Monthly Archives: December 2015

What is Missing?

Reading for First Sunday after Christmas: Luke 2:41-52

Peace be with you!

Being a parent is tough. My friends tell me that at times, it can be overwhelming, especially for new parents. There is no handbook detailing what to do in each and every situation. As parents, you do your

photo credit: DSC_8561 via photopin (license)

photo credit: DSC_8561 via photopin (license)

best to teach your children not to talk to strangers and to come home at a given time. Yet the worst-case scenario occasionally happens: children go missing, Amber Alerts go out, and frightened parents wait for news. Sometimes the worst-case scenario is an unforeseen event like a mass shooting or a potential threat, causing chaos where order and procedures are kept and for a time you do not know what is happening or if your children are safe. As parents, you try your best to protect your children and to prevent the worst-case scenarios.

As a child (older or younger), have you ever tried to explain something to your parents and find them missing the point? You try to explain why you chose to be [whatever “it” is you decided to do with your life] over [whatever “it” is they thought you should do], and they still call you foolish. Or maybe you chose a field your parents know little or nothing about, so when you tell them about your work, your words fall on deaf ears; the language you speak every day is a foreign language to them. Or maybe your parent are extremely proud of you and brag about you because you have more education than they ever dreamed of and you are doing important work, but they still do not understand completely what you do or why you do it. Or maybe you are just trying to teach them how to use their cellphone and/or tablet, and they just give you blank stares.

Mary and Joseph are good Jewish parents. Each year Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem for the Passover (Luke 2:41-42) and teach him the Torah. Since Jerusalem is central to the Jewish traditions—the temple is there and is where God dwells, Mary and Joseph take Jesus to Jerusalem every year.

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph travel as a community with their friends and family members to and from Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph leave Jerusalem with the group and are heading home when they realize Jesus is not with the group as they had assumed (Luke 2:43-44a). With haste, Mary and Joseph search desperately among their friends and family members for Jesus, and when he is nowhere to be found, they turn around for Jerusalem (Luke 2:44b-45). I am sure any parent can relate to Mary and Joseph’s panic. As parents, it is your job to keep track of your children, to protect them, to feed and clothe them, and so much more. It is a tough job. If that is not enough pressure, Mary and Joseph just happen to be raising God’s only begotten son. So when Jesus goes missing, it is a big deal.

Mary and Joseph rush back to Jerusalem as if their lives depend on it. I mean what would God do to them

for losing his son? Or is he laughing because they think Jesus is missing?

For three days, Mary and Joseph panic about their missing son as they travel back. The worst-case scenario is happening, despite Mary and Joseph’s best attempts to keep it from happening.

Mary and Joseph get to the temple in Jerusalem and see Jesus listening to the teachers and asking them questions (Luke 2:46). Mary, like any mother in her situation, is beside herself. She has been traveling for three days in sheer panic, and he turns out to be fine. And when she asks why he stayed behind, Jesus answers, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know I that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49). As the child, Jesus says, “Mom, you are missing the point. I am where I am supposed to be.”

Mary and Jesus have different definitions of what it means to be missing. For Mary, Jesus was missing because he was not physically where she thought he should be—among their friends and family going back to Nazareth. He was not with the group, so he was missing. For Jesus, Mary and Joseph are missing the point: he was where he was supposed to be—in the temple where his heavenly Father dwells. Mary and Joseph do not understand that their family now includes the heavenly Father who calls Jesus as his own.

Jesus is true to his calling, even at a young age. He understands his place in the world is with God the Father, the one true Lord. According to the Gospel of Luke, the temple is where God dwells and is where you go to be with him. So if Jesus wants to spend time with his heavenly Father, he has go to the temple. Mary did not understand the significance of Jesus’s question back to her. Mary and Joseph forget Jesus is God’s answer to our prayers to rescue us from the darkness of the world. Jesus has a difficult and stressful job ahead of him, so he goes to the temple early and often to gain clarity and understanding concerning something far bigger than what Mary and Joseph could imagine.

photo credit: Lao Kids via photopin (license)

photo credit: Lao Kids via photopin (license)

We often forget that children are also called to serve the Lord. We think children are too young to serve an important role in the Church and the world. Yet, it is the children who beg a visiting friend or family member to come see them in the Christmas pageant at church. It is the children who run to altar to be blessed during Communion. It is the children who go forward for children’s sermons to hear the good news. It is the children who remind us to pray before meals. We, adults, have a lot to learn. Where does our excitement go? Are we too conservative? Are we too polite? Are we too afraid of what others think? Are we too self-conscious? Are we missing our callings? Are we missing the point of the Christmas story?

