The Rev. Frank Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
December 10, 2000

 A particular place and time
Luke 3:1-6

Some passages in the Bible are not that exciting to read. When you hit a section of hard-to-read names of people and places, skipping over the passage seems to be the easiest way to move along. Our Gospel reading for this morning is a little like that. The passage gives us a list of the people in power over Israel at the time John the Baptist begins his ministry. It’s kinda boring stuff to read. There are a couple of ways to get through, or even around a passage like this one.

If you’ll look at the passage with me, I’ll show you what I mean. You could read it through in your mind like this:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of some guy, when, oh I know that one, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, I think that’s how you say it, and some other guy was ruler of some place and his brother was ruler of the region of two hard to pronounce names, and another guy was ruler of Abilene, I thought that was in Texas, during the high priesthood of two guys with names I don’t know, the word of God came to John son of some Z name in the wilderness.

Another way to do it is to just see what the words are and not even really read them. That would go like this:

In the fifteenth year, yada yada, yada during the high priesthood, yada, yada, yada, the word of the Lord came to John, son of some guy in the wilderness.

I don’t want to poke fun at this way of reading through a hard list of names and places. It makes sense really. I ran across a similar suggestion in a book recently. My daughter, Griffin, and I were reading through the introduction to her copy of Jules Verne’s classic book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where Bruce Colville, himself an author, gives advice on how to read the book. Listen to this introduction to see how it might relate to reading the Bible:

Now, before you begin reading, I have to give you a warning. This is not a book for lazy readers, not a walk-through. In fact, odds are you’re going to have to work to get it.

            That’s okay. In fact, I’m going to give you permission to do something that normally bugs the daylights out of me: You can skip some of the stuff. One of the quirks of Verne’s style in this book is that he occasionally stops to make long lists of the undersea creatures that Professor Arronax (the character narrating the story) sees through the windows of the Nautilus.

            Trust me: You don’t need to read them all.

            Here’s another tip: You might enjoy having a globe or atlas nearby while you are reading.

 
That’s why so many Bibles have a section of maps in them by the way.

It’s not necessary to have one to enjoy the book, of course. But because this is a trip around the world, you might find it fun to trace the route the Nautilus follows.

            “Good grief,” you may be muttering to yourself. “If the book is so much work, why bother?”

            Let me offer three reasons.

            Reason Number One—Most stuff that’s worth doing takes some extra effort….

            Reason Number Two—It’s a great adventure story, one of the grandest every written….

            Reason Number Three—Two words: Captain Nemo.

Okay, so that reason won’t work at all—unless, you change the two words to Jesus Christ. Because it is in the pages of the Bible that we can meet Jesus Christ. However, the rest of the advice is reasonable enough. If a list of names and places is threatening to slow your Bible reading down to a halt, it might be best just to scan over the list and keep reading. That does not mean that those passages have nothing to teach, but it could be that they need to wait for another time.

Well, this is another time and place. Is there anything to gain from a list of people and places like the one Luke gives us this morning? What does the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius have to do with us? You see, the challenge I always feel in studying a passage of scripture with a sermon is to discover what it has to say to us, right now, this week. Does this passage have anything to say to us that could or should change the week ahead? I think it does. This list of names reveals something about God to us that can have a profound effect on how we live our lives.

Let’s try modernizing the list to see if that helps. What if the list read something like:

In the eighth year of the presidency of Bill Clinton, when Roy Barnes was governor of Georgia, and Jeb, son of former president George Bush, was governor of Florida, and Keith Dixon was mayor of Kingsland during the tenure of Bob Moon as pastor of First United Methodist in Kingsland, the word of the Lord came to….

I’m not sure if reading it that way helps or hurts. But, that’s more what this passage would have sounded like to the people for whom Luke was writing. After all, the names and places in this list would have been familiar to them, household names. They were people in power with whom Luke’s readers were well acquainted, by reputation anyway. But why bother to write that? If these are names everyone knows, why bother to tell them?

