12/26/21 1st Sunday of Christmas Luke 2:21-40

            The gospel of Luke is about Jesus.  That’s obvious.  But it’s also a weaving of characters and themes.  While Luke has many aspects of being an historian he’s not a historian by our sense of the word.  He’s telling us about the past, yes.  But he’s doing it in a way that weaves into the future.

Thus far in Luke’s gospel we’ve been switching between Jesus and John the Baptist.  That’s something that’s often overlooked when all we read is the birth story on Christmas Eve.  That story is not meant to stand alone.  It speaks most clearly in its broader context.  John the Baptist serves as a bridge between ancient Jewish history and identity and then the emerging Kingdom of God that Jesus ushers in.

There is a concept called “supersessionism” or “replacement theory” in Christianity.  The idea is that God replaces Judaism with Christianity.  The idea is that Judaism was either so corrupt, or so hopelessly misguided, or hopelessly lost when Jesus arrived that God has rejected Judaism.  While many Christians consider it to be the truth, it is not.  At least it isn’t in Lutheran theology, and it certainly isn’t in Luke’s gospel.  Luke wants to portray the life and ministry of Jesus as an ongoing expression and expansion of Judaism.  Luke is not anti-Semitic.   Luke wants us to see that God has been at work all along guiding things forward.  John the Baptist links the history and theology of Judaism to Jesus’ ministry.  That is why Luke swaps back and forth between John and Jesus in these first chapters.  That will continue for the next few chapters.

And the story to this point is about more than just the initial lives of John and Jesus.  We’ve met a whole host of characters: Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, shepherds, religious leaders, and today: Simeon and Anna.

Both Simeon and Anna are described as being deeply faithful Jews.  You’ll remember the same was said of John the Baptist’s parents Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Luke deeply values ancient Judaism and wants us to also.

And so we have Jewish history, and Jesus and John, and a whole host of characters woven together as God’s kingdom is expanding in new and impressive ways.  God is rejecting no one.  And ultimately Luke wants us, his readers, to realize our lives are woven into the story as well.

Yesterday was Christmas.  When I was a kid I remember receiving one of those little square looms that you could use to make potholders.  It was about 10 inches square with little pegs along the sides.  It seemed like everyone had one.  It came with a bag loops and you could set to work making potholders right away.  I remember making potholders for any number of relatives.  Doing the first direction was easy.  You just stretched the loops from one peg across to the other, making sure you didn’t accidentally cross them.

The second direction was always harder.  You had to hook them on one side and then weave them up and down through the other loops.  Sometimes they would pop off the pins and you’d end up with a frustrating mess.  Still though, it was a good activity and you had something lasting to show for it.  It also taught how strong a simple weave could be.  Crisscrossing fabric bands creates a tremendous amount of strength.

I could simply take this image and say that is how the story our lives are woven into the story of: ancient Israel, and Zechariah & Elizabeth, and Simeon & Anna, and John the Baptist, and Jesus.  But that would be selling things short.

A weaving like a potholder is tidy and orderly.  You can create pretty patterns.  And you can still make out each individual color and loop.  The whole thing is together, but yet still distinctly separate in its parts.

I believe this is how people think a life of faith should work.  They find the idea of God weaving them into his greater work of the kingdom, and into the story of salvation appealing.  They feel like they are being made into part of something that is strong.  Those are good thoughts.  However, Jesus never said we will be woven by God into a “heavenly potholder”!

Of course he didn’t use that image because woven potholders hadn’t been invented yet.  People would have look at him as if he were strange!  But it’s also a flawed image.

The image that Jesus uses to describe our connection to him and to each other is the image of grape vines.  In John 15:5 Jesus says, “I am the vine and you are the branches.”  Now that’s another image we can understand well, especially living here in the Finger Lakes wine country.

