Did you see the “Christmas Star” last night? If not, there’s still time:

Skywatchers are in for an end-of-year treat. What has become known popularly as the “Christmas Star” is an especially vibrant planetary conjunction easily visible in the evening sky over the next two weeks as the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn come together, culminating on the night of Dec. 21…The planets regularly appear to pass each other in the solar system, with the positions of Jupiter and Saturn being aligned in the sky about once every 20 years. What makes this year’s spectacle so rare, then? It’s been nearly 400 years since the planets passed this close to each other in the sky, and nearly 800 years since the alignment of Saturn and Jupiter occurred at night, as it will for 2020, allowing nearly everyone around the world to witness this “great conjunction.” The closest alignment will appear just a tenth of a degree apart and last for a few days. On the 21st, they will appear so close that a pinkie finger at arm’s length will easily cover both planets in the sky. The planets will be easy to see with the unaided eye by looking toward the southwest just after sunset. An Article on the NASA website, December 15, 2020

Here’s what it looked like from my house with some of my neighbors’ Christmas lights providing appropriate ambience:

We don’t know whether something like this is what the Wise Men saw or whether the “Star of Bethlehem” was a comet or what. But it was a nice Christmas week treat. Check it out!

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. (Psalm 19.1, NIV)

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. (Matthew 2.10, NKJV, the link goes to my blog of December 16, worth the read just to hear the song!)

Here’s another simple lesson from the shepherds. We’re in the fourth week of Advent, and our candles have symbolized:

• Hope
• Faith
• Joy
• Peace

But are the recipients of these wonderful gifts? The shepherds give us the answer: those who want to see for themselves.

When the choir of angels disappeared back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go! Let’s hurry and find this Word that is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.”… The shepherds returned to their flock, ecstatic over what had happened. They praised God and glorified him for all they had heard and seen for themselves, just like the angel had said. (Luke 2.15, 20, TPT, emphasis mine)

Not everyone wants to experience God for themselves:

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” (Exodus 20.18, 19, NIV)

A friend of mine was trying to help his father learn to have daily time with God through the Word and prayer. His father told him, “Leave me alone! If my pastor wants me to know something from the Bible, he’ll tell me!”

God’s blessings are for active participants, not passive spectators.

My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2.1 – 6, NIV)

We’re already at week 4!

I see from various pictures of the advent candles that there is no universal agreement on what these weeks are called. Some have Hope, Peace, Joy, Love. I’ve used: Hope, Faith, Joy, Peace. It doesn’t matter: the world is short of all of these things, and Jesus’ coming brings the promise of their fulfillment.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (Romans 5. 1 – 5, ESV, emphasis mine)

Here’s an important lesson from the shepherd’s response to joyous news:

But the angel reassured them, saying, “Don’t be afraid. For I have come to bring you good news, the most joyous news the world has ever heard! And it is for everyone everywhere!… When the choir of angels disappeared back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go! Let’s hurry and find this Word that is born in Bethlehem and see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.” So they ran into the village and found their way to Mary and Joseph. And there was the baby, lying in a feeding trough. (Luke 2.10 – 16, TPT)

What’s our response to “the most joyous news the world has ever heard”? The shepherds’ response was immediate AND fast: “Let’s go! Let’s hurry…so they ran into the village…” Why? “To see for ourselves what the Lord has revealed to us.”

Do we want to see for ourselves? I often teach and advocate for the practice of daily time with God. A set-aside time to hear directly from God through the Word and respond to him in prayer. It’s joyous news that we have that privilege!

No one has ever come to me after such a teaching and said, “Bob, that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard! I’m not going to do that.” No one says that – everyone says that spending time with God is a wonderful idea. But they don’t hurry to get the practice started. There are days that I don’t hurry to my designated place for my daily prayer time.

There are times for running – for doing it NOW.

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)

Peter and the other disciple left immediately for the tomb. They ran, neck and neck. The other disciple got to the tomb first, outrunning Peter. (John 20.3, 4, MSG)

We wrote yesterday about the baby in the manger being a sign to the shepherds.

You will recognize him by this miracle sign: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough! (Luke 2.12, Passion Translation)

If you follow this blog regularly, you’ll notice that I quote from The Passion Translation (TPT) from time to time. Since not many folks are familiar with it, I don’t annotate it with TPT but with “Passion Translation.” Since I’ve been doing this for over a year now, I think I’ll start just calling it by its official abbreviation: TPT. I do recommend it, both for the text itself, and for the occasional very illuminating footnotes. If you want to warm up to it without buying it, check it out at www.biblegateway.com.

Anyway, I bring this up because there are two fabulous footnotes in Luke 2 about the shepherds and the manger or “feeding trough.”

That night, in a field near Bethlehem, there were shepherds watching over their flocks. (Luke 2.8, TPT)

Many scholars believe that these could be the same fields where sacrificial flocks were kept for temple worship. How fitting that these shepherds would hear the announcement of the birth of the Lamb of God… (Note on Luke 2.8, TPT)

So first, we have speculation that the shepherds, only about 6 miles outside Jerusalem would be tending the sheep used later for temple worship. But it gets better! Commenting on the sign of the baby in a feeding trough we read:

