If you missed Kathleen Krucoff’s response to yesterday’s blog, I take the opportunity to share this portion with you:

Yes, you are so right, finding Joy can be difficult some days/weeks. I try to choose Joy every day. This week we said goodbye to our oldest basset hound, Newton. He was 14 1/2 years old. Had a great life. Brought so much love, companionship and joy into our lives. It was time. It was the right decision. I am joyfully remembering him. (Kathleen Krucoff, December 13, 2020, emphasis mine)

Choosing joy…or recognizing that Rejoice is a Choice, was going to be today’s topic after reading a very long article on ESPN about Archie Manning, quarterback of the New Orleans Saints back in the 70s, and father of NFL quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Eli Manning.

Here’s a snippet of Archie’s reported remarks at a recent event presenting him (another) lifetime achievement award:

Onstage Archie talked about sitting with [his father] Buddy Manning on Saturday afternoons and listening to college football on the radio. The memories he shared of that time were light and full of joy. That’s a choice he made a long time ago… The Inheritance of Archie Manning, Wright Thompson, ESPN Senior Writer

Earlier in the article, we learn that Archie’s father, whose “light and joyful” memories Archie shared, committed suicide with a shotgun, timed so that Archie, age 19, would discover him and clean up the mess before his mother and sister got home. Some of us would be in therapy for life over something like that. Archie chose instead to live a life of joy.

These are tough times (by American standards) to be sure, but scriptures are clear:

Rejoice is a choice.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. (Philippians 4.4, ESV)

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.16 – 18, ESV)

We’re beginning Week 3 of Advent: Joy

Joy seems to be in short supply right now, doesn’t it? We’re worn down with COVID and the accompanying restrictions, cold weather is coming, and half the country is upset about the election! Joy? You can’t be serious.

I can’t wait to see where God will take us this week, but I do know that joy is central to his purposes for us. “Joy” occurs 65 times in the New Testament so it won’t be hard to find verses!

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy. (Galatians 5.22)

When [the Wise Men] saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. (Matthew 2.10, ESV)

As we close out this week’s Advent meditations on Faith, it is helpful to remind ourselves that it’s not just “faith.” It’s faith in something. What?

I was struck by this part of Mary’s song in Luke 1:

Mighty power flows from him to scatter all those who walk in pride. Powerful princes he tears from their thrones, and he lifts up the lowly to take their place. Those who hunger for him will always be filled, but the smug and self-satisfied he will send away empty. Luke 1.51 – 53, Passion Translation)

“Scatter all those who walk in pride…send the smug and self-satisfied away empty.”

Who is more prideful, smug, and self-satisfied than some religious people? Growing up I heard all kinds of sermons poking fun at or criticizing other Christian groups. “Thank God we’re not [you fill in the blank].” And what’s the point? Purely to make us proud that at least we’re not a member of the wrong group? And maybe some folks from that group were proud they weren’t one of us? That’s helpful (not!). There are two things:

• In criticizing the other guys, we could be wrong! As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned valuable lessons from leaders from those “other groups.” I found out that there were godly people and devout Jesus followers in groups I would have completely written off years ago.
• Second, even if we’re not wrong, even if there are severe problems with “those people,” there are no “points” for not being a member of a particular group. In a related issue, every time I do a time with God workshop, at least one person comes up afterward to tell me he doesn’t approve of a translation I recommended. My response is always the same: “Fine. Don’t read that one. There are no points for NOT reading a particular translation. How are you hearing the voice of God from the Bible you are using?”

It’s pride we all need to be careful of. Being smug and self-satisfied. Putting our faith in our little (or large!) group rather than in Jesus.

Those who hunger for him will always be filled, but the smug and self-satisfied he will send away empty. Luke 1.53, Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

Faith requires action.

So they gestured to the baby’s father to ask what to name the child. After motioning for a writing tablet, in amazement of all, he wrote, “His name is John.” Instantly Zechariah could speak again. And his first words were praises to the Lord. (Luke 1.62 – 64, Passion Translation)

The judgment on Zechariah was that he would be mute. It doesn’t say he would be deaf. I wonder if the people just assumed he was deaf. He would have been in seclusion, no doubt, so they didn’t know. I remember when we met Sox the Fox at the Sky Sox minor league baseball stadium. I acted like he was deaf since he didn’t talk. My son Mark said, “He can hear you; he just can’t answer you.” Of course.

I don’t know if that’s important or even interesting, but I always wondered about why they gestured to Zechariah.

Zechariah was acting in faith, however, naming the baby John as he had been told.