I think you’d all agree from seeing the vineyards around that vines definitely weave themselves together.  Except it is not a pretty tidy pattern.  It is truly a mess.  If you have grapes in your own yard, or if you’ve ever been to one of the pick you own grapes vineyards, have you ever tried to trace a single vine?  It’s possible but it’s really hard.  They’re all the same color and they weave together in completely irregular ways. 

People will often ponder what they are good at.  And then when they find it they focus on it and grow and to that thing well.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  But too many people say they aren’t good at anything.  Or they see someone else who is better than them and so they think they must focus on something else.  That may be how an orderly potholder works.  That’s now how a vine works.

In a vine there are countless branches.  Some big.  Some small.  They are often indistinguishable, but they are all absolutely important and contributing to the strength and productivity of the plant.

The few times I’ve picked grapes I’ve been amazed at how much fruit those vines produce!  There’s so much weight the wires that hold them up have to be very strong, and even so they still collapse sometimes.  That is the kingdom of God.  It is not a pretty woven potholder.  It is often a complex, messy, tangle – but one that is incredibly productive.  Everything is a mix and there are no individuals.  There are no golden or silver strands in a grapevine.

And are they ever strong!  For the last several years the property committee has been working to clear back the brush that has been growing in along the tree lines and around the stream that runs through the property.  There used to be countless vines in the midst of the tangles.  Most of them are gone now but there are still some.  Of course the vines are rooted in the ground, but they stretch all the way to the tops of the tree canopies.  I remember trying to pull them down.  Good luck!  You’d make a little progress but then they’d yank back, and if you weren’t careful they’d pull you off your balance.  The Boy Scout troop we charter has been and great help in getting rid of the vines.  Several boys grab onto a vine and pull for all their might.  Sometimes they succeed and the vine suddenly lets loose and they go toppling backwards.  And sometimes the vine stays stubbornly in the treetop’ absolutely refusing to let go.

So it is with the way we are woven into God’s story.  Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.  There are no individuals but everyone has a part in the common strength.  And strong it is!  Every time someone becomes a part of this community of faith it grows stronger.  Every time someone dies or leaves another branch is gone.

All in all, don’t expect life in God’s kingdom to be tidy weave.  It is a complex and messy business, and God is in and through the midst of it.

So, whether you are young or old, weak or strong, talented or average you are woven into God’s kingdom.  You are tangled in with Zechariah, Elizabeth, John the Baptist, Simeon, Anna, a whole bunch more people we have yet to meet in Luke’s gospel, and everyone who is a part of God’s church.

The baby born in the manger, and presented in the temple, will tie all things into himself.

12/12/21 Advent 3 Luke 1:39-56

             The gospel writer Luke introduced us to Mary the mother of Jesus in what we read last week.  You may recall that I made a big deal about how unremarkable she was.  In what we read the week before we met Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Luke told us they had perfect pedigrees and that they were upright and holy in all respects.  They would go on to become the parents of John the Baptist.  By contrast Luke tells us nothing, absolutely nothing, about why God chose Mary.  We are left to conclude that what made Mary special was simply that God chose Mary.  God’s choice was God’s choice because that’s what God chose.  It’s a perfectly circular bit of logic!  But Luke does not let Mary’s character go completely undeveloped.  In what we read today her personality explodes into the storyline.  Quite likely, however, we missed it.  And I am saddened to say that many western biblical interpreters miss it too.

It starts with the very first line of what we read, “In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country…”  (Luke 1:39)  Okay, so what’s so remarkable about that?  Here’s where our lack of geography and social customs fails us.

That journey, which it appears Mary takes all by herself, is a journey of at least 70 miles.  70 miles!  When was the last time you set out on a 70 mile walk?  And, remember, Mary is probably 13 years of age!  Forget 1^st century Palestine.  Think about today.  How would you feel about a 13-year-old girl just up and walking 70 miles to visit a relative!?!  It’s not safe!  In fact it’s downright nuts!  And 21^st century America is far safer than 1^st century Palestine.

