[Propertalk] Quotables - 2 Advent Gospel - Luke 3:1-6 - Part 6

[Joe Parrish]

The text, by Paul Dean, teases with tales of extravagance in respect to "Her Majesty's Car." We learn that the machine cost more than the autos of even many Hollywood stars: $15 million will buy you a Bentley Arnage R like hers. 
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What quickened my Advent sensibilities was this twist: the two rear seats, where the passengers ride behind the front-seated chauffeur, are "individually adjustable for height. It is unlikely that Shaquille O'Neal will ever ride with the queen, but if he did, he and she would appear to be the same height. It's a royal thing that has to do with the presumption of authority."
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...as you look at the two heads silhouetted against the back window. Wave and cheer this sign of equality, fraternity, democracy and Advent spirit.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_25_119/ai_95599136/

Martin E. Marty, 2002
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Our own clever deities peer down on us from their benches and professorial chairs and stock exchange seats. A thumb turns, a head nods, an eyebrow rises, and you too are history: your livelihood, your loved ones, your reputation, your life swept away in a second. That's the way it was -- and is. The gods decree, and you are gone. So, like us, John and his cousin, Jesus, died subject to the de facto deities whose word was -- and is -- the law.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=676

James F. Kay, 1997
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The first reference, the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar (beginning August or September AD 26 or 27), tells us when the story began. 
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Preoccupation with cybernetics and technologies tend to enervate one's capacity to experience an epiphany. We often fail to make "intellectual space" for God in our reflections about our social and personal lives, and we tend to dwarf our assumptions about the perceptive capacities and destinies of humans. 

http://www.religion-online.org/showchapter.asp?title=402&C=133

Henry A. Gustafson, 1998
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Part of entering into the wilderness mindset is giving up the need to be able to explain what is going on. If we are opening ourselves to God, we are going into a place where things are beyond our control and beyond our comprehension. This is actually implicit in the word "repentance" ; this thing that John calls us to. The original Greek word that Luke uses is "metanoia" . Meta means to change or go beyond, and noia comes from nous, from which we get nouse, and means the mind or the intellect. We have somehow come to think of repentance as meaning little more than saying sorry, but that's at best only a tiny fraction of its meaning. Even the idea that it means "to change your mind" is not enough, because we think of that as just meaning change your opinion, when it means it more in the sense that you might talk about changing the engine in your car. To repent, to change your mind, is to get a new mind. 

http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html

Nathan Nettleton, 2006
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I was reminded of the Wilderness as I was driving
back across the desert from a hospital call in Las
Vegas to Bullhead, about 110 miles SE on the
Colorado River. It was after dark and once I got
past the "day glow" of the city and the
suburbs there was utter darkness--no farm lights,
no ranches--nothing until I reached the town of
Searchlight about 45 miles south, and then more
utter darkness until I got to the turnoff for
Laughlin and the Colorado River. I have thought
about how dangerous it would be to get stranded
out there in the empty country with literally
nothing for miles and miles. It reminds me of the
Wilderness when I hiked down to the Jordan River
through the Wadi Qelt between Jerusalem and
Jericho and it's just as empty once you get past
St. George's Monastery and the Bedouins with their
Tents and the sheep and goats on the upper parts. 
Then suddenly there is nothing for miles and miles
until suddenly you're on the outskirts of Jericho
and the Jordan. The terrain dropping down to the
Colorado River is very similar.

http://www.desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm - Page 3

Bob Jones, 2009
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