Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2018
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus.

The Bible is full of names of people that don’t really mean much to us – lots of genealogies and rulers of old. Ten different rulers appear in just the first three chapters of Luke’s Gospel as we hear the stories about the births of John the Baptist and Jesus and the beginning of John’s ministry. I usually skim over these names to try to get to the main point. So, King Herod was ruler when John was born to Zechariah and Elizabeth, fine; but get to the part about a child being born to parents who’d given up hope. Yeah, there was Emperor Augustus who decreed all the world should be registered – he got Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. And apparently some guy named Quirinius was governor of Syria. But those feel like minor details compared to the Son of God lying in a manger. They serve to establish the setting and the time frame.

Except, when we get to our reading today from chapter 3, Luke names quite a few more rulers than would really be necessary to locate a story in history. Do we really need to know that John started preaching when Herod was ruler of one place and his brother Philip ruler of another and Lysanias still another?

Yes, because Luke’s making a larger point. It seems he wants us to have these powerful people in mind when we hear the stories of insignificant, ordinary people like Zechariah, Elizabeth, John, Mary and Joseph. Luke wants to say, even though the world tells you that these high and mighty people are so very important, you should look elsewhere – you should look at these folks.

That’s a pretty bold claim by Luke.

These rulers that we now gloss over were earth-shakers with incredible power. Their lives, their decisions impacted everyone.

Back in Luke’s day, it would be ludicrous to think that Emperor Augustus or Quirinius is just a minor detail, backdrop to the story of a peasant child being born. It would be crazy to talk about Emperor Tiberius and Pontius Pilate in the same breath as the small-town priest Zechariah and his son John.

But that’s just what Luke does in our passage today.

He names seven Very Important People who have seven Very Important Titles and then John, son of Zechariah, all in the same sentence. John is a wild-eyed prophet, living in the wilderness, whose only title is son of another minor player. Luke then goes even further. He not only mentions John alongside these rulers but asserts that the word of the Lord came to him – to him and not to the high and mighty.

The Roman Emperors claimed to be the sons of God, to rule with God’s authority. Herod and the high priests claimed to speak for God. And yet the word of God came not to them but to a guy named John, a nobody, the son of a nobody, in the wilderness.

In telling the story this way, contrasting a nobody with all these rulers, Luke is telling us something about what God is up to.

God, in Jesus, is turning the world upside down – toppling the powerful from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. Those who are high up on a lofty mountain perch are being taken down a notch or more, as those laid low in deep valleys are raised up.

This is the promise. This is what God is up to in Jesus.

Yet it can be hard to see this happening. In those days of emperors and kings, and in our day, it can be hard to see what God is doing.

These days, our lives are filled with the news of the very rich and the very powerful. Strong-man leaders, tech giants, corporate CEOs, and big money lobbyists may not have quite as much power as Caesar Augustus, but they wield so much influence in our government, the world, the global economy. Their voices are amplified, their interests are advanced.

It would be easy to fixate on them and all the news about them. It would be easy to despair for our world as the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow.

So, Luke directs our attention elsewhere. Luke lifts up the stories of small, seemingly insignificant people to say this is how God comes, this is what God does to turn the world around.

God works through babies, childless couples, unwed teenage mothers, wild-eyed prophets, itinerant preachers and executed criminals. God’s mercy comes disguised in human weakness. Two vulnerable children, John and Jesus, grow up to change the world. The cross, an instrument of Roman torture, becomes the means by which God reconciles the world to God’s own self. This is how God works. And God’s not done yet. God continues to work through unlikely characters today, through you and me, to turn the world around.

God gives us the same world-changing power that John was given – that is the Word of the Lord. The Word of challenge and promise changes things. The Word convicts us when we get high and mighty and raises us up when we are low. The Word calls us to repent, to turn towards God and straighten the crooked paths in our own lives. The Word brings forgiveness, that is release, so that we can join in God’s work.

God’s Word empowers us to raise our voices for the sake of God’s justice and mercy the way John did. God’s Word assures us that God is at work, even when we can’t see it, and promises that one day all flesh will see God’s salvation.

We may not be VIPs, we may not be the earth-shakers of our day, but we have a world-changing gift. We have what we need to be part of God’s work of turning the world around.

