A Reflection from the Fuel Daily Readings App for the Second Sunday of Advent. Click here to read the reading.

I love how, in the scriptures, the authors so often play with our expectations and subvert them, so that what we think will happen and who we think are powerful, are shown up in twist endings. Here, Luke (a historian) begins his story with Caesar, Pilate, Herod and Caiaphas – powerful people who were the movers and shakers of their day (I mean, how influential do you have to be before people start to use your life to measure time?).

Normally, in all our histories, these guys are the main players, and the whole story tends to revolve around them. However, Luke quickly focuses his new brand of history on John the Baptist, a smelly wild man who rejects normal society and preaches a radical new way of life. John’s message is repentance – a complete turning away from our bad old habits towards embracing new life – but it is repentance in light of the future day when all people will see God acting to save us and create a new world. It is repentance based on hope.

There are two comparisons Luke wants us to make. Firstly that, in God’s kind of history, it is not the movers and shakers of the earth who are the main characters. The Spirit moves where he wills and builds his kingdom with those who are most receptive to his Word, notably not the emperor called ‘a god’, nor the high priest sitting on the chair of Moses.

Secondly, God’s kind of history is not concerned with giving an accurate catalogue of past dates. God’s history is centred on the future. It’s the story of how he has worked in the past and continues to work now, to bring about his promised kingdom at an unknown time, where “all mankind shall see the salvation of God.” It’s an unfinished story, where our lives play crucial roles if we prepare our hearts to receive him.

+ Lord Jesus, as we prepare to celebrate your birth in our world two thousand years ago, help us to also see your promise for our future, and to be more and more receptive to helping you build it now. Amen.