Reflection on Luke 1:68-79

 

Luke 1:68-79

68 Blessed are you, Lord, the God of Israel, 

you have come to your people and set them free.  

69 You have raised up for us a mighty Savior, 

born of the house of your servant David.  

70 Through your holy prophets, you promised of old to save us from our enemies, 

71 from the hands of all who hate us,  

72 to show mercy to our forebears, 

and to remember your holy covenant.  

73 This was the oath you swore to our father Abraham: 

74 to set us free from the hands of our enemies,  

free to worship you without fear,

75 holy and righteous before you, all the days of our life.  

76 And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, 

for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,  

77 to give God’s people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins.  

78 In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us,  

79 to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

 

Reflection

He stood at the door as snow lightly touched down around him, wondering if he should knock.  He could turn back.  He could go back to his old ways of life.  He could return to the confused days of drunken nights of ecstasy and blurry days of confusion as he drifted from job to job. 

That is no way to live, of course.  He looks at his thin hands which had been starved of proper nutrition through those years.  Look at what he had become, a mere shadow of himself; a mere glimpse of who he could have been.  All of those years wasted.  “All those years,” as if it had all happened a long time ago, as if it had been longer than just last week when he made up his mind to make his prodigal return to his parents. 

One of his buddies told him to try.  He told him to try going back to his parents to get a new start.  It is what he did anyway.  When he did so, his parents welcomed him back with forgiving hugs.  That welcome was not the end of his problems, but it was a start on the way toward the end.  The friend was his own personal John the Baptist, preparing the way for salvation, preparing him to be free from his past by sharing this promise of forgiveness.

As he reviewed all that his buddy had said, the song of Zechariah echoed through the snow filled heavens.

“And you, child (meaning John), shall be called the prophet of the Most High, 

for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way,  

to give God’s people knowledge of salvation

by the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1:76-77). 

But that is the thing; would his own parents do the same?  Would they embrace him and forgive him?  He had disappointed them in so many ways.  He can still hear his dad’s voice shouting, “Out!  Get out of here!”

But, how else would he move forward?  How else would he finally be free of his past and find salvation? 

His dad’s shout, his family ousting, was two year ago.  Time heals.  God heals.  And, God continually promises to set us free.  He needed to be free.  He needed to be healed.  He needed God’s promises to be true tonight in a very real way because if they were not true tonight he did not know what else he would do.

The song of Zechariah continued to swirl with the falling snow, snippets of promise and hope jumbled up in the wind:

“…You swore to our father Abraham: 

to set us free from the hands of our enemies” (Luke 1:73).

These words swirled one way.

“Blessed are you, Lord, the God of Israel, 

you have come to your people and set them free” (Luke 1:68).

These words swirled another.

“In the tender compassion of our God

the dawn from on high shall break upon us” (Luke 1:78)

The promise landed on the back of his thin hand like snow as he considered the knock.  “The dawn from on high shall break upon us.”  “Shall” is a powerful word.  “Shall” means that it will happen.  “Shall” means that forgiveness is his and he will finally have a way forward.  “Shall” says this is certain to happen.  But, will it?  Will God’s compassion find him through the loving eyes and arms of his parents?  Or will those eyes and arms be cold and distant?

There was only one way to know.  He would have to knock.  “Knock and the door will be opened for you,” he once heard in Sunday School (Matthew 7:7).  He guessed that it was time to find out if the light of compassion could fall across someone like him; someone who knows the reality of darkness and death all too well.

He knocked.  The door opened.  And, his feet were guided, more like yanked, over the threshold of the door “into the way of peace;” so powerful was the hug from his dad (Luke 1:79). 

I guess you could say that God remembered the covenant of mercy (Luke 1:72).  It is the very mercy that we are promised in the hands and feet of Jesus Christ our Lord, for whom we await, hand ready to knock at the door.

Reflection on Luke 3:1-6

 

Luke 3:1-6

1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, 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, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:

‘Prepare the way of the Lord;

make his paths straight.  

Every valley shall be filled, 

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,  

and the crooked shall be made straight, 

and the rough ways made smooth,  

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’ ”

Reflection

Do you know who the gospel story is not about?  It is not about Tiberius Caesar, though he is mentioned in the Bible as existing.  However, God is not particularly interested in telling his story. 

