August 10th, 2007

From the Beginning There Was Gift

Read Luke 1:1-34

"But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren..."vs. 7

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin." vs. 34

Their stories should be told again and again, stories of lives radically interupted by divine initiative. People, who although are separated by time and culture, are much like ourselves. They had responsibilities, let-downs, fears, and hopes. Some of their dreams had been realized and others had been crushed. Stories of the past, they serve as a framework by which we come to understand and gain coherency of our own stories. We could tell the stories of Abram and Sarai, wanderers, wealthy, yet disappointingly without a child. We could tell the stories of Jacob and Rachel, a true love story enveloped in lies and manipulation, inheritors of a promise, yet disappointingly without a child. We could tell the story of Hannah, a woman without need, under the protection and care of a capable husband, yet dissappointingly without a child...We could tell their stories...but for now we must content ourselves with the stories of Elizabeth and Mary.

But wait a moment...can the stories of Elizabeth and Mary be told and understood without the stories of the others. From the outset of Luke's gospel account, he is quick to draw readers and listeners into picutre of life that is directly continuous with what they had learned growing up. For the Israelites, Jewish readers of Luke's gospel, their story is dotted with moments in history when the God of life extended his divine hands and gave to humanity what they couldn't give themselves...namely a gift. Barren and old, God gifts Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) the gift of Isaac, a gift that will carry forth a promise of hope and abundance. God stepped into history in a purposeful manner fulfilling his plan in an impossible way, taking the divine intiative to interupt and alter life of all those who would look back upon Issac. Frustrated and fearful, God gifts Rachel two boys--Benjamin and Joseph, a gift that will save an entire people. Despairing and wounded, God gifts Hannah with the gift of Samuel, a gift that will lead the Israelite people.

The Old Testament story is accentuated with divine moments in which its readers and listeners are reminded that the hope of this story is not determined by human will, but despite the barrenness and despair, it is determined by God's redemptive intiative to bring all things under his reign. It is an intiative that disrupts human history and reminds us that all of history is an outworking of God's gift giving capacity.

This is the backdrop of Luke's gospel. Within the first chapter Luke announces that God has once again taken the initiative to fulfill his plan in a mysterious manner. God has looked into the heart of barrneness and nothingness and brought forth life. This life will be the light of the world. This life will be the one who testifies to the light that has entered into the world. This life from nothingness, this gift of impossibility is the announcement that God's future of hope and promise, an announcement that salvation and liberation has drawn near. In the beginning of Luke's gospel is God...and this God extends gift.

How must we live? This the question of the those that first heard this story. How must we live in response to a God that gifts humanity out of impossibility? This is our question. That is a question that seems to be answered in the following moments of Luke's gospel. But I will say this and then elaborate further in the next couple days. When we come to understand that all life is dependant on the gift-giving capacity of a faithful God, our response becomes one of amazement, of obedience, of patience, of joy, and hope...our response to life becomes one of gratitude.