Happy Saturday, friends.
We made it to another weekend! Any plans today? Tomorrow? On Saturdays we have “Siepert Cinema Saturday” where for dinner we have pasta and meat sauce in the living room and watch a movie, whatever Jordan wants to watch. Last week it was “The Grinch” (one of daddy’s favorites too!), not sure what’s for tonight - we’ll see!
Hope y’all have a great weekend, thanks for being you.
Much love,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
The Gospel of Luke was written in the wake of the Temple's destruction in 70AD. Emperor Vespasian (from Rome) had leveled the Temple, which threw Judaism into a literal tailspin.
The Temple was their everything.
It was the center of their universe.
It was, for them, the very place where God dwelt.
And now ... it was gone; and so the question became - "how will we survive? How will Judaism survive? What on earth are we going to do?"
Not only was the Temple gone, but so were the Temple leaders - they were all (or at least the majority of them were) dead and so another question became - "without Priests and Leaders, who will lead us forward into this very uncertain future?"
In his book, "Radical Transformation" Alexander John Shaia says that the Pharisees (who were educated teachers of Jewish Law, but previously not necessarily connected to the Temple as authority figures) stepped into the questions so that by the mid-80's (the time that Luke's Gospel was written) their ...
Role.
And authority.
And voice.
... had increased significantly ... for the time being THEY were the new leaders.
And (not surprisingly) their focus very quickly became how to pick up the broken pieces of Judaism, how to bring the broken pieces together so that Judaism could get back on its feet and move forward without a Temple, without the Priests, and without all of the things that meant so much to them.
One of the things these Pharisees began to do in an effort to maintain the health of their Jewish tribe was to advocate for the complete removal of ANY Jewish sect or group that believed the Messiah had already come. One of the most well-known groups, of course, were the "Followers of the Way" (the "Messianic Jews" or "Christians") who believed that Jesus was the Messiah and that he had come for the salvation of all people ... not just the Jews.
And so these Messianic Christians were soon shunned.
They were outcast.
They were pushed away.
They were excluded.
They were tossed out of the tribe.
They were shamed.
They were cursed (literal curses were cast onto them).
... And it's to these people, these outcasts, these wanderers to whom the book of Luke was written - to help them deal with the hurt and feelings of resentment that likely poisoned their lives, their hearts, their communities, and to challenge them to speak their truth and their beliefs boldly while also maintaining an inner peace that was void of self-righteousness.
And so chapter 1 of Luke opens with the story of John the Baptist's parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth. As the story goes, they were well advanced in age and although they were loving and godly people ... they had no kids:
No sons.
No daughters.
... No hope.
And in that culture if a couple didn't have children, they were quite literally the disgrace of their community (which Elizabeth herself points out in chapter 1, verse 25) and rumors would swirl about what "sin" they had committed to have God turn against them in such a terrible way.
"I wonder if they stole something?"
"Maybe one of them is an adulterer?"
"Maybe they aren't bringing their offering to the Temple?"
People would talk, rumors would swirl, and names would be dragged through the mud.
Hm.
Luke's readers knew what this felt like ... right? ... to have their names dragged through the mud. They knew what it was like to be looked down upon by their community, they knew what it was like to be talked about, to be shunned, to be viewed as a disgrace, to be cast out of the tribe.
They knew what it was like to be alone.
And so right off the bat, the writer of Luke has the undivided attention of his readers, doesn't he? I imagine his readers were hooked as they immediately would have identified with the parents of John the Baptist and would have begun to wonder what might become of this old, outcasted, and ashamed couple.
Imagine their shock, then, when they read these words ...
"Then there appeared to him (Zechariah) an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, 'do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard! Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you will name him John."
Zechariah and Elizabeth thought that God had forgotten about them, but Luke says that an angel showed up to tell them the exact opposite - that God had not forgotten them, that God was with them, and that God would provide.
I think this would be exactly what Luke's outcasted readers would have needed to hear, right? I imagine it would be the exact reassurance they needed - a reminder that even though their larger Jewish community had outcasted and shamed them and even though they likely felt like God had forgotten them ... he hadn't; and somehow and in some way, they would be provided for and all would be as it should.
Something new was coming.
Something new was soon to be birthed.
The advent of something new was here.
I wanted to encourage you this morning, to remind you that God has not forgotten about you. Perhaps today you're feeling outcasted, alone, wandering the wilderness, shunned by your former tribe.
I feel that.
Deeply.
Do you?
Your beliefs about God have changed, you have evolved and grown ... but rumors swirl around about you as people from your former tribe wonder what "sin" you gave into that caused you to abandon the faith traditions you grew up with.
"Ah, all those deconstructing people just want a license to sin."
"She's probably partying."
"He's probably hooked on porn."
"He probably likes the attention he gets when he just preaches about love, so prideful and egotistical."
"She's probably gay and is looking for a way to be accepted by God."
"The Devil has a stronghold on his life."
The people you used to talk to don't call anymore, your Facebook friend list ticks down a little bit here and there as people unfriend you, people from your past tell you how "concerned" they are about you and your "backsliding".
Just like Luke's readers, you know what it feels like to be Zechariah and Elizabeth ... don't you?
Know today that as alone as you feel and as much rage or sadness or whatever is making its way through your veins ... know that you aren't alone, that God has not forgotten about you, and that the advent of something new is here - change is coming, change is on its way, and somehow and in some way, all will be as it should and the Divine will be with you every single step of the way.
May you feel peace today, my friends, and know that you are not alone.