Jeremy Duncan: Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information. We are, however, in the season of waiting for Christmas, and we call this season advent.
That's why I'm wearing this purple scarf today. We use these clerical stoles and vestments to signal seasons throughout the church calendar and remind us of what it is that we are collectively waiting for. And right now, we are simply waiting like a lot of families. We have some Christmas traditions at home with our kids. One of them is lighting the advent candles each Sunday just like we do here at church.
And by the way, if you ever want to access any of the advent prayers that we use at church, at home for yourself, you can check out our liturgy blog. It's at commons.church/liturgy. We post the song lists and prayers from every Sunday, every service there, and you'll find our advent prayers this year for you to use. But as well, if you scroll back through the archive, you'll also find previous years' advent prayers and liturgy is for you to use as well. However, along with the advent calendars, another one of our at home traditions, I'm sure, like many of View is the good old chocolate advent calendar.
And this week, we were talking with the kids and Letting them open 1 door to get their treat, and my 3 year old daughter was not impressed when the 1 door per day limit was imposed on her. And we tried to say, look. It's 1 a day, but you get to open another one tomorrow. You just have to wait. To which she said, but it's Christmas.
And I think it's how we all feel during Advent a little bit. Right? Like, Christmas is here. It's all around us. There's decorations everywhere.
We Can't escape it, and yet we're all just stuck waiting for tomorrow. And there's something about that mixture of both longing An anticipation that I think is important. The Christian calendar is meant to help us experience life, not escape it. And lament and longing, as well as anticipation and celebration, all of these are significant parts of our lives, which is especially noteworthy this week as we talk about the advent landscape of planes and flat paces and waiting, Those seasons of waiting that Advent is really built around. See, every year at Christmas, we rehearse the same stories.
And so every year in our Planning is a team. We try to find a theme to help us reengage well. This year, we decided to look at Advent through the lens of landscape. So last week was valleys. The seasons of confusion or fear or loss or maybe just feeling low.
And those are very real emotions. Right? Particularly at a time like Christmas where we are constantly being told that we're supposed to be happy. And I thought Scott did a wonderful job of walking us into those valleys with Joseph. This guy who wants to do the right thing, This guy who absolutely does care for this woman, Mary, but this guy who, quite frankly, just can't believe what he's hearing.
It's a bit of a tall tale. And can you blame him? The birth of Jesus is a wild story, but it's one that, at least for Joseph, starts with a lot of confusion and probably hurt, and yet the words of the angel to Joseph are, do not be afraid of that valley. Don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. Don't be afraid of the whispers that will accompany your marriage.
Don't be afraid of this child that's thrust into your life. Do not be afraid to make all of this your story as well. And I think giving space to name some of those valleys in our lives, To walk through them and sometimes even to sit with them for a bit, this is part of how we eventually, when we're ready, move on to new landscapes. And so today, we come out of the valley, and we move into the waiting of the plains. And I do wanna mention here quickly, our darkest night service on December 21st.
If you need some space to process some of your valleys this year, in some of those darker moments that we all experience, then you can join us that evening for a bit of a brief liturgy of lament and waiting on our way toward Christmas. Alright. Today, let's pray, and then we enter the plains. God of Advent, who has come and who continues to arrive in our lives, webs, who is present in all of the landscapes that we move through, guiding and encouraging, lifting and walking beside. Might we recognize you with us today as we speak and as we pray, as we shop, and as we give, as we prepare both our plans, but also our hearts to receive you again this Christmas.
With your gentle arrival, Meek and mild and vulnerable and in need of care, would that teach us something about who you are in which you hold most dear, the power and strength you gladly set aside in favor of your desire to be near to us. Might that posture slowly become ours as we turn our hearts toward each other and toward those who we can lift up This Christmas, in the strong name of the one we await, we pray. Amen. Alright. Today is the advent landscape of the plains.
And, look, I know Alberta is one of Canada's great prairie provinces, But the truth is, in the 20 years that I have lived in Alberta, I have rarely ventured outside Calgary except to head straight for the mountains. And so while I understand that we have a lot of very diverse landscapes here, for me, Alberta is far more associated with hills than it is with plains. That's it. Fun fact about Jeremy Duncan here. I did live in Tisdale, Saskatchewan for about 1 year when I was 10 years old.
So I do have a few plains memories. Although they are a little distant and mainly dominated by just how cold Saskatchewan is slash was, Still, I do remember that strange beauty of wave after wave of canola field, and they do remember the distinct feeling of, Are we there yet? We did a family road trip this summer, the other way to BC. But, refrain, are we there yet? It was Said at least a few times along the road, if I remember correctly, and to be fair, I do believe it was me asking while Rachel was doing the driving.
