Bringing Diverse People Together

December 23, 2016

Bringing Diverse People Together

Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Luke 2:34-35

Luke has done something most story tellers try hard not to do. He’s pretty much told us how the story is going to end before the end of chapter two and there are twenty-two more chapters to go. It doesn’t look like he’s leaving much room for suspense. Why does Luke seem to give away the ending? I think it’s because he knows his first readers would be overwhelmed by the ending, so he is preparing them for the shock.

Like Simeon, many of Luke’s readers had been looking for God to redeem Israel. Unlike Simeon, their expectation of God’s way of redemption was completely different than what God was beginning to reveal through the births of John and Jesus. The first two chapters of Luke are a reminder to guard against thinking I know what, when and how God is going to act. God’s ways are not my ways, and if I allow myself to become rigid in my expectations, I’ll become like the many in Israel who missed the Messiah, because they were intently looking for something else.

One temptation that snares many in our time is the temptation to think that what God did in Christ, he did just for me. Sometimes we’re told to take John 3:16 and substitute the words ‘world’ and ‘everyone’ with ‘me’ and ‘I’. Yes, Christ is my salvation, but he’s not mine alone. At least twelve times in the first two chapters, Luke makes clear that God is at work in the lives of his people; not just Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachariah, but all of Israel. And, not just Israel; there are also several references to what God is doing for all the nations, all the world, through these miracle births. I am convinced that a major portion of being transformed by the renewing of my mind is in learning to think in terms of Kingdom values, in terms of inclusivity.

God’s Kingdom is revealed by bringing diverse people together. There are the young, Mary and Joseph; and the older, Elizabeth and Zachariah; and older still, Simeon and Anna. There are the well off, Mary & Joseph (the gifts of the Magi made them so); and the poor, the shepherds. There are the people of God (the Church) and other people we didn’t know were included by God, the Magi. The births of John and Jesus brought a very diverse people together for worship and fellowship as a reminder to me; how diverse is my circle of friends, my congregation for worship?

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.