Denise Gallichio

CONSIDER THIS

Our Advent journey brings us to the shepherds, part of the same faith-family story as Jesus, remembered for their wonder that starry night—but also, for their sheer terror. How do you want to be remembered? Would you prefer the words “joyful” and “courageous” to come up in conversations when you are mentioned, or would you prefer the words “terrified” and “afraid” to be the character traits discussed?

Unfortunately, the shepherds didn’t get to choose! These Advent heroes were terrified, and all of history since knows it. But they were terrified for a good reason—God was on the move. We do them honor when we recognize that though they were clearly shocked when the angels greeted them in the night sky, they were terrified because of the awesomeness of the cosmic drama unfolding before them. We would most probably have been just as terrified, as afraid as they were, if we had been there. The shepherds took their place within the most profound moment of human history that night, and quickly became “incarnation evangelists” telling others about what they had seen (vv. 17–18).

If you’re like me, there are times in our journey of faith when we are plain, raw, straight-up scared. Can I get a witness? Life throws us a curveball, and before we can say, “Greater is he that is in me!” we’ve taken a hit across the bow and our battleship is sinking.

In A Charlie Brown Christmas, which my family watches every year at this time, Linus reads the Christmas story from Luke 2 in the King James Version. Who can forget his recitation, security blanket in hand, on that spotlit stage? Coming to verse 9, Linus says, “The glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid.” Sore afraid. I like that phrase. Yes, “sore” means “very” in this case, but there is a playful double-meaning here. Have you ever been so afraid you were sore, inside and outside? I have. Your heart aches, your stomach churns, and you aren’t sure that God will come through—that his words to you are believable. Linus, bearing his security blanket, because everyone needs a little support every now and again, confidently reads the Christmas story in that little spotlight on that animated stage. And if he can show some faith, so can we.

It’s in those times, those times of challenge, that we can remember the shepherds—and take heart. Their fear was based in awe, in an overwhelming sense that God was active in bringing good news to his people. Sure, the situation may have felt intuitively “good” in some way, so they could assume God was at work. But terror is terror, and when we are overwhelmed and scared by a circumstance, we can learn to reinterpret it as a time for awe in what the Lord is doing and will do.

Philippians 4:6–7 says that we are to be anxious about nothing, and the spirit of command in those words cannot be missed. But neither can the tone of compassion. The writer knows that we need peace in our shock-and-awe moments, and suggests that peace lies on the other side of prayer and drawing close to the Father.

The next time you are absolutely terrified, know that the Lord is with you and is about something in the background that will not derail the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you, and to give you a hope and a future (Jer. 29:11). Lean into him in prayer, in worship, in thanks, in community with others—and stay in that place until your fear is absorbed into the presence of God.

THE PRAYER

Lord of the Terrified, thank you for being our Lord. We’ve known what it means to be afraid and to have you meet us in that place. Protect our hearts from getting lost in my worst expectations, and create in us, by your Spirit within, hearts that expect your highest and best as you walk with us through the challenges ahead. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Can you think of a moment this past year when youwere terrified or afraid, and felt beside yourself in worry? How did the Lord meet you in that time, and what is your testimony on the other side?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Luke 1:26-28

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream . . . Matthew 1:18-20a

CONSIDER THIS

As Advent begins to flow into Christmas, the Christian New Year takes us to the heights of celebration as we remember the birth of Jesus. We call this the Incarnation, the God we worship becoming flesh and blood, like one of us in every respect (Heb. 2:17). Advent and Christmas are part of what we call the Cycle of Light, made up of Advent (anticipation), Christmas (celebration), and Epiphany (proclamation).

In the Cycle of Light, we see Christ’s radiance shining in the eyes of Mary and Joseph. Each of these two amazing souls shares a story in the Gospels, and each has their own history they brought to the moment. God does not hit “delete” on our past when it
comes to a moment he desires to use us in a special way. Who we have become, over the years, formed by our responses to our challenges, limitations, influences, and family lives, all comes to bear on that moment.