But I think if we're honest here and if you're the one driving, the reason that question really does get under your skin is because subconsciously, you are Constantly asking yourself that for 96 minutes at a time, when is this road ever gonna end? It also could be that my family is just better at road tripping than I am. Who knows? Still, road trips and canola fields aside, Christmas is a season with a lot of long, flat planes. Just like long stretches of waiting.
Right? Waiting to pick up family at the airport or Waiting in line for a parking spot to open at the mall or waiting for tomorrow's chocolate treat from the advent calendar that you're not allowed to open today. All of that waiting, though, goes all the way back to the beginning of Christmas. In fact, probably even before. And so even before we get to our advent tale for today, I wanna read you a poem of hopeful waiting.
This is from the prophet Isaiah. And I'm gonna read from chapter 11 today, so why don't you stand with me as we do? This is Isaiah 11 starting in verse 1. A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots, a branch will bear fruit. The spirit of the lord will rest on him, The spirit of wisdom, of understanding, of spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the lord, And he will delight in the fear of the lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes or decide by what he hears with his ears, But with righteousness, he will judge the needy. With justice, he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt, And faithfulness, the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb.
The leopard will die down with the goat, the calf, and the lion, and the yearling together, and the little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear. Their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra's den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the lord as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah chapter 11 verses 1 to 9. May we all hope with such divine waiting this year. You can be seated. And so with that divine hope in the backdrop today, We wanna talk about fertility issues and being forgotten when silence is golden and finally passing the story along. And to do that, we are going to jump to another angelic encounter today, this time in Luke chapter 1.
We'll go straight there because this is what we read in in verse 5. In the time of Herod, king of Judea, There was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. So Both husband and wife here are part of the priestly line. That's what he's pointing out for us.
Both of them were righteous in the sight of god, observing all the lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. So pretty strong introduction here for these 2. Right? Husband and wife, both priestly, both righteous, both blameless, 10 out of 10 stars absolutely would trust. And yet in verse 3, But they were childless because Elizabeth was unable to conceive, and they were both very old.
And before we go any farther here, we have to understand the significance of this statement. Because the fact that this child is unable to conceive, that is not an incidental anecdote. In fact, at the end of the story, spoiler alert, once Once Elizabeth does become pregnant, she will say, in these days, god has shown his favor and has taken away my disgrace among the people. That's because in the ancient world, fertility was kind of a big deal. And we know this because The bible is full of fertility tales.
In fact, Christmas itself is a fertility tale in some sense. The problem is in that ancient world, that focus was compounded because infertility was often seen Not just as bad luck or as a lack of a blessing, but it was often understood as a punishment from the gods. Like, you must have done something to deserve this reality. So when you're a priest who serves god professionally And your wife is from the priestly line of Aaron and you are still childless. There was likely an unfortunate, often ignorant stigma that came along with all of that.
1 of you must have done something wrong. Luke gets it. Right? In fact, it's like he goes out of his way to make sure that you and I don't jump to the obvious conclusion. So So he puts it right on the page in black and white.
Both of them were righteous in the sight of god, observing all of the lord's commands blamelessly. Like, doesn't want any confusion here. It's not her fault. It's not his fault. Sometimes this is just the way things And that in itself is worth pausing on.
Maybe for you, it has been infertility. Rachel and I, we know about that one. We have 2 wonderful adopted kids, but it was a journey to get there. And maybe for you, it's Sickness or health or depression perhaps? Maybe it's debt or financial pressures that all seem magnified in this season.
I think it's good to be reminded today that faith is not a transaction. And that when you struggle, this is not because God blames you. Like, life is hard enough without more religious baggage weighing us down, particularly at Christmas. But at the same time, even while Luke is working to dismantle that narrative for us, he's also setting the stage for this story. Right?
Because I think sometimes even when we know know deep in our bones that we're not to blame, that we are, like Elizabeth, blameless, Once we've heard it enough times or once it's been said behind our back, even just in jest, once we've Accepted that narrative about the world that you get what you deserve. It's hard to stop those thoughts from seeping back in. Right? And all of that is what sits in the background of this story. A righteous, blameless couple who wonder if Their predicament is really their fault.
So one day, Zechariah is at work, and he's in the temple burning incense as the worshipers gather outside to pray. But an angel of the lord appears to him standing on the right side of the altar. And when Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear as People are when they see angels. But the angel says to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard.
Now we'll talk about the proclamation this angel goes on to offer to Zechariah in just a second here. But first, There's this really neat parallel to what we saw last week as we entered into advent with Joseph. See, people tend to be afraid of angels in the bible, and it gets a little hard to develop a consistent imagery of angels across the canon. Angels seem like regular folk in Genesis who show up for conversations from time to time. Angels seem like Monstrous conglomerations of eyeballs and wings and wheels in Ezekiel.
