Bible Reflections for December, 2006
Sunday, December 10
Read: Luke 3:7-18
Consider: John gives the crowd, at their request, some specific examples of what it means to repent and transform the way one lives. Those who have more than is needed must share with those who have too little. Tax collectors are to practice their job in absolute honesty (many typically overcharged and kept the excess for themselves). Soldiers, wielding the power of armed force, are not to use that power to extort the vulnerable. In other words, John is saying: Conduct your life's work with integrity as a sign of your transformed living. He then speaks of the coming Messiah as one who will separate the good and evil (wheat and chaff). These exhortations of John are cast in hard words, but because of the joy of transformed living, Luke calls them "good news" (verse 18).
Reflect:
Have you ever had a life-enhancing message delivered to you in hard words· that were difficult to hear?
If you are employed, what are some concrete ways you are able to live out the integrity of your faith in the workplace?
Do you tend to separate the world into categories of "good" and "evil" Is there a sense that these dividing lines do not run between people so much as through every person?
What might it mean to be baptized "with the Holy Spirit and fire"
Sunday, December 17
Read: Luke 1:39-45; 2:1-7
Consider: Mary, having been promised a child through the work of the Holy Spirit, visits her relative Elizabeth, who is beginning the third trimester of her pregnancy, which will issue in the birth of John (the Baptist). The two women are in quite different circumstances: Elizabeth is married,
elderly, and fairly well off. Mary is young and became pregnant before her marriage. Yet it is Elizabeth who humbles herself before Mary and calls this peasant girl "blessed." The child in Elizabeth's womb "leaps for joy," a sign of John's participation in acknowledging the blessedness of Mary, who will
deliver God's promised one. Mary is blessed both because of God's choosing her to bear the gift of the Messiah and because of her faithfulness in believing God's promise would be fulfilled.
Reflect:
Does God still choose the humble and powerless more than the strong and well-established to carry out his work?
What are some ways you believe that God has fulfilled his promise to you?
What makes you feel yourself to be blessed? Or do you?
If the Christmas story is about God being present in unlikely places, through unlikely people, and in unlikely circumstances, where might we experience God's presence today?
What can you do this Christmas to better focus upon God's supreme gift of Jesus Christ rather than the kind of gift-giving that becomes so burdensome and is so commercialized?
God's gift of salvation does not come without pain -- the pain of childbirth. In what sense are blessings born out of pain? Have you experienced suffering in your life that turned out to be the labor pains of new birth and blessing?
Sunday, December 24
Read: Luke 2:1-14
Consider: Here is the familiar Christmas story as told by Luke. Try to read it again with fresh eyes and a fresh heart. Listen for the word or phrase that seems to jump off the page and grab your attention in this particular reading of the story.
Reflect:
What word or phrase seemed especially fresh or compelling for you on this reading?
Why do you think that word or phrase seemed to speak especially to you today?
Was there any part of the Christmas story that felt as though you were hearing it for the first time?
What do you believe the Christmas story as told by Luke calls you to do or to be or to change in your life?
Find a quiet place to ponder these questions.
Sunday, December 31
Read: Luke 2:41-52
Consider: The twelve-year-old Jesus and his parents visit Jerusalem for Passover. He is accidentally left behind, assumed to be in the large crowd of relatives and friends who were traveling together. In fact, Jesus has chosen to stay behind, to spend time among the learned teachers of the temple. We
can imagine Mary and Joseph experienced the same kind of panic as would any parent who had lost a child in big city. It took three days to find him, sitting among the teachers in the temple, who were astonished at his depth of knowledge and insight into religious matters. When Jesus is chided by his parents, he responds, in effect, that he has been called to a larger family, the household of God. But Jesus is reconciled to his parents, lives in obedience to them, and grows in wisdom as a son in a strong Hebrew family.
Reflect:
What role do you imagine Jesus' parents played in nurturing his spiritual awareness and his unique mission?
Do you believe that young people in general have a great deal to teach their elders? Or was Jesus merely a unique case?
Did Jesus know from the beginning that he was God's Son...or do you think that that awareness came upon him gradually, this experience in the temple being something of a confirmation for Jesus of his unique relationship with God?
Have you ever temporarily lost a child in a public place? If so, try to get in touch with your feelings. And then relive your feelings when your child
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