Elizabeth and Zechariah

This isn’t something I usually do, but I would like for you to turn to your neighbor, shake his or her hand, ask how they are doing and have a nice little visit to start my sermon. Go ahead, greet one another. [While the people are greeting one another turn off your microphone and speak these words in a normal voice: “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11) “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.” (Jeremiah 31:3) “For God so loved the world he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Speak all of these, or others of your choice, for as long as the people are chatting and then quiet them down.]

Now, did any of you hear what I had to say? We live in a noisy world and we are noisy people. Some of us are louder than others, but there always seems to be noise around us. A friend of mine brought her kids over to my house--we were going to do some crafts with the kids and she asked if we could have a movie on. I thought it would be too distracting to have the movie on and to keep the kids attention and she said her kids just like to have the background noise. We have trained ourselves to need noise. Some noise is good and some is not so good. I said some things you needed to hear while you were all chatting, but you missed out. That happens in life sometimes. It is really pretty ordinary to miss something someone has to say. I might be too busy making noise to hear something that could change me. I might hear part of it and start talking and miss the rest. I might be listening all the while thinking and plotting and questioning instead of really hearing what is being said.

Don’t get me wrong, we need noise, we need to think while we are listening, we need to be able to respond to what we hear. Sometimes our noise demonstrates the truth about who we are down deep. Zechariah and Elizabeth are the characters we are going to start with on our Advent journey. As we progress through these weeks, we are going to meet the characters of the Christmas story, try to get to know them better, and hopefully hear the loving voice of God speaking to us. Talk about God speaking to someone! Zechariah had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with Gabriel, God’s messenger, while he was in the Temple. This ordinary man had an extraordinary encounter with God!

Zechariah was of the priestly family and it was his turn to go into the holy of holies, light incense, and pray. What an exciting time! He was a good man who had prayed and prayed for God to give him a child, but his wife Elizabeth had never been able to have a child. The time was right for him to go into the throne room but the time had never been right for him to have a child--they were too old now. The prayer he had prayed over and over had never been answered, and probably never would be answered. That might feel like an ordinary occurrence for some of us.

I wonder if that was on Zechariah’s heart as he entered the Temple. I wonder if there was sadness that he had never had a son or daughter. If it was you or me, we would have had heavy hearts. But something happened while he was in there that changed the course of his life and the course of history, really. An angel appeared to him and said these words:

Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. 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. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous--to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Wow! Can you even imagine? You have been praying and praying, hoping and dreaming, waiting and watching and nothing has happened and then wham, Gabriel comes and tells you your prayer has been answered! What would your response be? I would be dancing around, hopping about, singing, praising, clapping my hands, thrilled that God had heard my prayer and that I would have a child!

But that isn’t what Zechariah did. Instead of rejoicing at this news, Zechariah didn’t buy it. How could this work? I am too old. Why now? I’ve waited too long. Yeah right. Zechariah was jaded, he had been disappointed over and over again. Instead of the noise of praise and excitement we hear the noise of his doubting, his questioning, and his pain. How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.

Have you ever felt that way before? Someone tells you that something great is going to happen and instead of being thrilled you feel that wall coming up? For too long you have been let down, one too many times you have be lied to, things just don’t go well for you so why should it change now. We have all felt that way. And what do people hear? The noise of our doubting, our questioning, and our pain.

Well, Gabriel wasn’t going to have any more of that noise. The Bible tells us that there were consequences to the questioning of Zechariah and silence would be the punishment. That’s how I have always seen it, as a punishment. Yet I wonder, wouldn’t it be nice to have some quiet time. I have moments of quiet but I mean some serious quiet time. Wouldn’t it be nice to just listen and hear what people are saying, to be someone that they could come to and share their burdens, their hopes, their questions. I mean, I do listen, but what if I could only listen. Maybe Zechariah was punished for not believing but he was also blessed with the gift of silence. Maybe in the midst of his doubts God gave him the blessing of hearing. Maybe God wanted to answer his questions and this was the only way.

His voice couldn’t crowd out the voice of God anymore. He couldn’t interrupt when people were talking. He had to listen to God and to others. That is what we need to do too. We have to choose to have some peace and quiet and I don’t just mean down time, I mean quiet. Mental quiet, spiritual quiet, physical quiet. During the Christmas season we are surrounded by noise, noise, noise. If we are not careful the true meaning of what Jesus came to do will be drowned out by all of the things we have to do, places we have to go, and stuff we have to buy. Someone might say to us, “Hey, God did something awesome at Christmas.” We might respond with: yeah right, Jesus was born, but I’ve got get the tree up, the party planned, the gifts wrapped. The noise can drown out the voice of God.

