Our theme for the past few days thinking about characters in the Christmas story has evolved to God communicates and people respond (or not):

• The Shepherds heard from angels and “went in haste.”
• The Religious Professionals heard from the wise men and the Word…and stayed home.
• Joseph heard from God in dreams and carried out every order.
• Simeon was in touch with God through the Spirit and responded.

How about two more angel stories?

Zechariah was told by an angel that his elderly wife Elizabeth would give birth to John the Baptist. How did Zechariah, a religious professional, respond?

And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” (Luke 1.18 – 20, ESV)

Our religious professionals aren’t doing so well, are they? By contrast, Mary, a teenage girl, was visited by an angel, too. How did she respond?

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1.34 – 38, ESV)

Almost the same question as Zechariah, but not with the same attitude. And Mary responded with obedience to what she knew would be a VERY difficult task.

What will God call us to do and by what means? And how will we respond?

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14.12 – 15, ESV)

Yesterday, we saw that God led Joseph by dreams (much like the Old Testament Joseph!). Today, let’s look at Simeon, a man in touch with the Spirit:

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” (Luke 2.25 – 32, ESV)

I’ve written before about the Spirit working through those who attend to him. See The First Oops followed by A Word of Knowledge. My very first blog when I started daily blogging, January 6, 2019, was about Simeon’s response.

Daily guidance from God is available – sometimes spectacularly through a dream or a vision but most of the time through the still small voice of the Spirit, available to us just as it was to Simeon.

And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. (Isaiah 30.21, ESV)

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8.14, ESV)

Special edition…

It’s with great sadness and tears that I announce the passing of Babo the Dog on Wednesday, December 28. He had turned 12 in September. Our daughter Melody acquired Babo when she and her family were teaching in the Dominican Republic in 2016. His name was spelled “Vevo” then in a country where “V” comes out “B” and the Spanish long-E has an English long-A sound. When they moved to China in 2018 and taking the dog was too expensive, Melody prevailed upon us to take him so he would “stay in the family.” We didn’t really want him, but, as June has said, “It didn’t take long to have us wrapped around his little paw.” We changed the spelling to “Babo” to minimize confusion, and he’s been a loving and faithful companion for 4.5 years.

He was a sweet dog, and everyone in the neighborhood who encountered us on our frequent walks loved him. He loved the car and responded with great excitement to, “Do you want to go for a ride?” He got even more excited if I said, “Do you want to go to the Post Office?” He thought that was the greatest thing. He loved me, but June was his main squeeze. Maybe because she fed him more often than I did in the early days. When she was out, he often camped by a window that offered a view of the driveway. When she returned, he would run down the stairs to the door to the garage, and if I was there to open it, he would race into the garage and run around the car wagging his stubby little tail. By contrast, he was always glad to see me, but I didn’t usually get a tail wag!

We love to go to Estes Park, but the condo that we often rented didn’t allow pets, so we started renting cabins at the YMCA of the Rockies. He loved the walks there – all those new scents! Again, if June left the cabin, he spent most of his time looking out the window for her. The “healthy” pix were made in the cabin this summer.

He’s been gradually declining since at least this summer. Normally eating everything in sight, he began to be picky about what he would eat, and he ate nothing the last week. He spent most of his last two weeks lying on the couch where I could sit with him watching football (or soccer!) and working on the computer. He used to be “a bit heavy” at 18 – 19 pounds. 8 days before his death, the vet weighed him at 15.2 pounds. Wednesday morning at the vet, he weighed 13.2 pounds, a 2-pound loss in just over a week.

Melody and family were due to arrive for a post-Christmas visit Wednesday afternoon. We prayed that he would hang on until they arrived to say goodbye. He did. The picture shows June with Melody talking with Babo while daughters Liana (back to the camera) and Shirah look on. I’ll have to say that with all that attention, he only has eyes for me. We took him to the vet shortly after. Son-in-law Cody was kind enough to go with me. I cry as I write. As our oldest son, Mark, said, “Rest in peace, Babo.”

Thanks for reading.

But ask the animals, and they will teach you… (Job 12.7, NIV)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. (Psalm 46.1, ESV)

I can’t write a series of Christmas vignettes without a shout-out to Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. He doesn’t get much press, and nothing he said was recorded, but he was a faithful man.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1.18 – 21, ESV)

Now when [the wise men] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matthew 2.13 – 15, ESV)

But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene. (Matthew 2.19 – 23, ESV)

Four dreams, five obedient responses:

• Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife – he did that
• Call his name Jesus – yes he did!
• Rise and take the child and his mother to Egypt – “And he rose and took the child by night” – immediate obedience!
• Rise, take the child and his mother back to Israel – and he did
• Don’t go to Judea – so he went to Nazareth

God led Joseph by means of dreams. Tomorrow, we’ll look at another way God led a character in the Christmas story. No matter how God leads, my responsibility is to respond in obedience.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14.15, ESV)

We saw yesterday how eagerly the ordinary shepherds, at work, stopped what they were doing to visit the newborn Jesus. By contrast, the elites in Jerusalem had a noteworthy non-response:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’” (Matthew 2.1 – 6, ESV)

What’s interesting is that it didn’t seem to occur to any of the “chief priests and scribes” to say to Herod, “Why do you ask?”

