After reading the
Gospel lesson for the first time last week- one of the first thoughts was I had
was thank God Deacon Lee gets to read this lesson- Today’s Gospel is the type of lesson that make our lectors
break into a cold sweat- that keep Lectors up at night-- some of the names are absolutely brutal- Trachonitis and Tiberius, and Caiaphas and
Ituraea.But while this might be
a nightmare for those who have to read these texts—Luke has a very specific
reason for giving his readers this type of information.
“In the fifteenth year of the reign of the
emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was ruler
of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and
Trachonitis and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high-priesthood of Annas
and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” Luke 3:1-2
Luke wants to firmly
cement this thing we call the incarnation- God becoming flesh and dwelling
among us—Luke wants to firmly cement the
ministry of John as a very distinct point history- Luke specifically wants his audience to know
that God tore open the world and became
in flesh right at this particular- point in history. He doesn't want to start his story with vague references- Like George Lucas begins Star Wars- “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” He wants these events
firmly planted in history- and he uses this list of who’s of who of the Judea,
and Jerusalem to get the job done.
In the fifteenth year of
the reign of the Emperor Tiberius… the word of God came not to Tiberius as he
was sitting on the throne- slave wafting a palm branch over his head while holding court- commanding one of the greatest empires in
history-
the word of God came not to the high
priests --Annas or Caiaphas as they were
preparing the incense and the sacrifices
to worship God in the temple,
the word of God did
come to John’s father a priest, a holy man-- Zechariah, but the word of God came to the snotty nosed
pastor’s kid--John and it came not in the not in some holy temple place like
the temple in Jerusalem but the word of God came to John in the
wilderness.
So what does this tell
us about God? What might this tell us that God willingly bypass the kings
and the emperors and the elite- and even
his royal priesthood- to do his work? What
does this tell us about God who sends his words to the snotty nose pastor’s kid,
the only ordinary Joe in this particular story?
Do you think that
perhaps if God is working in John’s life he might just be at work in you and
I? Do you think that if God sends his
word to John he might just his word to us too?
Ordinary folks, like John.
If God is sending his
word to ordinary folks like you and I are we looking for it. Have we stopped- (remember last week Advent
is about stopping)-- have we stopped and taken some time to look for words that
God might be sending us?
As some of you may know, I wandered away from the church for most of the 1990’s. Those were my college years and my early twenties- for some of us that was the thing to do. Sometime in 1997-- I wandered back into the church and recommitted myself to Jesus Christ. As a part of that re commitment and search to find God, I did something very un-Episcopalian- I began to read the bible daily- As I dashed between clients I would stop at a park outside of Reading, Pennsylvania to eat lunch and read my bible.
One day I opened my
bible up to read and the scripture that
I read that day was a piece of scripture from Mark where Jesus says to
his followers-- “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you
will drink or what you will wear. ”
As I sat there on that picnic bench and read
those words—Do not worry about your life—
it was as if God hit me square between the eyes--it was as if Mark
had penned those words just for me
- as I sat there reading that passage it
was as if Jesus was whispering those words into my ears—“Sean, do not worry
about what’s going on in your life- I am taking care of it.”
That sort of thing had
never happened to me- never had Holy scripture so spoken to what was going on
in my life--- the funny thing is that I cannot remember for the life of me what
I was worried about, but what was amazing was God had sent his word to me--- As
you can imagine- it was an incredible moment.
Sometimes God’s words
come to us wrapped up in the words of the that big red book- Holy Scripture- as
phobic as we Episcopalians may be about reading those words- we don’t need a
PH.D. in Biblical Studies- we don’t need to understand every last intricate
detail of what you are reading for God to send his word- God seems to work in
spite of us- we just need a willingness to dust off the cover, to open the book,
and read something- and then to look, to see what captures our imagination. And in that moment- God may be sending, a
word, his word to us.
In the fifteenth year
of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, the word of God came to John, and if it
comes to John- it might just might come to you and to me. And that is good news. AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment