Wow, hard to believe it has been a year since my last blog. We trust, through the ups and downs of the past year, God is continuing to work in and through us.
This fall we have been doing an overview of the gospels. We spent a few weeks discussing our impressions of Matthew and questions that arose from our reading of it. We then looked at Mark and some its themes and "mannerisms" - things that made it unique, or at least different from Matthew. While none of us are experts, it has been enlightening to read large portions of Scripture, discuss them, and see what has made an impression on us.
Today four of us gathered to begin to look at Luke. After reading Mark, Luke comes across as quite "wordy". Luke takes the time and effort to set up the story of Jesus with the interweaving of the stories of the foretelling and birth of John the Baptist with old and "new" prophecies of Jesus. We read the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. We hear the angel announce to Mary that she was to have a child. We see the song of Mary and the prophecy of Zechariah. Then we get to
the much loved, memorized, and read version of Jesus' birth. This is quite the contrast to the less than a verse (...until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus) in Matthew and the total absence of a birth story in Mark. The whole tone of this gospel is more story like, easy to read with the stories and sermons interspersed. Jesus is presented as less abrupt, more interested in the individuals that need healing, even when they are slaves, children, women, foreigners or relatives of a Pharisee. We talked about some of the differences, and, more importantly, some of the stories and themes that stood out for us.
Although it was interesting to note how each gospel seemed to have its own focus and priorities (like Matthew focussing on Joseph while Luke focusses on Mary prior to Jesus' birth), it was some of the content of Luke, itself, that got us going. One commentary noted that Luke is the basis for much theology - I think we found this easy to agree with. Here are a few things that stuck us as we pondered the first 12 chapters of Luke.
We took note of the importance of women to this story. Elizabeth and Mary are only the first of the women mentioned in crucial roles. Anna prophesies. Simon's mother-in-law was healed. the widow of Nain raised Jesus' compassion to a point that, without being asked, he raises her son from the dead. Jairus' daughter and a woman with a hemorrhage are healed. The "sinful" woman washed Jesus' feet with her tears, anointed them with perfume - and had her sins forgiven. Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, "and many others" are listed as travelling with Jesus and the twelve apostles. Women appear to be more significant to Luke than the other gospel writers. He also brings out that Jesus healed women, foreigners, a child of a Pharisee, a slave. Jesus does not seem to discriminate but values each person, and women as well as men are significant to his ministry.
What drew our attention most, however, were passages from the sermon on the plain in Luke 6: "Love your enemies" (6:27), "Do not judge"(6:37) and in between those: "..[God] is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked"(6:35). How can we love someone who we cannot trust? How can we not judge? How can we, as a church, make decisions without judging? Why is God kind to the ungrateful & the wicked? What about those who are trying to follow, trying to live lives worthy of God's love? We don't have definitive answers, but came up with some food for thought.
Love is not always a feeling. Love can be an action - working for what is best for a person, even if we don't particularly like him or her. We can pray for whoever it is that is causing us distress. So even in the case where we cannot feel positive feelings, nor, perhaps, even forgive hurtful or even evil actions, we can still pray for the person that caused these things and act in a positive manner. Sometimes, in praying for a person, we can come to appreciate some better qualities we may have previously overlooked. Sometimes in acting in a loving manner, we can come to care in a truly loving way. Perhaps prayer can help change hate or animosity or dislike into love over time.
While our first reaction may be that it is strange, and maybe even unfair, for God to be kind to the ungrateful and wicked, perhaps we should just be thankful. As humans, we tend to put sin on a sliding scale and, because we know we meant well, or are truly sorry, we put our sins on the lesser end of the scale. We tend not to think of ourselves as wicked. But does God use the same scale? Perhaps our living in relative wealth and comfort while others, even in our city, go hungry (not to mention cold), is seen by God as a wicked thing. Perhaps our wishing for more stuff, or better vacations, or even better health or relationships is seen as being ungrateful for the stuff/health/relationships already have. Are we truly thankful for the myriads of blessings we have received? Maybe we need to recognize that we are not getting the judgement we deserve any more than those that even we would consider wicked and ungrateful. We need to be thankful that God is kind - for that is what we count on when we offer our prayers. We don't deserve anything - so like the employer who pays the same to those who work all day and those that work an hour - God gives us all a chance for salvation and a life in relationship. We need to focus on the wonderful gift that is for us - and not on the fact that others, even some we may deem less worthy, are offered the same gift. Perhaps it is this that will help us not to judge and to be truly grateful.
There is so much more in Luke - we look forward to continuing our discussion next week with more of our group in attendance. I hope and pray that we will continue to learn, to discover more of the message of the Bible as we continue this voyage into scripture.
May God be with us and with our friends and families, and with our congregation and with our enemies (if we have any). May we be truly grateful for all we have received and may that gratitude help us love those around us.
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