tend: a bible podcast

Episode 02: Luke 3:1-6

Nathan Pile and Kevin Shock Season 3 Episode 2

Translation: New English Translation (NETBible)

3 Questions:
What word, phrase or image strikes you in this text?
Toward what is God calling you in this text?
What are you shouting in the wilderness?

Additional texts:
Malachi 3:1-4
Baruch 5:1-9
Luke 1:68-79
Philippians 1:3-11

00:02.78
Kevin Shock
Glory, glory, glory. It's Advent, one of my favorite times of the year. And I hope that you are feeling ah blue, not in a not in a mental health kind of sense, but in a, ah your world is filled with wonderful royal blue colors, like our congregations are in Advent. And you're looking expectantly and hopefully for the new thing that God is doing.

00:30.29
Kevin Shock
ah A thing that God is doing today is hopefully working with me and Nathan at looking at some of these texts. So today, looking for new things.

00:40.19
Nathan Pile
Looking for new things.

00:42.49
Kevin Shock
Today we're looking at Luke, the gospel according to Luke, the third chapter, verses one through six. That is, we're going to be looking at the new English translation.

00:54.54
Kevin Shock
And as always, you can find that on biblegateway dot.com or the Bible gateway app. And then our three questions for today. What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text? Toward what is God calling you in this text? And what are you shouting in the wilderness?

01:13.70
Nathan Pile
I don't know what I'm gonna shout, but I love that question. I love thinking about what I might shout in the wilderness.

01:18.97
Kevin Shock
All right.

01:20.48
Nathan Pile
ah Some information about your hosts. We are men married to women in financially stable households, white in our late forties, and ah college and seminary educated.

01:32.16
Nathan Pile
um I highlight the late forties, because time's ticking for poor Kevin.

01:37.03
Kevin Shock
you You already highlighted it a couple of episodes ago. Just keep moving on.

01:39.89
Nathan Pile
It's like a whole season. This is like a whole season, season three. when Kevin becomes half a century. All of this, including getting older, affects how we read scripture and discuss it.

01:51.42
Kevin Shock
Yes.

01:51.99
Nathan Pile
um But none of these make us better to read or discuss scripture than anyone else. ah We believe that the wisdom of scripture is the whole community's compiled interpretation for life with God and one another.

02:05.27
Nathan Pile
So we're interested to know what you hear and think from your life experience as you engage scripture.

02:14.62
Nathan Pile
Luke the third chapter is our reading verses one through six. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of and Anna Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

03:12.20
Nathan Pile
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, the voice of the one shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought low and the crooked will be made straight and the rough ways will be made smooth and all humanity will see the salvation of God.

03:42.28
Nathan Pile
If you're meeting with a group, you can pause the podcast now and engage the questions on your own. Or you can listen along here as Kevin shares what word, phrase, or image struck him in this text.

03:57.11
Kevin Shock
The complete first two verses.

04:04.80
Kevin Shock
I I was...

04:04.85
Nathan Pile
That was ah I'll be honest, I hadn't read this today. And so I was like, oh, oh, I got all these names.

04:09.60
Kevin Shock
Yeah, and this is this is almost as bad as the Acts reading, um which also a little side note was was written by Luke.

04:10.45
Nathan Pile
Fantastic.

04:14.55
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

04:17.26
Nathan Pile
Has a bunch of names.

04:20.14
Kevin Shock
ah So Luke, Luke loves to just throw a name drop, I guess.

04:20.41
Nathan Pile
Yeah, no. Luke asked.

04:24.34
Kevin Shock
um

04:25.53
Nathan Pile
Luke is a name dropper. He is, and this is not a, Luke is a theology of of a bit of glory.

04:28.30
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

04:33.88
Nathan Pile
And I think that's that kind of fits. Name dropper, name droppers like to to, you know, glory is a thing.

04:43.25
Kevin Shock
Yeah, oh I'm interested. Now I want to unpack what you mean by Luke ah has a theology of glory. um

04:49.86
Nathan Pile
Well, he's a Christian theology, but but I think you glory is a thing for Luke.

04:56.66
Kevin Shock
Glory is a thing for Luke. However, Luke is also very focused on paying attention to marginalized people around you.

05:06.77
Nathan Pile
Oh, absolutely. Yes, yes, yes.

05:08.21
Kevin Shock
It's it's not it's not just about building yourself up. um it's It's about...

05:12.33
Nathan Pile
Right. Well, and and the glory when I say glory, it's not about personal glory. It's glory of God.

05:19.70
Kevin Shock
Oh, yeah, okay, okay, yeah.

05:20.81
Nathan Pile
yeah Yeah, it's not about personal glory it for for Luke it is it is about the glory of God all of the all of that is but it's a it is to me of the of the four gospels His um John is john John is very wordy and um um And deeply, not that they're not all theological, but John's system of theology is the most, but he doesn't seem to spend the time in the glory of God as Luke does.

05:54.05
Nathan Pile
Luke luke is about that glory of God. And so you get these you get these stories of Christmas and

05:57.35
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

06:02.44
Nathan Pile
um

06:05.55
Nathan Pile
and some stories that aren't that don't show up in other places, that the ah kind of communicate that the essence of God's glory, the holiness of God.

