Thursday of the Third Week of Advent

Barren! Both of our Scriptures today speak of being barren. It is not our first thought at this time of year. By now you may already be singing Christmas carols and experiencing the joy of the season of new birth soon to be celebrated on Christmas day. The background in our faith story both in the Old Testament as revealed in Judges and in the New Testament, in Luke, present to us the reality of being barren. In the first story, Manoah’s 'wife is barren and had borne no children.' Then God sends an angel to her and promises that she will bear a son named, Samson. In the second story Zechariah and Elizabeth are barren because 'both were advanced in years.' Elizabeth says: ‘So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others.’

We are reminded that being barren brings with it a feeling of ‘disgrace,’ or shame. This is our opportunity to connect with what is barren within us so that we can name it and give it to the Lord in prayer. Then the promise of new life in Jesus will give us hope. If you live in the north perhaps nature speaks to you of barrenness, the leaves have left the trees, the ground is hard, the colors are grey and there is a desolate feeling in the atmosphere. Take this as an invitation to touch into what is barren and desolate, colorless, bleak, empty, even lonely and feel it and see that it is part of life. God sees what is barren in you and now promises to bring you new life out of it. There is an Advent gift for us, male and female, beyond giving physical birth to find what is barren in us, maybe a marriage that feels empty or stuck, a job that is almost boring, an illness that isolates you, or old age that offers emptiness and limitations. Today we are invited through these stories to make them real in our lives and believe that God will once again turn our bareness into new life with the new coming of Love in Christ.