The Lord sees faithfulness in our stories, forged in private moments when we could have turned away, turned back, or turned off when he wanted to work in and through us in the little things. Luke 16:10 says it clearly: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Our faithfulness in the little things will always mean more to God than we may be aware of in the moment. He sees what no one else does. He knows what truly motivated us, moved us, evidenced by how we handled the unseen and seemingly insignificant times of obedience.

And that brings us to Mary. Luke 1:26–28 simply notes that Mary is “highly favored.” It’s possible we could read right over that statement and miss its import. Mary has favor with God. If you have favor with God, you don’t need it with anyone else. Mary was living a life, unseen to us and unrecorded by history, that pleased God. Mary, as far as we can tell, had been living a faithful life up to the point the angel graces her room—a life faithful to the Father, his purposes, and his values.

Joseph seems to have been the same. In Matthew 1:18–20a, we get a brief glimpse into his character, seeing that he is faithful to the law, and in this case, we can read that as a metaphor suggesting that Joseph cares what God thinks about things. When he hears of Mary’s pregnancy, he wants to do his beloved betrothed no harm, choosing to keep her story out of the public eye and to end their relationship quietly. We have no indication that Joseph was anything other than eager and willing to support Mary and to raise Jesus as his own when the angel appears to him in a dream. Faithfulness in our past gives momentum to faithfulness in our present. Faithful in little, faithful in much. That is the way the Advent story unfolds, and ours as well. Today you and I have the opportunity to trade our fear for Christ’s courage, our apprehension for Christ’s revelation.

And if we will be faithful in little, we will be invited to partner with Christ and other faithful people in the awakening of the world— whether that world be in the home of the neighbor next door, or in the halls of kings and queens.

THE PRAYER

Jesus, Son of God, son of Mary and Joseph, you were raised by faithful people whose lives were as simple and complex as my own. When you called them, you had already found them to be faithful friends of God, and we want to be seen as the same. This Advent teach us to be faithful in little; let our hearts move from disdain for the details to which we must attend, to delight in partnering with you in the smallest, most hidden ways. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• In what little ways, public or hidden, do you believe you are partnering with God right now?
• What areas of faithfulness are you struggling with, and could you give those areas up to Jesus in surrender now? He wants to use you, and you are in training in the little things.

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.” Luke 1:41–44

CONSIDER THIS

The roots of Jesus run deep into the soil of his faith-family story—and they also run side to side with those who were his contemporaries and Advent partners. For Jesus, one must consider what would have happened if his relative, John, had not been born onto the scene at the same time. As we look at the Advent, we meet John first leaping in the womb of his mother, Elizabeth, delighted from before either child was born in all that God was about to do (Luke 1:41–44).

Partnership is an essential part of Christlike living in the world. Banded discipleship points us to a way of becoming God’s love to one another, and God’s love to the world, that lifts us out of more functional Christian paradigms of church and invites us into an intimately relational paradigm of deep community. (For more about banded discipleship, see discipleshipbands.com.) John was a partner with Jesus, and with the Trinity, in seeing the Advent plan of salvation through. Coming into the world a few months before Jesus, as far as we can tell from the Scriptures, John was a forerunner of Christ in many ways. He had a part to play in calling the nation to repentance, and his ministry was in full motion before Jesus began his. John the Baptist was the way maker; Jesus was the Way.

Just as John laid down his life to see Jesus fulfill his ministry, so too Jesus laid down his life to see us come into the fullness of intimacy with God that the Father so desired. We see John faithfully doing his work, even to the point of facing death, and Jesus then doing the same—moving toward a death that would mean the rescue of humanity.

In Advent, we must pause to consider how Jesus prepared the way for you and I to come to know him as the Way that leads to life (Ps. 16:11). The Incarnation is a celebration of intervention, of the day when the Father gave his very best to see us become our very best before him. Jesus is God’s very best, given to the world. He not only taught the way to the Father; he was the Way, the Truth, and the Life—and still is.

