Luke 1 68-79 (NIV)
John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us--
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 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,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 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 (NIV)
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 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--
2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn[c] of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us--
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 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,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 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 (NIV)
John the Baptist Prepares the Way
3 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--
2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
5 Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”
Reflection
“Blessed be the God of Israel, who has come to the people and set them free, who has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of your servant David. Through the holy prophets of old God promised to save us from our enemies” from our reading of the Song of Zechariah this morning. Which is also called the Benedictus: short for Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel (Blessed Be the Lord God of Israel), found in Luke 1:67-79.
The reading comes eight days after the birth of John (the Baptizer) when friends and family gathered for his circumcision and name giving called a bris. Everyone had expected that he would be given his father’s name or at least a name that had been carried along in the family but to their surprise Elizabeth announces that his name is to be John, as Zechariah still cannot speak after the angel, Gabriel silenced Zechariah for doubting his announcement that Elizabeth would indeed give birth to a child. Zechariah confirms the baby’s name is John by writing it down – and lucky for him he is given his voice back and he praises God.
People were quick to spread he news about what had happened – Zechariah’s visit from the angel when he was chosen by other priests to go into the temple to burn incense. The angel telling Zechariah that he and Elizabeth were going to have a child, which Zechariah may have doubted out loud to the angel (and that’s why Zechariah couldn’t talk for months).
But the child is not just any child, he’s special and his name is John not Zechariah! Quite a story! So, you can understand why people were surprised, intrigued and wanted to know more, especially now that Zechariah was talking.
So Zechariah, a priest, a Levite, coming from the line of Jacob, Levi and Aaron (remember Aaron, big brother to Moses), Zechariah, is filled with the Holy Spirit. He tells everyone about another, not John his child, but another; a messiah, an anointed one who comes from David’s line, a mighty savior, one who will free the people; “free (them) to serve God without fear”.
Only then do his words turn to his son, the one who will pave the Way for the Lord, the one who will prepare the people through repentance, forgiveness of sins and ritual cleansing through full body immersion in water: what we call baptism.
This, John the Baptist, is a holy man and a prophet, calling the people of Israel to look at the time they were living in and to examine their lives. He came, dressed in clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist eating locusts and wild honey and telling the people to “Change your hearts and change your lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”
People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River responded to him. As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. They were getting ready.
The people wanted a Messiah, they needed a Messiah – the anointed one, a descendant of the great King David, who would bring about the salvation and redemption of the Jewish people. By the time John the Baptist came along, the Jews were suffering under the harsh rule of the Roman empire. They wanted respite from their suffering and they wanted their Israel, well at least, Judah, back.
It probably seemed to them that their land, their once proud nation always seemed to be under the control of one great empire succeeded by another: Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties and then Roman empire.
So, basically there were two ways for Israel to be redeemed, one was with a Messiah who would rise up and lead, much as Moses and Aaron and the elders did when they fled Egypt. That is a story of God hearing their plight and having compassion upon them demonstrating God’s love for his people in their distress.. The other pathway to redemption is through mitzvoth, through adherence to the commandments, doing good and being good in God’s eyes.
Now here is the tough part, what was redemption all about? Why did the Jews need saving at all? When we say that the Jews were suffering; what do you think, what do you imagine, what do you compare those images of suffering to today?
I can’t answer those questions for you but I have some ideas because in Judaism and Christianity the whole idea of redemption means a saving from the circumstances which destroy the value of human existence.
It’s when someone, an individual or whole groups are treated as a number, a file, when they can be moved here or there through agency outside their control or will, when they can be removed from their property without consent, or their property can be taken away without consent and compensation.
It is not by accident that our scripture passage in Luke today begins with “ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar- when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, His brother tetrarch of Iturea and Traconities, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene- during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
These were the people who made the decisions, these were the people benefitting from the excessive taxation, these were the people taking, taking, taking and never caring about the farmers and fishermen, the children, the widows, the poor, the disabled, the sick. never stopping to consider them as brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and uncles and aunts, friends.
