God says, "Behold, I am doing a new thing..." in Isaiah 43, a passage that we sometimes read in Advent. But it can be tough to see that. In fact, this time of year, amid the beloved cookie recipes we always bake and the "we've always done it that way" traditions (interesting how it's my kids that are especially the ones who want to hold on to the "traditions" they know...) it's difficult to encounter the newness of Jesus, God's Word, sent to earth to be among us.

 

The good news is, God works among our traditions, too - works new things with the old and familiar. Today's scriptures provide good examples of this.

 

In today's first reading (Judges 13:2-7, 24-25a), we reading a passage that brings up themes that sound the old familiar: God blesses a barren woman with a child who is to be "consecrated to God from the womb." We have no shortage of other examples of barren women being blessed by God: Sarah (mother of Isaac), Rachel (mother of Esau and Jacob), Rebekah (mother of Joseph and Benjamin), and Hannah (mother of Samuel). Today's passage gives us Samson, one of the Judges of Israel, consecrated for God (In ancient Israel, judges were the community leaders prior to the development of the line of kings, starting with King Saul and including the famous Kings David and Solomon.)  We also have no shortage of examples of women from the Bible who are visited by angels who tell them their children will be consecrated to God (Sarah and Mary spring immediately to mind).

 

The purpose of the old familiar here is to alert is to the fact that God is acting in the world. It is precisely because the story is familiar that we ask the question, "Wait a minute - is God acting here?" And we find, on closer inspection of the story, that he is! But without the old familiar helping guide us, we wouldn't see the new ways God is working, even as God uses the old familiar to make himself known to us.

 

The old familiar story is echoed in the Gospel reading (Luke 1:5-25) about the conception and birth of John the Baptist as well. Just as with Samson's mother, Elizabeth is visited by an angel, warned not to drink strong drink, and is told that her child is also to be consecrated to God. John the Baptist becomes one of the central people for Christianity because he proclaims the new thing God is doing in sending Jesus to be among us. Jesus is the one whose sandals he is unworthy to untie - Jesus is far more than a mere man consecrated to God, but is in fact the Son of God himself.

 

John the Baptist's very presence in scripture is precisely to alert us, via the old familiar stories of barren women being visited by angels and having consecrated sons - that God is doing something extraordinary in Jesus. We wouldn't really know about God's doing a new thing among us in Jesus without the fact that John is very much part of the old familiar story but yet proclaims the new.

 

On this last Friday in Advent, and in this year of Everyday Encounters with Christ, let us look deeply into our everyday, old familiar routines, and find the new thing God is doing in Christ, for us!

 

- Jana M. Bennett