There is a ministry of this church that takes place every Thursday that there is school. The Good News Club meets after school every single Thursday. I haven’t said enough about it. What is going on there is truly amazing.
We have been averaging between 15 to 20 kids every week. Dan Utley is head of Child Evangelism Fellowship (C.E.F.) here in western New York. He drives in from out in the country every week to lead this ministry. Dena Vasquez brings Brianna every week, and has been providing snacks for us. I’m there, and sometimes Jeremy, our youth director comes to help. Sometime between 3:45 and 4:00, the kids come. Except for Brianna, I don’t think any of the other kids are from church families. They are all neighborhood children. They come in full of energy, literally bouncing off the walls. We start of by attempting to harness that energy into an organized came. Then we sit down for a snack. Finally, we come back over by the stage downstairs and sit on the ground, sing songs, and listen to a story, a presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every single week, these kids hear a message of good news, that Jesus has died for them, loves them and has the very best thing for them.
It is quite a group of kids. Two of them in particular command quite a bit of our attention. Some of you may know Damion and Damone. They come regularly to Sunday School as well. They are two young boys, I would guess around 7 years old, twins. They are what our culture now calls “at risk kids”. That just means they don’t have a lot going for them in this world. They are so young. But I look at them, all their undirected energy, all their mischievousness, and I I wonder what to expect from their lives. And I think about what it is that we are saying to these little children, and I wonder what it is that we can expect from that as well? When I look at their lives, it is easy to expect lots of hardship and struggle. But when I hear the very simple words that we are telling these kids, I wonder what it is that we are expecting to happen with them.
You know the words. You have heard them a million times before – good church words, words that are in this passage, words like redemption, savior, mercy, covenant, holiness, righteousness, salvation, light, peace. I am a classically trained theologian of sorts. I have both a bachelor’s and a masters degrees in Religious Studies. I’ve spent years studying and proclaiming the nuances and ins and outs of those words. There are literally thousands of books on each one of them.
But on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings, what is at stake is a whole lot more than an understanding of the meaning of those words. What is at stake is whether those words and the other words and stories that we use to communicate them to those kids, to all of us, …whether those words penetrate their hearts and lives, ..our hearts and lives. The question is, do I expect those words and the ministry that they are couched in to change, to transform, their lives forever? Every Thursday, downstairs, the message of life is proclaimed to children. What do we expect to happen?
This is the season of expectations. It is the time to look ahead and decide what it is we expect to happen. What are you expecting this Christmas? I hope that you are expecting great things.
The topic of expectations comes up often in church because it is so important. With our expectations, we set our line of vision in a certain direction. Those are the things that we see in our lives. If something goes on outside of that line of vision, we either miss it or we are surprised by it and not ready for it. As we approach the coming of the savior, what are we looking at?
I have to tell you, very honestly, that a good portion of my life is spent setting expectations in the smaller areas of my life. It does not mean they are not important and worth my time. I mean things like expecting to do the dishes after dinner and clean the house at such and such a time. I expect to be caring for my kids here, for these people to be taking care of those things, for the car to start when I turn the key, for someone to say certain things to me. A huge portion of my life is spent thinking about what it is I expect. Those are the things my eyes are on.
Some things end up being surprises. Who was expecting the election to turn out the way it has? I think part of the reason it has become such a mess in Florida is that the legislators never expected this sort of thing, so they did not clarify procedures as to how to handle it. It is left to the courts to interpret what they had. And after so much back and forth, I was telling Veronica, at this point, I have no idea what to expect next. A couple of days ago, it looked like it was just about all over. But, at this point, I have no idea who to expect to give the Inauguration speech on January 20th.
Zechariah was hit with a surprise. He and his wife were way past the time of having any children. But the angel Gabriel comes and hits him with a surprise. He couldn’t believe it. It was outside what he expected. Apparently, he didn’t respond too well because Gabriel took his ability to speak.
Zechariah had nine months to think about what had happened, to pray and read scripture, and to start looking in a whole new direction with a whole new set of expectations. And when his child is born and he writes the name “John” on the tablet, he not only speaks, he sings what has become called through the centuries the “Benedictus.
Just a short diversion here: two quick applications. First, “Zechariah’s silence may have been a divine rebuke for his unbelief but God always turns his rebukes into rewards for those who keep faith. For you who are suffering consequences of past sin, if you keep faith now God will turn the marks of sin into memorials of grace. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound (Romans 5:20) (John Piper, Jesus is the Horn of Salvation, SermonCentral.com).
