I.N.I.
A sermon to be preached at St. Paul Lutheran Church, Columbia, Pa. on Wednesday evening, 2 December 2009, the first Wednesday in Advent, and based on the assigned Gospel text for the day: St. Luke 1:5-24a, 57-64, the story of Zechariah.
Grace, mercy, and peace be yours in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
[the text]
Dear Friends in Christ,
Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were faithful, observant followers of the Law, and they stand in line with other faithful followers of the Lord who were blessed with children of Promise when (like Abraham and Sarah) they were past the usual age of child-bearing or (like Hannah and Elkanah) they were long considered incapable of having children together. God worked miracles with all these couples in order to further the working out of His promise of salvation. Next Wednesday we will ponder Elizabeth's part of the Advent story. Tonight we consider the story of Zechariah the priest, and the silence of Advent. It is primarily his silence, but it can and should be our silence as well.
As a priest, it was Zechariah's honor to be selected one day from among the thousands of priests of God to be the one to approach the altar in the temple at Jerusalem and burn incense while his division was on duty. He was chosen by lot, a method that was intended no doubt to make the selection unbiased, but which also allowed it to be directed by God. And this was certainly one time when God directed the casting of the lots for His own purposes. It was in this way that the Lord got Zechariah off by himself, and had his undivided attention. God sent His angel Gabriel to communicate with His priest.
Despite the fact that – as Luke tells us – both Zechariah and Elizabeth “were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly,” it still came as a shock to Zechariah when the angel appeared there at the right side of the altar. It's the sort of apparition that one might have hoped for. It was the kind of confirmation that someone could even have prayed for. Still, when it happened Zechariah was “startled and gripped with fear.” My guess is that there hadn't been any classes in priest school about how to deal with this sort of event.
The angel's message was that Zechariah should not be afraid, and that his prayer had been heard: he and Elizabeth were to become parents.
And not only that, but what a child this would be! “He will be great in the sight of the Lord” Gabriel says. This child will bring many of the people of Israel back to the Lord. His work will be undertaken in the spirit and power of Elijah. In other words, this was going to be one special boy.
Zechariah was stunned by this announcement. Not quite speechless, he stutters out the question: “How can I be sure of this?” and the explanation: “I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” In this simple, logical, and understandable question you and I can see that what was lacking in Zechariah's life to that point was not the gift of a child, but the gift of absolute faith. At this point Gabriel introduces himself by name, reviews his angelic credentials (“I stand in the presence of God and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news ... this Gospel.”), and finally gives Zechariah the sign he thinks he needs to confirm Gabriel's good news. Because he “did not believe” Zechariah will take out of the Holy Place in the Temple both the promise of a son, and the sign of silence.
It must have made for an interesting homecoming when Zechariah got home to the hill country of Judea after his time of service at the Temple was up. The people who had been praying in the outer part of the Temple somehow understood that Zechariah had seen a vision inside. So perhaps it wasn't difficult for Elizabeth to understand the same thing. Zechariah, we can imagine, was likely bursting at the seams with the story of his experience, but he was unable to tell Elizabeth. He hadn't even been able to give the people at the Temple the benediction they were expecting, but was only able to keep making signs to them. When he got home, we can suppose he continued making signs to his wife and possibly also wrote short messages to her on the same writing tablet he would later use to name their son. Other than that, though, Zechariah spent the next 9 months in silence.
This is the silence of Advent. It is the silence of patient expectation, the silence of waiting for the fulfillment of the Promise. It is the silence of listening.
Now, some commentators think that Luke is also saying that Zechariah was deaf during this time. They pick out a phrase from the end of the story where the friends and relatives “made signs to [Zechariah] to find out what he would like to name the child.” I'm not so sure about that myself because Gabriel doesn't say anything about deafness. But since deaf people often don't speak out loud very much I can see the neighbors thinking that a speechless Zechariah must also be a non-hearing one. I would rather believe that Zechariah had spent the months of his wife's pregnancy listening.
The first thing Zechariah got the chance to do when exercising his gift of silence was, obviously, to shut his own mouth. Some of us spend an awful lot of time talking, don't we? And those of us who are not talking spend an awful lot of time thinking about what we'll say when we get a chance. Back home from Jerusalem, Zechariah found that he couldn't fill the air with his own words, and that there wasn't any point in planning what to say when he could get a word in edgewise since he couldn't talk anyway. So he was forced to sit back and listen. He listed to Elizabeth, to be sure. And he listened to God.
That is something you and I can learn from. We can spend our lives “observing all the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly” but if we don't really listen to what the Lord wants of us, it will really be for naught.
What are some ways we can listen to God?
We can listen with Zechariah to the Word of God. He had the extremely rare privilege and blessing of a direct and personal Word brought from the presence of the Lord by one of His angels. But a vision of an angel is rare in our days. Instead, we hear God's Word to us through the Bible. That's one thing Zechariah would have done during his silent Advent. He would have continued to go to the local synagogue and continued to hear God's word read there at times of worship. Reading the lessons in church is not simply an formal exercise, but is a real chance for us to hear God speaking to each of us.
Zechariah probably also read from God's word on his own, in between services. You and I are able to read God's Word freely whenever we want. We have the gift of printed Bibles available to us, in a variety of understandable translations, Bibles that we can read whenever we want. Like Zechariah did, we can listen to God speak to us in our hearts as we ponder, think about, an meditate on God's Word.
We have many, many opportunities to hear God's Word.
And when we really stop and listen to it, God brings blessings to us through it.
So what sorts of things do we hear? What is the message that the Bible brings to us from the presence of God? At root, it is the same message that Gabriel gave to Zechariah in the Temple.
Listen to it now. God is happy that you – like Zechariah and Elizabeth – have obeyed all his commandments. He is glad that you have observed his regulations blamelessly.
...Or perhaps you haven't reached that level of perfection. Perhaps you haven't been absolutely obedient. Well then, you – like me – need to hear what Zechariah had to hear during his silent Advent. If you haven't been able to produce perfect obedience of God's Law, then you need to hear what Zechariah did: that obedience isn't enough, even though you couldn't possibly meet that goal anyway. What each of us needs is what Zechariah found out he needed. We need the gift of faith.
How could Zechariah be sure that what Gabriel had told him about his son John was true? Through faith. How can you and I be sure that what God has told us about his Son Jesus is true? Through faith.
The Holy Spirit has called each of us to saving faith through the Gospel. In Baptism God has washed us clean. In Holy Communion He sustains us by feeding us with Jesus's body and blood. Zechariah's son of promise was born in order to preach the coming of the Savior to the world. And even today we rehearse the giving and hearing of that promise, we re-enact the waiting for the birth of John and of Jesus, we await the gift of our Lord who actually did obey all God's commandments and observe his regulations blamelessly ... and did it all faithfully.
Our Lord Jesus came to earth to save each one of us from the just punishment for our sins. This Advent season, if we listen carefully, if we step into Zechariah's experience at least a little bit, and if we shut out the noise of the world, then we can perhaps in silence listen to what God is telling us.
Listen. Turn off the chatter. Turn off the email and cell phones. Turn off the radio and the television. Turn off the advertisements. Turn it all off and listen. God says He loves you. God says He forgives you. God says He sent His Son Jesus to save you. Accept the gift of faith He gives you. Live in it. Rejoice in it. Don't fall back into trying to save yourself by obeying His laws. Zechariah couldn't do it. You can't do it. You don't need to. Jesus already did; he has already made everything right between you and God. Because He loves you. Listen.
Amen.
And may the peace of God that passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
S.D.G.