06:12.70
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm. Yeah, Luke, Luke likes the messengers to come to the people and tell them what God is doing or about to do.

06:22.55
Nathan Pile
Yeah, yeah, no.

06:22.60
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um so for all of the for all of the.

06:27.77
Nathan Pile
Yeah, sorry, yeah. What word phrase, it all of those, you can't have all of those words, can you? Is that legal?

06:32.77
Kevin Shock
Yes, I can for all of yes, it is for all of the divine and spiritual glory that's present in Luke.

06:33.77
Nathan Pile
is that legal

06:44.22
Kevin Shock
The thing that struck me in this text was this is happening. This story is happening in a very defined time and place.

06:56.16
Kevin Shock
ah And honestly, it was hard, like like all the good meaty theological stuff comes after those first two verses, but it was hard for me to pay attention but just because I was thinking about those two verses.

07:09.24
Kevin Shock
So so we know, you can You can look at the gospel according to Luke and know the exact year that John the Baptist started his ministry and um and and who was who was in charge and where they were in charge and what was going on all throughout the region and even regions that we don't really hear much about otherwise.

07:21.72
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

07:36.04
Kevin Shock
It was all a at this time and in these places that John, the son of Zechariah, received the word of the Lord while he was out in the wilderness. And maybe that's another thing too, is that all of these all of these other names are associated with cities, regions,

07:59.37
Kevin Shock
ah centers of population. And here the word of the Lord comes to the one who's out by himself in the wilderness. um Yeah. Uh, so I don't know if I have much more to say about that, honestly, but it just, it strikes me that this is, uh, this is a very defined time and place where this stuff is happening. And I think it's important to remember, um,

08:30.72
Kevin Shock
we, I think we often, we Christians oftentimes make the mistake of thinking when we read scripture, well, all this stuff was great that happened way in the past, but ah any one of us could write a similar story today about looking around and paying attention to what God is doing in our world.

08:51.45
Kevin Shock
and you know I mean we we have We also have all of the emperors, governors, regional representatives that we could name and talk about what year they are in their term to locate in a specific time and place in history where God is doing this great thing.

09:18.68
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

09:21.28
Kevin Shock
So what about you, Nathan? What word, phrase, or image strikes you in this text?

09:24.66
Nathan Pile
um Well, and just as you're struck by the the names and and where this places John in his proclamation, I'm also struck that Luke also shares that John's proclamation is something that is also known.

09:45.00
Nathan Pile
It's the words of Isaiah. It's it's a prophet from the old.

09:47.93
Kevin Shock
Well, yeah, yeah.

09:49.26
Nathan Pile
And and so there's ah there's a piece here for Luke that not only are we are we um orienting John in a time of the, um you know, again, we're not exactly sure when Luke writes somewhere, 80s.

10:06.26
Nathan Pile
um um And so, you know We're naming these things but were and the places and the people who are in power. But then we're also we've also selected a passage that is that that is embedding this story in words of ah of of one of the great prophets. So you know there's there's three great prophets and many minor prophets. Isaiah is one of those big prophets.

10:38.13
Kevin Shock
Mmhmm.

10:38.27
Nathan Pile
um So that it is specifically noted here in verse four that these are words from the book of Isaiah. And they're very famous words to us as Christians. We're used to hearing this passage that there are songs sung about these words in Isaiah in the book of Isaiah. both are hymnals and in contemporary musicals like Godspell.

11:16.81
Nathan Pile
ah And so the the these words have have meaning to them it for us today, but in this time period, they would have been placed into a passage of kind of also landmarking for the reader to say, this story,

11:18.25
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm.

11:37.04
Nathan Pile
begins before any of these rulers were around. This story is embedded um with the god the the creator. um and And they were yeah were using these words to kind of set that path forward um for for all of the verses and and chapters that are to come here in Luke. But this this story,

12:06.49
Nathan Pile
is embedded in our history as the people of Israel.

12:10.33
Kevin Shock
Mm.

12:14.30
Nathan Pile
yeah so it's ah it just an it's an it's it the justice Just as important to the author, it seems to be, as just as important to the author is the places and leaders so that we can date this um date this proclamation of John, what also seems to be just as important is that the the words are about are are a part of the the Hebrew tradition of the story with God.

12:49.69
Kevin Shock
Yeah, there there are certain things. um

12:55.70
Kevin Shock
we hear We hear people wrestling with the notion of God being unchangeable, ah which I believe to be true. um But what certainly continues to change time and again is the human situation and human culture and the way that humanity is operating in the world and being in the world. ah So the unchangeable message and nature of God comes to us in new ways, in different ways. But that is to say that it is all built upon foundational things. And I think what you point out here that ah John the Baptist's ministry

13:40.85
Kevin Shock
is built on something that Isaiah said hundreds of years previous ah is is important.

13:46.70
Nathan Pile
yeah

13:51.49
Kevin Shock
Because even ah even congregations that are trying new things, quote unquote, I'm making air quotes here, you all listening to the podcast can't see it, Nathan can.

14:02.98
Kevin Shock
But when we try new things, they have to be rooted in the very old things too. Or else they won't be of God.

14:08.85
Nathan Pile
Right.

14:10.81
Kevin Shock
They won't be. They won't be something that will be reflective of what we're actually trying to accomplish or who we're trying to be as the people of God in the world.