And something else to notice: It takes silence to get our expectations straight. John Piper says, “If we don’t seek out silence we will probably not feel the stupendous significance of God’s work in history on our lives.” (Ibid). If our lives are filled with activity and noise, if we always leave a television or radio on for background, if we never stop and listen, our expectations will never be big enough.
A song will break our silence, Zechariah’s song. It is filled with the words that change lives, more than I could ever preach on and do justice to in a few minutes; words that are worthy of our beginning each day with; words of what to expect from the child who is yet to be born, who is coming.
The song begins by saying that God is blessed because he will redeem his people. God is going to redeem his people. As a matter of fact, Zechariah is so sure about this, he’s put it in the past tense. God is going to redeem his people.
The only modern use of that word that I can think of is pretty far away from any real expectation. The only way I see that word used is for coupons. We “redeem” coupons. It says right on them that they have a 20 cent redemption value. I’m sure that Zechariah had no idea of all that was going to mean. He very well might have had some picture in his mind of something like Moses redeeming his people out of Egypt. But I know this, after 9 months of silence, Zechariah is fully trusting God that this is big. This is enormous. Nothing God does is going to be so much of a surprise that he misses it. He expects something huge.
There is another word that is not even translated in our version. The literal translation is in a footnote. What we read in the next verse is, “he has raised up for us a mighty savior”. This is how God is working our redemption, through a “Mighty Savior.” But the literal translation is that God is raising up for us a “horn of salvation”.
Now, this does not mean the kind of horn you blow. This is the horn from an animal that is used as a weapon. Psalm 92:9-10 gives a picture of the use of a horn. “…for your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered. But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox.” It is a weapon and a sign of strength and blessing. This is the only scripture that refers to Jesus as the horn of salvation.
Now, it may not be a meaningful picture for city-dwellers. It is not seen as the strength and the fierceness that those who live in fear of wild oxen may know. But we understand weapon, strong weapon. Jesus is the weapon of our salvation. With it, God will defeat our enemies.
And the result of that redemption through Jesus, that rescue from our enemies, is going to be that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And this song ends with the word that means so much to the Hebrew people, it ends with the word “peace.”
Now, that is some theology. Biblical theology is very simply the study of individual words. And that is all well and good. It is a fine exercise in scholarship. But I always come to the question of what do you expect.
I wonder what Damian and Damone expect when they come to Good News Club on Thursday? I wonder what all of us expect when we come to church on Sunday, or what we expect when we celebrate Christmas in two weeks? This is a busy time of year. It is hard to think about expecting much more than having everything set in our schedules, getting everything done, enjoying the parties and presents and excitement of the children. What do you expect?
You have taken your time to come hear, a morning out of your busy holiday schedule. This is what we have done: we have stepped out of the business. We have placed our cares and concerns into the hands of God. We have lifted our hearts and voices to recognize his awesome presence. And, when we open the scripture we listen in the silence to the ancient song of Zechariah. And then we get our expectations straight.
Story: Will Willimon’s wonderful church in the south helped a needy couple through a difficult time. The husband had reportedly been abusive when the family found itself down and out. The church provided the means to help them get back on their feet. A couple of years later, Willimon ran into the husband, and hardly recognized him, he had been so transformed. Willimon asked him what had happened. The gentleman replied that he had met Jesus and he truly was a new person in every way. Willimon asked him his testimony. The gentleman replied that he appreciated their church’s help, but it didn’t make that much difference. A while later, a Pentecostal church got a hold of him, preached the word, and he was saved by Jesus and washed in the Spirit. He really was a new man. And he made the comment to Willimon, “We appreciated all you did for us back then, preacher. But it was just a bandaid you gave us. We needed chemotherapy!” Our expectations need to be big.
This is what we hear: redemption from our enemies, a horn of salvation, holiness, righteousness, and peace. Damian and Damone are given this message every week. I expect that sometime, even if it is later, God is going to break through the noise of their lives and they are going to hear it. They are going to hear that God is real, that he loves them, that he has sent his son, his own son, as a weapon to defeat everything that threatens them, all that noise, and that everyone who tells them they are bad, they are difficult, they are guilty, that every message they’ve heard that they are “at risk” is wrong, because they know that they stand in God’s very presence as holy and righteous.
God is at work. On Thursdays, on Sundays, saving us. Expect this Christmas something enormous so that your eyes are open and you see it. Don’t miss it. Maybe it is healing. Maybe it is a moment of silence when you really hear something for the first time – also known as discernment or prophecy. Maybe it is the enemy of sin in our relationships being destroyed by Jesus. This is advent. Christmas is coming. God is coming. God is here. Expect enormous things.
