As Jesus teaches in the temple, many of Luke’s themes of power and control, and the way that these things contrast with the dream of the transformation of the world, come to the fore. It’s no accident that John the Baptist’s name comes back into the narrative. As you’ll remember from the beginning of Chapter … Continue reading Luke 20:1-47 Beware the Scribes
There’s a very real way in which Jesus’ actions as he enters Jerusalem are political theater. He stages an entrance that is very similar to a Roman triumph, when a returning general would parade his troops through the streets and show off his captured enemies. And the people of Jerusalem were used to these triumphs, … Continue reading Luke 19:28-48 Oppression and Transformation
Gardner Taylor, the great preacher and Civil Rights leader, began a sermon on Luke’s third chapter by slowly reading the names and titles of the authorities. “In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of … Continue reading Luke 3:1-20 Everything We Know About Power, Undone
Simeon’s song is sung at night, during compline. When I first arrived as chaplain to Kenyon College, the students were saying compline together in the chapel every evening. I was in my early thirties, only eight years older than the seniors, still young and trying to negotiate the questions that our culture imposes on youth: who … Continue reading Luke 2:22-52 Age and Youth
The Holy Spirit pours into the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, embodied by angels and the singing, leaping responses that human beings make to them. When the angels arrive its with a wildness and strangeness that has mutating effects on the people who encounter them. An old man falls silent, an old woman becomes pregnant, a … Continue reading Luke 1:1-56 Suddenly the Spirit is Talking to Everybody
KPB Stevens 