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. (John 3.19, 20, NKJV)

Continuing our look at vignettes from the narratives of Jesus’ birth, it’s easy to skip over this verse:

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. (Luke 2.8, ESV)

Who were the first visitors to the newborn Jesus?

Working men…at work!

God values work. God values ordinary people doing ordinary work. A few weeks ago, it had snowed on garbage collection day. Not a lot, but it was cold, and the roads were snow-packed as June and I drove down our street toward the grocery store. And there was the garbage truck. Bless ’em. I thanked the dude for coming out on such a day to pick up our garbage.

And these ordinary men responded way better than the educated elites in Jerusalem (stay tuned!):

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. (Luke 2.16, ESV, emphasis mine)

And where did they go after encountering Jesus?

Back to work!

And the shepherds returned… (Luke 2.20, ESV)

Wow. After a wild ride into the warfare aspects of Christmas beginning here, for a few days let’s enjoy aspects of the Matthew and Luke accounts of Jesus’ birth.

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Luke 2.1 – 7, ESV)

I love verse 1. Whom does Caesar Augustus serve? He would have said, “I’m Caesar! I serve no one!” But he would have been wrong. Micah had already prophesied hundreds of years before that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. (Micah 5.2, ESV)

Even the Jewish religious establishment who were later hostile to Jesus knew that. (See Matthew 2.3 – 6)

So if God needs to get Mary and Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem, what better way than have the Roman emperor order it? Next time we fret about decisions coming our of our governments at various levels, maybe we should remember Who is really in charge.

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. (Proverbs 21.1, ESV)

It’s Christmas Day! Hope yours is a good one.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9.6, 7, ESV)

I’ve written before about “An Act of War,” written by Tim Lewis, the son of longtime friends Bruce and Elena Lewis. This year, I took the time to transcribe the lyrics so you can read them with or without Tim’s excellent recording. The lyrics line up perfectly with yesterday’s excerpts of Eugene Peterson’s meditations on Revelation. I present Tim’s song without further comment:

Stanza 1

We sing about a silent night, When everything was calm and bright, And the Holy Child Was lying in the manger.

The shepherds share the angel’s joy, And come to see the baby boy And in this happy glow, We miss the danger.

For fallen priests and wrathful kings Are threatened by the light He brings Ruthless men Who claim to be divine.

For centuries they’ve killed His prophets, But now in keeping with His promise The Son of God Has stepped across the line.

Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

And the kings, they draw their swords, As the ancient dragon roars, And the battle begins on a stable floor. In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

Stanza 2

And this is how love fought to save us, Not to conquer and re-enslave us, He reaches for the hearts And not the crowns of earth.

For swords and soldiers cannot mend us, His light must kindle deep within us, So God’s own Son Lies in the arms of a peasant girl.

And who are we that He should love rebels in the graves we’ve dug? In shame we’ve turned away from Him And closed the door.

But now the very God whom we’ve defied Has sent His Son to testify That ruined hearts Are still worth fighting for!

Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

And the kings, they draw their swords, As the ancient dragon roars, And the battle begins on a stable floor. In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

Stanza 3

And as He grew, He fought the lies, Exposed the hypocrite’s disguise, And showed the mercy of the Father To the poor He taught.

Many saw His light, but they loved the darkness, His words exposing where their heart was, Yet He gave His life, a sacrifice To win the lost.

And the battle fought on Christmas Day Still rages in our world today, The light still shines –  The darkness shall not overcome.

So light your lamp, and do not fear To spread His light to captives here; We follow His example ‘Till the battle’s done!

Final Refrain

And it was an act of war, A beachhead in the night Upon earth’s darkened shores, A glimmer of the light.

As the drums of Heaven pound With the heart of the Father, That the lost ones shall be found And restored as sons and daughters.

Amazing love, how can it be That You would go to war for me, And give Your life to set me free In spite of my hostility.

Now my heart is sworn To the Savior born In Bethlehem – It was an act of war!

“Act of War” lyrics and music are copyright© 2019 by Tim Lewis. Please share this song and video, but don’t remove the copyright info.

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron… (Revelation 12.1 – 5, ESV)

We reminded ourselves yesterday of the warfare version of the Nativity story from Revelation 12.

Eugene Peterson’s meditation on Revelation, Reversed Thunder, describes the scene in his usual eloquence beginning on page 119. Here are some excerpts:

The immediate consequence of the birth is not Christmas carols but a great war spread across the heavens.

He is referring to Revelation 12.7 – 12:

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Peterson goes on:

This is not the nativity story we grew up with, but it is the nativity story all the same. Jesus’ birth excites more than wonder, it excites evil: Herod, Judas, Pilate. Ferocious wickedness is goaded into violence by this life. Can a swaddled infant survive the machines of terror?

…

It is St. John’s Spirit-appointed task to supplement the work of St. Matthew and St. Luke so that the nativity cannot be sentimentalized into coziness, nor domesticated into drabness, nor commercialized into worldliness…It is St. John’s genius to take Jesus in a manger, attended by shepherds and wise men and put him in the cosmos attacked by a dragon. The consequence to our faith is that we are fortified against intimidation. Our response to the nativity cannot be reduced to shutting the door against a wintry world, drinking hot chocolate and singing Christmas carols. Rather, we are ready to walk out the door with, as one Psalmist put it, high praises of God in our throats and two-edged swords in our hands. (Psalm 149.6)

If that doesn’t get your juices flowing, stay tuned. I want to share a song that says the same thing.