14:21.68
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

14:22.65
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

14:25.75
Nathan Pile
Well, and there's even in this passage, it's all of those pieces and that and it's God still working. It's God that's going to make it straight. it's gonna It's God that's going to smooth out the rough edges.

14:37.05
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm.

14:38.31
Nathan Pile
It's God who's going to fill the valleys and and topple the mountains. yeah God's going to do big things just as God has done in the past.

14:44.90
Kevin Shock
Mm-hmm.

14:48.45
Nathan Pile
so

14:49.47
Kevin Shock
Right. Well, before you go too much farther down that road, Nathan, I'm going to read it a second time.

14:55.05
Nathan Pile
All right, sounds good.

14:57.40
Kevin Shock
Luke 3, 1 through 6. In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis,

15:12.38
Kevin Shock
in Lysanias was Tetrarch of Abilene. During the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah,

15:32.99
Kevin Shock
The voice of one shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought low and the crooked will be made straight and the rough ways will be made smooth and all humanity will see the salvation of God.

15:54.51
Kevin Shock
Nathan, toward what is God calling you in this text?

15:58.96
Nathan Pile
um

16:06.43
Nathan Pile
I think for four for me, i I can't get much beyond that command there in at the end of verse 4 of preparing the way of the Lord. So what that looks like um for me as a as a listener, um you know, how do we make God's way in the world? um Recognizing that that God is the one that does big things. ah

16:43.13
Nathan Pile
But the the one place one place that I have control is on my, head and on my heart And so as I prepare the way um That means making myself Ready Making myself Open maybe maybe not so much being ready.

17:09.07
Nathan Pile
Maybe it's more about being open to um And so what does when when we talk about preparation It's not so much about

17:12.62
Kevin Shock
Hm.

17:21.28
Nathan Pile
like getting ready to run out the door to a party or to a celebration that you're all dressed up in your and you're fine and your fine suit ah with bow tie, but more about being prepared, being open to these new things or this new thing that God is gonna be doing in our world. And so how do we,

17:50.16
Nathan Pile
how do we make ourselves open is an interesting piece for me here of of, and it's one of the things that you and I were talking about earlier before we started to record about, again, everyone, this was um one of our, Kevin and I getting together and realized we hadn't seen each other in a while, so we talked for forever. But being open,

18:15.97
Nathan Pile
A part of what we I feel at the church, the place where the church is at today is how are we open to what God is doing new and how are we seeing that so that we can kind of point it out in our in our own lives so that we can recognize God at work, but also so we can help others see that. And so there's a preparation here of being able to be open to see that. And and that's not about

18:49.60
Nathan Pile
making sure that I I meet the expectations of God. It's more about getting out of my own way so that I can witness God in the midst of what's going, what's happening in the world.

19:01.40
Nathan Pile
So I don't know if that's clear enough or not there with that.

19:01.66
Kevin Shock
Hmm. Hmm.

19:05.00
Nathan Pile
and So preparing isn't about me being right with God. God's gonna take care of that.

19:10.56
Kevin Shock
Ah, okay.

19:11.70
Nathan Pile
But preparing is about um So it's not about getting ready. That was what the whole suit image was about. like i'm not I don't have to be presentable to God. The preparing needs to be an openness to the one who's coming into the world.

19:32.42
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I'm yeah I'm I'm glad you said that, Nathan.

19:32.58
Nathan Pile
so

19:35.62
Kevin Shock
I think it's important to point out that john luke Luke gives John the Baptist a very, I think all the gospel, all the evangelists do, but Luke does certainly gives John the Baptist a very specific role in the ministry of the gospel, and that is that he's the one helping to prepare the people to receive the so ah the salvation that's coming to them.

20:04.94
Kevin Shock
um

20:07.47
Kevin Shock
He went into all the region around verse three. He went into all the region around the Jordan River preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there is that's not I agree with what you said.

20:20.75
Kevin Shock
That's not so much about making yourself right before God comes on the scene. That's about making yourself available and open to two perceiving what the thing that God is doing.

20:28.41
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

20:33.08
Kevin Shock
That word repentance, I know you and I have talked about, and I hope that if you're listening to this, you've heard your pastor talk about this at some point, or some pastor or preacher talk about this at some point, that repentance is about turning. And so what John is doing out in the wilderness is he is encouraging people to turn from not even their evil ways, but just the things that normally take their attention so that they turn and see the salvation, perceive the salvation that is coming into the world in the person of Jesus. Well, and in fact, at this point has already come into the world in the person of Jesus. It's just that Jesus has not yet begun his ministry here at this point in the gospel. According to Luke, Jesus is already living. He's already, I mean, he's already in the world at this point, um but just not, it hasn't begun his public ministry.

21:30.17
Kevin Shock
so

21:32.81
Kevin Shock
Yeah, the thing the thing that I think about um in relation to the second question is, well, first of all, I mean, my first answer was listen. But I think um I think it lends more toward what you were talking about, Nathan. And that is being open, paying attention, ah you know standing or sitting on watch.