Luke is setting the stage for what is to come. Luke is painting a picture of one particular place and time. He doesn’t tell the story as something that happened “Once upon a time…” The story of God coming and living among us happened in a particular place and time. In setting the stage, Luke tells us who all the movers and shakers are in First Century Israel. He doesn’t leave out any of the big names.

Luke starts with Tiberius, who is far away in his palace in Rome. That makes enough sense, as Israel is under Roman rule at the time. Tiberius word is law in Israel, even so far away. The power of life and death are at Tiberius’ command. But, since he can’t be there himself, he has Pontius Pilate on hand as the governor of Judea. Those of us who already know how this story turns out know that Pontius Pilate has the power to put someone to death. So these first two names are Roman rulers.

Next Luke names Herod, Philip and Lysanias. These are Jewish leaders who govern through an agreement with Rome. Finally, Luke lists Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests of the Temple in Jerusalem. Annas was actually dead at the time, but his son-in-law Caiaphas was in charge and this was seen as a continuation of Annas dominance over the Temple. It was a typical way of noting the priesthood with connection to who had come before.

Therefore, what we have in our passage is a short Who’s Who that includes the Roman leaders together with the political and spiritual leadership of the Jews. Now that we know who is in charge, we are ready for the next bit of information. The word of the God arrives in this time and place. Note what happens. God’s word passes right by Rome, missing the Emperor Tiberius, then it zings past Pontius Pilate’s palace so fast that he doesn’t know what he missed. The Word of God bypasses the palaces of the Jewish political leadership as well. Herod, Philip, and Lysanias never know what didn’t hit them. They don’t know what they missed. Then the Word of God goes zipping right over the top of the Temple in Jerusalem and lands out in the wilderness. Right out there in the middle of no where, the most unlikely fellow of all gets the Word straight from God. John, who is not yet the Baptist, hears the echoes of the Word God gave to Isaiah centuries before, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” And John believes God and sets to work preparing the way for Jesus.

Notice what did not happen. God’s Word did not come to any of the powerful. God’s Word did not come to any of the rich. God’s Word did not even come to the city. God’s Word came to the most unlikely person hanging out in the back of beyond. John the Baptist lived in the wilderness. His hair was wild, his clothes were ragged skins, and he lived off the land eating whatever he could find. Picking John the Baptist is so very like God. God is always picking the unlikely person and starting things in unlikely places. This is what Mary sang about when she learned that she would be the one to give birth to God’s child. She sang, “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.”

Jesus would live this out in his ministry again and again. When he ate with tax collectors and other notable sinners of the day he was showing God’s love for unlikely people. When he touched lepers, and others who were hurt and suffering, Jesus showed that God’s love is for the unlovable as well as the loveable.

God’s love is not for the lovely alone. God’s love is for all. No matter how unlovable a person seems to us, they are not beyond God’s love. This is good news for people living on the streets, or to people dealing with the final stages of disease. But God’s love extending to everyone is good for all of us gathered here this morning. When we feel our most unloved, when we feel our most unlovable, we can know that God loves us anyway. That’s the way God has always been. And God continues to scatter the proud and to lift up the lowly. God continues to show up in unlikely places. You don’t have to worship in a great cathedral surrounded by stained glass for God to be present. You can find God as John did in the wilderness. Or you can encounter God in a church that meets in the living room of a house. God may have made himself known in one particular place in time in Israel as Jesus began his earthly ministry. But, Jesus is not bound to that place and time alone. God can be made known to you through the person of Jesus Christ in every place and time you find yourself. God will be present in every place there is a heart open and receptive. God respects the content of your heart more than outward appearance or surroundings. All the content of your heart has to be is open to God’s presence. That is it.

Just as John prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry by opening the hearts of his hearers to repentance, you can prepare the way for God to enter deeper into your life by opening your heart to God’s presence. In the week ahead, open yourself to God’s presence. God will come on a bad hair day. God will come when you are wearing dirty sweats. God will come in the middle of a hectic workday or when you are sitting through a boring class at school. God is there at Publix, Wal-Mart and the gas station. God will show up at any time and in any place if you will but open yourself to God’s presence.

Amen.