As the new liturgical year begins, we jump to the end of time. The first Sunday of Advent is about the final coming of Christ every year. Passages about the end times jar with us. We’re busy with end-of-year Christmas parties and planning for Christmas Day. We don’t want to hear this spooky stuff. We want the animals in the stable and friends around the dining table. Distressed nations and people fainting from fear (verses 25 & 26) don’t make us feel Christmas-y at all. What were the lectionary editors thinkin’?! Well, maybe that’s the point. Advent 1 urges us not to make Christmas too cute nor Jesus too safe. Look out the window and figure out what’s going on (verses 29-31), then decide how you’re going to act here-and-now (verses 35-36).
Real estate is about three things: location, location, location (and timing). When Luke begins to tell the adult story of Jesus, he locates it in place and time (verses 1 & 2). This may just seem like clutter in the story. However, for the original readers, this told them a lot. The detail is not about a date – scholars love to argue about that. The details are about who’s in charge, when and where. We have an emperor, a governor, some wannabe kings, and the religious establishment. The word of God didn’t come to them, and certainly not in a palace or a temple. The word came to a shaggy bloke in the wilderness. If you were announcing the coming of Jesus to us today, who would YOU say was in charge? Where do YOU expect the word of God to come?
“Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” That’s what this passage reminds me of. John calls the crowd a bunch of snakes and warns them to flee from God’s anger (verse 7) before the axe takes down their tree. That doesn’t sound like “good news” (verse 18). But, maybe what’s bad news for some is good news for others? It IS good news to hear that there are enough resources to go around if they are shared equitably (verse 11). It IS good news to hear that we can be free from extortion by corrupt government officials (verses 12 & 13). It IS good news to hear that foreign soldiers will respect our property and due process (verse 14). John the Baptist began what Jesus would continue, and what he passed on to us. What bad-good news do people need to hear today?
When we hear in Luke from women that the Messiah is coming, even before Jesus’ birth (Luke 1:39-45). When we hear in all the Gospels that this Messiah, who has been crucified, has risen from the dead, we also hear the news from women (Luke 24:1-12). This is both surprising and unsurprising. We hear that the Messiah will turn the world upside-down (Luke 1:52,53). Who better to use to announce this news than people at the bottom? When God looks at Mary and sees “the lowliness of his servant” (Luke 1:48), that’s not about keeping her down, it’s about where God is beginning the revolution. As the revolution goes on, who is God lifting up today?
Sheep and shepherds are cute. Stables and mangers are pretty. That is until you get close enough to smell them. When I smell the mix of lanolin and stale urine in our shearing shed, I understand how frankincense and myrrh were actually useful gifts. Shepherds were semi-nomadic with half-wild animals. “Abiding in the fields” also sounds sweet but was when farmers invited the sheep-herders to bring their sheep to graze on cultivated fields annually between harvest and the next planting. The sheep provided weed control and manure. So, who are the shepherds in your world? This Christmas don’t be fooled by the carols and cards. Keep Christmas real.
Luke tells us three times that Mary pondered and/or treasured things in her heart. The first, when troubled by the archangel Gabriel’s greeting, she pondered what it meant (1:29). The second, she treasured and pondered the shepherds’ words after Jesus’ birth (2:19). The third, in today’s reading, she treasured in her heart all that happened while they were in Jerusalem (2:51). This is a story-telling technique, inviting the reader to ponder the same things, emphasised by being in a set of three. The invitation: What do these things mean about who Jesus is? While we readers today know how the story comes out, we are asked: “What do YOU ponder and treasure in your own life?”
These Lectionary Reflections were prepared by Rev. Dr Robert McFarlane, Presbytery Relations Minister, Synod Mission Services