God calls each one of us differently to tell the good news of Jesus Christ. Our ministries may look different and have different goals, but they all point to the same thing: the forgiveness and grace of Jesus. Maybe we should start answering our calls as Jesus does and stop worrying what others think. You may not understand the grand scheme of the objective, but that will be worked out in the end. Be eager, like Jesus, to serve God the Father.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for giving us what is missing in our lives. Call upon us to do your work in the world—to shine the light in the darkness. Help us to come to answer our call to spread the good news of Jesus Christ with eagerness and without fear. Remind us that what is missing is not always lost—it just may not be where we expect it to be. Thank you for calling us to spread the good news. Amen.

In the Darkness, Jesus Enters the World

Reading for Christmas: Isaiah 9:2-7; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-20

Peace be with you!

Each year the world seems a little darker. Mass shootings seem to be at an all-time high. The country is polarized in how to respond; either people are buying guns and ammo, or they are petitioning

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photo credit: IMG_4938 via photopin (license)

Congress for stricter gun control laws. There is also the growing threat of ISIS, which has supporters around the world—even in the United States. Now, as odd as it sounds, Americans are debating if it is safe to allow refugees into our country. Based on our heritage, all Americans can trace their lineage to a refugee or immigrant coming to the United States to escape a threat of some kind. However, the current threats are worldwide, and there is no longer a safe place to hide.

The world is a dangerous place. In this darkness, Isaiah promises a child will be born who will rescue us from the oppressors in the world with authority and will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:4, 6). God promises to rescue the Israelites from the Assyrian army at a time when they needed a word of hope and grace.

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photo credit: 42-53013873 via photopin (license)

The Israelites are not perfect and fell into the trap of trusting their human counterparts rather thanGod, which led them into their current situation. Yet God promises to save the Israelites from their transgressions as he has in the past and will continue to do in the future. Today we need the same word of hope and the promise of being rescued from the darkness. It is the promise of the light entering the darkness of the world. It is the promise of something better beyond the darkness and the world as we know it. It is the promise of being saved from our transgressions. It is the promise of eternal life in the risen Jesus Christ, the Messiah.

In this darkness, baby Jesus enters the world when the Jews are under the rule of the Roman government, which will ultimately kill Jesus on the cross. The same government has Mary and Joseph traveling from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea to be registered (Luke 2:4) for the census, which puts Mary and Jesus even more at risk. The Roman government is front and center in Luke’s birth narrative of Jesus’s birth. Luke’s readers recognize the Roman government as a threat to Christianity and the Messiah.

In this darkness, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem in Judea just when Mary is expecting to deliver her child. When they get to Bethlehem, there is no room in the inn, and they are left to stay in a stable (Luke 2:7). Mary is probably beside herself when she gives birth to her son in a barn, without a midwife or a female relative.

Far from home, Mary and Joseph are homeless, seeking refuge as they have travelled to Bethlehem to fulfill Emperor Augustus’s decree. Jesus is born homeless in a barn and laid in a manger; he is born where animals live, eat, and relieve themselves. It must be a far stretch from where Mary imagined having God’s son, the Messiah.

However, in this darkness, the manger aligns the Messiah with those who suffer and go unnoticed. The manger is warm with fresh hay, and the animals are feasting elsewhere. The

manger is far from home for Mary and Joseph, yet it is where they become family. The manger is not the place where a king should be born; yet this is where Jesus enters the world. The harsh reality is what greets Jesus when he is born. Jesus is born into a world where hunger, homelessness, jobless, little opportunity, and [whatever “it” is] you face on a daily basis are the reality.

Yet Jesus’s birth does not go unnoticed. The angels sing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14 NRSV). When sweet baby Jesus is born, God sends angels to sing praises and to tell the shepherds (Luke 2:13-15). The shepherds, who are ordinary people, are the first individuals to greet Jesus into the world. The people who Jesus will dwell with and will lift up in his final days come to lift him up at his birth.

