, brings Charlie Brown his final report. "I've compiled the statistics on our baseball team for this last season," Linus says. "In 12 games we ALMOST scored a run. In 9 games the other team ALMOST didn't score before the first out. In right field Lucy ALMOST caught 3 balls, and she once ALMOST made the right play." And then Linus says, "Charlie Brown, we led the league in ALMOST!"
That's the way many people are with regard to obeying God's will. They "lead the league in almost." They almost obey God's will, but not quite.
Many years ago when the great missionary David Livingstone was serving in Africa, he sent an appeal to England for more workers to come help him with his mission work on that continent. An answer came back from England, "We would like to send more workers to help you, but first we must ask, is there a good road to the outpost?" David Livingstone wrote back these words: "If you are offering to send workers who will come only if the road is easy, I can't use them. Tell them to stay home."
Mary's hope and Isaiah's hope were not tentative or conditional. No, in both cases, it was total and complete obedience to God, no matter how rough the road may be. Mary's hope and Isaiah's hope were great because they heard God's voice and because they obeyed God's will.
Mary and Isaiah Were Persons of Great Hope Because They Trusted God's Power
Both Mary and Isaiah took things one step at a time, one day at a time, and trusted God for the future.
Some years ago, there was a captain on a Mississippi riverboat. He had been on that job for more than thirty-five years. One day a passenger said to him, "After all these years of navigating the river, I guess you know by now where all the rocks and sandbars are." The captain answered, "No, but I know where the deep water is!"
In effect, that's what Mary said, isn't it? "I know where the deep water is." In other words, I know there are some rocky places out there, but I trust God to bring me through this.
I heard Terry Anderson say that a few years ago. He had just been released after having been held hostage for six and a half years in another country. He was serving as the chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press when he was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon, on March 16, 1985, and he was held captive until his release on December 4, 1991. It was an incredibly difficult ordeal, but Terry Anderson came through it all with amazing strength.
Since his release, he has been interviewed a number of times, and his answers and responses have been inspirational. Let me remind you of three of his most powerful comments. First, when he was asked what had enabled him to survive this awful experience, he answered without hesitation, "My companions, ... my faith, [and my] stubbornness," which might be seen as another way of saying trust in God (Chris Hedges, "The Last U.S. Hostage; Anderson, Last U.S. Hostage, Is Freed by Captors in Beirut," New York Times, December 5, 1991).
Second, one reporter said, "Terry, you have said that you don't hate your captors. Can you help us to understand that?" Terry Anderson replied, "I don't hate anybody. I'm a Christian ... and it's really required of me that I forgive, no matter how hard that may be, and I intend to do that" (Stephen Kinzer, "Anderson Says He Doesn't Hate Captors," New York Times, December 7, 1991).
And third, he was asked, "Terry, did you ever lose hope?" Terry Anderson said, "Hard question.... Of course, I had some blue moments, moments of despair, but fortunately, right after I became a hostage, one of the first things that fell into my hands was a Bible. Over the last six and a half years as a captive, I have spent a lot of time with the Bible ... and that helped me so much because it's about hope; it's about trust in God, and that's what gave me the strength to make it through each day." And then Terry Anderson said, "You do what you have to do. Faith helps you to do what you have to do. I spent a lot of time with the Bible and it reminded me to do the best I could each day ... and to trust God for the future."
That's great Christian hope, isn't it? It's the kind of hope Mary and Isaiah had. It's the kind of hope we need—Christian hope that enables us to hear God's voice, to obey God's will, and to trust God's power.
Questions for Reflection and Discussion
1. What does Advent mean to you? Why is it important?
2. What are some of the lessons and learning opportunities Christmas brings to us?
3. What are some different ways in which we hear the voice of God?
4. What does it mean to be a person of great hope? What personal traits and qualities does a person of hope possess?
5. What lessons about hope can we learn from the lives of Mary and Isaiah?
6. God wants us to both trust and obey; is this difficult to do? Explain your answer. Share some ideas on how we can be more trusting and obedient.
Prayer
Dear God, thank you for the season of Advent. Help us grow in hope and faith as we move toward Christmas. Show us how to celebrate and enjoy this special time of year, and guide us in observing the true meaning of Christmas. Amen.
Focus for the Week
Begin your observance of Advent by becoming an instrument of faith and hope to others this week. Through words and actions, reach out to those in need.
CHAPTER 2
Second Week of Advent
The Christmas Gift of Freedom
Scripture: Read Matthew 11:1-6
Some years ago there came out of Southern California a poignant story that is a powerful parable for Advent and Christmas.
A twelve-year-old boy had been brought to the hospital. He had been thrown off of a horse. The boy was so traumatized by that frightening experience that he had become the victim of an emotional paralysis. He was paralyzed in a prison of fear. His eyes were open, but he stared straight ahead. He made no recognition of anyone else, and he would not move or speak. He would make no response to anyone or to anything.
The doctors said there was nothing physically wrong with him—no bruises or cuts or broken bones, no concussion. The diagnosis was that he had been literally "scared stiff," frightened into some kind of psychosomatic paralysis. Day after day, the boy lay in bed in that kind of semiconscious state of mind and spirit, totally unresponsive. Nothing reached him.
Finally, one day in a moment of inspiration, one of the nurses brought in a baby, a happy six-month-old baby. The nurse laid the baby on the stomach of the twelve-year-old boy. The baby started cooing and scratching the little boy's stomach. Then, the baby crawled up and began to touch the little boy's face.
Suddenly, the twelve-year-old boy smiled, and then he hugged the baby and patted him and kissed him on the top of his head. Amazingly, that twelve-year-old boy had come back to life. He began to talk and respond and recognize, and in just a few days the doctors pronounced that he was well, and they let him go home. Isn't that something?
This story underscores the incredible message of Advent and Christmas. A little baby comes to set us free. A little baby comes to heal us, to save us, to give us new life. A little baby comes to do for us what no one else can do. Advent reminds us of how much we need a Savior. And Christmas tells us the good news: a Savior is given!
One of the most popular passages of the Advent season is this colorful story in Matthew 11. John the Baptist sends his disciples out to ask Jesus a question: "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" (verse 3). Now, this is a curt question. What we have here is a situation where two cousins are going at each other! And we can understand John's impatience. He is in prison.
