Luke 3: 1-6- Hope: A Firm Foundation

God chose a nobody to prepare the way for God’s own Son to come amongst us (John the Baptist). This is a theme all throughout Luke: that God regularly chooses people whom the world sees as insignificant through whom to do marvelous things.

John the Baptist, Mary the illiterate unwed mom and teenager, the no account shepherds at the very bottom of the economic ladder who serve as the audience for the heavenly choir. Again and again, Luke confesses, God chooses people the world can easily ignore to participate in God’s world-changing, world-saving activity.

I suspect that there are a number of people who feel that they don’t hold any particularly important position that would warrant being included in anyone’s “who’s who list” and yet whom God may be eager to use to do wonderful things.

Might there be a possibility that we don’t have to be celebrities or rulers or among the rich and powerful to be used by God? Luke might be reminding us that in the past, our foundation, time and time again God has proven that God is eager to use our talents and abilities and gifts to change the world, if even in what seems like very small ways that are, of course, not small at all to those who receive such gifts? Might we be called to see God at work through our relationships, jobs, family and civic life and more to make this world more trustworthy and good?

If so, then we are each called, to live into the hope of this season because of the firm foundation we have in Christ. We are each called to remind each other that God is at work in and through our lives for the sake of the world God loves so much.

Go forth with this truth lodged firmly in your heart: God has given you a firm foundation of faith. There is nothing you can say or do that will separate you from the love of God. In every moment of your lives, God wants to be with YOU and to use YOU. In every moment, God knows who you are, and with patience and love, God provides all you need. Happy Advent and may the grace & peace of God be with you.

-Pastor Cole