In this darkness, Jesus enters the world to shine God’s light. God understands our fear and our anguish as we face the threats of the world. He understands the dangers we face as refugees, the homeless, children, individuals with disabilities, and faithful disciples. He understands how the world tries to engulf us in its darkness. Therefore, God promises refuge in the form of a Messiah. He promises to always be present in our lives, even when we are lost and blind. He promises to rescue us from the darkness and the current threats of the world one day. In this darkness, we welcome the Messiah into our lives and into our hearts to be our Savior.

Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for having Jesus come to us quietly, meeting us in ordinary places. Help us to see how Christmas enters our ordinary lives too. Remind us to sing praises to you, for you have sent the Messiah into the world to lift us, the ordinary people, up. Thank you for allowing us to welcome Jesus, the Messiah, into the world in our everyday lives. Amen.

God Works to Reverse Social Standards

Readings: Micah 5:2-5a, Hebrews 10:5-10, Luke 1:26-55

Peace be with you!

Take a moment and think about a person who society (or you) view as insignificant. It could be the person with whom you have the least in common. It could be the person who represents everything you are against. It could be the person who grew up in a different country. It could be the person who society recommends staying away from. It could be the person who has no power to influence politicians. It could be the person who has a disability. It could be the person who has a different lifestyle. It could be the person who is from the wrong neighborhood. There are various reasons why we overlook people; most of the reasons stem from what the world says about these people—they are not good enough, not like us, or are useless.

In an ordinary place, Micah predicts the coming of God’s power from “one of the little clans of Judah” (Micah 5:2b NRSV). Although we may be quick to think of the promise of the Messiah, it’s easy to miss the ongoing promise of the restoration of God’s people. God continues to promise to lift people up in their suffering and to restore them to new life. As a prophet, Micah rebukes the ethical code the wealthy are living by—taking away land and inheritances away from the poor (2:1-5), evicting widows (2:9), cheating their customers (6:10-11), and taking bribes (7:3). Micah also challenges the religious authorities for only speaking to their own needs: “who cry ‘Peace’ when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths” (3:5).[i] Micah proclaimed the promise of restoration to the Israelites when the northern kingdom and Jerusalem were being threatened by the Assyrian nation. Melinda Quivik writes, “It was a call for the Israelites to put their trust in God and to remain faithful to him. The great rhetorical summation of Micah’s preaching—‘[W]hat does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?’ (6:8)—permeates both Micah’s prophetic word, and in truth, the teachings of Jesus.”[ii] Micah calls the Israelites to care for the needy—the poor, the disabled, the homeless, and the powerless. Mary’s song and Jesus’s coming echo this message, because the needs of God’s people never go away.

In a humble way, God chooses a virgin to give birth to his son (Luke 1:26, 31). The angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her she has found favor with God and will be pregnant with God’s son by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:30-31, 35). The angel goes on to say how her son will reign over the house of Jacob from the throne of David and will be called the son of the Most High (Luke 1:32-33). Mary accepts God’s calling, as a faithful servant, and acknowledges God’s power to make the impossible possible (Luke 1:37-38). Before leaving, the angel tells Mary her relative who was barren is now pregnant (Luke 1:36).

Photo Credit: Dmitry Ryzhkov on Flickr via Photo Pin License

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In a humble fashion, Mary rushes to visit her relative, Elizabeth (Luke 1:39). Upon Mary arrival, Elizabeth’s child kicks in her belly, and she is overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41).  The unborn child alerts Elizabeth to Mary’s condition and the identity of her unborn child, therefore confirming what the angel told Mary. Elizabeth exclaims,

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord” (Luke 1:42-45 NRSV).

Even before he is born, Elizabeth becomes the first faithful servant of Jesus and the first faithful role model for Mary. Elizabeth allows the Holy Spirit to lead her to bless Mary and to rejoice with her about the news of her unborn son. Mary proclaims,

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever” (Luke 1:46–55 NRSV).

