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Advent Prayers: Luke 1:68-79
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Probably, most of us here love the holidays. But for a lot of people, the holidays can also be extremely difficult. When you're hurting, it's hard. But when you're struggling and you're told to smile while you do it, that can make it all feel that much worse. Welcome to the commons cast.
Speaker 1: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. Just make your way back in whenever you are ready. But already lots of fun today.
Speaker 1:That was great seeing the kids up here. My son had a blast in the 9AM service, but welcome to church today. We're so grateful that you're here with us during Advent, particularly as we prepare ourselves for Christmas. We have today, and then we have next Sunday, and then we are already on the doorsteps of Christmas Eve, which always seems to sneak up on me every year. When I was a kid, I remember it took forever for Christmas to get here, and yet somehow this year, it all seems to suddenly appear.
Speaker 1:However, my name is Jeremy. I'm one of the people who hang out here at Commons, and thanks again for joining with us this season. We're in Advent, which is why I'm wearing purple today, to remind us of the season of waiting. But before we get rolling, I do wanna mention a couple things related to this season. First, if you have not got your tickets yet for Christmas Eve, you can head to commons.church/christmas.
Speaker 1:Tickets, of course, are free, but they help us to ensure that we will have enough seating at each of the six services. Second, our advent campaign is underway. Maddie talked about it. This year, we are focusing heavily our generosity this Christmas on our local neighborhoods. You can find all the details at commons.church/advent.
Speaker 1:But one of the easiest ways to give if you're able is simply to text the word advent and your donation amount to 84321. If it's your first time donating by text, you'll get a message back with a link to set up a profile with Commons. If you've already tried it, then that's all you need to do. You're off and running. So thank you for your generosity.
Speaker 1:Today, however, we continue in our Advent prayers series. And we are taking this pentad of prayers that come to us through the Christmas narrative in Luke and working our way through them together. So far, have read the Fiat Mihi, Mary's prayer, let it be to me as you have said. Last week, we explored the Magnificat, Mary's prayer of hope as she imagines the world recreated in Christ. Today, a prayer called the Benedictus.
Speaker 1:Next week, the Gloria in Excelsius. And then finally, on Christmas Eve, we will look at a prayer called the Nunc Dimitis, which is Simeon's joyful prayer of celebration as he finally gets to hold the Christ child in his arms. But before we jump back in, let's look back. Because last week we looked at the Magnificat, And as powerful as that prayer is, I actually found a lot of encouragement in the transition between our first two prayers. Mary prays, let it be to me, and then immediately she travels to see her relative Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:And for whatever reason, I was just really struck by that last week. This idea that the strength that we rightly celebrate in Mary's prayer is at the same time the result of Mary's vulnerability to seek out the supportive environments that help her become her. I mean, think about it. She has this encounter with an angel. She finds out she pregnant and the first thing that she does is to get up and to leave and to reach out and then to move in with a friend.
Speaker 1:There's profound wisdom there. As I said last week, sometimes a change of scenery can help us see the world in new ways, but sometimes a new way of seeing the world actually necessitates a change of scenery. And often, when we uncover something new about ourselves, we discover something new about God or how we see the world, we find ourselves still in settings that are not ready to nurture that transformation. And what can happen is without a community that supports us and without an encouraging network around us that helps us continue to move in those new directions, we end up reverting to old patterns. I bought a new monitor stand for my desk recently.
Speaker 1:I know. Very exciting. But it's one of those arms that allows me to position the screen up higher and closer to my face where I want it. And I've brought my monitor up and closer to me so that I don't need to lean in and hunch over my desk so much. So I'm trying to correct some bad posture that I've developed from spending a lot of time writing at my computer.
Speaker 1:And I realized this because I have worn holes in all of the left elbows of my gray shirts from doing this on my desk all day. It's okay. They've been all patched up or good as new. But the thing is, simply the fact that I don't need to hunch over my desk to see the screen anymore has not changed my habit of hunching over my desk to see the screen. And so now what happens is I find myself leaning in, but then forcing to crane my neck up to see the screen, and now I'm hunched over, and my neck is sore from looking up.
