The definition of the word advent is the arrival of a notable person, thing, or event. In the Christian church Advent is the first season of the church year that includes the four Sundays before Christmas Eve. Advent is a time for us to prepare to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is also a time when we are reminded that we should be looking forward to the second coming of Christ. Thus, the season of advent is about the past, present, and the future. We remember the birth of Jesus that took place somewhere around the year 4 BC, we celebrate his birth that brought us salvation in the present, and we look forward to the day when Christ will return to establish a new Earth and a new Heaven where those of us who call Christ Lord will spend eternity with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Advent is not the Christmas season, as much as it pains to say that. It seems that the secular world starts celebrating earlier and earlier. In the Philippines they begin to celebrate Christmas in September. You can imagine how happy this made me when I arrived and saw Christmas decorations better. I love everything about Christmas, and usually cannot wait to decorate my home, and start listening to Christmas music. So, when I arrived in the Philippines on November 6th, and saw they were already celebrating Christmas I was in heaven. Of course, I was excited to finally hug my Cathlyn, but Christmas music and decorations were like the cherry on top of my favorite ice cream sundae. However, for the church the Christmas season is only 12 days long. The first day of Christmas is Christmas day on December 25th, and the last day of Christmas in January 6th. January 6rth is the Epiphany. This is the day when we celebrate the visit of the Magi. I will talk more about the wise men on January 6th, but the reason why we celebrate the visit of the wise men on the last day of the Christmas season is because most scholars believe that it would have taken these Magi at least two years to travel from the east to Nazareth. So, if your nativity scene is like this one and mine at home, it is historically inaccurate. The Magi were not there on the night of Jesus’ birth. My sister takes this so seriously that when she sets up her nativity scene she places the wise men on the other side of the room, and then periodically moves them closer to the baby Jesus as the day of Epiphany draws near. I want to just say one more thing about the wise men before I move on. Well, actually I just want to ask a question. How many wise men visited Jesus? I will tell you on January 6th.
The most frustrating part about Advent for me is the music. I am ready to start singing Christmas hymns, but technically the Christmas hymns like Joy to the World and Hark the Herald Angles sing are only to be sung during the Christmas seasonor perhaps on Christmas Eve. The music during advent should go along with the theme of waiting. That is why we sang O Come O Come Emanuel this morning. As a pastor planning worship I try to pick hymns that go along with the Advent season, but you can be sure that we will sing a lot of the Christmas hymns. It actually becomes more appropriate to sing the Christmas hymns as we get closer and closer to Christmas day, and I will be taking advantage of that fact as we go through this season of preparation and waiting.
As I looked at the Scriptures in the Revised Common Lectionary for the next for weeks, I was not happy with what I saw. They just did not speak to me, and trust me you do not want to listen to me preach on Scriptures that don’t speak to my heart. Therefore, I have decided that I wanted to take a closer look at some of the people who played pivotal parts in the birth story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, on the first Sunday of Advent when we light the Hope candle, I want to take a close look at the parents of John the Baptist; Zechariah and Elizabeth. Next week we will light the peace candle, and I will preach on John the Baptist. The theme on the third Sunday of Advent is joy. I will preach on Joseph that Sunday. On the fourth Sunday we will light the candle that represents love, and I will preach on Mary. And, then, of course, I will bring advent to a close and bring in the Christmas season on Christmas Eve when we will light the Christ candle, and I will preach on the birth story of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Now that we know a little more about the season of advent, and where we are going, let’s explore our Gospel text for today. The Christmas story begins with a couple who was not able to have a child. Many couples go through this, but in the first century Jewish culture not being able to have a child often cast suspicion on the couple, usually more on the wife, that God was judging them or more like her because of a sin. Not having children, particularly a son, also meant that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have no one to take care of them in the old age. This was also often seen as God’s judgement on a couple who could not have children. However, Luke tells us that this particular couple, Zechariah and Elizabeth, were direct descendants of Aaron, and were righteous in the sight of God. Aaron was the brother of Moses. God chose Aaron and his descendants to be priests that would make sacrifices for the Jewish nation. Aarons entire bloodline was considered holy, but when Luke tells us that Zechariah and Elizabeth were considered righteous in the sight of God, he used the same words that the authors of the Old Testament used to describe people like Abraham, Isiah, and Jeremiah. Luke makes it clear that Zechariah and Elizabeth were highly favored in God’s sight, because God chose them to start the chain of events that would lead to the birth of the messiah, and eventually the death and resurrection of the messiah that would bring salvation to all who call Jesus, the one and only Son of God, Lord and Savior.
