The writer of the gospel of Luke went to great pains to set the context for John’s ministry. In John and Jesus’ day, there was no universally agreed upon calendar. For that reason, it’s sometimes difficult to pin down exactly when something happened during that time in history. So the gospel according to Luke used six historical markers to try to narrow down exactly when it was that John began preaching. In the fifteenth year of the Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was ruler of Galilee, and when Philip was ruler of Ituraea. When Lysanias ruled Abilene and when Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, then John began to preach the word of God. It’s important to understand the context in which things happen. Context not only helps set the stage, but context also helps interpret what happens. Understanding context helps us see beyond our own prejudices and preconceptions, to recognize the meaning of what’s really happening. Luke goes into great detail to point out that John began preaching in the wilderness when Tiberius was Emperor and Pilate was governor. John came on the scene when the world wasn’t paying much attention to Judea, and when the Jews were not powerful even in their own land. John began preaching at a certain time, under certain circumstances, at a particular point in the progression of history. No one expected great things to come from the Jews. Even most of the Jews held little hope that they’d ever again determine their own fate. But one day, John walked out of the desert wilderness of Judea just like the prophets of old, preaching that something great and powerful was about to happen among the Jews. Just like Elijah and Isaiah, John began his ministry prophesying that the redemption of the whole world was about to sprout from the overlooked land of Judea. Just when the world had discounted the Jewish people, just when they themselves felt powerless and hopeless, just at that certain moment in history, John proclaimed that God was about to do a new and marvelous thing. God’s own messiah was about to arrive, to set right all injustice, to overturn all oppression, and to transform the whole world into a place of abundant life. The gospel according to Luke describes in great detail the context in which John began proclaiming his message of the coming of the Lord. And John’s ministry was the context in which Jesus began to preach and teach and heal.

It’s important to understand context. We have to recognize the setting in which we live, just like we need to understand the context in which we’re engaged in the ministry of Christ. Just as the gospels writers offered us clues about the context of Jesus’ ministry two thousand years ago, we need to understand the context of Jesus’ ministry today, here and now. It’s possible to go through our days knowing far too little about what’s really going on around us. Many people live with blinders on, walking only down familiar paths, not seeing what’s really happening. I grew up a few miles out a rural road in the hills outside of our small town. When I got my driver’s license, I drove myself to school every day. Every day I drove down that road to work and to meet my friends in town. I drove down that stretch of road so often, that it seemed like I could drive it with my eyes closed. Sometimes when I was driving home I’d be deep in thought, and I’d suddenly realize that I was miles farther down the road than I could actually remember having driven. The way was so familiar, that I didn’t even notice it any longer. The world in which we live can become that familiar to us. We can walk through the routines of our lives so often that we stop paying attention. But we’ve got to pay attention to the context in which we find ourselves, or else we risk living like we have blinders on; we risk being out of touch and missing something important. For those of us who aren’t homeless, it might be easy to not really have a grasp on the problem of homelessness in our community. It could be easy to overlook that on any given night in Seattle, about 800 young people between the ages of 12 and 24 are sleeping on the streets. Local surveys estimate about 7,000 more adults and children are without permanent homes in King County. We might be tempted to assume that homelessness in the city is a downtown problem, a problem somewhere else, not here. But, in addition to the 20 men who find shelter in this building each night, there’s also a women’s shelter on Phinney Ridge, as well as a men’s shelter in Ballard. It’s possible for us to see homeless people so often that we stop seeing them after a while. But we’ve got to pay attention to the world in which we live. Many racial and ethnic minorities in Seattle today report that this city is seeing a resurgence of racism, racial profiling, and discrimination in criminal justice, housing, and employment based on race and ethnicity. We may have heard about the realities of urban racism so much that we’ve become numbed to it. It’s possible for us to hear about the evidence of discrimination so often that we don’t actually hear it any longer. But we’ve got to listen. We mustn’t allow bad news on the television each night and throughout the day and in the papers to desensitize us to the reality of the injustice and oppression and the need for this world to be transformed by the saving grace of God.

It’s time for us to prepare for the coming presence of Christ. The time is now. In the third year of the Presidency of George W. Bush, when Gary Locke is governor of Washington, when Elias Galvan is bishop of the United Methodists in the Pacific Northwest, this is the time in which God is about to do a new and marvelous thing. Here in this place, now in this moment, we’re about to enter into the presence of Christ. When we take communion a little later in this service, we could shuffle forward and hold out our hands and just go through the motions. We could sleepwalk through the ritual of communion because it can become too familiar, too comfortably routine. But whether we recognize it or not, Christ is present with us. John’s prophecy is still coming true: God’s salvation is breaking into the world. So pay attention. The time is now. God’s about to do something amazing right here and right now. And you’re not just going to be an observer. You’ve got a part to play. This isn’t a fairy tale told to entertain the children. The story of the coming of Christ is happening in our lives, in this moment, and lives hang in the balance. Pay attention, John tells us. Pay attention to the world in which we live, and prepare for the coming of Christ by making what’s crooked straight, by taking what’s broken and making it whole, by taking what’s unjust and making it right again. Christmas isn’t entertainment, it’s the story of God shaping our world through us and inside of us here and now. Amen