Seasons. An Advent and Lent Podcast By Willow Park Church

Advent Day 26. The Birth of John.

First, the country priest, Zechariah, encountered an angel while offering incense in the Temple. Then his long-barren wife was found to be with child. Now upon the birth of the child, and after nine months of enforced silence, the mute priest speaks for the first time.

It is clear to the people that knew the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, that this child will have some sort of important role in the story that is unfolding before them, but they couldn’t know how important he would be. Perhaps a priest? The new King?

Let’s jump ahead about thirty years and try to answer their question. What John did not become is what most people would have expected—he did not become a priest like his father. Instead of following Zechariah into the priesthood, John retreated into the wilderness.

Luke says it like this, “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and was in the wilderness until the day he publicly appeared to Israel.” (Luke 1:80) At some point, maybe in his teen years, John left his home and began to live in the rugged Judean wilderness. Perhaps his elderly parents were already dead by then.

Of course, we don’t know. What we know is what Luke tells us: that John lived in the wilderness becoming spiritually strong until he began to preach and baptize at the Jordan River in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (AD 28).

John was the prophet who, as the angel Gabriel told Zechariah, would “come in the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17) But John was more than a prophet, he was the forerunner foretold by Isaiah and Malachi. It was his prophetic task to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. John did this by preaching a message of repentance and baptizing the penitent.

John's sermons were filled with themes of justice—calling the rich to share their wealth and the police to stop employing violent tactics of intimidation. (See Luke 3:10–14) John’s preaching was wildly popular with the masses and drew huge crowds from Jerusalem. But, predictably, John’s ministry had little or no effect on the Temple establishment.

The apex of John’s meteoric ministry was to baptize Jesus. Once that was accomplished, the crowds began to leave John and follow Jesus instead.

John the Baptist took his diminished role with humility and grace, telling his disciples, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30) A few months after he had baptized Jesus, John was arrested by Herod, and not long after that, he was executed. Jesus himself delivered John’s eulogy in advance, saying, “Among those born of women no one is greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:28) Jesus was indicating that John was the culmination of an era that began with Abraham, but now a new age was dawning with the coming of the Son of Man.

John's willingness to decrease in importance shows an unusual humility. John shows us that the ultimate message of Christ reaching those who are hurting is more important than any accolades that we this side of eternity.

Devotional Adapted from The Anticipated Christ. 

Advent Day 25

Music.

The Magnificat

Our reading today is a song that has become one of the most frequently prayed passages of Scripture in Christianity.

Song of Mary is most commonly known as the Magnificat which is Latin for Magnifies.

As significant as Mary is in the Christian story, we only hear her speak four times: to the angel at the Annunciation, to Jesus at age twelve in the Temple, to Jesus at the wedding feast in Cana, and here in the Magnificat.

The Magnificat is certainly a hymn of praise, but it’s also a subversive revolutionary anthem.

What you may or may not notice about the  Magnificat is that it is an adaptation of Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1–10.

Hannah became the mother of the prophet Samuel. She had been barren and was bitterly tormented by her husband’s second wife, but Hannah conceived after making a vow to dedicate her firstborn son to the Lord. Her song is a hymn of gratitude and triumph that speaks of how God intervenes on behalf of the unfortunate. Part of Hannah’s song goes like this:

He raises the poor from the dust,

He lifts the needy from the ash heap,

He makes them sit with princes.

In comparing the songs of Hannah and Mary we see how the New Testament is dependent upon the First Testament. And what stands out about both songs is how revolutionary they are.

As we hear the Magnificat, Think of how subversive these words were in the context of Mary’s time—the time of King Herod.

Luke 1:46-55

Mary’s Magnificat anticipates what will happen when her son grows up and begins to proclaim the good news of the new peaceable kingdom.

It will be a message welcomed by the poor, the sick, the downcast and outcasts who are open to Jesus’ message while the rich and powerful will mostly resist it.

What we should learn from the Magnificat is that the grace of God flows downhill toward the lowly places in our lives where we are humble, weak, and poor.

There may be places in your life where you are strong, successful, and rich. And this can be a blessing. But be careful and always remember that grace flows downhill.

In our contemporary context, we need a Christianity formed by the Magnificat.