God calls upon ordinary women who are overlooked by society. Elizabeth has been barren, which was a disgrace to her family, and now she is too old to have a child; in fact, even her husband second-guessed the angel’s announcement (Luke 1:18). Mary is a poor girl who is pregnant out of wedlock—an offense that could get her stoned. In biblical times, women did not get much of a voice. However, both Elizabeth and Mary have lengthy monologues, express their faith in the Mighty One, and are filled with the Holy Spirit. God empowers these women with the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news to the world. Despite their youth and old age, he blesses these women with being mothers to his agents in the world.

God uses ordinary women to reverse social standards. Elizabeth is pregnant in her advanced age after being barren and disgraced her whole life. Now, she is honorable with being pregnant with her husband’s son. Elizabeth continues to challenge social standards when she welcomes Mary, an unmarried pregnant girl, with open arms into her home, even with the threat of social judgment and shame. Elizabeth blesses Mary as the mother of the Mighty One who will be praised by present and future generations (Luke 1:42). Elizabeth blesses Mary, because she is glad and faithfully accepts the calling. With his divine power, God overturns the social standard that would bring Mary pain and disgrace and causes her to be honored by future generations.

God blesses individuals who are deemed by society to be insignificant. Both Elizabeth and Mary have no significant roles in society. Elizabeth has even been a disgrace to her husband by being barren. Mary has disgraced her future husband by being pregnant before their wedding. However, God calls upon Elizabeth and Mary to bring him honor and praise by making them mothers of his agents. God gives Elizabeth and Mary a role in his bigger plan.

As Judith Jones writes, “May we, like Elizabeth and Mary, trust that God is coming to save and free us. May we, like them, give thanks that God has taken away our shame and then respond to God’s love by welcoming the shameful. May we, like them, become a community that supports each other as we hope and wait.”[iii]

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for taking away our shame and using us anyway. Help us to welcome the disgraced and insignificant into our lives and homes. Lead us to be blessings to others. Thank you for continuing to bless us. Amen.

[i] Melinda Quivik, “Commentary on Micah 5:2-5a,” Working Preacher, 7 December 2015, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1484.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Judith Jones, “Commentary on Luke 1:39-45, (46-55),” Working Preacher, 8 December 2015, http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2723.

Out of our Brokenness

Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

Peace be with you!

Facebook even has a safety check notification when there is an international crisis, so individuals can let friends, colleagues, and family members know they are safe quickly if they are in the area.

Facebook even has a safety check notification when there is an international crisis.

As our national security heightens following ISIS’s attacks on Paris and around the world and their promise for similar attacks in Washington DC, one has to wonder where is God in all of this. Travelers have to watch the national security levels and be alert to their surroundings. Facebook even has a safety check notification when there is an international crisis, so individuals can let friends, colleagues, and family members know they are safe quickly if they are in the area. The Homeland Security Agency has a cybersecurity department, which is concerned with attacks on the national power grid causing blackouts across the nation. This kind of attack would shut down the government and make it difficult to communicate beyond the local community. Even if you do not pay close attention to the news, you cannot help but get a knot in the pit of your stomach. Teenagers have to worry about their peers bringing guns to school or being bullied by others. People are stealing packages from their neighbors’ front doors. When did the world become so dark?

Even though we romance about the past, like the 1930s or even the first century, the world was not any safer then than it is now. People still killed others over money or out of jealousy. There were international threats, like Nero and Hitler. There have always been the homeless, the poor, the naked, and the disabled. The world has always been a dangerous and scary place. It is in this darkness that John the Baptist, Zephaniah, and Paul enter the world as activists to bring about change.

Zephaniah was a prophet when Josiah was king over Judah. Zephaniah called for change in Judah by changing who and how the Israelites worshipped. In the book of Zephaniah, there is a call for the Israelites to stop worshipping idols and going against God’s commandments. In the opening verses, the prophet speaks about the Lord undoing the fifth and sixth days of creation by wiping out everything from the earth (Zephaniah 1: 2-3).[i] John the Baptist continues this message of the Lord’s work of undoing by calling us “brood of vipers” who are going to see the wrath of God (Luke 3:7-9). Both Zephaniah and John the Baptist have harsh messages for us to hear.

