Luke 1:68-79 is the psalm appointed for the 2nd Sunday in Advent in the Year of Luke. This follows a pattern during the Advent season of taking a psalm from Scripture other than the psalter. This is a text easily overlooked, since Mary's song, just before it, is so often lifted up. This song of Zechariah, the aged priest and father, contains just as much good news as Mary's song. It will be the preacher's joyful task to proclaim this good news.
(The following questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but have been developed to lift up the function of the Word in the text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers. These questions are best used in conjunction with other fine sets of questions available to exegetes. For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)
1. How does the Word function in the text? The Word functions as pure gospel here. The actor is God who is redeeming, keeping promises, and visiting God's people.
2. How is the Word not functioning in the text? The Word barely functions as Law here. The mention, at the end of the passage, of those "who sit in darkness and the shadow of death," is the only mention of our need for a Savior.
3. With whom are you identifying in the text? We are those overhearing Zechariah's blessing, as well as his announcement to his new son, the infant John. We are the ones overhearing the good news of God's promised visitation of God's people.
4. What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text? The Word functioning as an invitation to live in response to the Gospel is not here. By inference, we might assume that John's call to proclaim the good news is our call as well.
5. What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text? Drawing on the vocabulary near the end of the passage, we might offer these couplets: sitting in darkness/embraced by the light; walking in the shadow of death/living in the freedom of the Gospel.
6. Exegetical work: It is clear that the reformers viewed the enemies from whom we are saved (vs.71) as spiritual enemies, not physical ones. An example of this is Johannes Brenz who said: "For Christ did not conquer the Egyptians or the Babylonians or even the Romans, ...but he overcame those enemies and delivered his people from all those things of which Paul speaks. The chief of these enemies is Satan, while the second is sin, into which Satan cast Adam by suggestion, and finally death and hell." (Reformation Commentary on Scripture, NT, vol. III, p. 41). Amy-Jill Levine also turns in this direction: "...here [in vs. 77] the job description changes; the salvation is determined by 'forgiveness of sins.' The liberation is thus not (explicitly) from persecution or poverty, but from sin." (New Cambridge Bible Commentary, The Gospel of Luke, p.47). One important note from translating the text is the presence of the word "visited" in both verse 68 and 78. In the NRSV vs. 68 is translated "looked favorably on" but the word, episkeptomai, can just as well be translated "visited." Similarly in vs. 78, the same word is used, but this time it is translated in the NRSV as "will break upon us." It might be helpful to ponder what a visitation by the Merciful Most High God might mean.
7. Consider the insights of the pioneers of the New Homiletic? Eugene Lowry insisted that a certain amount of tension or, as he said it, "disequilibrium," be part of any sermon. How will this be done in this sermon of good news?
Blessings on your proclamation!
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