Spiritual Hiccups - What Seemed To Be Dead

It happens over and over and over in the Bible.  God's newness springs from the most surprising places, from places that had been given up for dead.  The story goes all the way back to Abraham and Sarah, when God forms a covenant people from an old, childless couple.  The story echoes in the birth of Samuel to Hannah, in the return of exiles from Babylon, and in the beginning of Luke's story of Jesus.


Luke, the source for our Christmas nativities, begins his story with Elizabeth and Zechariah who "had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years."  It is another unlikely place to begin a story of hope and newness, with an elderly couple who have no children.  But once again, this is precisely where God starts.

In ancient times, barrenness was thought to be a curse from God.  Some texts speak of "God closing her womb."  And so in stories such as this one, God's newness not only comes from what appears dead, but from what is presumed to be cursed.

As we draw near to Christmas, congregations such as mine are planning their biggest extravaganzas of the year.  We will go all out to celebrate the birth of a Savior.  In one sense the is quite appropriate, but in another sense it mirrors our culture's notion that anything important and worth notice is big and vibrant and filled with activity.

Amidst all the Christmas frenzy, both inside and outside the Church, I wonder where, in a place that seems lifeless and hopeless, God is at work creating something new.  I wonder where we should turn our gaze so that we might see where God's newness is being born from what seemed to be dead.

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