Advent
December 6, 2018
Scripture Reading: Luke 1:68-79
By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.’ Luke 1:78-79
Translating one language to another is never perfect. The Greek word* translated as “tender” in the above scripture is a complicated word that refers to emotions that come from the inward parts of the body. Heartfelt might express it well or a gut feeling gets at the gist of the word. I am a fan, though of the word “tender” because it helps, we English speakers understand it is more feeling than thinking. The all-knowing God feels love for us. Felt enough love for us that he came to us in human form when we were lost in darkness to show us the way to peace.
I got up in the night to take some medicine I had forgotten to take before I went to bed last night and was amazed at how much light was in my kitchen. Little electronic clocks brightly lit the areas around my stove, microwave, and coffee pot plus the streetlight shone through a window. I did not even need to turn on a light to find the capsules and get a glass of water. I grew up on a farm far away from city lights and before every appliance shone forth. The darkness of night in such a rural setting when there is little moon and few stars is more like the darkness Luke references, the kind of darkness where one cannot see his or her hand a few inches from his or her face.
It is scary to find ourselves in such darkness, but I sense Luke is talking as much about emotional darkness as he is describing the physical world about us. Emotional darkness is living without hope, with no faith to guide us, and a sense that we are not loved. We experience these feeling as individuals and as people living in oppression of all kinds. I once heard a speaker say the difference between being poor and living in poverty is those living in poverty are living without hope of ever getting out of it. Amazing as it may seem, I think people who have adequate incomes by the world’s standards may be living in the same hopelessness as they are oppressed by greed when it becomes the primary driver in their lives.
God came to dwell among us to lift all of us out of the oppressions of the world and light our way to a full and abundant life in faith, hope, and love.
Prayer: Thank you Lord for your tender mercies poured forth on us by your son our savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen.
*https://biblehub.com/greek/4698.htm