            So, it turns out 13-year-old Mary has got some guts!  She’s either very brave or she’s crazy, or probably some mix of the two.

            There’s a second issue.  Consider these thoughts from commentator Joel Green, “As a young girl, Mary would not normally have left her home without accompaniment – either to browse her hometown or (especially!) to travel some seventy miles to the hill country around Jerusalem.  Until she entered the bridal chamber, a girl lived in seclusion in her home.”  (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Luke, Pg. 94-5)

            Said differently, Mary is thumbing her nose at societal expectations of a girl.  And, according to Luke, she goes of her own accord.  The angel doesn’t tell her to go see Elizabeth.  The angel tells her about Elizabeth’s pregnancy but nothing more.

            Mary, all on her own, in complete disregard of all social propriety, and with disregard for the physical dangers, goes on a 70 mile journey.

            When I think of Mary the mother of Jesus the first image that pops into my mind is someone along the lines of the way the Christmas carols speak of her.  Mary… sweet, tender, meek, mild.  Mary… obedient, accepting, vulnerable.

            That is NOT the way Luke describes her.  Who knows what her attitude really was, but based on this trip she’s a strong woman and she’s got guts!

            I often envision Mary telling Joseph of her pregnancy with fear and trembling in her voice.  I imagine her scared out of her wits that Joseph will reject her and that she will have to live a life of shame and humiliation.  But based on this text I imagine her striding up to Joseph, poking him hard in the chest with her finger and proclaiming, “So Joseph, this is how it is.  I’m going to give birth to the Son of God.  You’re going to marry me anyway.  That’s just the way it is because God said so.  If you’ve got a problem with that then take them up with God!”  And then Joseph, shrinking from this little firebrand of a woman, nods his head in visible agreement.

            Pants hadn’t been invented yet so this image doesn’t work, but it’s quite possible that Mary was the one who wore the pants in the family!

            Going a bit further into the text we find Mary’s bold actions are echoed in the attitude behind her words.  Mary’s song, often called The Magnificat, may sound sweet in our ears.  But we read it with the ignorance of 21^st century white American  church culture.  Read The Magnificat from the point of view of a black person, or a third world person, and you get a completely different feel.

            We interpret her words as sweet.  But I invite you to sit down and read it carefully sometime.  Realize that what Mary says could quite possibly be a religious terrorist manifesto.  Consider:

            “[God] has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.  He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”

            So, the powerful will be brought down.  The lowly will be raised.  And notice how boldly Mary speaks.  Notice the tense of her verbs.  She does not use a future tense.  She does not say, “God will show strength with his arm… he will bring down the powerful...  he will send the rich away empty.”  No, she uses the past tense.  She is so certain of God’s promised future actions that she speaks of them as if they’ve already happened!

            This girl’s got faith!  And bold confident faith at that!  As Luke portrays Mary there is nothing meek, mild, or tentative about her. 

            The content of what Mary says in the Magnificat will come up over and over again and be developed further as we go further into Luke’s gospel.  We’ll be revisiting those themes many times.  For this week again though, we keep our focus on this character Mary.

            Mary is a superb model of feminism.  She seems to know who she is.  She is strong.  She thinks and act on her own.

            However, she is not an aggressive fire breathing man hater either.  She is not disobeying social customs because she wants to be a rebel.  She is not doing dangerous things because she is a daredevil.

            Let’s make sure we understand her actions fully in context of Luke’s gospel.  What we see here is a person who is confidently and boldly inspired by God’s promises of action that that is what is going to lead and shape her life.  Nothing is going to get in the way of that.  What remains key is that it is God’s prompting.  It is God’s action.  It is the coming of God’s kingdom that is driving Mary.  Indeed she is being bold, and probably careless, but she is doing it in faith.  Anything done in faith is going to be done with integrity, authenticity, and humility.

            I came across this quote from Mark Twain last week, “Each man is afraid of his neighbor’s disapproval – a thing which, to the general run of the human race, is more dreaded than wolves and death.”

