Gospel of Luke

December 2, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Simple hope

Have you ever prayed to God about something for a long time? I mean, I really long time, so long that you started wondering if God was listening? So long that you thought to yourself, “Okay, maybe God’s got something better planned,” but you keep praying anyway? So long that your friends have started giving you that line about how sometimes God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers? (That’s from Garth Brooks, by the way, not the Bible.)

Have you ever keep praying anyway, because what you’re praying for is good: healing or health, or a new job, a mended relationship, or peace with your children? Have you ever kept praying, even though God was silent? Where’s the hope?

The first chapter of the Gospel of Luke tells the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah, who have been praying for a child for a long, long time. “Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord, but they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years” (Luke 1:7-8).

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July 16, 2020 | 2 Comments

Practicing caution in an age of fear

When my son was very young, he developed a fascination with electrical outlets.

Yes, yes, we used the outlet covers, and, yes, yes, inevitably, he’d find the one recently used outlet where we’d forgotten to replace the cover.

It all stopped, though, the night he decided to see what would happen if he put tweezers in the bathroom outlet where I’d just been drying my hair. After a loud crack and a scream, we found him on the other side of the room in a heap, unharmed, but wiser. He never went near another outlet again with small metal objects.

By trial and error, cracks and screams, it could be said that we learn what to fear and what not to fear.

The Savior Jesus teaches again and again to fear nothing. In Luke 12 alone, he teaches on fear three times. “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more” (12:4), and again, “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life” (12:22), and again, “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (v. 32).

But, my son needed to fear electrical outlets, didn’t he? Fear is good, isn’t it, if it keeps us safe?

No.

To fear something or someone is to give it power over us–at times, more power than God. Raw fear cripples us. It makes enemies of friends, and it rips neighbors apart. Raw fear makes us stupid. [Read more…]

December 15, 2019 | Leave a Comment

The herald angels sing

They look like giant bibs, or maybe just gaudy jackets. The Victoria & Albert Museum in London had several. Truth be told, the V&A (as it’s known) is full of several of just about everything. It’s called “the attic of the empire” for a reason. It’s enormous. By the third hour wandering its galleries with my family on vacation this summer, I was ready for a break. In the gift shop, I found—gulp—another tabard, this one sized for a baby. Tabards are apparently a thing with the British.

You see, a tabard was worn by a herald. A herald was a royal messenger, sent to deliver proclamations to neighboring kingdoms. The tabards were their uncomfortable uniform.

“Hark the herald angels sing, ‘Glory to the newborn King!’…” we belt out every December. The angels in our drawings and lining up in our pageants wear white bathrobes, though. Maybe they should have been wearing tabards.

After all, the angels were royal messengers, sent by God from the kingdom of heaven to proclaim to the earth that a Prince of Peace had arrived.

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:13-14).

Maybe we need to start dressing our preschoolers in tabards on Christmas Eve, after all.

The proclamation these heralds came to deliver was one of “peace and goodwill toward men.” The word traditionally translated “men” means “people,” so we don’t need to get hung up on it. The proclamation is for all people, young or old, rich or not so rich, working hard or looking for work, certain or confused, hurting or whole, or all of the above.

Peace and goodwill are in short supply for many of us. Hope comes and goes, until the herald arrives to bring good news.

Remember “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” in which the horrible Herdman kids arrive to wreck the Christmas pageant? Gladys is the Angel of the Lord, who hurdles herself down the aisle of the church, hollering, “’Hey! Unto you a child is born!’ as if it was, for sure, the best news in the world.”

It is the best news the world has ever or will ever hear. Of course, to hear the proclamation, we’ve got to open our ears and our hearts. We’ve got to summon the courage to believe that healing and wholeness and love are possible.

It was the late Frederick Buechner who gently suggested, “Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all.”

Now, that’s a proclamation we can trust, by any herald who delivers it, tabard or not.

Photo credit: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115774/tabard-unknown/

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