Before we get to John and Jesus and everything that will come after let's begin at the beginning folks. And in the beginning Luke tells you what every pastor and theologian and scholar should always tell you, "I am not the first one to tell you about these things." Luke deftly tells the audience what they already know, other people have written about the people, places, and events that Luke is going to write about. What this does is instantly give credence to what Luke is going to say because most of it you have already heard before.
And when I say "heard" I mean "heard" because, more than likely, the gospels existed as an oral story before they ever became a written one. I don't know if you have ever heard the gospels in their entirety out loud, but if you haven't I suggest that you download an audio version of the Bible or just look one up on YouTube, it can be dramatic or straight forward, either way you are going to experience it in a different way than if you just read the words or hear it in bits and pieces on Sunday morning, or Saturday night, or whenever you happen to find yourself inside the walls of a church or in front of a T.V.
After that, rather long, 2 sentence aside let me get back to the point, Luke is not telling this story in a vacuum, and neither is anyone else, including myself. What this means is that there is a wealth of other sources to compare and contrast. For the gospel of Luke there is the other 2 synoptic gospels [Mark and Matthew], the non synoptic gospel [John], non-canonical gospels [Thomas, Mary, etc.]. For me there is about 2000 years or so of preaching and teaching and writing on all things Jesus. In particular I come at Jesus from a Wesleyan Holiness tradition [Church of God, Anderson, IN], and am a firm believer that faith should be shaped by Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason [otherwise known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral]. In addition I hold three concepts very close to my heart in relation to the church, that it should be a place of real people, real faith, real love [which you can read about in a set of blog posts that start here.]
What I set out to write here, much like Luke, is to help move the story along, I am not the first, I will not be the last, but I play my part in the production willingly.
Luke does go on to say that he has a perfect understanding of all things from the beginning, while I, on the other hand, am about as imperfect as you can find in a "pastor". As I confessed to friend a month or so ago, I am a spectrum, some days I'm a great guy, other days I'm an ass. Because of that my understanding is in no way perfect, but I'm going to share it anyway, in hopes that it speaks to you in the same way that Luke speaks to me.
I find quite a few things interesting about Luke, but one that I find the most interesting is that while Luke talks about "things that have been fulfilled" he doesn't introduce his subject matter in explicit terms. In Mark's first sentence he calls it the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In Matthew's first sentence he starts with a genealogy of Jesus Christ. Even John starts his off with In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Luke on the other hand doesn't mention the name Jesus until verse 26.
So Luke starts off by saying I'm not the only one who has written about this, but my understanding is perfect so I'm going to write about this, but I'm not going to tell you quite yet what I'm going to write about.
I kinda love that!
Depending on the scholar Luke is either writing to a particular person, Theophilius, or to a group of people, because Theophilius literally means God-lover, in either case Luke is writing to someone(s) who has been taught about what he's going to speak about already, just like all [or at least most] of us have been. As I stated in that other prologue, in my own journey I have already preached through all of Mark and all of Matthew, so here I am coming at Luke having already known some of the others who have taken it upon themselves to write accounts of what has been fulfilled. I know, but I come wanting to know more.
I pray that is why you come as well, because you want to know more. Because you hope that by reading my thoughts something may be sparked in your own mind that lets you move into a deeper place. That's what I'm after, a deeper place. A deeper place of understanding, and a deeper place of question, because in my experience new understanding always brings new questions. A deeper place of peace, and a deeper place of unease, because in my experience unease always follows peace. So often we long for the peace and understanding and flee from the uneasiness and questions, but I believe that they go hand in hand. At least they do for me, and maybe some of you, or maybe one of you, out there are like me.
Well, friends, that seems like a good stopping point for our First (second) installment, next week I'll be back with some birth proclamations and then the week after we get to celebrate Christmas all over again. [and maybe, just maybe, for those of us in the Midwest there will not be snow for 2nd Christmas]
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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