2017.12.10 - Advent 1 #morehope

Scripture - Luke 1:5-25; 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. 6 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.
8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 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. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19 The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”
21 Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”
57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. 58 Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59 On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. 60 But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” 61 They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” 62 Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. 63 He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. 64 Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. 65 Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. 66 All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.
67 Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
   for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a mighty savior for us
   in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
72 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
   and has remembered his holy covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
   to grant us 74 that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, 75 in holiness and righteousness
   before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
   for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people
   by the forgiveness of their sins.
78 By the tender mercy of our God,
   the dawn from on high will break upon us,
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

The Word in Song (Anthem)

Sermon

It was another day - business as usual. Well, mostly as usual...as usual as it can be when you are sorting through your entire life with your home on the market, preparing to move back to your home state with no job prospects or place to live. Ben and I had accepted this state of limbo as our new reality; I went to work each day at this lovely gourmet food and sandwich shop while Ben took the lion’s share of preparing our house to sell - from doing all those little paint touches to sifting through all our possessions deciding what to keep, throw away, or donate, while also working down the road at the Tewksbury United Methodist Church as their church musician.

We knew that we would be moving to the Portland area, but as to when and how and why, we didn’t know. We couldn’t make firm decisions until we had a timeline on the house. We had dreams and ideas, certainly - of renting a small apartment somewhere in the city, finding jobs working at Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods - or I would draw upon my skills learned at my first job as a teller and get back into banking or break into actuarial science with my math background. Neither one of us had any desire to get back into ministry, deciding that we both needed a season of rest and healing after our ministry in Haverhill had come to an end.

This was our new normal.

Until one morning in early February an email crossed my inbox from Jim McPhee, our district superintendent, who had an opportunity for us that brought us to this place...and that has changed our lives in ways that are beyond our imaging. Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Jim McPhee was an angel...but he did bring a message of hope at a time when I was wondering what was next for our family.

Today we hear a story about one man whose life was changed in the midst of business as usual - Zechariah. His wife Elizabeth was barren - they had no children and were old. Yet they continued to pray to God for children. The scene opens on Zechariah performing his priestly duties at the Temple in Jerusalem. He had been chosen to enter the most sacred of places - the holy of holies - to make the offering on behalf of the people gathered outside. It was his turn to ensure that everything was done properly and in good order...and what happens instead but an angel shows up...now, you’d think that in all the places you’d expect an angel to show up, it would be right there, in the inner sanctuary, by the altar, in the Temple -- but no - Zechariah is caught completely off-guard. More than that, he’s terrified. Fear overwhelmed him. It’s into this fear that the angel speaks the words “Do not be afraid” and continues to tell him that he and Elizabeth will bear a son that will have a special role to play in preparing God’s people for the coming of the Lord….and Zechariah’s life is forever changed.

So much for proper and good order in worship.

Life is full of these moments - moments that break into our reality and nothing will ever be the same again. The college letter. The job loss. The health diagnosis. The birth of a child. Finding your partner in life. Moving to a new place. Losing a parent...a partner...a child. The new business venture. Moments that bring joy and grief and challenge and excitement and...as all change can bring...a bit of fear as well.

In our story, Zechariah can’t get his head around this news and so the angel silences him until the baby is born and is presented at the Temple, at which point Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit and speaks words of hope and promise over his son John -- who will come to be known as John the Baptizer -- and offers a reminder of the hope and promise that God had given to God’s people - a promise of redemption, of mercy, of covenantal relationship...that the day is coming when light will appear out of the darkness, when salvation will be at hand, when they will be guided in the ways of peace and forgiveness.

What words of hope for an oppressed people in the backcountry of a vast empire on the verge of change….and what words of hope for us to remember as well as we consider our own changing world and the fears and anxieties that threaten to overwhelm us.

In Hebrew, the word for hope is tikvah, and it’s defined as a cord -- as expectation -- as hope. It comes from the Hebrew root kavah, which means to bind together, to collect, to expect...to tarry and wait for or upon.

Hope is concrete. It’s definite. It’s not an abstract ideal or emotion, like we often think about in English. Rather, hope as we see it used throughout scripture is this a stunning visual - a tactile image that we can grasp with our hands, literally holding on to hope as something real enough that we can cling to it. It’s a lifeline...something within our reach...active and expectant...hope is being thrown a rope when we desperately need it….hope is hanging on to that cord even when we can’t understand why we’re hanging on.

It’s a bit ironic that in our story, when Zechariah hears the news about the one thing that he and Elizabeth have been hoping for - actively waiting for - holding on to - having a child - Zechariah doesn’t believe it. He doesn’t understand it. He confronts this news about the son his wife will bear...about the joy and gladness he and everyone will receive because of this child...about the role his son will play in God’s story...with cold, hard fact. Not hope. I’m old. Elizabeth’s old. It ain’t gonna happen. He lets fear get the better of him.

But how often is that our reaction when faced with the promises God gives to us about how this new way of life is possible? That we can live a life with more hope?

It takes courage to hold fast to hope in the midst of an ever-changing world, where we are bombarded by messages of who should be welcomed and who should be excluded, who should be prioritized and who should be forgotten, who should be praised and who should be denigrated. We live with threats of violence, of the abuse of power, and of economic insecurity; it’s in the air that we breathe.

And yet we are called to be a people of hope - people that point to a different way of being in this world - actively expecting God to fulfill the promises of a kingdom of justice and peace, of mercy and forgiveness. God is the rope we cling to, the lifeline that sustains our souls and in this Advent season we look to that time when Christ will come and make things right in our world.

It’s in that active, waiting, hope that we are invited to be messengers of hope to a world that desperately needs it….we as the people of God are called be a lifeline for those who need to hear of God’s love, for those who are lonely and brokenhearted, for those who are sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death, and for those who have no peace in their lives.

In the midst of great change, in the midst of a broken and hurting world, hope is always a welcome thing. Advent reminds us that God makes us ready for whatever unknown may come our way - when those moments come that change our lives, when fear can creep into our hearts, even when we go about our business as usual, we can hear the words of the angel to Zechariah: Do Not Be Afraid...and we can be filled with the strength to live with more home in an ever-changing world. Amen.

​