SOMETHING NEW: LUKE 1

LUKE 1

                I’m starting something new today.  I read a lot of books, pull thoughts and share quotes as I do, but I’ve never really done that with the Bible.  Today, I want to start.  Sometimes, fretting over where and now to start something impedes us from the only thing beginning something new requires: a simple act of will that starts movement for the purpose. 

                When you look at the Bible, listen to all others say about it, it can be hard to figure out where and how to start: not knowing where to jump in, and if beginning at Creation, how much must one read to get caught up before you can jump and move around to different stories, eras, themes, and even Testaments. 

                I’ve read the Bible for a while now.  I don’t have a system.  The closest to one I would say I have is curiosity.  I hear a story or read a passage/line, and if it catches my attention, I search it up and read it in whole.

                I’m not a Bible quote person.  I believe we learn more by reading the entirety of stories, parables, and histories instead of picking out one line and writing a book where God chose a dozen words.  God is in the simple, the way words and worlds all comes together—not an academic deconstruction that gives knowledge but robs wisdom (or so it seems to me).

                This morning, to begin a writing and commentary reading through books of the Bible, I am starting in the gospel of Luke.  The best reason I have for this is that Luke has my favorite beginning point out of the four gospels.  It begins where, and with whom Jesus’ entry in our world became manifest: his mother. I believe God works many of his greatest miracles through the wonder of women and that we are all one of these in our own way.

                In Luke 1, angels visit both Mary and the husband of her cousin, Elizabeth.  Elizabeth was old, and had never had a child, but the angel Gabriel visits Elizabeth’s husband, Zachary, and tells that Elizabeth will bear a child in her later age, and that his name will be John.  After this, affected by his vision and visitation of the angel, Zachary is made dumb and unable to speak until John is born.

                While Elizabeth is pregnant, the angel Gabriel comes to Mary.  Gabriel begins his message to Mary with the words, “Hail, full of grace, the lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women,” and tells Mary not to be afraid for “thou hast found grace with God.” 

                Gabriel tells Mary she will conceive of a son, that his name will be Jesus, and that he will reign in the house of Jacob forever of a kingdom that shall have no end.

                Mary doubts, questions how it is possible.  She is hesitant to believe, and to prove and show reason to believe, Gabriel tells that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth is six months pregnant—a sign that, “No word shall be impossible with God.”

                To this, Mary accepts Gabriel’s calling and message to bear a son.  She answers, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done to me according to thy word.”

                Next, Mary visits Elizabeth, and on arriving, Elizabeth’s child moves and signs inside her.  Both Elizabeth and Mary believe in the miracles that are living, and Elizabeth tells Mary, “Blessed art thou that hast believed, because those things shall be accomplished that were spoken to thee by the Lord.”

                Mary answered, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.  And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour…Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.”

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                In this beginning, a few things catch my thoughts?  What is an angel?  How do they appear?  Can we believe they still show and manifest to us today?  If so, how? If not, why?  The Greek origin for angel, angelos, is not for an image of a winged being from Heaven, but something far more generic.  It means messenger.  If we think of angels this way, how often in our lives do we perceive messages or signs presented to us that appear more than a mere coincidence?  Maybe it’s an image, maybe it’s a quote, maybe it is the words of a friend or perfect stranger—but there’s something in them that speak more than the simple context of happenstance would seem.  Could such mediums be of a messenger?  Might there be reason to their showing and effect? 

                If we believe, or at least consider that such signs may in truth be from a messenger; even when we fail to see its origin and meaning in the living moment, the next question comes—just as it came to Mary: do we accept the message, its will or suggestion, and the responsibility it places on us?  How often does God speak and seek, but without acceptance and will of the receiver to follow through and do God’s will, how often does the possibility of good and miracle die right there? 

                I believe God works with and through us, and that decisions of our own free will (which I believe is the gift of God’s, and all, Love) and desire to accept and embrace a message that appears are what make after-miracles possible.

                Had Mary not spoken her answer to Gabriel, “be it done to me according to thy word,” how might history and mankind be different?  Would God have sought another.  Would the Grace and gift have died before it ever had a chance at life?  I don’t know, but I wonder. 

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                This is Day one of reading and sharing thoughts from an introduction and beginning into reading the Bible.  I don’t know if I will do this every day, or as inspiration affects; but it was something I wanted to do, and rather than wonder when or how to begin, I am starting—as disjointed and unplanned as it may be: the perfect spirit for beginning into The Book.

                For anyone that’d like to read or follow through, I’ll post links to the books and passages that I take from.  I’m reading from a Douay Rheims version (Catholic Translation from the Latin Vulgate), but talking stories and messages, I believe most translations will hold true enough to be understood, and when little nuances are found; maybe they will afford interesting discourse on why words change over centuries and whether we perceive they bring us nearer, or more distant, from the spirit and word of God. 

                I believe the Bible is a translation and recording of the Word of God—by men—and given the medium, still prone to errors, especially when refined and changed between languages, cultures, times, etc.  We lose a lot the further we get from an origin, but maybe—God willing—we’ll return to and gain wisdom in that one day too. 

                Thank you to any and all that have read, and I’d love to learn what you all think.  I don’t intend to preach, just sharing thoughts from how readings affect.