But the angel reassured him, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God is showing grace to you. For I have come to tell you that your prayer for a child has been answered. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you are to name him John. … Then the angel said, “I am Gabriel. I stand beside God himself. He has sent me to announce to you this good news. But now, since you did not believe my words, you will be stricken silent and unable to speak until the day my words have been fulfilled at their appointed time and a child is born to you. That will be your sign!” (Luke 1:13 – 20, Passion Translation)

“Unable to speak UNTIL the day my words have been fulfilled.” The words included not only that they would have a son but that he would be named John.

Zechariah acts in faith and obedience. First, by fulfilling his husbandly duties to Elizabeth. Second by naming the baby John.

Faith requires action. For example, to express faith in the COVID vaccine, we’ll actually have to take the vaccine AND decrease some of our isolation.

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2.17, NIV)

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. (Hebrews 11.7, NIV)

Yesterday, we observed that Elizabeth blessed Mary for “believing every word” that the angel told her and noted that our challenge is to do the same.

But we don’t believe in spite of evidence against what we’re believing but because of the evidence. Luke introduces his Gospel as an account based on evidence:

I am writing for you, mighty lover of God, an orderly account of what Jesus, the Anointed One, accomplished and fulfilled among us. Several eyewitness biographies have already been written, using as their source material the good news preached among us by his early disciples, who became loving servants of the Living Expression. But now I am passing on to you this accurate compilation of my own meticulous investigation based on numerous eyewitness interviews and thorough research of the story of his life. It is appropriate for me to write this, for he also appeared to me so that I would reassure you beyond any shadow of a doubt the reliability of all you have been taught of him. (Luke 1.1 – 4, Passion Translation)

I was struck by Luke’s detail on Mary’s meeting with Elizabeth:

Afterward, Mary arose and hurried off to the hill country of Judea, to the village where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. Arriving at their home, Mary entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the moment she heard Mary’s voice, the baby within Elizabeth’s womb jumped and kicked. And suddenly, Elizabeth was filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit! With a loud voice she prophesied with power:

“Mary! You are a woman given the highest favor and privilege above all others…The moment you came in the door and greeted me, my baby danced inside me with ecstatic joy!…” (Luke 1.39 – 44, Passion Translation)

How would this information have come down to us? Elizabeth, who was old to start with, would have been dead before John and Jesus grew up. But the text is clear that Elizabeth told Mary that her child leaped in the womb. It’s not just that he leaped (verse 41), but that Elizabeth told Mary that he leaped (verse 44).

Mary must then have told the disciples as they were trying to piece everything together, perhaps in the upper room for those 10 days after the ascension.

The disciples left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem, less than a mile away. Arriving there, they went into a large second-floor room to pray. Those present were Peter, John, Jacob, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, Jacob (the son of Alpheus), Simon (the zealot), Judas (the son of Jacob), and a number of women, including Mary, Jesus’ mother. His brothers were there as well. (Acts 1.12 – 14, Passion Translation)

Soon we’ll have to put our faith in a COVID vaccine–that it’s both safe and effective! Hopefully, there will be evidence…

We’re working through the second week of Advent, which some call the week of faith. Luke records the conversation between Mary and Elizabeth, which includes this observation of Mary by Elizabeth:

Great favor is upon you, for you have believed every word spoken to you from the Lord. (Luke 1.45, Passion Translation)

There’s a faith statement!

Luke gives us these confirming signs of Jesus’ identity in Luke 1:

• Elizabeth’s pregnancy in old age (Luke 1.24, 25)
• Mary’s pregnancy without a man (Luke 1.30 – 38)
• John leaping in the womb (Luke 1.39 – 45)
• Mary’s prophecy (Luke 1.46 – 55)

Great favor is upon you because you have believed every word spoken to you from the Lord.

That’s our challenge now, isn’t it? To believe. Believers are a decreasing minority right now (that’s something that needs to turn around), but the challenge is to believe. Not explain the wonder out of it or eliminate the stories through so-called scholarship. I don’t criticize the text; I let the text criticize me.

And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who give all their passion and strength into seeking him. (Hebrews 11.6, Passion Translation)

Here are some faith lessons from Zechariah and Mary:

Gabriel answered, “The Spirit of Holiness will fall upon you and almighty God will spread his shadow of power over you in a cloud of glory! This is why the child born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your aged aunt, Elizabeth, has also become pregnant with a son. The ‘barren one’ is now in her sixth month. 37 Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God!” Then Mary responded, saying, “This is amazing! I will be a mother for the Lord! As his servant, I accept whatever he has for me. May everything you have told me come to pass.” And the angel left her. Luke 1.35 – 38, Passion Translation

These are familiar stories, but they are quite fantastic. Two people: Zechariah and Mary:

• At first, Zechariah did not believe (Luke 1.18 – 20), but after, he had to exercise enough faith to get Elizabeth pregnant. (Compare Abraham, Romans 4.20, 21)
• Mary did believe and responded, “I accept whatever he has for me.” Nothing indicates she had to respond that way or that the promise was contingent upon her response, but it most likely was. Theoretically, she could have refused.
• “Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God” was spoken to Mary, but it was about Zechariah and Elizabeth as much as about her.