They were just numbers and they either paid their taxes or whatever they had was confiscated. People could also be forced into labour and animals could be taken. But beyond their usefulness as machines they were just numbers on the bottom of a tax form, numbers tallied as communities to decide how much richer one could get and still pay to Rome what Rome demanded. These numbers had no faces, no names, they weren’t human and they didn’t matter.
In such a world, our world, the God of all creation matters. God who holds and knows each person by name matters and each person who is held by such a God matters. God, who is moved by compassion and love for his people is a saving God who time and time again rescues his people.
And because God is the creator of the whole world, breathing life into all humankind, the Judaic concept of redemption and salvation extends to the whole world, there is no one left out.
The one whom John paves the way for, the Messiah, who is come, is for everyone, salvation is for everyone. But like everything you have to begin somewhere. And when Jesus comes, you can see through his ministry, that he is gathering in the Jews; summoning people who have been living on the edge of the community, extending a hand to the hated Samaritans, calling to the Pharisees and Scribes to pay attention. He is drawing crowds, teaching disciples, healing and telling stories as he goes. He is preaching the Good News that God’s Kin-dom (that time in which we are all brothers and sisters) is at hand, he is preaching mitzvoh;, adherence to the commandments.
He is all about the commandments because it is through the commandments that he preaches, we begin to see the real essence of what Jesus sees as really important. “Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself.”
This loving, redeeming, saving grace of God begins as people repent and are baptized by John but their spiritual regeneration takes on depth when it meets the stories and teachings of Jesus.
Encountering Jesus is part and parcel of the saving of Israel, part and part of saving the world, part and parcel of saving individuals. Because anyone and everyone who encountered Jesus was a person, who had a face and often we know them by name, or at least by what they did or what Jesus did: a man was lowered down through the roof and was healed, a woman at the well was given living water, a leper was healed, a blind man could see, a child was told to come, a woman who touched the hem of his robe was acknowledged, John, and James, Simon Peter, Zacchaeus, Mary and Martha. Names and faces; each one held by a loving God and by Jesus. This is road that Jesus walked on, a road lined with people whose lives were changed.
God of the Way
you are the road we travel
and the sign we follow.
May it be so. Amen
“Blessed be the God of Israel, who has come to the people and set them free, who has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of your servant David. Through the holy prophets of old God promised to save us from our enemies” from our reading of the Song of Zechariah this morning. Which is also called the Benedictus: short for Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel (Blessed Be the Lord God of Israel), found in Luke 1:67-79.
The reading comes eight days after the birth of John (the Baptizer) when friends and family gathered for his circumcision and name giving called a bris. Everyone had expected that he would be given his father’s name or at least a name that had been carried along in the family but to their surprise Elizabeth announces that his name is to be John, as Zechariah still cannot speak after the angel, Gabriel silenced Zechariah for doubting his announcement that Elizabeth would indeed give birth to a child. Zechariah confirms the baby’s name is John by writing it down – and lucky for him he is given his voice back and he praises God.
People were quick to spread he news about what had happened – Zechariah’s visit from the angel when he was chosen by other priests to go into the temple to burn incense. The angel telling Zechariah that he and Elizabeth were going to have a child, which Zechariah may have doubted out loud to the angel (and that’s why Zechariah couldn’t talk for months).
But the child is not just any child, he’s special and his name is John not Zechariah! Quite a story! So, you can understand why people were surprised, intrigued and wanted to know more, especially now that Zechariah was talking.
So Zechariah, a priest, a Levite, coming from the line of Jacob, Levi and Aaron (remember Aaron, big brother to Moses), Zechariah, is filled with the Holy Spirit. He tells everyone about another, not John his child, but another; a messiah, an anointed one who comes from David’s line, a mighty savior, one who will free the people; “free (them) to serve God without fear”.
Only then do his words turn to his son, the one who will pave the Way for the Lord, the one who will prepare the people through repentance, forgiveness of sins and ritual cleansing through full body immersion in water: what we call baptism.
This, John the Baptist, is a holy man and a prophet, calling the people of Israel to look at the time they were living in and to examine their lives. He came, dressed in clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist eating locusts and wild honey and telling the people to “Change your hearts and change your lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”
People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River responded to him. As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. They were getting ready.