Do you also know who this story is not about?  It is not about Pontius Pilate, though Jesus’ life is definitely affected by his actions and decisions.  As a Roman governor, Pontius Pilate does send Jesus to the cross, but the story is not about him any more than your story is about the president and any actions that he may or may not have taken that raised inflation.  It affects your story, and you pocketbook for that matter, in a very personal way, but your story is not about him. 

Neither is the gospel story about Pontius Pilate.  Nor, is it about King Herod, the ruler Philip, the high priest Caiaphas or his all influential father-in-law, Annus.  The gospel story is not about any of these powerful men who resided in powerful cities.  God is not particularly interested in telling their stories.

To find out who the gospel story is all about, to find out whose stories God is interested in, we need to back away from the powerhouse cities in Rome and look in the wilderness.

We need to look in the places where the Bible says the snake slithers and waits to strike.  We need to look in the places where real people live real lives, struggling in real ways to get food and find shelter.  We need to look in the places where the Israelites wandered, with starving stomachs and struggling souls.  We need to look where Satan thrives and is ever trying to tempt.  He even tempts Jesus there.  We need to move our eyes from Washington DC and look in the woods just outside of Shunk, PA.

We need to look in the places where lineman struggle to restore power, and where trucks hauling cows struggle to keep on the road when full of ice.  We need to look where houses look lived in and where families work hard just to get by.  We need to look in the places where lots of people assume that God has forgotten, and we need to look at the people who lots of people assume are not worthy of a gaze; yet it is where God chooses to send his messenger.

“The word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:2-3).

The all powerful and redeeming word of God skipped over the powerful and mighty and fell on a guy in the wilderness.  The word of God chooses to come to him and chooses to send him around the wilderness, speaking to the people out there near the Jordon river.  And, what was the word that God wanted to say to those people, struggling out in the wilderness? 

Well, I will tell you that it is a great word. 

It is a word that asks those everyday people struggling out in the wilderness to change their minds about how they see the world.  To those who are convinced that they have no importance, God has a word: “Repent,” open your mind to the truth that you are loved and you have a purpose. 

To those who struggle and cannot imagine that anyone really even cares, God has a word: “Repent,” open your eyes to see someone who cares and is coming to you. 

To those who have been ensnarled by the thorny brambles of this troubled life, those who have been convinced by the snake that the only way to get by in the world is to look out for yourself, God has a word: “Repent,” be freed of those thorny vines, there is a better way to live.

“Prepare the way of the Lord;” the people hear (Luke 3:4).

“Make his paths straight.

Every valley shall be filled,

and every mountain and hill shall be made low,

and the crooked shall be made straight,

and the rough ways made smooth

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:4-6).

Those people struggling with everyday life out in the wilderness are promised that when the junk of life is shoved to the side, when roads are allowed to be made straight and the impossible mountains that we think we need to climb to get anywhere in life are leveled, when we allow the road to be straight rather than trusting the crooked ways that the snake tells us to rely upon, and when the rough paths of this world are allowed to be smoothed, then we will see the truth. 

It is a truth that has always been.  It is a truth that has just been cluttered, not seeable.  It is the truth that God wants you to desperately see, especially when you are out, struggling in the wilderness of life. 

Your salvation is near.  You “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  In fact, God plans that “all flesh,” all people will be able to see God’s heart of love and salvation. 

And, the amazing thing about all of this is that God came first to you in the wilderness, to let you know that even you, especially you, are worthy of being freed from the snares and thorns found in the wilderness.  Even you, especially you, are worthy of God’s attention and salvation.

I cannot tell you the amount of people who I hear from who are genuinely surprised during this time of year when they find out that Jesus came into this world to save them too. 

So many people have somehow heard that God is distant, or God, if there is one, does not necessarily care.  How many people say, “If I stepped into a church, it would fall down.”?  Or say that it would be struck by lightning because of their very presence! 

Somehow, these people have learned a lesson that says, God is not for them, and God wants nothing to do with them. 

But, right here we find out that the gospel message is especially for them.  God jumped over all of the important people in the world so that the poor, sinful, struggling schmucks of the world might be encountered by God’s promise of salvation.  No, the church will not fall apart if they were to step their foot in.  In fact, God is trying create straight roads to those churches, and is desperately trying to unlock those door and break them down so that these very people might see that the “salvation of God” for them (Luke 3:6). 