Speaker 1:Point is, bad habits eat good intentions for lunch. And sometimes, no matter who has spoken to us, even if it is an angel, unless we make real changes, unless we find supportive environments, and unless we have people around us that keep cheering us on and telling us not to turn back, we risk missing out on some of the most transformative stories that God has in mind for us. And the strength that Mary shows in the Magnificat is the same strength that motivates her to get up and to move and to find the environment that will help her become her. And if we ever want to celebrate the former in our lives, then we need to put energy into the latter for ourselves as well. So remember this, the energy that you invest in the relationships and the environments and the stories that cheer you on, this is sacred.
Speaker 1:And when you have the opportunity to be all of that for someone else the way that Elizabeth does, then this too is holy. Now, if you're interested, I put together a video this week talking about all that we enable in the world. The ways that we, like Elizabeth, are part of the stories that we enable, but also the ways that we need to be cognizant of the harm that we enable through our choices and our inaction as well. But that is on our YouTube channel if that kind of stuff is interesting to you to continue the conversation. Today, we're gonna follow the story forward, but we're actually going to need to backtrack a little bit to do that.
Speaker 1:First though, let's pray. God of coming love, giver of glorious, simple, unexpected gifts. As we walk through the season of waiting, anticipating the coming of Jesus in the stark, simple stable at Bethlehem. May we cast aside our anxiety and our busyness and the pressure we feel to smile and instead open ourselves to the profound presence of your son with us today. Help us to be quiet enough to hear your voice, yet eager enough to catch every word of grace spoken to us.
Speaker 1:For those of us who've heard the story one too many times, for those of us who may have lost that childlike sense of anticipation for this season. Would you help us to look past the decorations and through the obligations? Would you help us to reach past those hurts and those disappointments and disenchantments in order to hear the voice of your spirit that calls joy back into the world. In the precious name of Jesus whose coming we await, We pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. As I said, we're gonna backtrack a bit today to pick up the full story now of Elizabeth and Zechariah. But let's start by reading or reading where we want to end today. This is Zechariah's prayer, sometimes called the Benedictus. This is Luke one starting in verse 68.
Speaker 1:Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because God has come to God's people and redeemed them. God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of the servant David, just as God said through the holy prophets of long ago. Salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, To show mercy to our ancestors and to remember the holy covenant. The oath sworn to our father, Abraham. To rescue us from the hand of our enemies and to enable us to serve God without fear.
Speaker 1:In holiness and righteousness before God all of our days. And you, my child, you 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 people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins because of the tender mercy of 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 back onto the path of peace. Luke chapter one verses 68 through 79. So another beautiful poetic expression of the story and a prayer to help guide our advent reflections.
Speaker 1:But today, we want to talk about what's behind this story, the weight of expectation that all of us feel, the feeling of being forgotten and moving forward through it all. However, to do that, we do need to gather up the story a bit. Because just as their son, John the Baptist, would be the forerunner to Jesus, the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth actually begins back before the story of Mary. And I wanna talk about something here. We have been rightly focusing on Mary this Advent season so far.
Speaker 1:But in the background are all of these other figures who factor into the story. And each of their experiences of the story are very different, while Mary's story is all about her strength and her faith. Elizabeth's is all about her welcome. Zechariah's is largely all about his fears. And I think this is important because Christmas is a time of year where the overarching metanarrative can feel suffocating.
Speaker 1:Everything coming at us in the media right now tells us to be happy and to be thankful and to be present to family, and all of that is beautiful really is right up until it isn't. Right? Probably, most of us here love the holidays. But for a lot of people, the holidays can also be extremely difficult. When you're hurting, it's hard.
Speaker 1:But when you're struggling and you're told to smile while you do it, that can make it all feel that much worse. And so to recognize the stories on the edge of Christmas, both stories here in our midst that are not Hallmark made and stories like Elizabeth and Zechariah that are characterized by a lot of struggle and a lot of weight. This is really important because it gives space for our stories to be our stories and to be valued for what they are, not for how we work really hard to spin them into gold for each other. And so if Christmas for you means FaceTime with strained relationships, or if Christmas for you means memories of someone that you've lost, If for you, Christmas is a little bit lonely perhaps because you're here and they are there and everyone else seems too busy to notice all of that. Maybe this season is tinged with the reminders of things that you probably are able to push down and away from most of the year, and maybe you really are excited about Christmas.
