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Yesterday I wrote about a person who is experiencing a “that lack of faith” and finding that experience called into question. I wondered what is really going on when someone claims to experience “a lack of faith.”
The use of the word “agnostic” raises the question of knowledge. How do we know things?
Dear Christmas Visitor,
I do not know your name. We have only met once. You greeted me warmly at the back of church on Christmas Eve, shook my hand , smiled, and wished me a “Merry Christmas”.
“In the beginning…”
The Gospel of John begins with two Greek words: “en arche“. English translators add the article “the”. So almost all English versions of John’s Gospel begin with the words, “In the beginning…” But the Greek is more stark – “In beginning…” And it raises more questions than it answers:
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.(Luke 2:15,16)
There are so many questions I want to ask these shepherds.
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In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.(Luke 2:8,9)
They were going about the ordinary routines of their daily lives. There was nothing remarkable about their day. Their time was taken up with the accustomed tasks of watching over sheep, keeping them safe, retrieving the one who has wandered, making sure none are lost and all have adequate food.
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All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. (Luke 2:3,4)
I don’t want to be Joseph in this story. Joseph is powerless. He is carried along with the crowd. He has no control over his destiny; he can only resign himself to the ridiculous decree of the Emperor Augustus “that all the world should be registered.” Joseph is forced take Mary and leave home, family, and work to make a long, difficult, and pointless journey simply because of the senseless decree of a despotic ruler.
When I find myself in Joseph’s sandals I often respond with anger, bitterness, resentment. It is not fair that Augustus should be able to issue arbitrary decrees and throw my whole life into a state of such complete chaos.
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In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. (Luke 2:1)
I want to be Augustus in this story. Augustus is decisive and strong. He is the powerful one, the one with all the glamour. When Augustus speaks people listen. He has the ability to get the job done.
Augustus makes me realize how often I feel powerless. There are so many times I am not sure exactly what is going on and find it hard to know how to act decisively. I do not see clearly the best way forward. I am confused and bewildered. The world is a puzzling place.
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