22:03.71
Kevin Shock
to notice whenever this this work in ministry of the Lord is happening right in our midst. The image that I got second time around um reading this is, first of all, the image that I always get around Advent is, you know, we have this wonderful hymn called Prepare the Royal Highway, which is about preparing the way of the Lord, making his path straight.

22:30.33
Kevin Shock
And for someone who lives and has lived his whole life in Pennsylvania, ah highway is a loaded term. ah because there's constantly highway construction. There's constantly preparing highways for people to go from one place to another. And it seems like construction season never ends. and but But I also think that as a as a person of God and as a public minister of God, um it's it's good that the that the construction season never ends. That's how it should be in our own lives as well, that the highway is never completed.

23:06.69
Kevin Shock
ah And it's something that we have to keep attending to in order to bear witness to the salvation that God is bringing into the world. But the other thing I was thinking about in relationship to Pennsylvania and highways is I had a little bit of time to kill on my way back from a conference this week in Gettysburg. And so I set my GPS to take me on the shortest route instead of the quickest route.

23:34.35
Kevin Shock
And so what that meant was that I was going over lots of ridge tops, going through lots of valleys, lots of windy roads, ah pretty much directly from Gettysburg back to Howard and Center County. And ah that um there there are lots of There are lots of mountains. There are lots of crooked ways. There are lots of rough ways. There are lots of valleys. And the thing that you notice if you're driving through Pennsylvania on a route like that, you cannot see what's ahead of you.

24:09.76
Nathan Pile
Right.

24:09.94
Kevin Shock
or you can only you can only see what's a short way ahead of you. And then with every ridge top you crest, then you can see the next several miles. ah But then you're gonna get close to the mountain again and you're only gonna be able to see up. um So there's something about this image that every valley being filled, every mountain and hill brought low, crooked, made straight, rough ways made smooth,

24:36.79
Kevin Shock
All of that, to me, takes me to a place of any barrier that exists between the people who need to see the salvation of God and the salvation of God, all those barriers will be removed.

24:53.05
Kevin Shock
you'll you'll be able Wherever you're standing, you'll be able to see. There won't be anything standing between you and that salvation, and you'll be able to see it.

24:59.62
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

25:01.51
Kevin Shock
um So I think that, ah again, that goes back to ah as long as these mountains and valleys and crooked and rough ways exist,

25:15.72
Kevin Shock
the people who are longing for salvation, including myself, um it would do us well to do some preparatory work and be on the lookout for that salvation to come.

25:30.93
Kevin Shock
until all of those things are made even, and we can see it clearly. um So it is it is it it's preparatory work, it's being open, paying attention to what God is doing in our very specific time and place in history.

25:55.55
Nathan Pile
Yeah, I I um I appreciate your comments in in the the way that you kind of help us understand what Luke wants us to be tending our soul, tending our spirit in such a way. And um hey, I'm a little jealous that you got to travel um up and down the mountains of Pennsylvania.

26:29.44
Nathan Pile
um

26:30.62
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I was definitely I was on some roads I'd never been on before.

26:33.41
Nathan Pile
Yeah, like,

26:34.33
Kevin Shock
I went I went through I can't remember all the time. It took me directly through Carlisle.

26:40.21
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

26:40.88
Kevin Shock
And I was on I was on just on a lot of. I can't even remember the other towns I went through, but I was on a lot of roads that. I hadn't been on and then it and then it dumped me out.

26:52.05
Kevin Shock
um Right around. Right around, Lewi- Port Royal, Port Royal.

27:00.10
Nathan Pile
Okay.

27:00.82
Kevin Shock
just east of Lewistown. and then And then of course there, it was 322 and I knew the whole way back home from there.

27:03.72
Nathan Pile
Then you get on the, you have to take that apart. Yeah.

27:06.38
Kevin Shock
But yeah, yeah.

27:07.87
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

27:07.94
Kevin Shock
But I saw lots of farmland, lots of ah lots of small towns I'd never seen before. Yeah, it was an interesting trip.

27:14.12
Nathan Pile
But, but it's well, it it again, a it looks, you know, um one of the things that I always used to think about was that over people enjoyed those, you know, taking Sunday drives.

27:25.88
Nathan Pile
That's what this kind of sounds like, Kevin. It sounds like maybe you're growing into your, um no, no, no.

27:31.78
Kevin Shock
Yeah, some sometimes I'm not in a hurry.

27:31.98
Nathan Pile
But the idea that, that's right. It's okay. um But this idea of that that those that those things are more like obstacles in the way

27:46.36
Nathan Pile
that that get in that get in our way of of seeing the god of salvation um because they absolutely like again you as you painted telling this story absolutely when you come up over those crests you get to see a little bit farther but when you go you know it doesn't take long and you're back down into the um the valley of these hills and you're not really, and because they're Pennsylvania farm roads, um they're not straight lines.

28:08.84
Kevin Shock
Right.

28:13.25
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

28:15.75
Nathan Pile
There's other cities or other other states that have much better mapped systems because they built their roads before people moved in. In Pennsylvania, we moved in and then we started to build roads.

28:27.15
Nathan Pile
And we're like, well, we want to build ah we want a road that goes over there to that town or to those people that live over there in that neighborhood. And so we just kind of build them. um And so they're not, um They're never straight. They're never straight and they're never flat. And so that idea that they absolutely you know Kevin and I used to live um side by side in a parish that we used to joke that 200 years before Kevin and I lived there, the three miles that were between our churches was just too great of a a barrier, because you had to cross a mountain um to get from one to the other ah one side to the other.