They seem like fiery winged messengers in Isaiah, and sometimes they show up in the middle of the temple like they do in Luke here. But generally, even if the form is not particularly terrifying, I can understand that the Sudden sneaky arrival of angels certainly was, to say the least, unsettling. And so I understand why the standard angelic greeting in the bible is do not be afraid. That makes sense to me. Do not be afraid, Mary.
You have found favor with god, for example. But last week, And now again today, the do not be afraid is about far more than just being startled, isn't it? Last week, it was, Joseph, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. Joseph, this situation in front of you, this Predicament you find yourself in. It is scary, but don't be afraid of all that.
Trust her. So no angels being addressed in that fear. It's not about that really. It's about what Joseph is really terrified of. And to Zechariah, the greeting comes, do not be afraid, colon, your prayer has been heard.
That's how we read it in English. But What's interesting here is that colon is actually a word in the Greek text of Luke. It's the word, deity, and that's what we called a causal subordinating conjunction, which is a really fancy way of saying because. In other words, The greeting should really be, do not be afraid because your prayer has been heard, Zechariah. In other words, again, The angel isn't addressing his startling appearance at all.
He is just like Joseph, ignoring all that And moving on to what really matters, which tells me that Zechariah's biggest fear wasn't really angelic anxiety. Zechariah and Elizabeth, they were afraid that no one had been listening to them. And I've been fascinated by this moment ever since I noticed it years ago, That this angel skips straight past the wings and blinding light and the sudden appearance and the fact that he's here in the temple where no one else should be and go straight to the heart of the matter. Zechariah, you've not been ignored. You and Elizabeth are not forgotten.
God has been listening to you all along. So I think what that says to me is that the things that really scare us are rarely the things that we need CGI and special effects to visualize. The things that really scare us are relationships and feeling alone and Knowing that we're ignored, the parts of our lives that we rarely share with anyone, those feelings that we keep covered up and tucked away, the things that we are Too afraid to name even for ourselves. The ways that clouds of cultural suspicion can become Internalized narratives of self imposed shame. I'm the fault.
The way that a righteous and a blameless, childless couple can slowly come to believe that they are the problem. They are why god does not answer them. They are why god has left them on their own. And so I love that this messenger of god, because that's all that angels really are. For all of our fan fiction, the Greek word here in Luke is simply messenger.
And I love that this one who speaks on behalf of god skips past a 1,000 obvious reasons to be scared in this moment and go straight to the deepest, most hidden fear imaginable, one that a professional priest Can never acknowledge publicly that maybe god doesn't listen. And the divine message is, Don't be afraid. God does. Look. There's lots to be afraid of at Christmas.
Right? Family dinners, January bills and the price of turkey, if that's your thing, Tofurky if it's not. But it's deep in your soul you fear that you are forgotten this year. Would you please hear the spirit of God in this moment from this story saying to your So do not be afraid. When you pray, the universe stops to listen.
And even when the story unfolds in ways that you didn't expect or maybe you didn't even want, the point here is that things will not always go well. The point is that we are never on our own in the midst of it. Sometimes that's the harder thing to believe, that were not forgotten. And yet this is Christmas. Right?
And we know this is the time we're supposed to look for miracles, and we've Already seen an angel here today. So we read, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. And now the second half of the verse, your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you are to call him John. And not only that, he will go on before the lord in the spirit and the power of Elijah 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, words from the prophet Isaiah.
Because Zechariah and Elizabeth, they are the parents of John the Baptist, John who will prepare Pare the way for Jesus and John who will eventually baptize Jesus and John who will, in the end, like Jesus, find himself on the wrong side of the Political establishment arrested and executed. But before all of that, Just like Jesus, John is a miraculous baby for unexpected parents at Christmas. Except sometimes good news seems too good to be true. Right? Especially when you've been waiting as long as Zechariah and Elizabeth have been waiting, especially when you've started to maybe believe that that long travel through the flat lands has been your fault.
And so Zechariah, now unafraid of angels, still finds himself very afraid that god is not listening. And he responds, how can I be sure of this? I'm an old man and my wife is well along in years to be fair. Pretty good question here. The angel, however, is not impressed and responds, I am Gabriel.
I stand in the presence of god, and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. This is what an indignant angel sounds like. To be fair, I suppose the wings buy you some credibility in these types of tuitions. He's used to being trusted. So he continues.
