Week 2 Christmas Challenge, Liminal SpaceSample

 'Making Room for Limits' 

Just so we’re on the same page, here’s the definition of Liminal: “relating to a transitional or initial stage of a process; occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.” And Christmas marks, along with Resurrection Day, the greatest threshold in history. 

Here we have the angel Gabriel prophesying to Zechariah in the holy place of the temple in Jerusalem (Voice): “Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous – to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.’”

This prophecy was indeed an answer to profound prayer of Elizabeth and Zechariah. However, it wasn’t on their terms. Their long marriage was characterized by infertility, and, with it, decades-long unfulfilled dreams of what life would be like with and for a child. They’d likely speculated about how such a child would look, who he’d ‘take after’, what he would do for a living, who he might marry, and so on. 

The prophecy was clear that they wouldn’t have such liberties. In fact, even their son would not have conventional liberties. 

His life was decreed before his conception. Everything from name to lifestyle to life’s mission were dictated for him. 

Most people reading this are among a group who pray a lot. And we ask God for a lot of things. Implicit in many requests is the expectation that they will be answered ‘our way’. They will be manifest as we desire and intend. Often, this might be an underlying condition of the praying. 

And, yet, here, we have the significant counter-example. An old, righteous couple wants to have a baby. And God is going to provide a baby. But…

But that baby will be named ‘John’, will be a rare life-long Nazirite, will be filled with Holy Spirit before birth, will ‘go’ in the spirit and power of Elijah, and will prepare people for the Lord’s coming. 

Now, there is one enormous bump we’ll examine during this reading plan, but, ultimately, the posture of Elizabeth and Zechariah to this commandeering prophetic word is one of surrender. 

And that’s our example for today.