God’s birthing of the new day

In one short week we will be celebrating the birth of Jesus from Nazareth. For Christians, in Jesus the fullness of God was birthed among humankind. Birthing of the new day has a long tradition in the stories of the Bible.

In last week’s column I wrote about the creation story of Genesis One as a story of birthing. The universe of chaos, that the Israelite God found, was ordered and given a new day by a birthing instigated by the Lord God. This is but one of a group of birth stories.

The first of the special birth stories is the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah. According to the account, God promised Abraham he would be the father of nations. Yet he had no children. Finally when Abraham was 100 years old, his wife, Sarah, a few years younger than Abraham, became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The whole event was so absurd that Sarah herself laughed about it. Obviously it was a miracle baby through whom the promise of God was to be extended.

The birth of Joseph was no less special. His father, Jacob, had fathered 10 sons, but the womb of his favorite wife, Rachel, was closed. Suddenly God remembered Rachel and she bore a son. His name was Joseph. Joseph eventually became the savior of his family. Joseph kept the story of God’s people alive because God instigated a special birth.

After Joseph, the next great name in the history of the Israelites was Moses who was the special child of a Levite couple, who were slaves in Egypt. The mother looked at the child and knew the child was special. The Pharaoh of Egypt had ordered such male children to be destroyed, but God knew better. Moses first was hidden and then protected. He became the leader who would deliver the Israelites from their slavery in Egypt. It all began with the birth of another special child.

In the Bible, when the people of God are in trouble, the beginning of the solution is the birth of a special child. This is the background of another birth story mentioned in the 7th chapter of the book of Isaiah. King Ahaz of the southern kingdom was looking for encouragement from the Lord God. The Lord gave some encouragement.

“A young woman shall conceive and bear a child, and she will give him the name Immanuel, which means, ‘God is with us.”’

Isaiah, God’s prophet at the time of King Ahaz wrote a further message.

“For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulders. His name will be called wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. There will be justice and righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.”

The new day that begins with a special birth is a tradition with deep Bible roots. The birth of Jesus was the next step.

The birth story of Jesus is found in the gospel writings of Matthew and Luke. The story of Mary, Joseph, the Shepherds, and the Wisemen has become very familiar to us all. Once Jesus was identified as the promised Messiah, it was inevitable that Christians would gave him a miraculous birth.

All of these birth stories carry a very important message to the whole world. How does a new day with a bright future come to us? The answer is the same that Jesus gave to a man named Nicodemus. The new day comes with a new birth. The new day does not come from the exercise of wealth or power. The new day comes from the marvelous simplicity of a new birth.

I recently re-read Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. He spoke on a battlefield that had been total chaos. I was struck by his use of the birth image. Our forefathers “brought forth (birthed) a new nation, conceived in liberty….this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom….”

Just now it is popular for people to write open letters to President Barak Obama. I have read several in the newspaper and even more on the Internet. I am not going to write him a special letter. However, if I did, the core of the message would be a recommendation that in America we engender a series of new births. The names of the newly born would be justice, education, health care and peace.

“For unto us a child is born…”

The Rev. Howard Bess is pastor emeritus of Church of the Covenant, an American Baptist church in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.