            I suspect there is far more truth to that than we want to admit.  I suspect that in our subconscious we fear disapproval from others far more than anything else.  I suspect getting approval from others is the number one motivator in our lives.  We will say what we have to say, we will do what we have to do, we will shape our lives the way we have to shape our lives in order to get approval.

            Sure, we know we can’t please everyone all the time.  We know there are people who are going to like us and there are people who are going to dislike us, maybe even hate us.  We know we are individuals and there is lots of room for personal expression.  But for the most part we conform to societal norms.  Assuming those norms are basically honest and decent and life-affirming there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with that.  But that is still missing something.  We see that something in Mary.

            Just like we saw last week, God is shaping Mary.  God’s actions and God’s promises drive her life.  God defines her, not other people.  That is the way to true confidence.  That is the way to true authenticity.  That is the way to fullness of life.

            Perhaps you think that is all fine and good for Mary.  But what about us?  And that is a good question.  It is not a question I’m going to answer; at least not today.  I’ll let the gospel writer Luke bear that task.  For now, that is exactly where he wants us to be as his readers.  The answer is going to come in the remaining 23 chapters.  And he will pick it up again in the 28 chapters in Acts.

            Mary’s life was an adventure.  So is what Luke wrote in the Bible.  And we are a part of that adventure too.

12/5/21 Advent 2 Luke 1:26-38

            Last week I said that Luke was an excellent storyteller.  Not only are the words that he put on the page capable of inspiring our hearts and souls he has a way of making the story extend beyond what he actually wrote.  In other words, what he does not say can carry just as much meaning as what he does say.  Today as we look at the story of the announcement of the conception of Jesus to Mary, often called the Anunciation, we’re going to discover a lot of things by what is not there.

            Luke crafted this scene with many parallels to what we read last week.  That was the announcement of the conception of John the Baptist to Zechariah, the man who would be his father.  Consider:

 

Luke 1:11-20                                       Luke 1:28-38

“he was troubled” (12)                       “she was much troubled” (28)

“the angel said to him” (13)               “the angel said to her” (30)

“Do not be afraid” (13)                       “Do not be afraid” (30)

“will bear you a son” (13)                   “you will… bear a son” (31)

“and you will name him” (13) “and you will name him” (31)

“he will be great” (15)                        “he will be great” (32)

“said to the angel” (18)                      “said to the angel” (34)

“and replying the angel said” (19)      “and replying, the angel said” (35)

“Gabriel… God… sent” (19)                 “Gabriel… sent… God” (26)

“and now” (20)                                   “and now” (36)

 

Commentators note that each story interprets the other.  So, what is missing in the second that is so important?

You’ll remember the story about John’s conception starts this way, “…there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah.  His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.  Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.”  (Luke 1:5b-6)

Turning to the story of Jesus’ conception what does Luke tell us about Mary’s background?

Does Luke tell us about her ancestors or family line?

Does Luke tell us anything about her faith?

Does Luke tell us anything about her righteousness according to the religious law?

The answer to all of those is, “No.”

John the Baptist will be born to very deserving parents.  What has Mary done to deserve the honor she will have?  What made her special?  The only thing we get from Luke is when the angel Gabriel says, “…you have found favor with God.” 

There are many traditions and stories about the background of Mary.  They mostly come from the Roman Catholic Church.  There’s no way to verify or deny any of them.  But as far as Luke is concerned, they don’t matter.  Commentator Joel Green notes this, “God has given favor to one who had no claim to worthy status, raised her up from a position of lowliness, and has chosen her to have a central role in salvation history.”  (New International Commentary on the New Testament, Luke, Pg. 87) 

This is not just about noticing what is not in Luke’s text. He reinforces it with what is there. 