Jesus’ forgiveness is for them.  Jesus’ life of freedom and love is for them.  The purpose that Jesus has for the world includes them.  Jesus wants desperately to speak a word of sacrificial love in their ear, and allow them to see the power of the cross with their own eyes.  Jesus wants to speak a word of love to you.  It is a word of love that would die on a cross so that you might be free of the troubles in the wilderness.

Just this week, I read the story of a young woman who, though a pastor’s kid, suddenly found herself in the thorns and threats of the wilderness.  Her name is Cindy Price.  She is not a famous Christian speaker.  She is just a young woman with a gospel story that tells about seeing the salvation of God while in the wilderness.  She is just someone who experienced God’s work to make the paths of salvation straight for her when they had unexpectedly been made crooked during Christmas time.  She writes:

“The year my dad- who was a pastor at the time- was caught in his addiction, the Church leadership asked him and my mom to not attend the Christmas Eve service. The investigation was ongoing and they wanted him to step back while it happened.

What they didn't count on, I don't think, was for me to show up at the service. I have a deep commitment to tradition so when my parents said we weren't going to the service, I resolved to go by myself.

Under the weight of uncertainty and the fear of what I had suspected might just be a true accusation, I showed up to the candlelight service.

Families were there to celebrate, it was Christmas after all.

I found my usual spot at the front and as the first carols rang out, my tears began to fall. I felt like an imposter. I was a cloud of grief and darkness amidst a cheerful celebration. I felt guilty for dampening the time of rejoicing.

As I sat I found myself talking to Jesus. ‘I'm ruining your party,’ I told him.

It was his response in that moment that changed Christmas for me forever. He told me, ‘Cassie I came to that manger as a baby not for those in celebration, but for those in mourning.

I came for you. In this moment. Right here.’

For the first time in my relatively easy life, I was tasting heartache (and oh if only I knew how much more would come). And it was there that Jesus showed me the heart of Christmas. Jesus stepped down to pursue the broken and the hurting and the lost.

If this year broke you down. Isolated you. Left you grieving or fearful or hurt. I want you to know that you don't have to muster up cheer. You don't have to feel like a downer in the midst of celebration. You can sit at the feet of a savior who came for you where you're at right now. That's how Immanuel works. It's God with us in the dirt giving us hope in the face of despair.”

She ends with a quote from Isaiah, "Those who walk in darkness have seen a great light, on those living in spaces of deepest darkness a light has dawned" (Isaiah 9:2).

Those in the darkness, those in the wilderness, “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  You “shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).  “Repent,” open your minds, and your eyes, to see that the word of salvation, the very saving work of God is coming to “all flesh,” but especially you.

Reflection on Psalm 25:6-20

 

Psalm 25:6-10

6 Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, 

for they are from everlasting.   

7 Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; 

remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.  

8 You are gracious and upright, O Lord; 

therefore you teach sinners in your way.  

9 You lead the lowly in justice 

and teach the lowly your way.  

10 All your paths, O Lord, are steadfast love and faithfulness 

to those who keep your covenant and your testimonies.  

Reflection

Just the other day, in the grocery store of all places, right next to the beans, a transgression from my past, a wrong that I did to a friend, just popped into my head from out of nowhere.  I did not ask this memory to pop into my imagination.  It is not like I asked my brain to replay the top 10 stupidest moments from Jira’s life.  As you might have guessed, they were so great the first time, why not replay them again!  And, why did beans trigger the memory?  I will let you figure out the psychology of that one on your own.

But, the movie playing in my head, a movie where I hurt the feelings of a good friend, projected in my head just as clear as if it just happened yesterday.  In response to the memory of my stupid actions, I slapped myself in the head three times, the same as a father from the old days would slap a misbehaving child in the head.  I was punishing myself.  And, it was at that very moment that a woman came around the corner and saw it all.  She backed up her cart and proceeded to the next aisle.

Oh, the pain of those memories.  The cringe of those sins.  The stupidity that we cannot change.  I knew that continuing to literally beat myself up over this past infraction would do no good.  The friend probably does not even remember it.  But, that is not the point.  I do.  I remember it.  I know how stupid and insensitive that I can be, and I do not like that one bit.

