Advent Resources 2024

The Year C Lectionary Cycle that begins on the First Sunday in Advent brings us into a year that will focus on the Gospel of Luke primarily. And what would we do without Luke!?

Think about it: if Luke the physician really is the person who wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts, you could almost wonder if Luke maybe missed his calling in life. In truth, we have no idea what kind of a doctor he was, but what we do know is that he was a cracking good writer and storyteller.

In the New Testament, after all, it's Luke who gives us what has become the classic telling of the Christmas story. If it weren't for Luke, we would never have heard the line "There was no room at the inn," nor would we know about the stable, the shepherds, or the angels. Luke alone gives us the memorable parables of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, arguably the two most famous parables in the world. Luke is the author who introduces us to wee little Zacchaeus and it was Luke who crafted that moving post-Easter story about the now-famous "Road to Emmaus."

In the Book of Acts, Luke gives us the stirring story of Pentecost, the drama of Ananias and Sapphira, the tale about the Ethiopian eunuch, Saul's conversion on the Damascus Road, Eutychus toppling out of that window during a really long sermon, and also all those richly embroidered stories about the missionary journeys of Paul, Peter, and the other apostles, capping it all off with the dramatic story of Paul’s shipwreck at the very end of Acts.

Of course, at no particular time in the typical church year do we notice Luke’s literary and narrative prowess more than in Advent and at Christmas. Whereas Mark and John dispense with Jesus’ birth and early life altogether and Matthew sums up the entire Christmas story in just a couple of verses, Luke gives us two very large chapters to set the stage and tell the story of Jesus’ advent into our time and space. Luke gives us those amazing songs by Zechariah and Mary, the backstory of John the Baptist, and then all the classic stuff that just is the Christmas Story in Luke 2. Linus quotes it in “The Charlie Brown Christmas Special” and the story’s narrative details can be spied and detected in every single creche, many of the most popular holiday Christmas Carols, on a gezillion greeting cards, and on not a few Christmas tree ornaments, too.

For preachers, then, Year C’s focus on Luke—especially across these weeks of Advent—gives us the opportunity to savor Luke’s eye for narrative spice and color. Let’s not let theology, doctrine, or above all over-familiarity with it all hinder our ability to let these stories shine in all their compelling glory. The Holy Spirit gave us Luke in the New Testament for a reason—well, probably for lots of reasons—but his ability to spin a cracking good yarn is surely one of them.

Christmas has become all about gifts. Luke is a gift. Let’s celebrate him in our preaching this year by letting the greatest story ever told shine in all the Spirit-inspired beauty with which Luke imbued it!

Every year we start Advent with Jesus’s apocalyptic words exhorting us to be alert even though the evil one will try to lull us into complacency or despondency. At the close of the first week’s Gospel lectionary text this year, Jesus says, “Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21.36)

His command comes on the heels of describing both the signs of hardship and hope that we’ll need to look out for if we don’t want to succumb to the human tendency to numb ourselves into ignorance and inaction. If things feel like they’re not going to get better, if we feel too small to make any difference, if we’re scared and don’t know how to deal with that, how do we even begin to “stand up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near”? (Luke 21.28)

Jesus tells us the way to do so is to guard our hearts and take hope in the signs of the change, pointing to the leaves on the fig trees as an inspirational sign good enough to take on scary roaring seas. How can this be? I’m reminded of the “Tank Man” in Tiananmen Square back in 1989, purposefully standing in the path of wave after wave of military tanks. Though he was eventually pulled away by others on the street and one could argue that his small act did not accomplish much, his bravery is etched in our collective memory.

This Advent season, I’m reading our Gospel texts in the spirit of “Tank Man”: as texts of defiance that show us the way of being sprouts of the new life Jesus’s Kingdom is establishing. The second and third weeks with John the Baptist are our initiation into a purposeful life of radical obedience. Small acts of sharing our coats and food and of living with integrity will build our strength as we actively escape the way of life the evil one would prefer we pursue. And, John roots us back in the Scriptures to remind us that though our hardships are real and some fears are well-founded, God will undo all that stands in the way of redemption.

And if we needed any more encouragement to be brave and active as we look for Christ’s return, we’re reminded by the final week of Advent that God’s blessing is our strength. Mary is blessed because she said yes to carrying the firstborn of this new life, Jesus Christ. She models to us what it means to be blessed because we believe in what we hope: despite the hardships and rebellion of evil, the Lord will fulfill his promises.