The Defiant Faith of Advent

[On December 4, we’ll be hosting here at the Abbey an Advent retreat. Details and how to register can be found here.]

The season of Advent is better than a mere countdown to Christmas morning. It's more than a synonym for the Christmas season of carols and lights and cookies and presents and parties. Advent is our season of protest against all the forces of evil and darkness in the world. In Advent, we cry out from our gut, "O come, O come, Emmanuel." Like, right now. We do it with tears, if need be. We light candles with each successive week, singing songs and telling stories about hope, faith, joy, and peace. In the second week of Advent, we light the flame for faith.

"Faith" is one of those words we can get a little comfortable with in church. If we're not careful, it can become one of those words we hear so often that we forget what we're talking about. But "faith" is bedrock to the story. Faith, as we read it in the Old Testament, is related to words like “faithfulness” and “truth.” It's a relational word more than an intellectual one. To be faithful is to be ruggedly committed to another person. To be unfaithful is to abandon the relationship. Faith involves the unshakeable trust that there's something deeper and more real than what we see with our eyes.

There's a famous scene in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984 where the Party attempts brainwashing the hero Winston to believe that two plus two equals five. It's a scene that illustrates well that the opposite of "faith" is not doubt but rather betrayal. It’s infidelity to what is true. "The heresy of heresies was common sense," writes Orwell. When we read the story of Israel in the Old Testament, we find a story of unfaithfulness. Infidelity to God is what unravels Israel. The second week of Advent provides us space to consider the extraordinary people of defiant faithfulness in the stories about Jesus' birth in Matthew and Luke.

The defiant faith of Zechariah and Elizabeth

People of faith are people who know that two plus two is four, despite all the clamor around them that it should be five. We find in the opening pages of the New Testament a cast of characters who could have had every reason to lack faith. There's been no prophet for 400 years. Israel is an annexed territory of the Roman Empire.

It's here that the writer of Luke starts his story with a priest and his wife. "Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations." This word "righteous" carries this sense of committed faithfulness, to alignment with God's right-ness. Paul uses this word throughout Romans, including the famous slogan of the Reformation, "It is through faith that a righteous person has life."

In his famous song, Zechariah declares, "He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering his sacred covenant—the covenant he swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham." Zechariah connects his own story with the grandaddy of faith in God, Abraham. The story of Father Abraham—God's promises to him and Abraham's fidelity to God's promises—permeate the pages of the New Testament. The example of Abraham's faith is a cornerstone of Paul's argument in both Romans and Galatians. The example of Abraham inspires the defiant faith of Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The defiant faith of Joseph

The writer of Matthew uniquely invites us into Joseph's story. Yeah, his family tree names King David, but it also names such faithless fathers as Kings Rehoboam (whose reign led to 10 tribes of Israel leaving the kingdom), Manasseh (whose 55-year reign of spiritual depravity set the stage for the exile), and Jehoiachin (the last of the kings who "did what was evil in the Lord's sight"). It really is a disappointing family tree.

But the writer of Matthew describes this carpenter-son-of-kings this way: "Joseph... was a righteous man." It's the word dikaios, seen elsewhere in Matthew in contrast to an evil person, parallel with the word "prophet" describing those in alignment with God, and describing the sheep in the famous parable in Matthew 25. Despite the rotten fruit in his family tree, and despite the down-and-out state of his people, Joseph is a righteous man. Joseph is a man of defiant faith.

The defiant faith of Mary

Again, it's Luke that gives us the story of Mary. When an angel appears unannounced, it names her, "O favored one." It responds in shocked silence, and the angel tells her, "You have found favor with God." She is chosen by God and found worthy by God to receive this gift.

One thing that sets Mary apart from many of the heroic characters in the biblical story is her response. When Moses encounters the burning bush, he argues back and forth with a list of legitimate reasons why he's not the one God is looking for. When Isaiah sees a vision of the heavenly throne, he responds, "Woe is me!" When Jeremiah is called by God, he says, "I'm too young." But when Mary experiences the invitation from God, she responds with defiant faith, "I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true." Mary responds uniquely with a childlike, wholehearted "yes" to God.

And then she goes and says this, "He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever." Like Zechariah, she's excited that God remembers. God is faithful to promises. And just like Zechariah, she connects her defiant faith to Father Abraham.

The defiant faith of Simeon and Anna

But these two couples are not the only faithful people of Israel during this time. One of the major themes through the prophets during and after the exile is that of a faithful remnant. The writer of Luke offers two more characters to flesh out the nature of this remnant for us—Simeon and Anna.

Eight days after the birth, the manger, the shepherds, Joseph and Mary bring the baby Jesus to the temple. There they meet Simeon, of whom we're told, "He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel." And then they meet Anna, an elderly widow. The writer says about her, "She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer."

Simeon and Anna represent two more examples of defiant faith. In a world riddled with the ruins of infidelity, defiant faith is a blast of fresh air. It's a dramatic plot twist. It's a source of healing. These people are not mere exhibits of sentimental piety. These people are fierce defenders of faithfulness to what is most true. For that, they are heroes who inspire equal faithfulness in us, too.

Our defiant faith in Advent

Paul writes to the Corinthians, "God is faithful." Slow down and let that statement sink in. This is just the kind of god that God is. And because God is faithful, we can be, too. During Advent, we witness how every day is darker than the day before. But we know with certainty that the light is coming. Howard Thurman, the Christian spiritual writer who served as an inspiration for the American Civil Rights movement, produced the poem "I Will Light Candles This Christmas" that captures the spirit of defiant, two-plus-two-equals-four Advent faith.

God is a God who makes promises and keeps promises. People of faith receive those promises and reciprocate them. People of faith are keepers of promises. God has promised to make all things new. People of faith keep a defiant, white-knuckled grip on that promise even in the noise that claims the contrary. In Advent, we are people of defiant faith.