29:04.84
Kevin Shock
Right.

29:05.54
Nathan Pile
And so you had to have a Lutheran church on their side of the mountain, and you had to have a Lutheran church on the other side. Even though it was only three miles that separated them, they had to cross the mountain to get to the other side. and so um It was a barrier.

29:17.60
Kevin Shock
Mhm.

29:17.64
Nathan Pile
It kept it kept people in their valleys.

29:19.62
Kevin Shock
Mhm.

29:21.04
Nathan Pile
um Now are we have ah you know coaches that take us very easily over a three-mile hill, and it's not a problem.

29:21.10
Kevin Shock
Mhm.

29:30.43
Nathan Pile
But um even 100 years ago, that still would have been a limiting factor of why there was two Lutheran churches within three miles of each other, ah because the hills and valleys were barriers.

29:39.08
Kevin Shock
Absolutely. Yeah.

29:42.71
Nathan Pile
um

29:42.99
Kevin Shock
and And for some reason today they even still are, I think just because of tradition.

29:47.20
Nathan Pile
tradition.

29:48.91
Kevin Shock
Yeah. And right.

29:50.36
Kevin Shock
And different, different school districts, different churches.

29:53.51
Nathan Pile
right ah yeah You cross the top of that mountain and and and it and it's you've you're in a different school district, you're in a different town, different valley, all of those pieces.

29:53.98
Kevin Shock
that Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's weird.

30:02.76
Kevin Shock
Valley. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. yeah

30:06.44
Nathan Pile
So for sure. But again, I love that idea that we're God is seeking to remove the obstacles. um This isn't about God destroying the earth. This is about God removing obstacles from our lives that allow us to see and connect with God. Because when when it is perfectly flat, when the mountains aren't the mountains, and you can see for 27 miles, um you know, you go to some other states, I think of North Dakota,

30:41.58
Nathan Pile
being out there and it being so flat that you can just see on and on and on for miles, um but it it it it changes your perspective.

30:51.80
Nathan Pile
And so to have those barriers removed that we can see God, God seeking to remove those barriers so that we can see God, that's a powerful ah powerful message of this is this is who God wants to be.

30:56.64
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm.

31:05.24
Nathan Pile
God wants to be seen. God wants us to see God's self. and And here John is proclaiming the one who is coming. John will proclaim that thought this passage isn't doing that. John is going to be the voice that is that is going to proclaim the coming of God in person. And so this idea that Jesus is going to come and stand before us as flesh and blood like one of us, um to me that

31:38.54
Nathan Pile
that gets rid of mountains and barriers that keep us from God.

31:41.54
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm.

31:42.98
Nathan Pile
so Anything else we'll do this for a third time?

31:43.01
Kevin Shock
Sure. Yeah.

31:48.50
Kevin Shock
Yep.

31:52.77
Kevin Shock
ah No, let's go ahead and do it a third time.

31:59.07
Nathan Pile
In the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, When Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan River,

32:32.73
Nathan Pile
preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, the voice of the one shouting in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley will be filled and every mountain and hill will be brought low. And the crooked will be made straight and the rough ways will be made smooth. And all humanity will see the salvation of God.

33:03.80
Nathan Pile
Kevin, what are you shouting in the wilderness?

33:08.61
Kevin Shock
Well, based on what I said for my ah last answer, I don't know that I should be shouting anything. I think maybe I should be. I don't know if I'm supposed to be in the profits role or not, but if I'm being forced to be in the profits role by being asked this question, I think that one thing that I'm shouting. One way of repentance, one way of turning from a futile way of leaving living to a way that orients us toward the salvation of God and how God is coming to be present among us. ah One thing I wanna shout is gather together, be together.

33:58.23
Kevin Shock
um I You and I have already talked a little bit Nathan about how I've been feeling about that and conversation I've had with some other people around that.

34:09.36
Kevin Shock
um But I think that we we really get so wrapped up in the things that we are doing or the things that we need to do that we forget how to be human with one another.

34:22.12
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

34:24.17
Kevin Shock
And I think that gathering together, and I'm not even talking about like,

34:24.22
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

34:31.54
Kevin Shock
not even talking about going to church. I mean, that certainly is one way to do it, but I'm talking about um yeah sitting outside and talking to your neighbor for 10 minutes. I'm talking about ah you know going going to dinner with friends. I'm talking about any of this kind of stuff where we have ah have the opportunity to make human connection and talk to one another and get reoriented toward one another will help us to reorient to be reoriented to see how God is active among us and how God is present with us.

35:14.33
Kevin Shock
So gathering together is an important thing. It's not necessarily what John the Baptist was proclaiming, but he was bringing people together out in the wilderness, pulling pulling them out of their daily, ah what I have to do lives,

35:29.22
Kevin Shock
to go hear his message and gathering them together around this common turning, this common repentance so that we might see the salvation of God that's coming among us.

35:42.32
Nathan Pile
um We've talked about it a couple of times and ah and just hearing you speak, talk a little bit about salvation of God. That's a churchy, that's a churchy word.

