"An Audacious Promise"
Luke 3:1-6
We’ll be
hearing a lot from the Gospel according to Luke in the coming year. This week’s reading tells about the
beginning of the ministry of John the Baptist.
Luke first identifies John by placing him in historical context, much
like how the Old Testament prophets were introduced.
The word of
God came to John, the son of Zechariah the priest, in the wilderness. But Luke lets us know that it happens in the
wilderness of the political world:
during the reigns of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor
of Judea, and Herod was ruler of
Galilee. The major focus for Luke is
salvation, but it’s important for Luke, that we understand the political
reality of the day-- to understand the world into which God is bringing
salvation.
But
Luke doesn’t stop there. He goes on to
the “spiritual” or “religious” power structure as well, by naming the high
priests Annas and Caiaphas. Now the high
priesthood was subject to annual re-appointment by the Roman authority, so Luke
may be listing them as another part of the political hierarchy.
In
any case, this is the messy reality of the world, in the fifteenth year of the
reign of Emperor Tiberius. The word of
God came to John in the wilderness, and spoke through John to a wounded
world.
God
chooses a nobody—John. John
became an itinerant preacher, and he went into all the region around the Jordan
River, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, “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.’”[1]
“All
flesh.” All people. All humanity.
Such
an audacious promise! Do we have an
audacious-enough hope to believe it?
This
has been another tough week. And yet—though
we may feel as saddened… as sickened every time—we don’t feel as shocked
or surprised when we hear of a mass shooting.
Three
years ago on a Saturday afternoon in early Advent I was frantically re-working
part of my sermon for the next morning, because the day before a gunman had
entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 children and six adults. We sounded the chimes on the organ for each
life that was lost. But we’ve had so many mass
shootings since then that we’ve given up on sounding the chimes for all the
souls lost.
This
Advent, pastors have been agonizing
again over sermons following yet another massacre. And some of us feel the need to address what
may be on people’s minds after the headline on the front page of the New York Daily News: “Fourteen Dead in California Mass
Shooting. God Isn’t Fixing This.”
I
think this and articles from Sojourners
and other publications are pointing to the hypocrisy of politicians who offer
“thoughts and prayers” for the victims and their families while opposing laws
that might prevent some of the massacres.
So what
do we do in response to these horrific events? Do we chime in with more platitudes? “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the
victims and their families.” Or does our faith call us to do
something? What could we do that could
make a difference? I don’t have any
easy answers for you this morning, but we need to be talking and praying about
what we could do as a community of faith, and as part of the connectional
church and the interfaith community, working together.
I’ve
been paying attention to what I’ve heard some of you have been saying…and
what people have been saying on social media.
Some people are angry at God.
Some are angry at “those people.”
Some are despairing…and hopeless. Some—many—are afraid.
As
people of faith, we need to ask, “Where is God in the midst of this?”
What
I do know with certainty is that God does not will these horrific
massacres. The God who created the world
and said, “It is good,” the God who
created human beings in the divine image, the God who is love, the God who
loves the world does not cause massacres as part of some divine plan.
I
agree with Roger Owens, who wrote this week, “The only one who hates this
violence more than we do is God.”[2] I believe that in some ways that we don’t
fully understand, God was with each of those who were wounded or killed.
But I
don’t believe that God is going to fix the violence in our nation and
in the world, in the way some people might wish-- because God’s way of “fixing”
is by working through human beings.
In
the season of Advent, Christians prepare to celebrate a deep mystery of our
faith, the Incarnation, how God came to live among us, full of grace
and truth,[3]
in the person of Jesus. Part of what Incarnation means is that God is
with
humanity and works in and through us.
I
believe in a God who works in and with and through us, through the work of
those who are learning to love as God loves, those who are learning to
love peace
as God does. Through those who are
learning to reject violence in their own lives… and who work in small and large
ways to end violence and hunger and injustice in our world….
God
isn’t finished yet. Throughout the
Bible, God used unlikely characters to announce God’s redemption and to embody
God’s love and justice and peace in the world.
God keeps using unlikely characters, like you and me.
In
the fifteenth year of the twenty-first century, when Barack Obama was President
of the United States, and Rick Snyder was governor of Michigan, and Jack
O’Reilly was mayor of Dearborn and Mike Duggan was mayor of Detroit, and Gradye
Parsons was Stated Clerk and Heath Rada was Moderator of the Presbyterian
Church (USA), the word of the Lord came to Littlefield Presbyterian Church in
Dearborn!
The
word of God came to John in the wilderness, and he went into all the region proclaiming a baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins. Repent. Turn. Change.
John
quoted the prophet Isaiah: “Prepare the
way of the Lord, make his paths straight.…”
Preparing
the Lord’s path toward peace and justice requires changing
the world as we know it. John quotes Isaiah
to describe the earthshaking transformation that needs to take
place. Imagine it: valleys filled full, mountains and hills
humbled—made low. Everything crooked
made straight and true. Mary sings of
the God who has looked on her humble state.
She praises the One who saves by dethroning the powerful and exalting
the humble… sending the rich away empty-handed and filling up the hungry.[4]
Remember
how Jesus turned conventional, worldly says upside-down? He blessed the poor
and the hungry but announced woe for the rich and well-fed.[5] On the Day of Pentecost, Peter warns the
people, “Be saved from this crooked generation.”[6] In the Greek, “crooked”, skolia, is the same word that Isaiah uses for the things that need
to be straightened out.
Preparing
for God’s arrival means re-thinking systems and structures that we may
see as normal but that God condemns as oppressive and crooked. It means letting God humble everything that is
proud and self-satisfied in us, and
letting God heal and lift up what is broken and beaten down.
John’s
call to repent reminds us that God’s ways are not our
ways.[7] John and Isaiah call us to open ourselves to
let God work in the landscape of our minds and hearts and to
let God work through us to re-shape the world’s social systems.
But
there’s good news too. God’s ways lead
to salvation. God’s glory will be
revealed in Jesus, who comes to save us.
This is the good news that John proclaims, and it’s good news for us and
for the whole world: all flesh will see
God’s salvation. All humanity will see
God’s salvation.
This
is God’s audacious promise, and our audacious hope. Let’s prepare the way!
So
be it!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Littlefield Presbyterian Church
Dearborn, Michigan
December 6, 2015
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