So, I did what I usually do when this happens and I stopped and prayed right there in the grocery store aisle.  I closed my eyes, lifted my head, and asked the Lord to please forgive me and take away my sin, and if possible take away that memory.  As I opened my eyes, I saw the same lady staring at me again.  She immediately backed away, giving up on her apparent bean purchase for the day.

I did not care what she thought.  I needed to do it; just as the writer of Psalm 25 needed to pray: “Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; remember me according to your steadfast love and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord” (Psalm 25:7).

“Lord, please do not look at me like I look at myself.  Forget those past sins that I cannot do anything about and instead look at me with eyes of love,” I prayed as I joined in the Psalmist’s prayer.

I remember another time when a woman watched me try to slap the stupidity out of my head.  She was one of my elementary school teachers, and I was slapping my head because I failed to spell a word correctly.  Everyone else in class was able to spell it.  “Stupid, stupid Jira,” I said to myself.

“You are not stupid,” my teacher said.  Apparently, I had not said it to myself. 

“There is nothing wrong with making mistakes Jira.  That is how we learn.  What is wrong is getting stuck on those mistakes rather than learning from them.”  Then she showed me the right way to spell the word, and gave me a couple of pointers on how not to make the mistake in the future.  That was a good lesson.  But, the better lesson was the one about how “learning” from our mistakes is so much more important than getting “stuck” on our mistake.

“You are gracious and upright, O Lord; therefore you teach sinners in your way. You lead the lowly in justice and teach the lowly your way” (Psalm 25:8-9).

“You teach sinner in your way.” 

I do not know if you need to hear that today, but I do.  There is no doubt that I am a sinner.  There is no doubt that I have made mistakes and have been unloving in my words and actions.  But, what is amazing to me is that, rather than leaving for another aisle, God takes the time to teach me.  Like my teacher who refused to see me as “stupid,” God refuses to see us as purely sinful and people of low pedigree.  Rather, when God looks at us, God sees the possibilities of who we could be.  The Bible says that God teaches the sinners in the right, good, and loving ways of the Lord.  God sees us as someone worth taking the time to instruct, and redeem, and save.  God sees us as someone worth dying for on a cross.

So, I will continue to pray next to the beans, or wherever I am.  That woman can go to another aisle for a while if she feels uncomfortable, because this is important stuff.  Sometimes I need to remember that I am not my mistakes; rather I am my learnings.  And, I bet that sometimes you need to remember that too.  Sometimes, we need to remember that we are children of the one who walks in ways of steadfast love and faithfulness. 

We are children of the most high.  We are siblings of the one who loves us to the end; the one for whom we wait this Advent; Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reflection on Luke 21:25-36

 

New Testament: Luke 21:25-36

[Jesus said:] 25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

29 Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

34 “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35 like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Reflection

Every day, while eating my school lunch, I would stare at the door with the radiation symbol above which read, “Fallout Shelter.”  The janitor once instructed us that if a nuclear missile was launched at us from the USSR, the whole school would need to seek shelter through that door.  I was scared.  I prayed every night that the world would not end in nuclear destruction, but the news during the day seemed to hold little hope as tensions raised between the nations.  I curled in on myself, out of self-preservation.  A lot of us children did in those times.  There seemed little hope. 

If only someone had told us children to “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near,” instead of curling up in fear (Luke 21:28).  Maybe we would have not been so scared if we understood that God knew what God was doing.  Maybe, we would have trusted that the Son of Man was coming, very near even, coming with a saving heart to save scared children such as us.

For three entire years, the woman did almost nothing.  The dishes were out of control.  She bought new clothes rather than washing the old.  The recliner was developing an imprint of her body.  It had been three years since the love of her life was taken away in an automobile accident.  It was terrible.  It was the end of her world.  It was as if a nuclear weapon had gone off and destroyed everything in her home and in her life.  Her friends stopped coming by to check on her.  Now, she sat alone and numb. 

Numb was better than being devastatingly sad; so she thought.  The only problem was that numb also was…numb.  It was not happy.  It was not sad.  It was numb.  It was refusing to live because her loved one could not live.

If only one of her friends had instructed her to stand up and raise her head, because her redemption was drawing near.  If they had, maybe she would have seen the restoration of her life on the horizon rather than fearing the end of it.  She was stuck in the devastation, with no hope, but it did not have to be this way.  Maybe, she would have seen that the Son of Man was coming to restore life to even a woman like her.  Maybe, it could still happen this very day.