35:52.61
Kevin Shock
It is a churchy word. um

35:54.54
Nathan Pile
When we talk about salvation of God, what are we what are we talking about?

35:59.90
Kevin Shock
Well, I don't know what I've said before.

36:05.17
Kevin Shock
but What I'm going to say right now is um salvation the salvation that's rooted in God gives life. we're being we're being We talk about as Lutherans being saved from sin, being saved from death, being saved from the forces of evil in the world, um rescued from those things.

36:27.89
Kevin Shock
The positive way to look at it is that salvation brings life for us. Abundant life. And even eternal life. um But not eternal life that you have to wait for. Eternal life that comes to you right now.

36:46.29
Kevin Shock
ah

36:49.04
Kevin Shock
Is that enough?

36:50.10
Nathan Pile
Yeah, that's good. I was we just we We say salvation of God, and so that idea of um that salvation is about God saving work.

36:52.06
Kevin Shock
Okay.

37:00.26
Nathan Pile
um and I And I appreciate your um mere theological definition of bringing your life.

37:00.86
Kevin Shock
Right.

37:15.45
Nathan Pile
um But i was I was just trying to help people understand.

37:16.88
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

37:18.86
Nathan Pile
If we're talking about salvation of God, it's not that there's something out there that we're all we're all we're really talking about is that God's saving work.

37:28.42
Kevin Shock
Yeah, and um and also I I feel a need to say, I don't know why I feel a need to say this, but it's not, when I say ah brings life, I'm not talking about bringing life to individuals, I'm talking about bringing life exactly what it says here in Luke, all humanity will see the salvation of God. All humanity and beyond that, all creation will see the salvation of God.

37:53.96
Kevin Shock
um

37:56.80
Kevin Shock
It's not, salvation doesn't come to us in some Oprah-esque kind of way, where God is going around, you know, pooping booping individual humans on the head saying, and you get salvation, and you get salvation, and you get salvation. It's salvation, when salvation comes for one of us, in in God's terms and holy terms, salvation comes for all of us.

38:27.38
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

38:29.63
Kevin Shock
It's not to say that we don't we don't receive it differently sometimes or don't experience it differently, but salvation has come for all of us. And that's pretty clearly proclaimed in the life-death resurrection of Jesus.

38:45.06
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

38:49.61
Kevin Shock
This isn't just for some, this is for all.

38:54.22
Nathan Pile
Yeah, well, yeah, and absolutely clear here in and Luke's use of Isaiah's passages that it's and for all.

39:00.88
Kevin Shock
Yeah

39:03.10
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

39:03.52
Kevin Shock
Yeah

39:07.98
Nathan Pile
Well, and my, my answer to this isn't very far from where you were at.

39:08.46
Kevin Shock
ah yeah

39:12.52
Nathan Pile
um I too am. Here here we're told that were that all are going to see God saving work and And so there's a part of this for me um because because I know the story that is that this is framed in in the midst of this idea of being together.

39:24.46
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Yep.

39:38.00
Nathan Pile
God comes in Jesus to be together. And so as you say, to gather, i would I might even push that ah a little bit and to say, to to be reminded that we belong. ah One of our basic human needs is to know that we are loved and accepted. And so God comes to remind us that we belong, that we belong to God. God has come to be with us and all of humanity.

40:16.44
Nathan Pile
and And your definition of to bring life, I think you know life is richer. and yeah And some of this is probably ah my own broken humanity, my own broken humanness, that I need to be reminded that I belong, um that I can I can that negative voices can convince me that I don't belong in our world.

40:44.45
Nathan Pile
um And so I need the act of the Savior to come and remind me that that I do belong, that I am loved, that I am accepted for who I am,

40:59.61
Nathan Pile
and that all of humanity is that way. And so this idea of of of gathering, yes, but gathering, um not gathering but not gathering just with, but gathering with God, gathering with with God's people, all of that is, it helps to bring that piece of belonging and love into the world um that then brings, restores life to us.

41:30.13
Nathan Pile
It's kind of where I get, when I when i think about the thing that I want to make sure people hear, if I'm shouting in the wilderness, again, if I'm being pressed to give an answer, I don't always think of myself as being prophetic. um But if I if I'm answering this question, I want people to know that they belong. And so I spend, I already spend a lot of time in the wilderness.

41:54.30
Nathan Pile
shouting, reminding our young people that they belong. But that would absolutely be, if I could only make one message for the rest of my life, that would be well that would continue to be the message that I share over and over, that we have a place with God forever.

42:16.31
Nathan Pile
and that that God has come to to to remind us that, to show us that, to show us that love and that from that good news that we might have life and share it with others. So that would be the thing, that piece of belonging would be the thing that I would be,

42:43.46
Nathan Pile
shouting at the top of my lungs. and it and it And it feels like in this day and age that we need to be reminded of it, um that we need to be reminded that we need to do this together, that we're stronger together.

43:02.37
Nathan Pile
It's ah it's a it's a simple phrase and and I feel like in the last five years I've said that phrase more than I did

43:03.40
Kevin Shock
yeah

43:10.18
Nathan Pile
the 15 years before that. And so in some ways I feel like it's that I'm just repeating something that I've that i've heard over and over again in the last five years.