But despite the harsh judgments and messages, there is good news. Zephaniah sings praises when King Josiah repairs and renovates the temple where idols had been installed previously. In the temple, King Josiah finds the Deuteronomy scroll or something very similar, which sends him on a mission to purify the temple and tear down places where idols were worshipped (2 Kings 22:3-23:25; 2 Chronicles 34:3-35:19).[ii] Zephaniah was the strong activist who caused Josiah to reform Judah. After the reforms are in place, Zephaniah sings praises to the Israelites:

The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exalt over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:17 NRSV).

The Israelites have once again found favor in the Lord’s sight by living accordingly to his commandments. However, it is impossible for us, the human race, to keep all of the Lord’s commandments. We are broken from the fall of humankind in the Garden of Eden. Watching the news at night shows how broken this world is, with its images of murder and terrorism. It is difficult not to be fearful of individuals who are different than us, especially those who look like those terrorizing us. Just like not every African American is a murderer, not every Muslin and Syrian Refugee is a terrorist and not every terrorist is Muslin or from Syria.

In the midst of a broken world like our own, John the Baptist enters the scene, bringing us good news and hope. John the Baptist points out our flaws—hoarding clothes and food, taking more than we deserve, lying, and making threats (Luke 3:10-14). No one is going to be able to avoid God’s judgment when he will judge the living and the dead (Luke 3:17). Although we are broken, there is hope through the baptism of repentance (Luke 3:8a, 16). John the Baptist calls us to repent and be baptized with water, because the Messiah is coming and he will baptize us with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16). We are given new identities through baptism when the Lord takes on our brokenness and makes us his children. God the Father makes a way for us to be in a relationship him, despite our brokenness, through the Messiah. Jesus Christ comes into the world to experience life in the darkness of the world, to feel our pain, sorrow, and joy, and to die for our sins in order to conquer the grave.

In order to spread the good news, we subject ourselves to pain and suffering, not because God abandons us but because we are faithful to our calling (Philippians 4:4-7). Out of our suffering, we are able to hang onto the hope and promise of salvation and eternal life. We are able to rejoice, because God loves us enough to forgive us for our brokenness. We are able to rejoice, because there is something more beyond this life and even this world. We are able to rejoice, because this is not the end but just the beginning.

There is hope in the baptism of repentance, because God the Father knows the world is scary place. He understands we feel hopeless, fearful, and lost. God the Father does not want us to grow accustomed to the dangers of this world. He does not want us stand up on our own. Our hope in the Messiah opens us up to the fear of disappointment, because no one has ever loved us that deeply in the past. But God really does care. God the Father wants us rely on his mercy and love for the world and for us, because he loves us unconditionally. He freely and willingly gives us a new identity through our baptisms. This is why God sends John the Baptist and ultimately Jesus Christ into the world to call us back to him. This is the way Jesus Christ comes into the world, to be crucified, die, and be resurrected from the grave. This is how we are able to share the good news that there is hope in the darkness.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for sending Zephaniah, John the Baptist, and Paul as activists. Prepare us to accept your son into our hearts, so we may understand your gift of salvation and eternal life. Continue to challenge and shake our fundamentals. Remind us of your love for us when we get lost in the darkness. Lead us to the baptismal water to be made new again, and lift us up to new life. Thank you for our new identities in Jesus Christ. Amen.

[i] Christopher L. Webber, The Gift of New Hope: Advent 2015: An Advent Study of the Revised Common Lectionary (Nashville: Abingdon, 2015), 45.

[ii] Ibid, 45.

Prepare the Way: Salvation is Near

Photo of the Capitol Crawl in March 1990 to protest for the ADA. Photo credit: Tom Olin

Photo of the Capitol Crawl in March 1990 to protest for the ADA. Photo credit: Tom Olin

Readings: Malachi 3:1-4, Philippians 1:3-11, and Luke 3:1-6

Peace be with you!

Radical demonstrations and controversial statements make individuals squirm in their seats as others challenge how they are treated for being different. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton made people squirm during the women’s suffrage movement when they fought for women’s right to vote and to have legal protection against abusive husbands.[i] Martin Luther King made people squirm when he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on the mall of the nation’s capital and organized marches during the civil rights movement. People squirmed as they watched individuals abandon their wheelchairs and mobility devices to crawl up the eighty-three steps to the US Capitol Building while chanting: “What do we want? ADA! When do we want it? NOW!”[ii] Each civil rights movement challenges society’s fundamentals.