Now you will be silent and unable to speak until the day this happens because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. So next scene here, Zechariah comes out of the temple, and he's unable to speak and Starts gesturing wildly to the people there. They can obviously tell something is up, but they have no idea what he's not talking about because he can't speak. I think it's meant to be a little bit amusing and probably just a touch embarrassing for Zechariah. To be said though, honestly, more amusing to me Is Zechariah then going home to Elizabeth unable to speak and trying to initiate some of those baby making endeavors?
I don't know how that went, but whatever. Syl, there are a couple things that spring to mind as I read this. 1st, I love that the angel uses the very specific term good news here to Cribe this pregnancy right on the doorstep of the birth of Jesus. Make no mistake. That is the same term, euangelion, where we get gospel.
This is important. Good news is more than just religious in the Bible. These are flourishing everywhere. So gospel is new babies. When gospel is reunited friendships, and gospel is restored relationships, and gospel is Peacemaking all around us all the time.
Gospel is everywhere just as the angel points out to us. But second, I think there is some connection here between Zechariah's fears and his ostensible punishment. I mean, we've already established that Zechariah's real fear is not primarily angelic, and I think that's reinforced. Because what's really going on is that even in the midst of a supernatural encounter that presupposes miraculous possibilities, Zechariah Still can't get his head around the idea of god intervening for him. Like, sure.
I'm talking to an angel, But will god really listen to my prayer? And I wonder if this temporarily imposed period of prolonged listening isn't perhaps Part of his healing. That sometimes when we come to believe that we're not heard, what we actually need is less volume and more listen. And that's not always the case. Right?
Like, sometimes you need to get loud, and sometimes you need to advocate for yourself. The last time that I was up here, we talked about the story of a woman who went to great lengths to look after herself and get what she needed from Jesus. So there's space for that. But sometimes what we also need is to get quiet enough to notice the good news that's around us right now. And especially at Christmas, sometimes silence is golden.
To sit back and become aware of all that is good that is near us. Except the The story for Zachariah and Elizabeth isn't quite over yet because just as their son John will lead the way for Jesus, in some ways, Elizabeth now does the Same for Mary. See, when Mary becomes pregnant, her first thought as an unwed pregnant woman is to immediately skip town. To avoid the prying eyes and nosy neighbors in Nazareth, and she heads to a small town in the hillside of Judea, the home of her cousin, Elizabeth. So at the end of Luke 1, we read that she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth, to be fair.
She probably tried to greet Zechariah, but remember, he can't talk, so she skips past that politely and goes to Elizabeth. And with Zechariah silent, we get this wonderful encounter between these women. Verse 41. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the holy spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, blessed are you among woman, and blessed is the child you will bear.
But why am I so favored that the mother of my lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, The baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the lord would fulfill god's promises to her. And this is our story this week on our way toward Christmas. An old childless, though blameless couple who fear they have been forgotten, who wonder if perhaps they've done something wrong, who struggle to believe that god could or would even bother to listen to them, Is greeted by the words of god, do not be afraid.
You are heard. You are beloved. Your prayers have not gone unanswered. And in fact, your good news is part of the good news, the beginning of peace that even the prophet Isaiah once dreamt of. But here's the really beautiful part for me today.
The very first expression of all of that good news, everything good that has come to Zechariah and Elizabeth even before the baby is born, The first expression is a warm home for a frightened Mary to land in. And everything good that will eventually come to Zechariah and Elizabeth, in their long years, after years of waiting in their planes, all of that is immediately made available to someone else. Because their good news takes root in their heart. They start to believe it, and then doors are opened and family is welcomed and Base is made on the fly in that moment for someone who is terrified of her own story, because that's what good news does. It comes to us.
It takes root in us. It changes us, and then it is passed along From one to another and eventually maybe to the world. So might you know that you are loved today and trust that you have not been forgotten Even when the story takes twists you didn't expect, may you notice the good news when it comes near to you, Quiet enough to notice it in moments that might have slipped by, and may your blessings eventually overflow To someone else who needs it, because that's the story of Christmas. Let's pray. God of advent, who has come and who arrives each day in our lives, thank you for these stories Passed to us every year over and over again for decades and centuries for millennia.
In the midst of them, we still find ourselves connected to the most human emotions. The agony of waiting and wondering, the confusion of not knowing if anyone is listening, And yet in the midst of that, to be reminded that we are loved, that we are cared for, and that our prayers do not land on deaf ears, that you are always with us in the midst of that story, bringing good news and gospel Around us all the time. May that gospel that impacts us become news that we pass to someone else, Perhaps even today. In the strong name of the one we await, we pray. Amen.
Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at commons, You can head to our website commons.church for more information. You can find us on all of the socials at commons Subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about How we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus, we would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.