Christmas, like Easter, is not a static event. It is a dynamic interplay of God’s continued work in the creation to restore it to himself, restoring his image-bearers to communion with himself and one another to attend to redemptive work. Jesus continues to make a way in you, your home, your church, and your city to come back to him from the exile of the heart we all are so easily given to. In this, Jesus, like John, prepares a way for us to return, again and again, to our first love. Made for love, Jesus is the Way to its full, and unending experience for you, for me, and for those in your community.

THE PRAYER

Jesus, the Way, you continually invite me to follow paths that lead to you, to wholeness, and to community, ultimately leading to the Father’s heart. If you don’t cease your constant welcoming of us, we won’t cease our continual return when we wander. We choose you, the Way that leads to life; make us a way-maker for those who are yet to return, by your Spirit. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• Do you know of someone who needs some help right now to find their way to, or back to, Christ?
• What one thing could you do to help remove the barriers they believe are between them and God, to support the Spirit’s process of wooing them home?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt

Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. . . . He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:11–13, 16–17

CONSIDER THIS

Advent is a time for families. And it is through families—the family of God and faithful natural families—that God works.

In the beginning of our Advent journey exploring the roots of Jesus, we considered that we each come from someone (family lines), somewhere (locations), and something (stories). When we meet Jesus, and we join him on the path to the awakened life, there is a connecting of threads that goes on, often unseen, in the background.

We become a part of the family of God, a fellowship of like-minded and like-hearted believers whose goal and aim is to glorify God in the time we are given on earth. We are swept up into a plan for the world that is so much greater than our own, and is better than any adventure we could dream up for ourselves.

Elizabeth and Zechariah were swept up into the Advent story, after spending most of their lives going about their normal day-to-day as a Hebrew family. A Levitical priest, Zechariah, encounters an angel while at the altar of incense in the temple. His wife, Elizabeth, a relative of Mary, is about to become pregnant with John (the Baptist), who will “go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah . . . to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17).

With the nation of Israel under the thumb of the Romans, the idea that their son was about to be used by God to shake up both the faithful and the faithless to awaken to God was most probably a wonderful prospect. Some parents want their children to grow up to be contributing members of society. Elizabeth and Zechariah were probably quite happy to raise a son whose zeal for the Lord would press the buttons of the unruly hearts of their people.

When Jesus opens a heart to receive him, and to embrace the fullness of the gospel, his intent is never to stop there. He plans to use anyone in one’s natural family who will come along, and, if not, the family of God given to us to encourage us in our faith. There is always a network of those impacted, who get swept up in what the Lord is doing in our midst.

The Advent project was an extended family affair from the beginning, and is intended to be so with us as well. Jesus involves families in the holy work of welcoming of Jesus into their hearts, homes, churches, and cities. Families become intercessory cells, prayer posses, enlisted by the Holy Spirit to partner with Christ in the breaking down of strongholds: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:4).

The family of God was designed to work together, just as Elizabeth and Zechariah had a significant role to play in both John and Jesus coming to maturity together, ready to face the fire that would come with their mission to bring God’s love and power on earth.

John would “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17), and Jesus would fulfill the words of Luke 4:18–19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Parenting the central figures of Advent was no easy task, and neither is carrying awakening in our hearts for our homes, churches, and cities. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us, he will see it accomplished.

THE PRAYER

Lord of your brave family, we surrender our own hearts to work with the family of God, and our own natural family as able, to see your kingdom come, your will be done, here on earth as it is being done in heaven. Show us the part we have to play, and lead us into acts of faith that open hearts to awakening. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

THE QUESTIONS

• How has the family of God become a community with which you can participate in sharing the love of God in your town or city?
• Is there something you have planned as a way of helping others for which you could stop and pray, right now, for God to move in awakening?

Roots: Advent and the Family Story of Jesus by Dan Wilt