Thursday of the Fourth Week of Advent
I would venture to guess that we all have dynamics of our lives that displace us from our comfort zones a bit – financial challenges, family dynamics, the nature of our work, societal injustices, noisy neighbors, allergies, to name a few. In today’s first reading we hear of God’s reminder to King David of how David was displaced from his work in the pasture to be commander of the people of Israel. God sends Nathan to remind David of this, but also to remind David that he needs to build a place where God can dwell. Within the text, this reminder seems to come at a time where David is finding great comfort in his palace and the protection that God has provided, but yet again God encourages him to rise from that comfort and make Israel a place filled with God’s presence. Placing myself in David’s shoes, I’d feel great frustration that I am consistently pulled from areas of comfort to discomfort in order to serve God.
The Gospel reading from Luke that follows tells of the Canticle of Zechariah, where Zechariah prophesies of the freedom that the God of Israel has provided by protecting the people from their enemies, showing mercy, and allowing them to worship God without fear. It is this freedom that Zechariah references in an effort to challenge his son, John the Baptist, to share the knowledge of God’s salvation with the people. Similar to the first reading, we see how God managed to show himself amidst such discomfort to the people of Israel and how such deliverance empowers those individuals to share the light of God with others.
Very soon we will hear the story of the birth of Christ, which sheds a lot of light upon displacement and discomfort – particularly in Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus in a trough. What greater sign of God’s presence amidst discomfort could we ask for than the birth of Christ in this story!? We too much acknowledge our own levels of discomfort, but not be overcome by them. Instead we must pray that God’s light might break through that discomfort and empower us just as it does David and John the Baptist in today’s readings. It is that presence that we prepare to rejoice in with the coming of Christ this Christmas Day, and continue to pray that we might acknowledge God’s presence amidst all of our struggles and discomfort so that we might also celebrate the small joys and victories that our faith-filled lives entail.
Merry Christmas!
Mike Bennett