Last week we read about the angel Gabriel visiting Zechariah.  The location of the event couldn’t have been more precise.  The city is Jerusalem.  The building is the temple.  The room is the sanctuary within the temple.  Then we are told that Gabriel appears while Zechariah is at the incense altar.  While few people ever set foot inside the temple proper those few who did could tell precisely – to within a square foot – of where this amazing event took place. 

How about Gabriel appearing to Mary?  We are just told it is a town in Galilee called Nazareth.  Nazareth is only significant today because of the Bible stories about Jesus.  In those days it was completely obscure.  Ask a resident of New York City where Victor is and they’ll probably give you a blank stare.  Ask a Jew of those days where Nazareth is and they’d probably never heard of it.  Nazareth was “nowhereville”.  So this time Gabriel appears in an unknown place in an unknown town to an unknown and completely unremarkable girl.

What makes Mary remarkable?  God decided to favor her.  Why?  Luke doesn’t say.  This is God’s business done in God’s own time and in God’s own way.  What made Mary remarkable was God’s work, not hers.  I believe there is something deeply significant for us in this. 

We are in the season of frantic buying for Christmas.  Perhaps this year is a bit more frantic than most because people are concerned about supply chain issues.  This buying can tell us something about ourselves.  Now I’m not talking about those who make a Christmas list of all practical things, and then they buy practical things for others as well.  I don’t mean to knock the idea, in fact I like it a lot.  However when it comes to exchanging gifts on Christmas day all you’ve really done is have someone else buy you something you were going to buy anyway, and you’ve bought them something they would have bought anyway.  It ends up being a wash.

No, I’m talking about the stuff that we ask for because we think it’ll improve us in some way.  Or perhaps its stuff we like or are excited to have.  Stuff like a piece of jewelry to make us look glamorous, or perhaps a tool to make us look capable.  And going beyond typical Christmas gifts, things like houses and boats and cars and all the things that people have to create an image of themselves.

Most people want to look capable, successful, and meaningful.  They try to accomplish it through the possessions they surround themselves with and the lifestyle they seek to present.

If Luke told us that God chose Mary because she lived in a prominent city, or was from a wealthy family, or was well connected, or because she had an outstanding education, or that she had nice clothes, or…  …even that she was somehow particularly holy or righteous, then we could understand that there was something she could do about herself to earn such a favorable place in God’s plans.  But again, everything about Mary herself is unremarkable.

I believe many people believe that by their own power they can give themselves an important place in the world and have a life that is meaningful.  But that is a recipe for emptiness. 

So much of what people work for, and buy, does not give lasting satisfaction.  How many Christmas gifts this year will be giving joy for a short term, but then they will break or their owners become bored with them, or they simply go out of style?  People want ever more in their search for meaning.

This story of the announcement of the conception of Jesus is more than just a story.  It carries deep meaning for us.  Its message is one that is central for living a meaningful life.

Last week I joked that when Gabriel told Zechariah that he would have a son Zechariah said something that was very reasonable but completely stupid, “How will I know that his is so?”  I said don’t ever ask an angel for proof because you just might get it!  Zechariah got his proof.  He lost the ability to speak until the birth of John. 

Contrast that with Mary’s response.  Though what Zechariah was promised was improbably what Mary was promised was impossible.  Yet she says, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

That is among the deepest and most profound statements of faith of all time.  It comes from the mouth of someone scholars believe was only 12 or 13 years old.  While that is criminally young by today’s standards it was adulthood for a woman then.  Mary basically says that she will let God define her.  She’s not looking for clothes or jewelry or a fancy car or a powerful marriage, or an amazing circle of friends.  She is not looking for a place in history or has any interest in making a name for herself.  She is a completely unremarkable person who is simply letting God define her. 

There are going to be risks!  In fact her life could be ruined.  But she accepts because ‘who she is’ will be defined by God and God alone. 

            As we light more candles of the Advent wreath and draw ever close to Christmas, may we let God define us.  May we realize that God will probably not do anything through us that people think is particularly remarkable, but it will still be fulfilling.  May we say to God, “Let it be with me according to your word.”