Praise the Lord,
the God of Israel!
He has come
to save his people.
 Our God has given us
a mighty Savior
from the family
of David his servant.
 Long ago the Lord promised
by the words
of his holy prophets… (Luke 1:68-70)

Today’s Advent post continues with the theme of expectation. Or, rather, our tendency as modern people to look right past expectation, to eschew good news, and to opt out of salvation in favor of the less-than-inspirational status quo.

Right at the beginning of Luke’s good news story, John-the-Baptist’s dad shares the beautiful reflection we know as The Song of Zechariah.

Right from the beginning, Zechariah points out that The Good News, the salvation everyone has been waiting for, is right on their doorstep. God has come to save his people! A mighty Savior from the family of David!

Jesus was coming!

BUZZ: You’d think there would have been a buzz of anticipation in Israel that built and built until it became a rumble, and then an earthquake; a seismic movement of repentance and preparation, until a landslide of unrestrained enthusiasm greeted Jesus. Then Israel, transformed by the radical teachings of the Savior, would have literally loved the Romans into submission, until the Promised Land stood as a shining beacon of hope and redemption for the world.

Of course we know that didn’t happen. And it’s not happening today, either, not even here in “The Land of the Free” where the message of the Gospel of Love is so readily available and so widely proclaimed.

But, there is not only a story to be told, there is a story to be lived.

There is not only a story to be told, there is a story to be lived.

FABLE: We can sing all we like about “O Come, O Come Immanuel,” we can proclaim, “Joy to the World, the Lord is Come!” and we can light our candles in the face of darkness, as a beautiful demonstration of our convictions…

… But until we live into the truth that “God has given us a mighty Savior,” and unless we actually carry that light with us into the world, and in such a way that we begin to catch things on fire – then it’s just a story, a well-worn fable that we tell to prop up our comfortable religious institutions.

The coming of Jesus disrupted every foundation the culture of the First Century world was built on. That’s the idea. Are we ready to welcome his disruption today?