Speaker 1:But then there's also moments that you're just not looking forward to this season. All of that is okay. Because whatever Christmas is or it isn't, it is a very human tale with characters that come to us that enter the story from all over the landscape. And so if you, so far, have struggled to find yourself in Mary's courage, then maybe there is something here in the background for you with those of us who want to hope but need a little help to get there. So let's go all the way back to the start of Luke's gospel.
Speaker 1:Right after the writer introduces himself and begins the story. This is Luke chapter one starting in verse five. 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. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God observing all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly.
Speaker 1:So the introduction to the story here is setting us up to have certain expectations around this family. This is a priest. He is part of the order of Abijah. During the time of David, the, Levites were divided into 24 orders that would serve on a rotation in the tabernacle for one week at a time. Abijah was the eighth order.
Speaker 1:There's no real significance there. It's just a fun fact for your next office Christmas party. But this priest, who was a Levite and a descendant of Aaron and a member of the order of Abijah, is also married to another descendant of Aaron. Aaron was the first priest of Israel. The Levites were the tribe that served in religious functions, but the priests in the community, they were the Levites descended directly from Aaron.
Speaker 1:There were no strict rules here about who a a descendant of Aaron could marry. As long as they married within the Hebrew community, it was fine. But this mention is meant to make us pay attention. Like this family, they have all the credentials, all the name recognition. They check all the boxes, and we're even told that they were righteous in the sight of God.
Speaker 1:They observed all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. So this is a hyperbolic, over spiritualized, gold plated introduction, but they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive. And they were both very old. Now, before we go any farther, we have to understand the significance of this statement here. The fact that Elizabeth was not able to conceive, this is not an incidental anecdote.
Speaker 1:This is actually central to the story. Last week, we talked about how Mary's scandal of an unwed pregnancy is then paired with the surprise of Elizabeth's pregnancy in her old age. And how it's those two stories coming together that is part of what helped each see the profound beauty in the other. But all of that was set up way back here in the beginning before we were even introduced to Mary. But there is another layer here because in the ancient world, fertility was a really big deal.
Speaker 1:Of course, the ancient world, children were your retirement plan. There were no RSPs to invest in, so there are practical considerations to take into account. But the real problem was that because of this in the ancient world, fertility was often seen as God's blessing and infertility. Well, that was not just bad luck. That was often seen as punishment from the divine.
Speaker 1:I mean, you must have done something to deserve this. And so when you are a priest and you serve God professionally and you are married to a woman from the priestly line of Aaron and you check all the boxes and you are still childless. There was an unfortunate and ignorant stigma that came along with this that you must have done something secretly to deserve this. In fact, later in the story, when she does become pregnant, Elizabeth will say, in these days, God has shown favor to me and taken away my disgrace among the people. Now particularly as an adoptive family, that's a tough line to read.
Speaker 1:But I do think we need to understand here that the disgrace God removes was never Elizabeth's to begin with. In fact, she gets it. She clarifies that. She says, my disgrace among the people. It's their misconception that they carried.
Speaker 1:This is what God was concerned with addressing. And Luke gets it. He actually goes out of his way to make sure that you and I don't jump to any of these unhelpful conclusions. He makes a point of saying that both of them, Elizabeth and Zechariah, they were righteous in the sight of God, observing all of the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly. So if anything, Luke is going over the top here because he wants to make sure that we understand against the cultural narrative, the struggle and disappointment and infertility and pain.
Speaker 1:These are not the result of anything that we control. This is not her fault. This is not his fault. This is simply sometimes the way things go. And we need to internalize this.
Speaker 1:Because maybe for you it's not infertility, but maybe for you it's sickness or it's depression. Maybe for you it's success or money or the lack thereof. Regardless, even if you are blameless, faith is not a transaction. And if you struggle, when you struggle, this is not because God blames you. However, sometimes even when we know this it's really hard to know this.
