Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Sweet little babies

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

From Judges 13
An angel of the Lord appeared and said to the wife of Manoah, "You will conceive and bear a son. It is he who will begin the deliverance of Israel from the power of the Philistines. The woman bore a son and named him Samson. The boy grew up, and the Spirit of the Lord stirred him."

The lectionary readings today are about babies: Samson, John and in the background, Jesus, given to previously barren mothers as gifts of the Holy Spirit for the people of God.

Samson and John were both consecrated to God as Nazarites. They dressed and ate and lived in a constant state of spiritual and physical fasting. From birth they learned to sacrifice physical comfort to pray without ceasing for the coming of the Lord.

Although both were eventually killed, they were the strongest men in the land: Samson with his muscles and John with his words. They cared more than anything about God, and the people's relationship with God. Today we would certainly call them fanatics. They were scary.

Here's a verse of a VBS kids' song about Samson:

Tied up tight, his eyes plucked out, Samson!
"Bring him here!" the people shout, Samson!
He prayed to God, "Please give me strength."
He killed them all. Now what d'ya think?
Yes, Samson's a mighty man of God.

And then there was John, who wore camel's hair clothes and ate locusts with wild honey. Like Samson, he never cut his hair. He was a raggedy raggedy raggedy man.

John didn't seek out the multitudes, but they sought him. "He lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel." And then his message was stark, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"

Here's a not-VBS adults' song about John:

Stand back, baby, I'm a lightning rod
Oh John John John, lookin' for Jesus ...
All you angel-headed hipsters with the Ginsberg Howl,
All you crooked lip con men on the prowl,
Why don't you stop your lyin' and listen to me,
There's a holy man sittin' in the black gum tree.
He said I'm lookin' for somebody who's hard to find
A kind-hearted man with a one-track mind
Oh John John John, waitin' for Jesus

The sweet boy babies grew up strong and scary. We admire them, from a safe distance, because they got things done. They were "patriarchs." Now as then, we are tempted to stand behind their strength, their weapons, their protection.

But Jesus turned our hero-worship of the manly-man on its head. His beatitudes proclaimed the joy of choosing what Richard Rohr calls downward mobility: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful."

Hush little baby, don't say a word. Papa ... For Jesus there was never any hurry to win, or be right, or get the upper hand. Instead, he watched to see what his Father was doing, and then he did it too.

Our love comes either out of my need to BE loved, or out of abundance, Lord. And when I take the time to absorb your love for me, it is always abundance. Take the time. Take the time. Like the raggedy man in Riley's poem, just take the time. You have given me all the time I need in my own lived-in world.

Devotions Archive

Sweet little babies

Tuesday, December 19, 2017