Advent 2 C: Audacious Historians
Dear Partner in Preaching,
I just love Luke’s audacity!
He is, as you probably know, of all the Evangelists the one who identifies most self-consciously as a historian. (Not a twenty-first century historian, mind you, but a first century one!) For this reason, Luke writes a formal introduction to his Gospel, the only one of the four to do so. This also explains Luke’s concern with naming various political leaders on the scene in Luke 2:1ff. and in today’s reading. As a historian, he wants to anchor the events he describes in the larger political and historical scene of the world.
And that’s where his audacity comes in. Because, quite frankly, most other historians would probably think Luke is crazy. Consider: John the Baptist is an itinerant preacher doing his ministry out in the wilderness – you know, the place nobody goes, at least not by choice. And so the “event” Luke describes would hardly count as an event at all to other historians.
So what’s John doing among Luke’s veritable list of “who’s who” in ancient Palestine? Well, according to Luke, John – a “nobody” by all other historical accounts – just happens to be the one to whom the Word of the Lord came. John. Not the Emperor, or governor, or various rulers, or the high priests of the day, but John.
God chose a nobody, in other words, to prepare the way for God’s own Son to come amongst us. And that happens to be a particular theme of Luke that might be worth identifying for our folks: that God regularly chooses people whom the world sees as insignificant through whom to do marvelous things. John the Baptist, Mary the illiterate unwed mom and teenager, the no account shepherds at the very bottom of the economic ladder who serve as the audience for the heavenly choir. Again and again, Luke confesses, God chooses people the world can easily ignore to participate in God’s world-changing, world-saving activity.
Which gets me thinking. Because I suspect that there are any number of our folks who feel that they don’t hold any particularly important position that would warrant being included in anyone’s “who’s who list” and yet whom God may be eager to use to do wonderful things.
Might we therefore awaken our people to the possibility that we don’t have to be celebrities or rulers or among the rich and powerful to be used by God? Might we remind folks that God is eager to use our talents and abilities and gifts to change the world, if even in what seems like very small ways that are, of course, not small at all to those who receive such gifts? Might we call our people to see God at work through their relationships, jobs, family and civic life and more to make this world more trustworthy and good?
If so, then we are each called, I think, to be audacious historians in the pattern of Luke. We are each called, that is, to remind each other that God is at work in and through our lives for the sake of the world God loves so much.
So perhaps this week you might ask people to write down on a 3×5 card an activity of the past week that, when they think of it, God was using to help care for this world. And perhaps you could put up a board at the back of the sanctuary where people could pin their card and see all the places where the Word and presence of God came.
Or maybe it would be enough, after telling folks that God is in the habit of using ordinary people to do extraordinary things, to read our own recitation of world and regional leaders, placing our congregation at the end of that list. (I’ll use my own context, but feel free to adapt it to your own.)
In the fifteenth year of the twenty-first century, when Barack Obama was President of the United States, and Tom Wolfe was governor of Pennsylvania, and Michael Nutter mayor of Philadelphia, and Elizabeth Eaton was presiding bishop of the ELCA, the world of the Lord came to St. Michael’s in Unionville!
Part of our job, Dear Partner, is to help people see God present in their lives and at work in their activities. And this might be a great week to do that, as each of us has the potential to be a local “John the Baptist,” a veritable nobody to whom the Word of the Lord came and through whom God prepared the way for the coming Christ so that, indeed, all people might see and receive God’s salvation.
Thank you for being such an audacious historian, Dear Partner, sharing the good news not only that God in Christ comes for us, but that God also uses us to care for this world. Blessings on your proclamation.
Yours in Christ,
David
David,
In this season of thanksgiving I wanted to express my gratitude for your continued thoughtful and faithful work. You’ve provided frequent food for my soul, preaching and teaching.
With gratitude,
Jeff
Due to your high position and based on your great insight, I pass your ideas on to my congregation as those of “my favorite stuffed shirt” Your insights have given me great ideas for my messages throughout the year, and I am grateful.
The headlines of the paper today read “People shot … Please pray for us.” And then on the inside were ads for Cabellas with MR-15’s on the front with 50 magazine clips and .223 shells on special just in time for Christmas! This was then paired with articles detailing the largest amount of background checks ever done on black Friday and opinion articles detailing the need to arm ourselves to secure our future.
And our lesson for this day talks about Prepare the way of the Lord … is this how we are to prepare, by arming our(individual)selves against a corporate threat? Or is there something different?
I ask because I am empowered and humbled by this message of being an “audacious” historian and want to empower my members to enter into the world as “ordinary” people to effect change and yet I see a dearth of national conversation about the crisis we are facing in our rampant pursuit of individualist security at the expense of community and corporate responsibilities.
And so I give thanks for the interpretations, commentary and support presented here, and know that there is a timeliness to this post that makes addressing what happened in CA difficult, however I too invite you Dr. Lose and other national leaders of our church to become “audacious” historians and help us imagine how we can prepare the way of the Lord in the face of this mounting crisis. We must and need to do more than we currently are or we too will find ourselves running to John the Baptist next week only to be called a brood of vipers because we have done too little …
Thank you Andrew! We are facing a crisis of religion, not just because attendance at our churches is decreasing, but because there is a deeper crisis of who we are, who and what do we follow, a system of belief, or a transformational way of being in the world for those crying in the wilderness? …. It is a crisis at the very core of our faith and what we stand for. The Syrophonician Woman, the Woman at the Well, the Good Samaritan, all “foreigners” and yet all of profound siginifigance in the story of Jesus’s life. We need to lift up Christ’s radical hospitality loud and clear! (in my humble opinion)
I’ve been struggling with finding inspiration for the past few weeks, and you have given me just the boost I needed; for myself and for my congregation. Thank you!