“You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.”
-Luke 1:14
If you aren’t careful and read this verse without the surrounding context, it is easy to mistake this verse as referring to Jesus. However, this is actually about John the Baptist. Specifically, this is a verse where the angel Gabriel is speaking to Zechariah.
Gabriel is announcing the miraculous conception of John the Baptist in Zechariah’s and his wife Elizabeth’s old age. He is declaring that not only will this be a great event for the parents, but it will be a great event for many people.
Many parents can relate to the hope presented in the announcement of this miracle because we all have a similar hope for our children: hope for them to be happy; hope for them to bring joy; and hope for them to make a positive mark on the world.
The reality of being a parent is very different. Parenting can be a grueling task with much joy, but also moments of despair. There is nothing that can melt a parent like the warm connection with their children, whether they are toddlers or adults. Still, the moments of pain can be excruciating.
We live in a culture, especially a Christian culture, that promises us that if we do things ‘right’ with our children, everything will go well. That isn’t always the case. I know a faithful pastor who had a child walk away from the faith. I remember him telling me over lunch that he didn’t understand why this had happened, because he had done everything ‘right’ in raising the child.
First, none of us do everything right. Over the years, I have thought a lot about how the history of Israel is marked by good kings descended from bad kings and bad kings descended from good.
Even when our children are good people, there can still be a great deal of pain.
Even with all that, I would never give up being a father. Despite the pain, there is joy. I don’t know if “many” people will ever rejoice over the births of my children, but some will. I will. And their mother will.
A Quote to Consider
“People come to church to feel. To experience emotion is a safe place.”
-Penny Nixon
This is a quote that some will respond strongly against; others will love it.
I was raised in a tradition that is very leery of rooting our faith in our emotions. In many ways, I still agree with that. Unmoored emotion can cause many problems.
At the same time, we are emotional beings. Emotion is a significant part of our cognition. So, an approach to faith that discounts emotions or even marginalizes them does us a disservice.
A saving faith does not merely rest on belief in God. As James says, “even the demons believe.” But he says even more: they “believe and shudder.” Their response to God is shuddering. A salvific response to God is to love. We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
In my church experience, there has been a great deal of discussion about orthodoxy (right beliefs). To a lesser degree, but still significantly, we have talked about orthopraxy (right practice/ actions). However, we have barely touched on the concept of orthopathy (right passions).
The difference between the demons’ response to God and the Christians’ response to God is not orthodoxy. It may involve orthopraxy. But at its heart, it is a response rooted in orthopathy. The Christian’s passions mirror the passions of God, while the loving God causes the demons to shudder.
An active faith is not just about feeling. It is about forming our passions in the likeness of Christ’s passions. It is about learning to love what and who God loves. Church is a place where we can delight in a loving God AND a place where we can struggle with our failure to delight in a loving God. In a healthy Church, we can safely feel this range of emotions in a community that truly loves us.
Prayer
Lord Christ,
Thank you for the gift of our children. Give us grace through the joys and pains of loving them and help us trust you when their lives do not unfold as we hoped.
Amen.
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