Sermon for December 22

The readings 

Luke 1:5-13, 57-80

5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth

Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

Once when Zechariah was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty,  he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.

Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.  Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father.  But his mother said, "No; he is to be called John."


They said to her, "None of your relatives has this name." Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him.   He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And all of them were amazed.  Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God.   Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea.  All who heard them pondered them and said, "What then will this child become?" For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.


Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,

for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.

 He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,

 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,

that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.

Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant,

 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,

to grant us  that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,

might serve him without fear,

in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;

for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 

to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.

By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace." 

The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.


The message


This morning, we come to the end of our very long Advent. The wait for Christmas is almost over.  Well, our wait has been long by church standards where Advent lasts 4 weeks, the people of Israel, the people of God waited hundreds of years for the first Christmas.  As we look forward to Tuesday and Wednesday,  I wanted to share a recap or summary and remind us how we got here, to the birth of John the Baptist, the voices in the wilderness crying out “God is here with us” and to the birth of Jesus, the one that John points to as the fulfillment of God’s promises.


We started in September with Genesis and creation, we started with a powerful expression that God is with creation, God is with us. We heard the second of 2 creation stories in Genesis. This one speaks of God in the garden, interacting with the world and the first people, talking, seeing, hearing, touching, experiencing the good creation. (The first creation story speaks of the God we cannot see, hear or fully experience, the God in heaven looking down, saying “it is good”.)   Throughout our Old Testament series we heard a lot about the ways people have seen and felt God is here with us.

God acts in history, through people, through insiders like anointed kings, called judges, priests and court prophets and through outsiders like Ruth and Cyrus.  God often sets things in motion that no one can see the ending of. Immediately after creation, we jumped past Noah and the flood and heard God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, an older couple way beyond child bearing age. In their story 2 people’s lives wind down with a bold, impossible promise kept, a covenant, that Abraham will be the father of a great nation, having many descendants. This actually happens. People, when faced with doubts and horrible situations will immediately look back on this promise kept and remember nothing is impossible for the God who gave a child to Sarah and Abraham.


Immediately after that was the odd story of Abraham’s grandson Jacob, on a long, chaotic and complicated journey to become the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. This time is interrupted by wrestling with God, an encounter that left him forever marked and changed.  Thanks to God’s providence, through Jacob’s youngest son Joseph, The people of Israel will save Egypt from a famine (one of those examples of God setting things in motion that no one can see the ending of).  Soon after the work of Joseph is forgetting by the kings and people of Egypt. The Israelites become slaves in Egypt.  400 miserable years later there was freedom, the Exodus, the plagues, the proof of God’s power, and the journey to the promised land.  Immediately after that there was chaos, confusion and complaining. In response there is the law, the commandments, attempts at organizing a nation, the judges, the kings and the prophets.  We had a quick detour with the book of Ruth, the great grandmother of King David.  Unlike many of the other stories, this one is a very local story of one family’s faithfulness, grace, compassion and welcome. A glimpse of the fact that being part of God’s people is not about birth, its about faith and promise keeping.


We moved on to the stories of kings, anointed, called, set apart and for the most part behaving badly, abandoning the faith, forgetting they rule by God’s will, ignoring the fact that they were given power for service to God and people.  The prophets confront the kings and people.  The prophets are largely ignored. As quickly as the united kingdom started, the kingdom splits into two, the north falls to the Assyrians, the prophets say God is with us, God’s promises are still good. Years later, Jerusalem and the south fall to the Babylonians, the temple is destroyed, unfaithfulness is punished.  The prophets say God is with us, God’s promises are still good.  The Babylonian fall to Persia (God again works through outsiders), Jerusalem is restored, the temple rebuilt, the prophets say see we told you so, God is with us, God’s promises are still good. There are hints that the kingdom of God will be expanded, opened to all people.


To get from the reopening of the temple to John the Baptist, the prophet crying out God is with us, God’s promises are still good, we have jumped over about 450 years of ancient history, of rule by one empire or another.  A time known as the intertestamental years, There were a lot of books written in this time that were not considered authentic and did not make it into the cannon of the bible, despite being seen as sacred books in the early church. Writings like the books of Maccabees, which tell the history of several attempted revolts towards the end of this time are listed as aprochyal.    


The new testament starts with angels announcing news, the birth of John the Baptist, the voice in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord. There are similarities in the story of John the Baptist and ones we have experienced over the past few months.  Like Abram and Sarah having a child well beyond child bearing years, Elizabeth and Zechariah also have a child born when knowledge said that’s impossible. Like Mary, Joseph and so many before, the first reactions to the appearance of an angel and a word from God is fear, confusion and questioning. 


The time before and right after the birth of John, Zechariah is mysteriously unable to speak.  Like the prophets before him, Zechariah finds a way to communicate God’s word, writing “his name is John”.  Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth insists the child will be named John.   Most of the community and his immediate family view this as crazy, there is no John in his family, no reason to pull this name out of nowhere, to deny tradition, to not name the child Zechariah after his father. Was Elizabeth taking advantage of Zechariah in his state of being unable to speak.  Today it would be like naming a child “cheeseburger”  “off green” or “Christmas ornament”. Unless Zechariah himself tells them, this boy will not be named John, Zechariah writes, “his name is John”. This act of obedience allows Zechariah to once again speak.  When he does, he shares his song of praise and thanksgiving to God. Like the verses of Moses, Mariam and Isaiah, Zechariah’s song powerfully and timelessly expresses what God has done.   


This reading leaves us at the edge of Christmas, the birth of Jesus is close. Sometimes, this reading also challenges us to speak, to share the Gospel, to show people here is your God, to speak the love of God in our relationships, work, prayer, worship and actions. I often hear people share St Francis well known quote: Share the Gospel, if necessary, use words.  I often work under that principle, on all sorts of different projects, with other churches, communities and groups, with service days, neighborhood clean ups but there is of course, a time to use words, to say whey we do these things, to share the faith, joy, hope, wonder and excitement that comes from knowing you are loved by God, to share our own songs, to say Blessed be God, for God has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them, in our own language.   to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death