In the western world, we are typically inclined toward ideas of success and anthems of strength. But the grace of God does not run uphill toward the pinnacles of success and strength, it rolls downhill toward the low places of humility and trust.

Advent is not just about waiting, but about waiting in the right place. The right place to wait for the grace of God is the lowly ash heap of your barrenness and brokenness. This is where the grace of God will appear.

Before we listen to ready yourself in a place of worship, as we hear Mary’s song, let it be our continued prayer for the Peace of God’s kingdom to come this Christmas.

Perhaps you are feeling near the bottom of the hill and are in need to grace to run to you.

Advent day 24

Music: Simon Wester. 

Let Joy Resound

October 28, 2022

Advent - Joy

Emmanuel

has come!

Rejoice,

without a hint

of doubt.

Let joy resound,

and praises ring.

Hallelujah!

Christ is here,

and in the fullness

of the age,

returns to reign

as promised King.

Allan J. Gillespie

What news would make you literally leap for joy?

What would it take for you to jump up and down and throw your hat in the air?

It’s what people did at the end of WWII and at the fall of the Berlin Wall.

It’s what you might do if you won the lottery or found out that you’re cancer-free. When war ends and tyranny topples, when prosperity comes and sickness goes, it’s the kind of good news that elicits exuberant celebration.

The good news that Mary and Elizabeth celebrate together, is the good news that the kingdom of God is at last breaking into a world dominated by proud and brutal tyrants.

Elizabeth had endured long years of heartbreaking infertility—a sorrow made worse by the undeserved stigma associated with barrenness in ancient societies. Elizabeth describes her experience of childlessness as “the disgrace I have endured among my people.” (Luke 1:25) But now she is six months pregnant with a child who will be known to history as John the Baptist.

Mary is a much younger relative of Elizabeth and is carrying in her womb the Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. We can assume that the only other person aware of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy is her fiancé Joseph—and an angel had to explain the nature of her pregnancy to him.

We can also imagine that Mary longed for a trusted friend in whom she could confide, and this is why she made the long journey into the hill country of Judea to be with her older relative Elizabeth. As it turns out both of these women have quite a story to tell.

Both Mary and Elizabeth had just had their lives turned on its head, and they needed someone they knew and trusted to celebrate and process what was happening in their newfound and unexpected pregnancies.

When Mary arrives at the home of Zechariah and greets her relative with the customary, Shalom, Elizabeth responds with an astounding prophetic utterance:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why am I so honoured that the mother of my Lord should come to visit me?” And at that moment John the Baptist in the womb of his mother began to leap for joy. What a beautiful picture of irrepressible joy. The anticipation of the coming of the kingdom of God is marked by unbridled elation. Truly the kingdom of God is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)

The two worlds of what we now know today as the Old Testament and the New Testament are at long last colliding in the form of two baby boys born to these two most unexpectant mothers.

John, theologically known as the second coming of Elijah, has come to close out the old testament and usher in the new kingdom brought by this baby being carried by Mary.

The old leaps for joy as the new kingdom is ushered in.

Music:

As a teenager growing up in Calgary in the 90’s, most days I would travel home from school on city transit. My High school was an inner-city school and we lived on the outskirts of the city.  Travelling by two busses and a train, my daily journey would last about an hour and a half. Quite often, on those journeys home, I would ask God if he would like me to speak to anyone. I had numerous fascinating conversations with various people that would often last the entire route and lead to some deep and meaningful connections.

Little did I know, that in those little moments of trying my best to listen to the Holy Spirit, I was playing my part in being a God-bearer. In today’s Christmas story, we meet THE God-Bearer of the Christmas story, Mary.

It was through a young and poor Jewish maiden named Mary living in the backwater Galilean village of Nazareth during the Roman occupation of the first century that the Word of God, took on flesh and became God and Man.

In Christian theology, we call this event the Incarnation and Mary is known as the Theotokos—the God-bearer.

The Incarnation of Christ through the one who bore God is one of the most sacred confessions and sublime mysteries of Christian faith.

It’s the story of how through the cooperation of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit the Divine-Eternal became a human. And it begins with the Annunciation—the Announcement.

In the sixth month of her relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel came to Nazareth to tell an engaged, but not yet married, virgin that she will conceive and give birth to a son named Jesus and that he will be the long-awaited Messiah whose kingdom will have no end.

