For Sunday, December 6, 2015 – Luke 3:1-6
Luke has quite the story to tell. Lest we chalk up his enthusiasm to his close personal relationship with the protagonist, he sets the tale in a particular period of history. This story, he says, is not simply a mythic tale of a legendary friend. It really happened, “in the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene.” Right into the middle of what everyone recognizes as real life comes a startling proclamation of a radical and “really Real” life.
Emperors and governors and rulers are notorious for making proclamations. Proclaiming feels good. We love to announce our opinions, to assert ourselves just because we can, to show we have power and control. Luke deliberately draws our attention away from the endless rumble of worldly proclamations, far out into the wilderness, as far from systems of power and privilege as we can go, where a wild voice sings a wild song. Set to a different tune, in syncopated beats of revolution and revelation, this new proclamation is not for each of us alone but all of us together, the body politic, crying out hope for our corporate condition.
All of us, in need of repentance. All of us, awaiting forgiveness. The emperor mind strives to divide, to emphasize our differences and accentuate our fears. Follow the rules we have set for you, do not question us and you shall live. The wilderness voice reminds us there is only one rule: Start over. Make all things new. Fill what has been cratered, bring back to earth what has become too elevated, make crooked ways straight and rough ways smooth. This is what we are here for. The story we are entering, Luke seems to be saying, is not about adhering to authority but living with authority. To repent is to lay down our life and to lift up life, and then to lay it down again—to contribute together to the common good, to play our own wild part in a new story.
