Reseña del libro "Sermons With Insight (en Inglés)"
Before considering the important part of the sermon, let's take a look at today's Gospellesson and ask, what's wrong with this picture? What takes place in our Gospel story thatdoes not reflect the way things usually happen in the world?If were teaching a class, I would now stop talking, and there would be a long period ofsilence, while you look through the biblical text on your bulletin insert, to try to findsomething unusual. But to ensure that this sermon ends before it's time for Sunday Schoolto begin, I'll save some time by pointing out that it is highly unusual for two pregnantwomen to meet and for one to say to the other, "You're going to be the mother of someonewhom I'll be calling 'Lord.'" Normally, Elizabeth--or anyone else--would not know such athing in advance. Right? The reference is to Jesus, of course. Elizabeth calls him "Lord,"and that fact provides a clue to what is going on here that you, as an average person-in-the-pew, would not even begin to imagine. At least, I didn't, until I went to seminary.You see, among the Jews of Jesus' day, Jesus was called "Master," or "Rabbi," or "Rabboni."He wasn't called "Lord." "Lord" was a title used by Greeks, and it was a popular titleapplied to Jesus when Christianity spread out of Palestine into Greek-speaking areas. Butit wasn't a title that people who actually knew Jesus called him. So when you see Jesusbeing called "Lord" in the Gospels, that is a clue that that passage reflects the practices ofthe early Christian Church and does not come from Jesus's own time. (In case you didn'trealize it, the Gospels were not written by people who took notes while the events of Jesuslife were taking place. For better or worse, the Bible was developed through a much morecomplicated process).