When Mary questioned the angel saying, “How can this be? I do not know a man?”, the angel simply responded, “The Holy Spirit.” This is the enduring pattern by which God brings redemptive newness into the world. How? The Holy Spirit.

Mary as the mother of Christ is the entirely unique Theotokos. But on another level, Mary is the universal archetype for all who yield to the Holy Spirit and say with the Virgin, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be unto me according to your word.”

As a teenager on the bus ride home from my innercity school I was learning how to say yes to the Holy Spirit, O became a lesser theotokos through whom God can bring something holy into the world.

This Christmas we see the partnership between the trinity and humanity come to an uttermost peak.  God, coming to this world as a human, brought into this world by a human who simply said yes to what the Holy of the Holy Spirit asked of this young lady from Galilee.

Advent Day 22.

Today, as we enter the fourth and our final week of Advent we move into Luke’s Gospel. This week we will walk through the Christmas story opening with Zechariah and Elizabeth and culminating With Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the angels and shepherds.

Luke’s Gospel gives us more Advent and Christmas themes than any other.

After his preliminary dedication to Theophilus, Luke begins his Gospel with these words: “In the days of King Herod.”

Luke’s story is set during the dark days when Judea was occupied by Rome and their king was a client of Caesar. Herod the Great (72–4 BC) was installed as the King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 37 BC as a reward for military service on behalf of the empire.

Herod was a daring general and a great builder, but he was also a corrupt and paranoid king capable of astonishing cruelty. After waiting so long for a king, Herod was certainly not the righteous king the pious of Israel had been praying for. As Luke’s story opens Herod has reigned for some thirty years, his dynasty is in place, and the hope for a messianic king seemed farther away than ever.

At the same time there lived in the hill country of Judea a humble priest and his wife—Zechariah and Elizabeth. They were blameless, but blamelessness had not led to blessedness, for Elizabeth was barren. They had prayed for a child for decades, but no child had come, and now they were getting on in years. Of course by this point in the Bible we see this as the foreshadowing of a special birth—barren women giving birth to great sons is a common biblical motif seen in Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and the wife of Manoah. And sure enough, when Zechariah is chosen by lot to offer incense in the Temple—a once in a lifetime opportunity—he encounters the angel Gabriel who tells him that his wife will bear a son, his name is to be called John, and he will prepare the people for the coming of Messiah.

Luke 1:5-25

Gabriel began his announcement to Zechariah by saying, “Do not be afraid.” Angels always say “fear not” because this is what heaven has to say to earth.

Then the angel says, “Your prayer has been heard.” Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child for a long time, perhaps for as long as Herod had been king.

The answer to their prayer had been delayed so that God can give them more than a child—God will give them the forerunner of Messiah!

Sometimes the answer to our prayers is delayed so that God can answer them in a way greater than we could ever imagine. Among the instructions given to Zechariah was that John was to drink no wine. John the Baptist drinks no wine because he’s not the one who brings the party, he only prepares the way. The party begins when Jesus turns the water to wine at the wedding feast in Cana. John is Advent; Jesus is Christmas

Adapted from The Anticipated Christ 

Music:

As we approach the threshold of our final week of our Advent prayer times together we read the most wonderful message of all —the Word made flesh!

The Eternal Logos, the Infinite Idea, the Logic of Love, the Divine Wisdom, God’s Understanding of God’s Self, assumed human nature to heal human nature.

The moment the Word became flesh the salvation of humanity was guaranteed. All the events of God’s salvation would have to run their course through time, from incarnation to crucifixion to resurrection, but the salvific end was always inevitable.

When the Word was made flesh, the creator and giver of life, light and love, moved into the neighbourhood, walked our streets, and conversed with us.

The apostles of Christ saw, and through their witness we too have seen, the beauty of the Father fully displayed in the life of Jesus Christ—a life overflowing with grace and truth.

The grace and truth of God that Moses and the Prophets could never fully embody is fully found in the Word made flesh.

From the infinite fullness of God there is an endless flow of grace into humanity.

Imagine an hourglass with its two spheres and the connecting point where the sand flows from the upper sphere into the lower. Now imagine an upper sphere that is infinite. That’s what we find in the Word made flesh. Jesus became the point that connects the infinite grace of God with the finite deficiency of humanity. This is salvation. This is why we say, Merry Christmas!