A baby lying in a feeding trough where animals were kept nearby, wrapped in strips of cloths, became a sign of the Man-Savior’s life on earth. He entered the world as a lowly baby, and though he is the mighty God, he lived his life on earth in gentleness before all. The shepherds that night were possibly near Bethlehem at Migdal Eder, “the [watch] tower of the flock.” This would fulfill both the prophecies of Mic. 5:2 and Mic. 4:8, which say, “to you it [he] will come, your dominion [kingdom] from old will arrive.” It was at the lower floor of the watchtower (Migdal Eder) that the birthing of the Passover lambs would take place. Selected ewes that were about to give birth would be brought there. After the birth of the lambs, the priestly shepherds would wrap the lambs in cloth and lay them in a manger lined with soft hay to prevent them from hurting themselves, for Passover lambs must be unblemished with no bruise or broken bone. The miracle sign for these priestly shepherds would be a baby boy lying where the Passover lamb should be—in a manger, wrapped in strips of cloth. It was at the cradle of Jesus Christ that the kingdom from ancient times arrived on earth. (Note on Luke 2.12, TPT)

I present the relevant texts without further comment except to observe we have the Passion and Christmas rolled together:

As for you, watchtower of the flock,
stronghold of Daughter Zion,
the former dominion will be restored to you;
kingship will come to Daughter Jerusalem.” (Micah 4.8, NIV)

But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times. (Micah 5.2, NIV)

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29, NIV)

…Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. (1 Corinthians 5.7, NIV)

We interrupt this series on joy to bust another Christmas myth. I’ve been pointing out for years that the Wise Men weren’t at the manger. Matthew is clear:

And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him… (Matthew 2.11, ESV, emphasis mine)

When they came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, they were overcome. (Matthew 2.11, Passion Translation)

It makes for good drama and involves more people in church Christmas pageants to include the wise men in the manger scene; it’s just not biblical! Speaking of pageants, how many of them include the nasty (or indifferent) innkeeper who wouldn’t give them a room?

Read the text carefully, there was no innkeeper…because there were no inns!

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2.6, 7, NIV)

Dave Wyrtzen wrote in his daily devotional blog:

There’s actually no rejecting innkeeper in the story who refused to provide a room. There probably wasn’t even an inn, so all the Marriott and Holiday Inns can breathe easier. They are not presented as playing the bad guys in the Christmas story. Luke could not have presented the birth of God’s Son in more straightforward terms… Dave Wyrtzen, December 10, 2020

The Passion Translation note has more detail:

This is the Greek word kataluma. This is not an “inn” but simply the upstairs level of a home where guests would stay. It means there was no guest room available in Bethlehem for Mary to give birth. Since all of Joseph’s and Mary’s family also made the journey because of the census, every home of a relative would have been full. In that day Bethlehem was far too small of a village to have an actual inn, all the katalumai there were occupied. It is likely that Joseph and Mary had to sleep downstairs in the main room of a relative’s house. The downstairs of a village home in that day was like an all-purpose room that served as a workshop during the day, and at night it was used to shelter frail animals, while the rest of the flock was left outdoors. The kataluma was not a full-fledged barn or stable, but it did contain a drinking trough or manger cut in the bedrock. This was the likely place where the baby Jesus was placed after his birth. (Note on Luke 2.6, 7, Passion Translation)

Bob, is there a “So what?” Probably not, except I’m thinking that the God who caused a Roman emperor to have a census to get Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem could have provided them better accommodations when they got there!

However, the story doesn’t need just one recalcitrant innkeeper. God needed a whole village of guest rooms full so that the baby could be born in an unusual place. Different enough that it became a sign to the shepherds.

You will recognize him by this miracle sign: You will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth and lying in a feeding trough! (Luke 2.12, Passion Translation)

I’ll have more to say about that tomorrow. In the meantime, the fact that we worship a God with that kind of power is another source of joy!

Lift up a great shout of joy to the Lord!
Go ahead and do it—everyone, everywhere!
As you serve him, be glad and worship him.
Sing your way into his presence with joy! (Psalm 100.1, 2 (Passion Translation)

We’ve been exploring ways to joy from simply choosing (“Rejoice is a choice“) to experiencing the fruit of the Spirit or of prayer. Here’s another: music brings joy and achieving a goal brings joy (have you ever seen the baseball players bunch up and jump up and down when they win the World Series?). The story of the wise men gives us both.

They were journeying from the East, following the star toward Judea, when they took a side trip to Jerusalem. They didn’t know it was a side trip – they just assumed that Jerusalem would be the place to find a newborn king. But in the process, they apparently lost the star. Upon being briefed by the religious scholars that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, we read:

And so they left, and on their way to Bethlehem, suddenly the same star they had seen in the East reappeared! Amazed, they watched as it went ahead of them and stopped directly over the place where the child was. And when they saw the star, they were so ecstatic that they shouted and celebrated with unrestrained joy. (Matthew 2.9, 10, Passion Translation)

Ecstatic…shouted…celebrated…unrestrained joy. Their goal was in sight. That’s a source of joy! The Passion Translation note explains:

The Greek is hard to translate since it contains so many redundant words for joy in this one verse. It is literally “They rejoiced with a great joy exceedingly.” They were ecstatic! (Note on Matthew 2.10, The Passion Translation)

The King James Version says simply:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

This brings us to music as a source of joy. If listening to this version of Matthew 2.10 doesn’t fill you with joy and put a spring in your step, I don’t know what will! When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great joy. Enjoy! Rejoice!

Yesterday we wrote that we can choose joy or, to rhyme it:

Rejoice is a Choice

But joy is also fruit:

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

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16.24, ESV)

So we can promote joy by choosing to live by the Spirit and by prayer.

The angels promised joy to the shepherds at Jesus’ birth. Nothing changed… but everything changed!

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2.10, 11, ESV)

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)