Luke 1-4
It is interesting how when you read a text can affect how you read a text! This passage from Luke's gospel is THE Christmas text! This is the story that Linus quotes in A Charlie Brown Christmas. This is THE text that we yearn to hear on Christmas Eve. This passage is Christmas.
So what are we doing reading it in Lent, as we make our way towards Jerusalem (not Bethlehem) and the cross (not the manger)?
It changes how I heard it this morning! Suddenly I found myself hearing things that would eventually lead to the cross--not religious things, but political things, things that got one crucified. Early in the story we hear of upheaval and turmoil.
Zechariah is going to the temple to do his priestly duties and learns that he and his wife--both of whom are way beyond the time of childbearing and childrearing--are about to be doing just that. And this child is going to change the ways things are! I was struck with the line "turn their hearts toward their children." Hmmmm. Maybe we need a John the Baptist today, especially in a state where our children will once again take the brunt of budget cuts. (But we won't go there!)
And then in the Magnificat, that wonderful hymn that choirs sing echoing Mary's hymn of praise, we hear that her child will scatter the proud, bring down the powerful, lift up the lowly, filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty. And why do we sing this in church? Sounds like a hymn of insurrection--which it was, and is! And which is why they had to do away with this Jesus! Even at his birth the shadow of the cross!
A couple other things hit me. I am always amused with the "church-like" way that Mary admonishes Jesus after he had gone missing for 5 days! I am just not sure that is what was said! I would love to have a tape recording of that conversation!
And in Luke there is no baptism by John--if the chronology is correct. John the Baptist is locked up by Herod, and then Jesus is baptized. I have never caught that before! And as was mentioned Wednesday night, Luke's genealogy goes backwards, with different people, and goes all the way back to Adam. There are theological reasons for that. See if you can figure it out in the next days? Why would Luke go back to Adam while Matthew stops with Abraham?
Let me show my cards--this is my favorite gospel! I am looking forward to hearing it. I'm also looking forward to your comments. Join the conversation, and enjoy the listening!
1 comment:
Yeah, I'm thinking Mary probably had some stronger words for little Jesus, too! I can't imagine how much she and Joseph must've been freaking out -- it's bad enough to lose your kid for three days, but when your kid also happens to be the Son of God, wow, total panic!
I really like Luke's gospel, too. I'm not sure if it's my favorite or if John's is. I'll have to wait and see. It's such a different experience hearing rather than reading them! I do like that Luke is more inclusive, right from the beginning. We get people from the margins of society playing important roles in the story, particularly women and non-Jews. Mary gets a lot more to do and say here than in any of the other gospels, and we get Elizabeth's story, plus Anna and Simeon, who says that Jesus will be a light to the Gentiles. That's why we get a genealogy going back not just to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, but all the way to Adam, the father of all nations. I always found it interesting (and kind of funny) too that the genealogy here is through Joseph's line, even though the writer says jokingly that he was only "supposed" to be Jesus's father. Biologically, they weren't even related. Score one for adoption.
What caught my attention that I'd never noticed before was when John was preaching repentance and people asked him what they needed to do to be saved, he told them things like playing fair, being good people and such, not what they needed to believe. Interesting.
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