Luke 1: 68-79
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he has said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all those who hate us--
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Luke 3: 1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar-- when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene-- during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zachariah in the wilderness. He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
The rough ways smooth,
And all people will see God’s salvation.”
The Scriptures this week are an interesting mix of prophesy and facts. St. Luke was a doctor who made a diagnosis based on observable facts that his patients present to him. He was not a spiritual theorist and philosopher who found a new way of explaining the divine, he was a reporter of the facts. Luke probably wrote this book about 30 years after the resurrection of Jesus, which meant he was able to draw from first hand testimony if he, himself, was not a witness. A sidekick of the Apostle Paul, these friends spread the word of the importance of Jesus to all peoples beyond the local Jewish experience.
The facts of the good news happened in the historical setting documented by Luke in Chapter 3. At this moment in time, through the life, death and resurrection of the man Jesus, God took further action to prove to all of us his heart of concern. Zachariah’s song of praise recounts the past actions of God on behalf of the Jewish people but also anticipates the coming new divine happening. Holding his promised new born son, he rejoices with the inspired knowledge that this man, soon to be called John the Baptist, would introduce God’s new action plan in the person of Jesus.
Christian theologians through the centuries have muddied the waters of this divine action plan. Some would say that the Jesus happening is the ground of our salvation but it is up to the individual to do the right things or say the right words or hang with the right crowd to gain the concern of God. They reason, if you choose not to be in the right then God is not responsible for your eternal damnation. Could not this limited atonement yet majority opinion among Christian theologians make the God of the universe out to be a mere family pet? This understanding of divine grace is nieve and simplistic, as well as just plain bad reading of the Word. There is no all powerful God if salvation is only for the few for any reason.
All of humanity has been gifted with relief from the empty nothingness that so clouds and distorts our human existence. In sharp contrast is a loving God who is for us. As Jesus moaned from the cross with his dying breath, “it is done”. A done salvation blesses everyone who has ever lived and possibly even their pets. Those who died and never heard or believed in a loving God have been blessed. The atheist, the hypocrite, the homeless, the criminal, the respected, the thief, the politician, the royalty, the workaholic, the killers in the name of God, the responsible, the diseased, the vile, the perverts and those who have disrespected others are blessed. Those of us who have turned our backs to God, as we all have done, have assuredly been blessed from above.
We just may not know it yet!
G.Goslaw
Landers, CA