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

John concludes his poetic prologue by insisting that no one has ever seen God—it is God the Son who is near the Father’s heart who has made God known.

We might protest and point out that Abraham saw God and had a meal with him under the oaks of Mamre; Jacob saw God with angels ascending and descending on the ladder at Bethel; Moses saw God face to face on Mount Sinai and his face shone from the encounter. There were many other encounters such as these. 

 But John knows all of this, and that’s what makes his apostolic assertation so daring. By the Holy Spirit John asserts that no matter what dreams, visions, revelations, epiphanies, theophanies, or Christophanies people have had in times past, compared to the revelation we have in the Word made flesh, no one has ever seen God! All ideas and images of God must surrender to the supreme revelation of God as seen in Jesus Christ. Christ alone is the perfect definition of who God is.

The conclusion we are to draw from John at the beginning of the fourth Gospel is this: God is like Jesus. God has always been like Jesus. There has never been a time when God wasn’t like Jesus. We haven’t always known this, but now we do.

What sticks out to you the most in these verses? Why is the Word coming to Earth such a big deal in the great scope of human history? “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” What might your life be like if God moved into your street?

Advent Day 20

In the dark world of idolatry, all illumination is precious.

The ancient Hebrews had the moonlight of the Law and the starry constellations of the Prophets by which they could navigate through the shadows of night on their journey toward truth.

The Gentiles had the flickering candles of nature’s witness and Greek wisdom by which they could pursue the creator. (Acts 17:27)

Moonlight, starlight, and candlelight are faint illuminations in the darkness of night. But as we spoke on yesterday, when the sun rises the darkness is altogether dispelled—the night is done, and the day has dawned.

The prophet Malachi spoke of the coming of Messiah as the sun of righteousness that will rise with healing in its wings. (Malachi 4:2) And John the Evangelist tells us that the light from the life of Jesus Christ is the illumination of true enlightenment.

In the life of Jesus Christ, we receive the dual enlightenment revealing who God is and how to be human.

Like the sun streaming in the window in the morning announcing that it’s a new day, John the Baptist was the herald to announce the coming of the True Light.

John was not the Light, and he was the witness sent to testify to the Light.

John is to Jesus what the Bible is to Jesus. The Bible itself came to bear witness to the Light. The True Light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. The Bible testified to him and cried out, “This is he of whom I said’

John 1:6-13

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

We read in Colossians 2:17 regarding the rules and laws of the old testament that These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

The old testament laws, holidays and festivals all pointed toward Jesus, but they are Shadows of the reality of what is to come.

I love the late summer evening walks with my kids that cast long shadows in front of our meandering walks.

As we look at the shadow of us walking along as the sun begins to set, our shadow becomes more and more pronounced.

But our shadows are just us minus all light, dimension, and definition.

We can see the shape of who we are, but the reality is not found in the shadow, its found in who we are.

This Christmas we wait on the reality of Christ.

The new reality.

Jesus is the light, definition, and dimension of what the old covenant was pointing to.

The Light.

John 1:1-5

Over the next three days, we will spend our time in the poetic prologue of John's Gospel- one of my favourite passages in the entire bible.

In the theologically rich opening poem to the Fourth Gospel, we see an amalgamation of Hebrew revelation and Greek wisdom—a blend that describes Christian theology itself.

John opens his book with an echo back to Genesis 1:1.

John writes that in the beginning was the Word—the Eternal Logos, the Infinite Idea, the Logic of Love, the Divine Wisdom. This Logos is the wisdom by which God founded the earth and established the heavens.

The Logos is the creative Word of God in the intricacy of the Trinity—and this Word is Christ. Jesus Christ as the Word of God is both the creator and the sustainer of creation—as the Apostle Paul says, “In him all things hold together”.

A century ago, in the aftermath of a global war and a global pandemic, the Irish poet William Butler Yeats wrote, “things fall apart, the center cannot hold.” In the context of the time Yeats’ poem had a prophetic truth to it. But the greater truth is that there is a center that holds—the Eternal Logos that sustains all things and which cannot be overcome by the chaotic darkness of evil. Every star and every galaxy, every blade of grass and every grain of sand continues to exist because they are sustained by the Eternal Word of God.

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

As we heard about yesterday, Christ is supreme above all, he sustains creation alongside things seen and things unseen.

