Day 16, Advent, 12/19/23: Take Away My Disgrace (Luke 1:25)

"The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people" (Luke 1:25).

Luke 1:5-25 describes how Elizabeth, the childless wife of a priest, learns that she will give birth to a prophet named John the Baptist, thus taking away her disgrace as a barren woman which was considered to be a curse from God (cf. Gen 1:28). God's passion is to take away our disgrace (Lk 1:25) — the disgrace of our failure, our misfortune, our sin, and even of our circumstances. Elizabeth being childless was a circumstance beyond her control but still considered a disgrace by many people in her time and her culture.

What disgrace, disappointment, or disaster do you have that is holding upi back? Will you openly confess it and the feelings that it fosters within you, and ask God to take it away?

In the past I felt a sense of pride for becoming a medical doctor, coming to the U.S. against all odds, having kids and grandkids, discipling Christians in the U.S., Malaysia and the Philippines, and planting a small church community at WL. But I've never really felt any significant public shame or disgrace until my recent indictment, arrest, trial, conviction and guilty verdict this year. The daily feeling of shame, disgrace and uneasiness follow the incessant accusatory thoughts that God is punishing me for my sin, and that God is not pleased with me after blessing me beyond measure (2 Sam 12:7-8).

Lord, I know my sin that is always before me and that my sin is always against you (Ps 51:3-4). Lord, help me know, as Elizabeth did, that through Jesus, you have already shown me your favor and taken away my disgrace.

Tuesday, December 19, 2023 Third Week of Advent Luke 1:5–25 Friends, our Gospel today is from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which is thoroughly drenched in Davidic themes from the Old Testament. The first thing we hear about Zechariah is that he serves as priest in the Jerusalem temple; and David's dream was to build the temple in which Zechariah serves. While in the sanctuary, Zechariah is visited by the angel Gabriel; and the temple locale and the announcement of the birth of a child against all expectations brings us back to Hannah's pregnancy, which resulted in the birth of the forerunner to David. Indeed, Elizabeth's words upon conceiving—"So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others"—powerfully evoke Hannah's frame of mind when she, after many tears and much prayer, finally became pregnant. What does this have to do with the life of Jesus? From beginning to end of his preaching career, Jesus' central theme was the arrival of the kingdom of God, which was understood to mean the ingathering of the scattered tribes of Israel. And what becomes eminently clear in all of the Gospels is that this coming together would happen in and through Jesus himself, much as the knitting together of ancient Israel happened in the person of David. Jesus definitively fulfills what David himself left incomplete and unfinished. .