43:20.80
Nathan Pile
But but I don't seem to be getting the message and and I don't think others seem to, like we need to, we're stronger together.

43:27.37
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Mm hmm.

43:29.63
Nathan Pile
God has made us stronger together. And so why, why do I isolate myself from others at times when it would probably bring more life to be connected um to them? So.

43:50.03
Kevin Shock
Yeah, that's a really good question, Nathan. um Why do we do that? but I mean, it's something that you and I were talking about before we got on the podcast.

44:01.60
Kevin Shock
Why do we why do we prioritize work over being together, with making connections with people?

44:11.00
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

44:11.79
Kevin Shock
I mean, there might be a lot of practical answers for that, that you know we need to work in order to get a paycheck. but um But week after week after week after week, ah you know, we we do prioritize the things that we have to do over discovering who we are and who and who we are in the context of other groups of people.

44:37.37
Kevin Shock
um That that stuff really matters. It makes us healthy. It makes us healthier to be together.

44:41.98
Nathan Pile
No.

44:43.68
Kevin Shock
And I know that there are There are probably introverts listening to this too, but introverts need to know belonging as much as extroverts do. So um yeah,

44:58.13
Kevin Shock
I'm I'm just I'm concerned that we're losing our humanity, I think.

45:01.15
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

45:03.47
Kevin Shock
that's That's what it boils down to for me. And it is for me why doing things even like when when I have a Sunday where I don't where I'm not scheduled to preach anywhere, where I still go to church in my home congregation, because I want to be connected to those people.

45:26.70
Nathan Pile
Well, it's interesting that you bring that up, that that that our presence in patent you know our presence impacts other people.

45:26.94
Kevin Shock
I want to be a part of the fellowship there. And it, in it it has an effect on them that I'm president and has an effect on me that I'm present there. And I think it makes all of us healthier.

45:54.48
Nathan Pile
And so by not being present, but by not being present, we're removing something from the experience of others.

45:55.28
Kevin Shock
Sure it does.

46:10.89
Nathan Pile
Yeah, it's just ah like, again, as we've been talking about this, I guess, again, I was thinking about it more from the importance of being together with you others and what how I benefit from it.

46:25.47
Nathan Pile
But there's also the other side of that same coin, which is others benefit by me being present with them.

46:25.47
Kevin Shock
Mm hmm.

46:33.49
Kevin Shock
Absolutely. Yeah.

46:34.89
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

46:36.13
Kevin Shock
It does make a difference. Yeah. Every every individual who's who is a part of a greater body, their presence in that body matters.

46:50.71
Kevin Shock
And if they're not present, it changes how that body operates. It changes what that body is. And if they are present, it changes. It has a positive change on who the body is and how the body operates. Yeah.

47:06.78
Nathan Pile
Yeah. Hmm.

47:10.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah, just I don't know, just popped in my head for some reason that, ah you know, thinking how many times I've heard probably in the last 10 or 15 years that and The phrase like, you know, that meeting could have been an email, which, yeah, when we're trying to get stuff done,

47:24.54
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

47:30.26
Kevin Shock
ah it it's it can be helpful to name that, to say, you know, this this is something that we can accomplish pretty quickly and efficiently just by being in communication with one another. We don't have to be in one another's presence. But I also think that um I don't think that we put enough value in what it means to gather together with one another and just to be in one another's presence.

47:58.08
Kevin Shock
um maybe Maybe the thing that we gather for isn't, could have been accomplished over email, but maybe that isn't the most important thing that we need to accomplish that day.

48:11.82
Kevin Shock
Maybe simply connection with the other people that are normally just

48:11.99
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

48:17.76
Kevin Shock
words on a screen or faces on a screen to us makes a difference.

48:28.67
Kevin Shock
It's so easy to get wrapped up in the things that we do and not make time for the for the people we are or the people that who the people around us are, I guess.

48:41.32
Kevin Shock
yeah

48:43.56
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

48:47.11
Kevin Shock
Well, you have any clue?

48:47.17
Nathan Pile
Well, and and no, I just I'm thinking about that your comment there of of how do we how do we value the connection?

48:48.37
Kevin Shock
yeah

48:57.57
Kevin Shock
Yeah.

48:59.87
Nathan Pile
So that that that it's not just about getting things taken off our to-do list.

49:09.37
Nathan Pile
Because again, as we as we read into these gospels, Jesus is is rarely about to-do lists. Jesus is always about being with people.

49:25.60
Nathan Pile
It's all about connection.

49:28.08
Kevin Shock
Mm.

49:28.86
Nathan Pile
Jesus' ministry over and over again is about restoring connection, bringing life, finding the people who've been pushed to the edges of society and saying, you belong, you are loved.

49:46.71
Nathan Pile
And so how do we, when we think about ministry, when we think about the work of the church, the work of God's people, can it be simply a about connection and loving each other? Again, all that easy but all that you know it's easy to say it, but it's harder to live into what that actually means, it looks like.

50:14.30
Kevin Shock
Yeah. And I think that, I think if the work of salvation were not about making connection, we wouldn't have the reading that we have today.

50:25.64
Nathan Pile
Absolutely. Right.

