🐮 Advent 3 👑
Readings: Isaiah 12:2-6; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18.
From the TRNG Room;
Reflection
Good morning and welcome to the third Sunday in advent for your C a the ox or Luke's gospel features in your seat. This is brother Logan, Isaac broadcasting from Albany, Oregon. This reading this morning's readings. Come to us from Isaiah 12, Philippians four and Luke three. And if you listened last week or any time, you know, that Philippians is one of my favorite texts it's under appreciated. And I want to bring your attention really briefly to Isaiah before I talk about Luke, because Luke's got a very. Very important passage for Christian soldiers and civilian allies. And the thing that I wanted to bring to your attention, the very first section in Isaiah. I've been harping lately on the name of the Messiah in my native tongue. I speak American English. The Messiah's name is Joshua. Jesus is a Latinized. Imperialize version of which is the name of the sixth book of the Bible. Moses's assistant, whose name is Joshua and American English. And I say that because once you, once that's, you're working kind of prerogative or premise. You begin seeing all kinds of weird shit elsewhere in the Bible, like in Isaiah 12, two, surely God is my salvation. Pretty simple. And Hebrew surely Yourway is my salvation. Salvation as a noun, rather than a verb, the verb is JASA. One of the nouns is Yoshua. To now little, not a proper name, not somebody name. Surely God is my Yehoshua. Surely Yahuah is and the way you conjugate. To assign ownership is different. And then earliest Hebrew, there were no vowels. So these letters. Are both salvation. Not a verb, not save. But salvation, the state of being saved or having been saved or anticipating salvation is your Hosha, which sounds exactly like that. American English. Joshua. Surely ya'll way. God is Joshua. Surely God has Joshua. Surely the Messiah's name is Joshua. I'm turning to Luke three. Three 14 is really important text. Because a lot of theologians who care more about getting their arguments right then their discipleship. Have a Gustin said Lee, Luke three 14 soldiers and Christianity are not mutually exclusive. Others have taken that argument from silence to say that Christians should be soldiers should be. And that soldiers should be Christian. I disagree with that, but it's been used. We have never really dug very deeply into this text and I spent three years in. Formal graduate, theological training. And I didn't discover this until I trusted my own experience. As a Christian soldier and a trained theologian. So there's a little about the context. These soldiers are there for the tax collector to protect the tax collector. The soldiers are not Roman legionaries, they're not light skinned. They are local recruits trying to find financial and social stability. They are exhil. Yeah. Troops, if they are protecting the tax collector, because that is Rome. It's not Herod. Roman. Forces expect the taxes now go through Harrot inherit. Oversees it. But the tax collectors, the public Connie. We're the ones who in Judea, at least where the closest association with Rome. Not soldiers because we didn't see any soldiers, unless you went to say Zariyah Maritimer, which is Rome's capital in Judea. Jerusalem that Jerusalem cohort would have been Syrian, dark skinned. Auxiliary troops answering to Rome. But whose leaders were also like them. There's centurions. We're also Siri and recruits or very low status. Italian born centurions who had. Risen through the ranks and we're probably not on their way up. Cause Judea was not a plush assignment. So these soldiers look and talk just like John. Jesus is not here. And Luke. This is the preamble to when Jesus will show up and. And it is where we talk about. Luke is silent on the matter. But Jesus is about to be baptized, just not in this. Particular section passage. So these guys. The tax collectors, the soldiers, the crowds. There's three groups. To everybody that crowds verse 10, then the tax collectors, verse 12, then the soldiers verse 14 and verse 14 with the soldiers. The first time that John gives them two imperatives. To the crowds. He said, whoever has two coats or more food than you need. Share it with anybody who doesn't have any right. To the tax collectors. He says, don't take any more than you're supposed to. Don't skim off the top. Don't up your don't upsell us on the taxes. If Rome expects you to make 2%, take 2%. Don't take four. Don't take two and a half. Don't take 15. I don't know if those are accurate numbers, but anyway, and then to the soldiers, he says don't extort money. And be satisfied with your wages. And what John says in the Greek that was recorded, not what John is saying, but Luke. Who would have been familiar with And Jewish practices. Use this verb for false accusations. Don't sickle fantail. Don't be a sycophant. Don't and it's literally psych costs, which means to gloss or to Polish. And fonio means figs. Don't Polish, my figs. John is telling soldiers. Don't try and flatter me. And what John is saying is don't ask my advice unless you're going to take it. Don't pretend that you think I'm important, but in your hearts, It's all just mockery. I don't come here, polishing my figs. Be satisfied with your wages. Just like the tax collectors the thin. That Rome was doing was not occupying Judea. The thing Rome was doing was extorting the poor. Meaning Israelites, meaning Judeans meaning religious. And non-religious unless you got in bed with them, then you could take some off the top as it made its way to the peninsula. That's what extortion is. That's what soldiers are doing. It has nothing to do in this setting with violence or war. The soldiers that. That we typically have in our mind where that's John Dominic, Crossan, NT Wright, who I studied with in Scotland. Like it makes a difference that these are not light-skinned soldiers. These are people just like Jesus. Whose name is Joshua. And that's important to point out what they were being scolded for. That we're not being scolded for violence. Either in Luke's memory of it or telling of it in approximately 98. Eight. Eighties to nineties. After the common era. 50 years after it probably occurred or so. And he wasn't a firsthand witness, but those firsthand witnesses would have heard something in Aramaic. That sounds don't Polish. My figs. Don't flatter me. Don't pretend. Unless you really want my advice. Don't ask for it. And then he also, we have to be cognizant of the soldier's role in Israelite society. In the thirties. Was not about violence. It was about economics. It was about extorting, the poor and how your friends will do it to you. Not enemies. Not people you don't know far from far away. The people who grew up next to you. We'll also try and get their licks in. They will also use whatever means they may have to move up the ranks. This passage is not about military force. Because there were no legionaries in any town where Jesus went or Joshua went until the uprising in 66, 30 years, 33 years after he was killed. So the Judeans who walked along, Jesus did not have an experience of an oppressive. Ever present force. They had people who just look just like them and who used means that they had access to. To exploit others. Do not believe the argument from silence that, The military is Christian and the Christian should all be in the military. Believe that positive argument. Do not extort the poor, regardless of your position. The tax collectors were the worst. Then soldiers who protected them. And enabled them and empowered them were right beneath them. So the soldiers were not. Castigated for violence. They were attacked for the same sin that everybody else with power was seen as responsible for committing. And that is extorting the poor taking more than their fair share of manna. Of food. Of money. It doesn't matter what it is. It matters that you don't know when you've had enough and your neighbor needs some.
