Luke's Story 5
In Luke’s Story 5 (2:1-20) why is the generosity of God being revealed by the ‘multitude of angels’ only to the shepherds, and why is it that these shepherds are the ones that are giving witness to this glorious event?
Think about the following:
The wisdom statement of the Appropriating the Wisdom section, the wAW, of Story 5 is this, ‘The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as had been told them.’ Well, who did they return to? Their flock! And who are these lambs?
Doesn’t this statement ‘as had been told them,’ sound familiar? After the resurrection we hear ‘an angel’ say in Mark’s gospel, ‘go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
The first time in Luke’s Story 5 that ‘an angel’ stood before the shepherds, they were terrified, in the same way, the disciples were terrified when the risen Jesus appears to the eleven in the last Story of The Gospel of Luke.
The wisdom statement of the Wisdom section, the wW, of Story 5, ‘On earth peace among those whom he favors,’ was revealed to the shepherds, by a ‘multitude of angels,’ Who does God favor? We are told that he is pleased in his Son when the Spirit has come to rest on him. But, the Spirit doesn’t come to rest on the ‘flock’ until after Jesus is glorified….
Since the literary form tells us that the wAW is how or why we put into practice wW, or wAW is why we believe wW, then:
The shepherds returned (to the flock), glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as had been told them, is why we believe, ‘on earth peace among those (the flock) whom he favors. I propose the Story is telling us the following about the shepherds:
This is a post resurrection Story! The shepherds (Peter, James, John…Paul) have ‘encountered’ the risen Christ, who is the suffering servant, the bread of life. They bring back to their flock, with praise and thanksgiving, the things they have seen and heard from Jesus, that is, his words and how he has put them into practice. This is how and why the lambs have responded to Jesus’ words and have received Jesus’ baptism and the outpouring of the Spirit—and God’s favor! This is why the peace is with them. ‘Peace be with you,’ was a resurrection greeting to his disciples.
Tomorrow we will continue Luke’s Story 5.
Think about the following:
The wisdom statement of the Appropriating the Wisdom section, the wAW, of Story 5 is this, ‘The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as had been told them.’ Well, who did they return to? Their flock! And who are these lambs?
Doesn’t this statement ‘as had been told them,’ sound familiar? After the resurrection we hear ‘an angel’ say in Mark’s gospel, ‘go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.”
The first time in Luke’s Story 5 that ‘an angel’ stood before the shepherds, they were terrified, in the same way, the disciples were terrified when the risen Jesus appears to the eleven in the last Story of The Gospel of Luke.
The wisdom statement of the Wisdom section, the wW, of Story 5, ‘On earth peace among those whom he favors,’ was revealed to the shepherds, by a ‘multitude of angels,’ Who does God favor? We are told that he is pleased in his Son when the Spirit has come to rest on him. But, the Spirit doesn’t come to rest on the ‘flock’ until after Jesus is glorified….
Since the literary form tells us that the wAW is how or why we put into practice wW, or wAW is why we believe wW, then:
The shepherds returned (to the flock), glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as had been told them, is why we believe, ‘on earth peace among those (the flock) whom he favors. I propose the Story is telling us the following about the shepherds:
This is a post resurrection Story! The shepherds (Peter, James, John…Paul) have ‘encountered’ the risen Christ, who is the suffering servant, the bread of life. They bring back to their flock, with praise and thanksgiving, the things they have seen and heard from Jesus, that is, his words and how he has put them into practice. This is how and why the lambs have responded to Jesus’ words and have received Jesus’ baptism and the outpouring of the Spirit—and God’s favor! This is why the peace is with them. ‘Peace be with you,’ was a resurrection greeting to his disciples.
Tomorrow we will continue Luke’s Story 5.
posted by Anne and Mike at 1:12 AM
<< Home