Advent in the Word. December 1. Luke 1.

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Luke+1 (Click link to read passage)

This Advent we will read together the entire gospel of Luke, a chapter each day from December 1 to December 24.  We will hear the entire story of Jesus in a month. There is great storytelling in this gospel. I hope you will be inspired by what we read together. 

Today, we start at the beginning.  We will hear of two households. Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph.  Both are visited by an angel, Gabriel, a messenger from God. Both respond to the messenger with questioning doubt.  Both will also sing a song of joy and triumph, of divine justice and mercy. An angel is a messenger from God. Have you ever received an angel or been one yourself?  Have you ever offered words of comfort, encouragement, hope, or promise to someone?    

This first chapter is all about expectations.  God’s people, Israel, expected a Messiah---an anointed King from the house of David, to rule Israel and bring about peace.  They expected this Messiah to battle and defeat the enemies of Israel, especially the Roman Empire who occupied their land, taxed the people, and exploited their resources and labor.  Israel waited for God to act decisively and powerfully on their behalf. For centuries, the people felt abandoned by God as they waited in silence for God to speak to them and act for them.  What are our expectations of God?  

Elizabeth and Zechariah are an older couple, childless, but faithful to God and one another.  Mary is a young woman, engaged to be married to Joseph. Both of these women will unexpectedly conceive and bear sons.  Both of these pregnancies are miraculous. The angel announces that it is God’s power at work in them. In the small and insignificant, God acts.  In unexpected and impossible ways, God moves us. This is a story of two sons. John and Jesus. Both with their own significance. Both with their own calling and purpose.  Both teachers.    

This is a story about people, ordinary people put in extraordinary and even dangerous circumstances.  It is a story about God acting in human families, showing up in homes and dreams. God acts through two brave women.  This is a story that may remind us of the story of the birth of Moses in Exodus chapters 1-2. Or the birth of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1 and 2.  Consider those stories as precedents to Luke and likely what he had in mind in his own storytelling.  

God answers the prayers and cries of God’s people.  God does come with power and with vulnerability. God comes into our humanity, filling us with God’s own self.  

Tomorrow, chapter 2.  Of shepherds and Emperors; infants and eldely folk.