Advent: I See........

The line in this familiar story "Fear came over all their neighbors..." caught my eye. Elizabeth has her baby, names him John. People can't believe it. No one in their family is named John. Zechariah (mute, as you'll remember) writes the name on a tablet. John. His "mouth was opened" and he could talk again...he began praising God.

Fear came over the neighbors.

This is weird. They've never acted like that before. Old age...it's not pretty.

I guess I've always paid attention to Elizabeth and Zechariah and their joy. Today I see the neighbors--and the 24 hour news cycle.

Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, "What then will this child become?" 

Poor kid...nutty parents...old...beyond sense. The gospel writer softens it with a final "For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him." Right...they can say that for the baby. But most of us know how John grew up...eating locusts and wild honey, wearing camel hair, doing nothing decently and in order.

"'What will this child become? ' Hmmmmm....I see." I can hear the neighbors now.

We think we know...especially if fear is in the mix. Fear demands a decision, a judgment. Keep ourselves safe from the different, the weird, even the God-stuff that is out of the box. Take no chances...for what will this child become?

Maybe that's why it is so difficult to "see" the road of faith to travel as the people of God. Maybe that's why the angel's first words are "fear not." Maybe that's the Advent challenge to seeing the in-breaking of God...no fear.

Hmmmm...I see...