These individuals were the forerunners of their various civil right movements, challenging the social norms and changing our fundamental values. The leaders created community among the people and prepared the groundwork for their movements, spending endless hours getting petitions signed and lobbying Congress. More than that, the civil right movements required individuals to examine how they treated others, what they believed in, and why society needed to make a change. Civil right movements drum up questions: What is fair? How can we treat the other as an equal? What needs to change and how? How does change benefit the whole? Why is it important? These movements create unrest and cause people to squirm because they challenge a society’s beliefs, fundamentals, and way of life—earth-shattering changes.

When God the Father commissions you with a calling, you go. God commissions Malachi to speak his word to the Israelites when they were returning to the Promised Land after being in exile. The generation who grew up in exile experienced a time of rebuilding and being disappointed with hope. The Israelites have built a new temple but continue to experience poverty and oppression.[iii] Malachi is sent to tell the Israelites that the Lord and his divine judgment are near and to prepare a way for him (Malachi 3:1). God is not happy with the Israelites, who are unfaithful, prideful, and skeptical. The Israelites have their own agendas, opposing what God calls them to be. Malachi tells the Israelites that they will experience havoc on earth and the only way to survive the disaster is to put their faith in the messenger the Lord will send. When the Israelites ask the prophet, then how can we stand before the Lord when he comes (Malachi 3:2a)? The prophet reassures the Israelites that the Lord will purify and refine them like gold and silver until they pleasing to him (Malachi 3:3-4). The messenger will make all the people perfect in the eyes of the Lord by burning away their imperfections. It is a message of judgment and a call for the Israelites to strive to be righteous. Now is the time to prepare for the promised Messiah.

With this backdrop, John the Baptist enters the scene with a similar call for the people along the Jordan River. John the Baptist is an activist at a time when Pontius Pilate is governor of Judea and Herod is the ruler of Galilee (Luke 3:1). These rulers feel threatened by Jesus—King Herod tries to have Jesus killed as a baby (Matthew 2:13) and Pontius Pilate will later have Jesus crucified.

In this dangerous arena, God commissions John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus Christ by calling people to repent and seek salvation. John has to orient the way people think by challenging the fundamentals of this world in order to direct them to the saving grace of the Lord. Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-5 to recall the prophecy of the Messiah.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:4b-6).

Like our contemporary activists, John the Baptist and Paul explain how with this good news comes the responsibility to continue the work of Jesus Christ—to shake our own fundamentals. John the Baptist is responsible for preparing us for Jesus’s ministry, which will continue to challenge our fundamentals, even after his death. Our fundamentals have to be shaken in order to help us understand the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the power of salvation. Jesus will challenge everything we think we understand by throwing it out the window and giving us the truth. He will invite “the outsiders” into the fold, eat with sinners, challenge the Jewish authorities, heal the sick, feed the hungry, cloth the naked, and more, without going to war, and three days after he dies he will rise again for all to see. Paul challenges us to follow Jesus’s example, even suffering for the sake of the good news. According to Paul, suffering becomes a tool to help us spread the good news, because it allows us to express the Lord’s compassion for the world (Philippians 1:8). Jesus suffered for the forgiveness of our sins; therefore, we must suffer in order to bring others into a relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus makes everything possible. All we need to do is believe in the power of salvation and eternal life.

Thanks be to God!

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for challenging and changing our fundamentals. Prepare us to accept your Son into our hearts, so we may understand your gift of salvation. Call upon us to challenge the world’s fundamentals in order to share your salvation with others. Shine your light upon us always, so we can shine it on others. Amen.

 

[i] “Susan B. Anthony,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony.

[ii] Senator Tom Harkin, “Americans with Disabilities Act at 20: A Nation Transformed,” Huffington Post, 30 July 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-tom-harkin/ada-at-20-a-nation-transf_b_659001.html.

 

[iii] Christopher L. Webber, The Gift of New Hope: Advent 2015: An Advent Study of the Revised Common Lectionary (Nashville: Abingdon, 2015), 29.