The people wanted a Messiah, they needed a Messiah – the anointed one, a descendant of the great King David, who would bring about the salvation and redemption of the Jewish people. By the time John the Baptist came along, the Jews were suffering under the harsh rule of the Roman empire. They wanted respite from their suffering and they wanted their Israel, well at least, Judah, back.
It probably seemed to them that their land, their once proud nation always seemed to be under the control of one great empire succeeded by another: Babylonian, Persian, Hellenistic, Hasmonean and Herodian dynasties and then Roman empire.
So, basically there were two ways for Israel to be redeemed, one was with a Messiah who would rise up and lead, much as Moses and Aaron and the elders did when they fled Egypt. That is a story of God hearing their plight and having compassion upon them demonstrating God’s love for his people in their distress.. The other pathway to redemption is through mitzvoth, through adherence to the commandments, doing good and being good in God’s eyes.
Now here is the tough part, what was redemption all about? Why did the Jews need saving at all? When we say that the Jews were suffering; what do you think, what do you imagine, what do you compare those images of suffering to today?
I can’t answer those questions for you but I have some ideas because in Judaism and Christianity the whole idea of redemption means a saving from the circumstances which destroy the value of human existence.
It’s when someone, an individual or whole groups are treated as a number, a file, when they can be moved here or there through agency outside their control or will, when they can be removed from their property without consent, or their property can be taken away without consent and compensation.
It is not by accident that our scripture passage in Luke today begins with “ In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar- when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod Tetrarch of Galilee, His brother tetrarch of Iturea and Traconities, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene- during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas.
These were the people who made the decisions, these were the people benefitting from the excessive taxation, these were the people taking, taking, taking and never caring about the farmers and fishermen, the children, the widows, the poor, the disabled, the sick. never stopping to consider them as brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and uncles and aunts, friends.
They were just numbers and they either paid their taxes or whatever they had was confiscated. People could also be forced into labour and animals could be taken. But beyond their usefulness as machines they were just numbers on the bottom of a tax form, numbers tallied as communities to decide how much richer one could get and still pay to Rome what Rome demanded. These numbers had no faces, no names, they weren’t human and they didn’t matter.
In such a world, our world, the God of all creation matters. God who holds and knows each person by name matters and each person who is held by such a God matters. God, who is moved by compassion and love for his people is a saving God who time and time again rescues his people.
And because God is the creator of the whole world, breathing life into all humankind, the Judaic concept of redemption and salvation extends to the whole world, there is no one left out.
The one whom John paves the way for, the Messiah, who is come, is for everyone, salvation is for everyone. But like everything you have to begin somewhere. And when Jesus comes, you can see through his ministry, that he is gathering in the Jews; summoning people who have been living on the edge of the community, extending a hand to the hated Samaritans, calling to the Pharisees and Scribes to pay attention. He is drawing crowds, teaching disciples, healing and telling stories as he goes. He is preaching the Good News that God’s Kin-dom (that time in which we are all brothers and sisters) is at hand, he is preaching mitzvoh;, adherence to the commandments.
He is all about the commandments because it is through the commandments that he preaches, we begin to see the real essence of what Jesus sees as really important. “Love God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself.”
This loving, redeeming, saving grace of God begins as people repent and are baptized by John but their spiritual regeneration takes on depth when it meets the stories and teachings of Jesus.
Encountering Jesus is part and parcel of the saving of Israel, part and part of saving the world, part and parcel of saving individuals. Because anyone and everyone who encountered Jesus was a person, who had a face and often we know them by name, or at least by what they did or what Jesus did: a man was lowered down through the roof and was healed, a woman at the well was given living water, a leper was healed, a blind man could see, a child was told to come, a woman who touched the hem of his robe was acknowledged, John, and James, Simon Peter, Zacchaeus, Mary and Martha. Names and faces; each one held by a loving God and by Jesus. This is road that Jesus walked on, a road lined with people whose lives were changed.
God of the Way
you are the road we travel
and the sign we follow.
May it be so. Amen