As we have heard over the last few days, Jesus never ceased to be the eternal God who has always existed, the creator and sustainer of all things, and the source of eternal life.

Every year at Christmas I look forward to lighting up my house with Christmas lights and seeing all different light displays in the neighbourhood. Some might say it’s a silly tradition, but I think it’s a beautiful reminder of the light that comes to the world at Christmas.

light that has come into the darkness of our world. A beacon of light from a lighthouse when darkness and peril prevail.

CS Lewis says “I believe in Christ as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

Verse 4 says that his life brought life to everyone.

As Christ came to us those 2020 years ago, bringing a light to our dark world, so does he bring light into our present darkness that we may persistently experience throughout our lives.

a light of a lighthouse not only alerts the captain of the location of the lighthouse, but it shines light on the surroundings, giving the ship a safe passage home.

Jesus comes to this world as a light that shines in the darkness. Not only to show us who he is, but to guide us through the turbulent life that we all live here on the earth.

Music:

You won't find many scriptures in the New Testament outside of the Gospels that point directly to the birth of Christ and the meaning behind what we celebrate at Christmas.

With that said, today, we find ourselves in the third of four of Paul's prison letters speaking to the people of Colosse and clearly communicating that Jesus is indeed the visible image of the invisible God.

Today we read one of the most explicit statements about the divine nature of Christ that is found anywhere in the bible.

Jesus is not only equal to God, as we read about in Philippians 2, but he is God.

As the visible image of the invisible God, he is the exact representation of God.

He not only reflects God, but he reveals God to us; as supreme over all creation, he has all the priority and authority.

Jesus came from Heaven, not from the earth's dust; therefore, he is the uncreated one and has authority over the world.

But he didn't think of equality with God as something to cling to (Phil 2). During Advent, we wait for God to come into humanity; we don't wait for a prophet or a good teacher; we are waiting on God, creator of Heaven and Earth, the one who spoke the world into existence, to come and dwell among us.

The church of Colosse had several misconceptions about Christ that Paul directly refuted; here are two of those. One, they said that Christ was not the Unique Son of God but rather one of many intermediaries between God and man. And two, they refused to see Christ as Salvation, insisting that people could find God only through special and secret knowledge.

This Advent, we now understand that we wait for the unique Son of God who is Salvation for all people!

Todays reading comes from Colossians 1:15-20

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,[e]

16 for through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can't see—

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

17 He existed before anything else,

and he holds all creation together.

18 Christ is also the head of the church,

which is his body.

He is the beginning,

supreme over all who rise from the dead.[f]

So he is first in everything.

19 For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20 and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ's blood on the cross.

The Secret

It’s a beautiful day.

You’re sitting on your deck and reading Ephesians in the New Living Translation.

And your eyes fall upon the words:

“God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ.” (Eph. 1:9)

You pause, just for a moment with this thought floating in your head:

God’s secret plan.

There was a Newsweek article a number of years ago, about the mega-bestseller book, The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne.

The article begins like this:

“Decoding The Secret”

Oprah lives by it. Millions are reading it. The latest self-help sensation claims we can change our lives by thinking.

The book is basically a mishmash of pantheism, pseudo-science and the-power-of-positive-thinking. The latest in a long line of “the secret of success” books dating back seventy years to Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich!. This one is written by a savy Australian TV talk show producer.

The article goes on to say the “secret” of The Secret is what Byrne calls “the law of attraction,” which holds that you create your own reality through your thoughts.

Rhonda Byrne says she got The Secret.

From the back of the book:

You hold in your hand a Great Secret. It has been passed down through the ages, highly coveted, hidden, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. This centuries-hold Secret has been understood by some of the most prominent people in history: Plato, Galileo, Beethoven, Edison, Carnegie,— along with inventors, theologians, scientists, and great thinkers. Now The Secret is revealed to the world.

Interestingly, the Apostle Paul made a similar claim when he said, “God’s secret plan has now been revealed to us; it is a plan centered on Christ.”

Through the Scriptures in Isaiah, we have been hearing of this not so secret that God had to bring about a peaceable Kingdom, unlike the Kingdoms that had come before.

Paul says the secret is centered on Christ.

Ephesians 1:6-11

6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.[b] 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God,[c] for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.