Stirred

Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

The woman bore a son and named him Samson.  The boy grew up and the LORD blessed him; the Spirit of the LORD stirred him.  Judges 13:24-25A

He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.  He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord.” Luke 1:15B-17

Piety

Father, you had a plan for our world to create a new society within it.  Your messengers taught us lessons so old and timeless that these seemed like new ideas.  Jesus connects us to everything – past, present and future.  Holy Spirit, grant us the gifts to accept all that is old in a way that we can embrace it as new.

Study

Before Samson and John could stir the people of Israel to repent, the seemingly impossible was done biologically.  Both mothers, whom were thought to be unable to bear children, conceived and gave birth to sons. 

Luke begins his Christ-story with the birth of John the Baptist, a birth that is connected to the Hebrew Bible in its parallels to Samson’s birth.  Rev. Harry Colquhoun writes, “John the Baptist serves as an important link in this great chain of events between the Hebrew past and the Christian present. To change the metaphor, we can say that John is the bridge between past and present in this on-going activity. And so it is, in Luke’s story, John steps on to the stage of history before the One whose advent he has been sent to herald.”

Rev.  Colquhoun notes the similarities in the births of Isaac, Samson, Samuel and John and Jesus. “Everything in the past leads right up to Jesus.”  As the days in our Advent preparations draw closer to a close, the barren winter world is about to open up to Jesus just as the barren wombs of the mothers were opened to new life.  He details those common elements:  the angelic announcements and the miraculous circumstances.

With the strong influence of their parents, Samson and John are “set apart” for special service to God. Rev. Colquhoun writes further that:  “Their role in life, in other words, is one established by heaven. They have a special part to play in the divine scheme of things; each has a distinctive calling. God will be at work in and through their lives to accomplish his special purposes for his people and to fulfill his promises to his people.”

Taken together, we see unfold from the Hebrew Bible into the New Testament the intricate overall plan that God has for all of creation. 

Action

God’s plan through salvation history did not end with Jesus.  Where does your birth fall into this plan?  How are you being called to stir others in this holiday season to be filled with the true spirit of Christmas?  Long before the Lexus car brand tried to commandeer the month, Christ’s story is what made the month of His birth a “December-to-remember.” 

Back to the writings of Rev. Colquhoun, “If we miss the signs of God’s work in our world and in our own lives, then God will have passed before us and we will not have recognized the reality of his presence. The glory of the Lord will have passed before us and we will have heard and seen nothing.”

If John was the bridge to the past, how can you be the bridge to the future? How will you be stirred this season?  How will you stir others?