Speaker 1:Right? And sometimes, once it's been said behind our back one too many times, or once it's been repeated within earshot a little too often, or once we've listened to the narrative around us for too long, it's really hard to stop all of that from seeping back in. And so the story continues telling us that one day Zechariah was on duty and serving as priest before God, and the people were praying just outside the temple. But while he was inside preparing, an angel appeared to him. The angel was standing right beside the altar of incense, and when Zechariah saw the angel, he was gripped with fear as people usually are when they see angels in the scriptures.
Speaker 1:But the angel says something really interesting to him. The angel says, do not be afraid Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Now, what's gonna happen here is that the angel is going to explain that Elizabeth and Zechariah are going to have a baby and that baby is going to be filled with the spirit of God and go before the Lord to lead the way for Jesus. Zechariah, however, is incredulous because he and Elizabeth are old and they have been unable to conceive all of their marriage.
Speaker 1:So this seems like an unlikely scenario. In verse 18, he asked the angel. He says, are you sure about all of this? For I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. And the angel says, first, yes, I am sure.
Speaker 1:And second, I do not like your tone. So just for questioning me, you will not be able to speak until this baby is born. Now, a bit of a strange story granted. But before we move on here, let's make a note about the way that the writer has constructed this gospel and the contrast he's drawing between Zechariah's response and Mary's response. Right?
Speaker 1:These are very similar stories, very similar angelic visits, very similar pronouncements, and if anything, Mary's is going to be even harder to believe. But for the writer of Luke, a professional career close to God, position, respect, qualifications, credentials, none of these are faithful indications in our openness to the divine. And Mary is not only the hero of the story, Mary is the one who supplants the ones that we expect to be able to look up to. This is a really interesting part of how the story is constructed in Luke, but for today, I wanna come back to these words issued by the angel to Zechariah. Because I think that they are incredibly important for understanding what happens in Zechariah between this moment and when we finally catch up with his tongue untied in the Benedictus.
Speaker 1:Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. One of the things that the NIV is missing here is a conjunction. Do not be afraid Zechariah semi colon, your prayer has been heard. That's fine, but there are other options here.
Speaker 1:Other translations will replace that semi colon with a for or a because, and that's because there is a Greek word here. It's the word and it's a causal conjunction. And what that means is these are not two separate thoughts. They are one thought, a command, and a reason for that command. And why that's important to me is because the angel is something saying something very specific here.
Speaker 1:Angel is not saying, look, don't be afraid of me, man. I know I'm intimidating, but I'm really a nice guy. That's what my dog does. He's a very big dog and he has a very deep bark, and he may bark at you, but that is only to get your attention so that he can nuzzle up against you and convince you to scratch his belly. That is not this angel.
Speaker 1:This angel is not concerned with whether Zechariah is afraid of angels. This angel is not trying to ingratiate himself with Zechariah here. This angel is concerned with what Zechariah fears. That he has been forgotten about. That's what the story is all about.
Speaker 1:It's what the angel is here for. It's what he wants to address because that's the divine voice in the story. The one that says, despite all evidence, you are not forgotten. You're not on your own. God has always been listening.
Speaker 1:God is listening right now to you. And so what happens is the angel shows up and just skips past, ignores all of the obvious reasons to be afraid about an angel standing in your workplace talking to you as if this was normal. And the angel says to Zechariah, do not be afraid that your prayers have gone unheard. You see, my conviction is that God sees always into the deepest most hidden parts of who we are. Those parts that we rarely share with anyone.
Speaker 1:Those parts that we are often too afraid to name for ourselves. Those parts that we take great pains to keep covered up and tucked away from sight. And I wonder here if Zechariah and Elizabeth who've been living under this cultural cloud of suspicion about what they could have possibly done wrong to be childless for this long had been working extra hard to keep all of that covered up. See, I bet I bet they have been hyper vigilant to make sure no one has anything that they can point to to blame this on them. I bet Luke is right when he says they have kept all of the commands and decrees because my guess is that at least some of this external holiness we see in the story is the result of this internalized shame around cultural expectations.
Speaker 1:To not show weakness, to not show failure, to not show disappointment because that's what we do. Right? We we don't think we measure up and we don't turn to grace. We work even harder and sometimes that makes it all harder. But we keep on trying to fill the role.