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer.

First Sunday of Advent
December 2, 2018
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus, our hope.

The sounds and images in today’s reading would be jarring anytime. They seem especially out of place in December when we’re longing for comfort and joy.

We don’t expect to be confronted with distress among nations, roaring seas, or people fainting with fear and foreboding.

Well, not in church at least.

We get enough of that stuff on the news and social media. Can’t church be tender and peaceful, especially in December?

We’ll get there. We’ll get tidings of comfort and joy, soon. We’ll get to the story of baby Jesus coming to make God’s love known.

Yet even that story is not just tender and sweet. It’s a story that should be quite jarring, especially to those of us who are comfortable and privileged.

God’s messenger tells a young, unwed mother that she will give birth to God’s child. This child, Jesus, is born to poor migrants who have to seek shelter in a barn. Yet, King Herod gets word that a child has been born who is to be king of the Jews and he is threatened. So, he orders the killing of all babies under age two. Jesus’ family must flee to Egypt and seek asylum there.

Jesus grows up poor under the oppressive Roman Empire. In his teaching and ministry, he rebukes the wealthy and the powerful, and yet he persists in showing God’s love to all people – even Rome’s tax collectors and soldiers. This radical love threatens those in power. They try to stop Jesus from healing, teaching and loving by putting him to death. Yet Jesus cannot be stopped. God raises him from the dead. Love prevails. New life arises. Jesus lives and he comes to us again and again to make God’s love known. Jesus also promises to come finally, at the end of time, to redeem the whole cosmos, to make all things new.

This is great good news – it brings such comfort and joy!

Yet this good news also challenges the status quo and shakes things up in the heavens and the earth.

It wreaks havoc with the powers that be – the forces of evil, oppression, hatred and greed within and around us.

It exposes the lies, the fake news, the half-truths of this world in order that the truth and the power of God’s love for all people may be made known.

The good news of Jesus isn’t just tender and sweet. It brings turmoil within and around us as all that opposes God is confronted.

So, it seems preparing for Christmas also means preparing for some turmoil – and not just the kind that comes from family gatherings.

Contrary to what we often hear these days, Christian faith doesn’t protect us from turmoil. Jesus doesn’t keep us safe amidst trials and tribulations. Instead, he gives us a way of being, a stance to take, so that we can face whatever comes with hope and courage, rather than fear and foreboding.

Jesus says, “Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” 

Stand up, raise your heads. Remain grounded in a deeper truth and look to God. Don’t be overcome by drunkenness or worries, but lift up your head and pay attention to God’s saving presence that is so near to you.

It seems Jesus wants us to avoid two ditches in responding to turmoil: trying to ignore and avoid it all; or being overcome by it all.

He cautions us to avoid drunkenness and squandering our energy with frivolous living – escapism and false comforts that seek to ignore the realities of the world. Apparently, binging on TV shows and junk food is not the answer. Seeking a peaceful, idyllic holiday while avoiding those who are poor is not the answer.

Jesus’ radical love for each of us and for the whole world makes a claim on us. We are to love as he loved and pay special concern to the poor, the outcast and the stranger, as he did. We are to seek the comfort and joy of others, not just ourselves.

Yet, Jesus also cautions us about getting overwhelmed by worries and foreboding about the state of the world and all the needs around us. This is a very real possibility in these days. Sometimes we do need to turn off the news to tend to our wellbeing. We need to experience comfort and joy our- selves even as we seek it for others. We need to ground ourselves in the deeper truth of God’s promises: love has come, love has won, love will ultimately prevail.

We also need to lift up our heads and pay attention to signs of God at work – glimpses of love happening all around us and through us. And, oh my Good Shepherd, is love happening around us and through us. God is at work through this congregation in powerful ways.

Beloved, we can stand fast and lift up our heads because we are not alone as we face the turmoil of this world. Jesus endured it, even unto death. Jesus rose again and is with us now in his word, in his body and blood, in his body the church. Jesus is with us in all that we face: loving, forgiving, healing and empowering us to do the same. One day, Jesus will come again to make all things new.

May this good news bring you real comfort and joy today and always.

Let’s take a moment for a silent prayer.