50:27.48
Kevin Shock
it This is, again, you know, I bringing it full circle. God came in flesh in a very particular and specific time and place in history. And

50:43.15
Kevin Shock
i you know I've been asked the question, I was asked the question recently, why doesn't God just fix things?

50:53.09
Kevin Shock
Because God is not focused on things, God is focused on people. And that's not how I answered the question when it came to me.

50:57.14
Nathan Pile
Mm.

50:59.17
Kevin Shock
I think I was, I I I know I was more pastoral in the moment, but but that's exactly right.

51:04.23
Nathan Pile
ah

51:07.35
Kevin Shock
I mean, Jesus at no point says to somebody else, he does say to his disciples, um okay, we're gonna move on from this place because we have to take the message elsewhere.

51:18.64
Kevin Shock
But but when someone comes up to him and asks for healing, He doesn't say, Oh, sorry, I don't have time. I gotta go do this. I gotta go start healing somewhere else.

51:28.67
Nathan Pile
Right

51:29.70
Kevin Shock
He's always focused on making connection with that one person when someone seeks him out.

51:33.76
Nathan Pile
yeah

51:37.29
Kevin Shock
And, and that, that is the way that God operates.

51:37.63
Nathan Pile
Yeah.

51:40.46
Kevin Shock
God operates through making connections and not just into, I mean, it's it's through making connections and it's through connecting people to one another.

51:42.65
Nathan Pile
Hmm.

51:52.30
Kevin Shock
That's what happens with the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. it's It's connecting people to one another, opening lines of communication, opening channels of care.

51:59.38
Nathan Pile
yeah

52:05.62
Kevin Shock
that's It's simply how God works.

52:11.76
Kevin Shock
so

52:14.68
Nathan Pile
All let's see some additional readings. um That's you.

52:24.87
Kevin Shock
Is it me?

52:26.14
Nathan Pile
Yeah, you started us.

52:26.65
Kevin Shock
It's been a long time since we've done this.

52:31.52
Nathan Pile
It's good to reconnect, Kevin. It's good to reconnect.

52:36.30
Kevin Shock
Right, yeah, that oh yeah, that is me. I started us off, didn't I? Yes, so additional texts, folks.

52:40.59
Nathan Pile
You did, you did.

52:42.33
Kevin Shock
Oh my goodness, my brain. ah There are a few additional texts today just because there are some alternate texts for the second Sunday in Advent.

52:53.65
Kevin Shock
ah but the first one is Malachi chapter 3 verses 1 through 4 that talks about my messenger. The Lord says my messenger is a refiner and a purifier. There's an alternate text from the book of Baruch ah which is a an apocryphal text. it's That's a book that's used in some church traditions, but not all. We recognize them, but we don't use them as often in the Lutheran church. Anyway, though, you can find them in, ah if you borrow a Bible from one of your Roman Catholic friends, you can probably find it there, but you're looking for something called the Apocrypha.

53:31.53
Kevin Shock
um And ah I think you can probably find it on Bible Gateway as well. I'm pretty sure that it's there.

53:38.03
Nathan Pile
yeah probably probably

53:40.04
Kevin Shock
Yeah. Uh, it might, you might have to look in like the new revised standard version translation, but yes, you will find it there. So Baruch chapter five versus one through nine, the return of scattered Israel.

53:55.14
Kevin Shock
Uh, we don't have a Psalm this week, but we have a song from Luke chapter one versus 68 through 79.

54:02.19
Nathan Pile
Yeah, probably, probably.

54:04.83
Kevin Shock
And that is the, the song of help me out here. It's the song of Simeon. No, the song of Zechariah.

54:15.62
Kevin Shock
I can't, oh boy, I can't remember. I'd have to go back and look. But it's, um oh, I'm having trouble now.

54:22.81
Nathan Pile
It does seem like Simeon.

54:23.07
Kevin Shock
No, it's the, so no, it's no it's it's the, no, Simeon is Lord, now ah now you let your servant go in peace.

54:24.13
Nathan Pile
It does seem like it could be Simeon.

54:30.38
Kevin Shock
ah This is Zechariah's song. In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us.

54:32.45
Nathan Pile
Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay.

54:35.65
Kevin Shock
Yeah, yeah.

54:37.00
Nathan Pile
All right.

54:37.53
Kevin Shock
I knew I would get there eventually. There are four important songs in Luke, this is one of them. In the very in the first two chapters of Luke, this is one of them.

54:45.52
Nathan Pile
Yes, yeah.

54:46.71
Kevin Shock
And then also Philippians chapter one, verses three through 11, talks about a harvest of righteousness on the day of Jesus Christ. So friends, as always, we would love to hear your reflections on the text and whether it's the one that Nathan and I talked about or one of the additional texts, we'd love to hear the things that you are hearing and perceiving out there in the wilderness.

55:12.17
Kevin Shock
And also maybe even some of the things you're shouting if you want to share those with us as well.

55:15.55
Nathan Pile
No, we could shout. Yeah, I would be, I'd be interested in that.

55:19.54
Kevin Shock
Yeah, I'm I'm interested to hear that too. yeah what What are the ways that you are ah preparing the way of the Lord? What are the ways that you're looking for ah the salvation of God coming to all humanity? ah And as we await those things from you, we also hope to tend our faith with you again soon. Grace to you.

55:42.32
Nathan Pile
And peace.