I’m not talking about making sure that you get your Bible reading in, or your prayers prayed. We need to hear God, not just talk to Him, but hear Him. Read your Bible, not just to read it, but to be changed by it. Invite God to speak and just quiet your mind and listen. Take time to rest in the presence of God. Set aside a place, a time, an activity that is dedicated to hearing God. He has something beautiful to say to us, He wants to convey hope and love to us, He wants to answer prayers for us but we have to be quiet to hear.

I am going to repeat what I said while you were talking earlier. Let’s quiet our hearts before God. Let these words sink in, really hear them. Let them work their way into your heart and your life. Zechariah was an ordinary person whom God used for extraordinary things, that can be true of you also. Hear what God wants to say to you today: “I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3

“For God so loved the world he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Let’s get to know Zechariah a little bit better this morning.The First Sunday of Advent

Zechariah’s Monologue

Zechariah:

I had prayed and prayed for a child. As the years passed I wondered why we never had one. People around us claimed it was because there was sin our lives, that was the reason we couldn’t have any kids. Elizabeth and I searched our hearts and knew that wasn’t how God treated people, but we wanted to be sure that there wasn’t something wrong in us. The days passed, then months, our friends had babies, our brothers and sisters had little ones running around, and we had nothing. No baby. The months turned into years and my hair began to get gray around my temples. Elizabeth was getting too old to have a baby and our hearts grew heavier.

I went about my priestly duties as best I could. I still loved God. I still worshipped Him. I still prayed for a child but I knew that time was up. That is until the day in the Temple. I was drawn by lot to go in and burn incense. I went willingly. As I was there in the presence of God, I prayed. I did what I was supposed to do and then something amazing happened.

There before me was an angel. I would be lying to say it didn’t scare me to death! I had never seen an angel before. The angel reassured me, told me not to be afraid and then said these amazing words, “Your prayer has been heard.” I can’t explain what went through my mind when Gabriel said this. All of those years of praying rushed through my thoughts. All of those years of waiting and wondering and hoping flashed before my eyes.

Gabriel was saying all of these wonderful things. My son was going to be a joy and delight to me. I didn’t doubt that, but how could I have a son? We were to keep him from wine and other fermented drinks. I could do that, but how could I have a son? He would lead people back to God. What a thrilling thought, but how could I have a son? Gabriel said my son would go on before the Lord, he would be a prophet, he would prepare God’s way. It was an amazing thought, but I couldn’t get away from the fact that I am old, my wife is old, we prayed for many years and nothing had happened. Why would it change now? How could I have a son?

I know it was good news, but I couldn’t help but voice my pain, my uncertainty. And boy, did I get something I never expected. Not only was Elizabeth pregnant, but I lost my voice. I had a lot of time to think while I was unable to speak. It was a good time of realizing that my timing isn’t the same as God’s timing. Our son John, the one who would prepare the way for the Lord, needed to be born now. This was the right time.
After our son was born and we named him, I was able to speak. I said what I should have said before. The problem was I couldn’t say it then. I needed to have time with God to understand who God really is and not to be so concerned with who I thought I needed to be. But I was able to speak and this is what I said:

Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our fathers
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."

Introduce the Advent Theme Song--special music

Shine on Us

The First Sunday of Advent--Candle Lighting and Nativity Set Up

Reader One: Today we have met Zechariah, a man who prayed but felt like his prayers were never answered.

Reader Two: When the angel Gabriel spoke to him, he still doubted.

Reader Three: When Zechariah’s mouth was silenced he realized that God had a plan and it was better than he could have ever imagined.

Reader One: It was a plan to change people’s hearts and lives.

Reader Two: It was a plan to get things ready for Jesus.

Reader Three: It was God’s great plan of salvation for the world.

Reader One: May we quiet ourselves to hear what God has to say to us.

Reader Two: May we be willing to voice our doubts, but also willing to listen to God’s answer.

Reader Three: May we understand that God’s ways are different but also extraordinary if we follow Him.

Reader One: Today we light the first candle of the Advent wreath, understanding that God has a great plan for each of our lives. (The Candle Lighter lights the first candle while this line is being read.)

Reader Two: We place the stable on the communion table as we prepare for coming of Jesus, just as John prepared the way for Jesus’ ministry. (The Nativity Helper places the stable on the Communion Table.)

Reader Three: May we listen to the voice of God and believe that His promises are true.

Congregational Singing: Shine On Us