Jesus said: “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (Luke 21:25-26). 

And, that is our natural human response, to live in fear and anxiety when our worlds are turned up-side-down.  I know that after our house had flooded for the second time, all I could do for an entire day was just stare at the water and the ruined stuff.  I stared at the crumbling books.  I stared at the ruined electronics.  I just stared because the anxiety of even thinking about how to proceed from that moment was too much.  It was all just too much.  The powers of the heavens had shaken.  I had been shaken.

It is so easy to do nothing when fear and anxiety take hold.  It is easy to curl in on ourselves and try to protect ourselves, but Jesus instructs us, saying: “stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).  And, I know that is the fourth time those words have come out of my mouth, but I keep repeating them because they are truly incredible words. 

They remind me of the words that Mr. Rogers taught to parents who struggled to help their children through tough times.  In his book, “Mr. Rogers Talks with Parents” he said:

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

It was almost as if Mr. Rogers was a pastor.  Wait, he was!  It was almost as if his mother and he had been shaped by Jesus’ words of hope and instruction in bad times.  Wait, they were!

Is the world getting rough?  Have you lost sight of what is right and good?  Do you miss having a sense of hope?  Then lift your head and start looking around because the one who shaped you and formed you in your mother’s womb; the one who made a space for you and your unique gifts in this world; the one who created a purpose for you in this world; the one who died for you on a cross, that you would not be lost in the dark forever, but rather saved in the light forever, never to be forgotten; that one, Jesus Christ, is on his way with a song of salvation ringing from his lips and love for you emblazoned upon his heart. 

When life is tough, do not look down, look up and see the Lord Jesus Christ.  Look for the helpers.  Look for those with Jesus’ love emblazoned upon their hearts.  Look for the Lord, for nothing will get in his way, and nothing will keep him from drawing near to you. 

Jesus tells you to make sure “your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap” (Luke 21:34).  Jesus is on the way.  Do not get trapped in the worries.  Do not get trapped in the self-medication.  Do not miss the day Jesus arrives!  He is near.

Do not miss the day that Jesus comes in the hands and hearts of neighbors who arrive from out of nowhere to help muck out the flood destroyed mess.  “Your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

Do not miss the day when the niece comes bursting into your terribly prepared home, and terrible lived life, and spends time helping you put it all back together…spending time with you when other would not.  “Your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

Do not miss the day that the Berlin wall falls and the USSR is no more.  Do not miss the day that the fear can finally be let go for a trust that the Lord will provide.  “Your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).

After-all, nothing can keep down the one who can rise from the dead.  No one can, on the cross, forever destroy the one who now lives and reigns in heaven forever.  As the Apostle Paul declares when he ponders on these things, nothing in all of creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).

Lift up your heads.  Watch for the Lord.  Death, and fear, and destruction do not have the last word in your lives.  Jesus gets the last word.  And, that word cannot be erased.  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33).

As I was sitting and pondering this promise, I remembered an unremarkable experiment that every little kid eventually tries. 

Imagine a three year old, squatting down by some moving water (maybe by a creek or at the ocean).  And now imagine that he or she takes a pile of sand and piles it up on a rock that is partially submerged in the rushing water.  What happens? 

It is a simple experiment, I know, and what happens is obvious: the water rushes by and slowly erodes the sand, bit by bit, until all that is left is the rock.  Little three year olds will do this again and again, confirming the hypothesis that the water will take away the sand bit by bit, but not the rock.  Now, why in the world was I wasting time remembering this simple little experiment?  Because, though it is simple, I am not certain that we always trust the result.

Jesus says this, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see the storms taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:29-33).

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”  “Heaven and earth can be washed away bit by bit, but my words are a boulder,” Jesus teaches.  The more the cloudy mounds of sand are washed away, the clearer you can see the care, love, and grace of Jesus.  When the walls of fear and anxiety that have closed you in, finally wash away, then maybe you will finally be able to see Jesus coming to you.  You, sweet child of God, whose every finger and eyelash were molded and shaped out of love.  “Your redemption is drawing near” to you (Luke 21:28).

The promise of Jesus, to always be our rock of power and love, does not wash away.  So, stand up straight with your head held high and face the storm directly.  Have hope O people of God, and look, Jesus is here!