Zechariah is the first one to hear about the beginning of God’s plan to reconcile Himself to the word through His one and only Son Jesus who is the Christ. Luke tells us that Zechariah was burning incense in the temple of the Lord. This was a high honor that most priest only got to do once in their lifetime. Priests were chosen by lot for this honor, which meant that the Jews believed that God chose the priest who would go in to the holy of holies. The incense was a pleasing aroma to the Lord, but also served a practical purpose of covering the smell of the blood that was sprinkled on the altar during the many sacrifices that the Jews made too atone for their sins. It was also believed that anyone who went into this holy space was not right before God would die. Burning incense was a relatively quick process, so the crowed that had gathered began to worry when Zechariah took longer than normal to perform this sacred act. Zechariah took longer than normal because the angel Gabriel appeared to him to tell him that he was going to have a son. We are told a couple things about Zechariah’s response to the sight of Gabriel. One is that he was startled. I think we might all be startled if we ever encountered an angel. I am not sure how, but over the years we have reduced angels to almost fairy like creatures with wings who carryout God’s will and at times speak for God. In reality angels are warriors, who are quite tall and quite powerful. The sight of them would scare anyone. But, Gabriel tells Zechariah to not be afraid because he was there to bring good news. Gabriel was there to announce that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have a son, and their son would prepare the way for the Lord’s messiah. Zechariah doubted Gabriel’s message because he and his wife were old, so because he doubted God made him mute until the birth of his Son. Now it was tradition for Sons to be named after their grandfather or their father, and it was also tradition for the father to name the child. So, all of their neighbors and friends who had gathered for the birth of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son, another tradition of the Jews, were very surprised when Elizabeth said the name of their son was John, but Zechariah confirmed it by writing on tablet. Zechariah regained his ability to talk immediately after writing His name is John on the tablet. In the last verse of our Gospel lesson this morning, Luke tells us that everyone who heard Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story where in awe, and wondered what God was up to.
So the Christmas story begins with an elderly couple getting a impossible surprise. Their surprise was a baby boy. This was a wonderful surprise for them. God had finally answered their prayer for a child. But, this wasn’t just any child. Listen to how the angel Gabriel described their son to be “He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.” I will talk more about John the Baptist next week, but this morning I want to focus on his parents. The name Zechariah means the Lord remembers, and Elizabeth means the oath of God. When you put their names together you get “the Lord remembers his oath.” God had promised to redeem his people. In our Old Testament reading for this morning, the prophet Jeremiah wrote “The days are coming declares the Lord when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch spout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land.” Of course, Jeremiah was writing about Jesus, but before Jesus came someone had to prepare the way for the Lord. The announcement of the birth of John the Baptist is how God set things in motion to begin to deliver on his promise to redeem his people. And, he used and elderly couple whose names put together mean God remembers his oath to give birth to his plan to carry out his promise.
Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story is not only a story of God being faithful, but it is also a story of God doing the impossible. After doing some research on Zechariah and Elizabeth, I am convinced that God used them to begin his redemption story because they were totally committed to God and each other. In the Jewish culture in the first century, if a woman could not conceive a child it was grounds for divorce. But Zechariah remained committed to Elizabeth, and to his priestly duties. We also know that Zechariah prayed for a child, but Gabriel tells him that his prayer has been answered. Zechariah did not let his disappointment over not having a child keep him from having complete faith that God was in control. And, because Zechariah was steadfast in his faith in and service to God, God rewarded him with a child; and not just any child, but a child that would prepare the way for Jesus to redeem all humanity of their sin.
So, what does this mean for us? Well, for one thing it is a reminder that God is the God of the impossible. But, of course, all of you should know that by know. All the medical science in the world says that I should either be dead, or in a wheelchair not able to talk, yet I walk into this church every Sunday morning and preach the Word of God to you. I have to say that I am amazed that God uses me this way. I will have weeks when it just seems like I don’t have the energy to do one more thing, but then Sunday morning comes and suddenly I am bursting with energy and cannot wait to come to church to allow God to use me to pour out His love on this congregation. Yes, God is the God of the impossible.
God is also the God of Surprises. Someone once said “Surprise is a metaphor for God's response to all Earth's heartache. God sprung a surprise on the whole world that first Christmas morning. The Jews wanted a big, burly, handsome, Messiah ready to gather an army and defeat the hated Romans. God sent a baby from a poor carpenter's family. Surprise The lesson is that you never know when God is going to answer a prayer, or bring some blessing to you. Therefore, no matter how hard things get, we must keep our faith in God. We must keep climbing the mountain in front of us, because there just might be a heavenly surprise around the corner.
The season of Advent is a season of hopeful waiting. We have hope because out Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was born in a manger over 2000 years ago, died on a cross as a ransom for our sin, rose again on the third day to grant us eternal life, ascended to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father, and promises us that he will return to establish a new earth and new heaven will there will be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more fear, no more hurt, no more sickness, no more cerebral palsy, no more evil. There will only be joy; pure joy But, even though Advent is a season that reminds us that we should eagerly waiting for the second coming of Christ, it also reminds us that God continues to give hope and joy here on this side of heaven for those of us who claim Christ as our Lord and Savior, God wants us to have hope and joy as we walk this earth. Therefore, we must be like Zechariah and Elizabeth. We must be steadfast in our walk with God, and eagerly look for God’s impossible surprises that he gives us on a daily basis if we will only look for them. They may be little things like a unexpected phone call or Christmas card from someone we thought we had lost contact with. It might be a nugget a wisdom that a child speaks without even knowing the full meaning of what he or she said. More times than not the heavenly surprises we get come in the form of answered prayer. We should not really be surprised that God answers our prayers, but it has been my experience anyway that the ways God answers my prayers often surprise me.
If I have done my math right, this is the 177th advent season this congregation will celebrate. I am still holding out faith that it will not be the last. God is the God of the impossible. So, we must remain steadfast in our faith in God, and in our commitment to this beautiful church. There just might be a heavenly surprise waiting for us just beyond what we can see. So, as we enter the season of advent, I invite you to renew you hope in God, your hope in Christ, your hope in the Body of Christ, and your hope in this beautiful old country church. And, then wait expectantly for all the impossible heavenly surprises that God has in store for us as we continue to walk together as a body of Christ followers who still believe that God is the God of impossible surprises. Amen