Speaker 1:We keep on trying to look the part, and over time, my guess is that their infertility and the suspicion that surrounded them, this public perception of something being not quite right with them has slowly become this deep and hidden fear that maybe it's all true. And maybe God really has actually forgotten about them. Maybe God has left them on their own. Maybe the divine isn't listening to them anymore, and this is exactly what the messenger of God shows up and zeros in on here. Because you see, I think that more than we are afraid for our reputations and more than we are afraid for our relationships, sometimes even more than we are afraid of being hurt all over again.
Speaker 1:What we really fear is that no one cares about it. And so it's only after that is addressed. And those fears are confronted and that healing begins to take place that we can ever move on toward the hope that the story of Christmas is meant to build in us. And look, maybe Zechariah and Elizabeth, maybe their story is a little too far removed from yours. That's fine.
Speaker 1:But for a lot of us Christmas is hard. Family is difficult and celebration does surface painful memories and none of that gets any better when we try to bury it all away. I'm not suggesting that you bring it all up at the next family dinner. There's a time and there's a place. What I am saying is that this story is about the fact that God is present to the stuff that we think only we know about.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, what we need to remember before anything else, before God expects you to put on a brave face this Christmas, and before God expects you to sing praise like the Benedictus, Is that what God really wants you to know is that God is listening to you. Do not be afraid. Your prayers are heard. And here's why all of this is so important when it comes to reading a prayer like the Benedict as well. Because it's actually only really from this place of safety and welcome.
Speaker 1:And this growing conviction that God is more than powerful, God is good and attentive and invested in us. Zechariah can even begin to shift his gaze from the limitations that seem to humble his story to the hope that he now shares for all of humanity. You see, it may be that in order to pray that God shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, that God guide our feet back onto the path of peace before Zechariah could believe that God was for us. Maybe Zechariah needed to sense that God was for him. And I really think that this is why a story with the scope of Christmas keeps trying to bring us back down into these personal encounters and these marginal personalities and cosmic salvation embodied in vulnerability.
Speaker 1:Because before you and I can believe in the big stories, sometimes we have to learn to trust in the small ones. Maybe you have this sense that you are supposed to celebrate that God is for all of us at Christmas. But the truth is you struggle to believe that God is for you this Christmas. And maybe you want to pray the Benedictus for everyone, but maybe what you need first is to hear the voice of God speaking to your fears right now in this moment. Reminding you that you don't need to be afraid because just off center, sometimes in the background of the main story, God is present to all of us who sit on the sidelines telling us that we have not been forgotten.
Speaker 1:And that God's promise to the world begins in the smallest moments of God's presence come near to our fears. This Christmas, before you attempt to celebrate the cosmic dimensions of love, may you sense spirit near you, through you, to you this day. This Advent, may your fears and your anxieties be given voice openly and honestly in the spaces that welcome them. And may the divine that animates everything around you always become small and gentle enough to infiltrate your secret fears with reminders of love this day. Because all of this too is part of Christmas.
Speaker 1:And before we can sing joy to the world, each of us need to experience the God who would come near to our most unspoken fears inside. And perhaps if you can notice God present to your anxiety today, you will begin to pray with Zechariah to the God who will one day heal all things through love. Let's pray. God who comes to us in the story with a scope too big to imagine. Cosmic love that heals all things, that repairs all brokenness, that redeems all creation.
Speaker 1:God, might we recognize that sometimes before we can believe in that story, we'll have to believe in the small story of a God who would come to us To quiet our fears, to speak to our anxieties, to remind us that we are not forgotten this Christmas. God, in whatever way we carry unspoken fears with us that we have worked really hard to hide away so that no one sees on the surface. May we sense your spirit coming near to those most vulnerable points in our lives. Speaking grace and peace, reminding us that even when we feel forgotten, you are there listening, waiting, watching, walking with us. And God, once we begin to sense you in those moments, may we slowly then begin to believe in the cosmic scope of your love That reaches out from our heart and our fear and our anxiety to the entire world.
Speaker 1:To heal all things through your son this Christmas. May we truly begin to love as if a whole new world was possible, but may that new world begin in the smallest moments of our day. In the strong name of the risen Christ, pray. Amen.