READINGS

Luke 3:1-6 - The Messiah’s Herald

HOMILY

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch[a] of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the vicinity of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaia:

The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; and everyone will see the salvation of God.

We are taken into the public world - political and cultural world of the time.

Luke is all about the Gospel going to the nations.

The word of God comes into a world that's full of powers and rather hostile powers, earthly powers.

John goes into the region around the Jordan proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

So the word of God is coming in and going to shake up the order of this world: this great big change is coming, allow your hearts to be opened and broken so that you can take part in the new thing that's coming in.

This is the threating of the destabilizing order of everything that is.

It's only as we become level that it will become perfectly clear who our salvation is.

The One who's coming in sideways, at our level, who will be known by us eventually, as the crucified and risen One.