Am I believing God can do great things through me? Am I accepting his assignments?

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6.8, ESV)

Here’s another lesson from Zechariah and Elizabeth – a faith lesson:

During the reign of King Herod the Great over Judea, there was a Jewish priest named Zechariah who served in the temple as part of the priestly order of Abijah. His wife, Elizabeth, was also from a family of priests, being a direct descendant of Aaron. They were both lovers of God, living virtuously and following the commandments of the Lord fully. But they were childless since Elizabeth was barren, and now they both were quite old. (Luke 1.5 – 7, Passion Translation)

Zechariah and Elizabeth chose to be faithful amid a sandwich of difficulty: King Herod the Great was their governor. An extremely evil man, as Matthew’s account of his killing all the baby boys 2 years old and under shows. Also, Zechariah and Elizabeth were childless. In a culture that believed obedience produced blessing, and blessing equals children, continued virtuous living must have been difficult.

Dr. Esau McCaulley, assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, and director of Next Generation Leadership for the Anglican Church in North America, wrote about Zechariah and Elizabeth in his book Reading while Black. He compares them to elderly black believers today and to the first generation of black believers during slavery:

Zechariah and Elizabeth are, in a sense, Israel writ small. Elizabeth and Zechariah’s generation could say alongside Jeremiah’s, “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved” (Jer 8:20). It is important that Luke begins here because it situates the Jesus story in the middle of the pain of Israel, which includes the large-scale tragedy of exile and disinheritance along with the personal traumas each individual Israelite must face. In other words, Luke begins with the issue of injustice as a central concern.

Elizabeth and Zechariah are crucial for understanding Black hope. As the faithful elderly who persevered in the faith despite long-delayed hope, they are our Black grandparents who dragged us to church and prayed for us when we lacked the faith to pray for ourselves.

But more urgently, Zechariah and Elizabeth are the first generation of Black Christians who came to faith during slavery. Why put your faith in the God worshiped by slave owners? What good could come of it? How could its message be of use to you? The question posed by Frederick Douglass could also be found in the lament psalms of Israel: “Does a righteous God govern the universe? And for what does he hold the thunders in his right hand if not to smite the oppressor, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the spoiler?” Why would such a people who have every reason for cynicism put their faith in a God whose promises seem long delayed? – Esau McCauley, Reading While Black, page 82.

Jesus came into an imperfect world. A world of oppression. We wait in hope. We wait in faith. COVID has gone on way longer than any of us expected. And racial injustice has gone on longer than anyone expected, too, despite many improvements. And yet one day, we will be on the other side of COVID as I wrote earlier, and, hopefully, on the other side of injustice, too.

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)

We’re already beginning week 2 of Advent 2020.

Faith leads to action. The shepherds heard the angels’ report and journeyed “with haste” to Bethlehem. (Luke 2.15, 16) King Herod heard the wise men’s report and responded in anger to kill all the baby boys he could find. (Matthew 2.16) I’ve never contrasted or even heard someone else contrast Luke 2.16 with Matthew 2.16, but both are responses of faith. I think we can say that the shepherds’ faith was mixed with hope – anticipation of the Messiah’s coming. Herod’s faith was mixed with dread – fear of a rival king.

We’ll look more at faith this week.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13.13, NKJV)

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen…Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (Hebrews 11.1…6, NKJV)

There’s so much in the short story about Zechariah and Elizabeth. Yesterday, we looked at the Benedictus: delivered from…to. Today we’re back to Zechariah’s encounter with the angel, who says something very intriguing:

But the angel reassured him, saying, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah! God is showing grace to you. For I have come to tell you that your prayer for a child has been answered. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son and you are to name him John. (Luke 1.13, Passion Translation)

“Your prayer for a child has been answered.” Judging from Zechariah’s response, it’s likely he wasn’t even praying that prayer currently. In fact, the Passion Translation note says as much:

The Greek verb allows for a possible translation of “prayer you don’t even pray anymore.” -Passion Translation note on verse 13.

The lesson remains: always pray and never give up. We don’t know how long it will take for a prayer to be answered. We pray for the big things: “Manifest your kingdom on earth,” give us relief from COVID, end racial injustice,… and for smaller, more personal things: family issues, jobs, illnesses, personal ministry. Always pray, never give up.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. (Luke 18.1, NIV)

Pray without ceasing. (1 Thessalonians 5.17, ESV)