Another Advent Season

WED., DEC. 1, 1999, 8:55 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

Yes, o son, the date is December the 1st, and another Advent season is here to be remembered and enjoyed. The Thanksgiving week was both fun and somewhat frustrating. As you and Lenore reviewed the week, after the last of the kin had departed, you realized the conversations you had not had… and you wondered whether such would ever be. In such a visit time flies by, and the time for serious conversations seems hard to come by. You did get to read this past week’s Teachings to Wendy and the boys, and you were pleased to have a chance to fulfill that invitation.

Merchants of various sorts are certainly ready to encourage holiday buying, and you know you should start thinking of gifts for some family members. But this morning’s Bible study did remind you of what the Christian season is. In the Luke Gospel it begins with Zachariah and Elizabeth…and Gabriel. The angel announces to them that, contrary to expectations, Elizabeth, past child-bearing age, will have a son. Zach (he was probably called that when he was a small boy) is doubtful, and, hence, is struck dumb for the duration of the pregnancy. When the baby is born the old father recovers his voice – to announce – “his name is John.”

This should be of special interest to you this year, for your youngest grandson is named John – after your grandfather, but, Biblically, also after your favorite Gospel writer, John… and after this heraldic John, later called The Baptist.

This small John of yours has the middle name of Isaac, the legitimate son of Abraham, another step on the way to the 12 tribes of Israel. Abraham’s faith was tested in a strange and powerful way – was he to sacrifice this son of his old age? When I saw that he was that faithful to Me I provided the actual sacrificial lamb, and Isaac’s life continued.

Thus, your grandson has names that link him with faithfulness to Me and chosenness by Me for a strange but important life, linked to Me, Jesus, his cousin. John is his first name, appropriate to one now baptized as a Christian. Isaac symbolizes a mystical relationship with Me as the Old Testament God, preparing the way for a Son Who would represent Me fully and powerfully. (And you still wonder why the Scriptures don’t urge you to characterize My life and ministry as “joyful.”)

I recognize your questions about this season and it’s “story,” so I’ll just assure you that it is an undiscernible combination of the factual and the mystical. You wonder how I was as a child and as a teenager, with the only story being one of a 12 year old being both disobedient in relation to parents and one showing early faithfulness to My yet-to-be revealed Self, as the “direct” and “original” Son of God. I, as Holy Spirit, was around and active at that time, mystically being the Father of Jesus, but not coming, officially, into the earth scene until Pentecost. (This is another evidence of the mystical… no, it doesn’t make rational sense.)

As Jesus, I am coming into the earth as a Jewish baby, but, as yet (only 2,000 years later) the religious Jews of today’s time still await the Messiah, with non-acceptance of Me, as The One.

As God Almighty, the One who instigated all of this, how do I react to this story, which commences the separation between Jews and Christians? I’ll just say I’m not surprised… frustrated… disappointed… displeased… Remember the mantra I have offered you, often – I love diversity. I don’t control and determine every thought and action, but I Am in charge, and the earth scene is just about as I want it to be. And I say “just about” because I realize I have to cause or allow (or some combination thereof) some reflection in a human population that, by its numbers and its technology, is threatening the life… all of it… on this friendly planet.