If the fruit of the Spirit were ranked in order of desirability, longsuffering would be the last on the list every time.  

Joy and love are amazing.  Peace and faith are awesome.  Kindness and faithfulness are admirable. 

But longsuffering, suffering at length, is NOT typically something we want to give or receive.  We run from it. We cry, and we hide. We try to pray it away. We get angry, and then we get bitter.  

How much better could our lives be if we were to recognize that longsuffering is BEAUTIFUL?  If it was allowed to abound in our lives as we were rooted and found our rest in the presence and power of God?  

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I hope that it is not hard to see in this story of Christmas that the greatest kindness of all is the incredible kindness of God bending to us. 

Text: Read Philippians 2:5-8. (MSG)

He was in very nature God and yet He gave that up for us. He left forever and entered time. He left glory and came to earth. He left omnipresence and took on a body.

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Shepherds in that day were pretty much the low men on the social and economic totem pole. They were among the lowest of the common laborers - spending their days and nights out away from the rest of humanity in fields and pastures in the company of only each other and lots of sheep. 

Then one mundane night, suddenly and out of nowhere, an angel appears! We have no real idea of what this would have been like for them. Suffice to say it was out of the ordinary. They are initially terrified. Appropriate, I think, remembering yesterday. The angel kindly reassures them, “Don’t be afraid.” And then this, “I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.” 

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I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it before but the angels have a pretty great job. It may be a bit of a stretch but it seems reasonable to me to say that it was the kindness of God that created their job and set the whole system up for them.  A major part of their job is to be the heralds, the messengers for the greatest event in all of time! - the coming of God to seek and save.

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As I read this I see God’s kindness to Elizabeth and Zachariah in a number of ways.  The most obvious to me is by giving them a son even in their old age, taking away her disgrace of being childless (which could be viewed as a curse or punishment); and not just an ordinary child, but the forerunner of the long-awaited Messiah.

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As you read, try to put yourself in Joseph’s sandals, try to get into his skin, his mind, his emotions. We’ve had a couple of looks at this already but let’s look again. He has just found out that the woman he loves and is engaged to is pregnant! And the explanation is, “Don’t worry Joseph, the baby is God’s.” Try to begin to fathom the depths of his doubt, anger, confusion, utter sadness, relational brokenness, and emptiness. There can only be one logical explanation for this unplanned pregnancy and she has put him in a very hard place.

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Luke 1:28 “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

God has chosen her out of all women on the planet for this honor (and burden) and He is promising to be WITH her in it.

The kindness of God to Mary

The angel Gabriel shows kindness to her as she is “greatly troubled” and “wondered” at his words. He kindly reassures her, “Don’t be afraid” and explains what will happen and reminds her repeatedly of Who is in charge of all of this - “favor with God”, “the Lord God will give…”

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Romans 2:4 - “Or do you presume on the richness of his kindness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?”

I vividly remember the first time I really heard and noticed this verse. I remember being very taken by the idea of “the kindness of God”, but also more than a little surprised... and maybe even skeptical.

Why was I so challenged by the word “kindness” as it related to God?

How could He, why would He use kindness as a pathway to repentance?

Don’t we need sternness and rigor to get us moving in the right direction? Don’t we need rules and discipline?

For me, kindness seemed too soft, too easy, not strong enough, not an adequate motivator.

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God sent Jesus to save the world … 

He is more super than Superman, 

more stealthy than Batman, 

more sticky than Spiderman, 

more powerful than Hulk, 

more all-knowing than Dr. Strange, 

more mighty than Thor, 

more good-hearted than Captain America, 

more technically creative than Ironman, 

more empowering than Black Panther.

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Faithfulness is counting the cost of following and celebrating God, and deciding that not only is God worth it, but He’s worth EVERYTHING. Time. Money. Planning. Expenses. The inconveniences of first-century travel. Leaving behind family. Sleeping outdoors. Physical soreness. Risking robbery. Paying for a team to travel.

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Have you waited for something, hopeful and excited? How long did you wait? Remember how it felt -- the longing, the expectation, the anticipation. This was the world of Anna and Simeon. 

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Joseph “was faithful to the law,” a man of discipline and holiness. When he realized Mary was pregnant, his faithfulness to the law and his faithfulness to Mary clashed in an epic upheaval: what would he do? What was the right path?

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Young Mary’s experience of the birth of Jesus is marked by her faithfulness. She believed: she believed the impossible could be possible through God’s creativity. She believed He could do anything, even create a person within her in a mysterious, unexplainable partnership with the Holy Spirit.

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Zechariah and Elizabeth keenly felt the disappointment of not having children; it was heart-breaking. In spite of their sadness, they remained faithful to the only One who could change their situation: God. Their faithfulness was expressed in their everyday, routine choices; they were righteous people in God’s eyes even though He had let them suffer socially and personally.

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Faithfulness

Faithfulness is having the guts to show up when you’re scared to death.

Faithfulness is following through, even when you can only see enough light for the step in front of you.

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Would you defy a king? One that was notoriously harsh? The wise men were not from Israel; they checked in with the king as was the politically correct thing to do and then headed on their way. They had to know their message struck a chord. The raised eyebrow as they said the phrase, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews” to the current reigning king. Herrod thinking, “Well you are looking at him.”

They may have seen the malice through this veiled request to come worship this “new king”.

But would you have defied him?

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One of my biggest struggles is fighting the need to justify myself. If people only knew then they would understand. I can only imagine what that battle must have been a constant struggle for Mary and Joseph.

We see Joseph described as just. We know that he was well-liked in the community. People must have been frustrated he didn’t give Mary what they thought she deserved; that he was making a mistake in marrying this girl.

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What does self-control look like in the context of marriage? Specifically in the marriage of Mary and Joseph. In my marriage is most often manifest itself in striving to keep my emotions in check whenever a trigger, wound or conflict is hit by my spouse. Mary and Joseph were amazing people, but they were just that...people. People with wounds.

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If you don’t post it on social media did it ever really happen? We are a culture of instant gratification. We have no sooner received a blessing than we share it widely and broadly. And while some may argue that they are proclaiming God’s goodness, it could also be said that we are not taking time to ponder what God even did in that gift.

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My wife and I have had three children. I am pretty sure that if a group of scraggly looking men showed up at our condo door and wanted to come in and look at our new baby, we would have said no.

God asked some amazing things of Mary. We know many of them, yet we don’t often think about the daily struggles that came with it.

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