Luke 1: 5-25

Here We Go Again!

“Start at the beginning, and leave nothing out”, the mom warns her son as he tries to explain his latest escapade that has landed him in trouble yet again!

Luke’s goal for his gospel was to set out an orderly account for the mysterious official he referred in the opening as, “most excellent Theophilus”. We are therefore reading a report intended for this otherwise unknown official. In order to tell the story of Jesus of Nazareth, from the beginning and leave nothing out, you have to tell the story of his relative, John, the baptizer. In order to tell the story fully you have to tell how their births were each miraculous in their own ways.

This passage deals with the birth of John and makes it clear that his birth was nothing short of a miracle. Zechariah and Elizabeth had been married for years and years but had not had any children. Luke makes it clear that they were righteous and lived according to all of God’s law. For some mysterious reason she was “barren”. It was not a punishment from God. In that day and age a woman’s duty was to give her husband children, and particularly, sons. To be unable to have children was seen as more that an embarrassment; it was a disgrace; it was a sign of God’s displeasure. Luke, however, sees it another way: Elizabeth and Zechariah are a couple for whom God has special plans.

What we are told in all of this is that it was only by divine intervention they were able to conceive. When you consider the important person and ministry of John, the herald of the Messiah, the one preparing a highway in the wilderness, Luke’s story tells us all that there just has to be something “God given” about him, from the very beginning.

No doubt, in their younger years, Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed for a child but as the months stretched into years the hope faded. What they had left was his work as a priest in the temple. Apparently the priests worked in rotating shifts and the special jobs were chosen by the luck of the draw. On this date he was the one chosen to offer the sacrifice in the holy of holies; the highest honour that could come to his profession. Behind heavy curtains stood the symbols most honoured by the faith and it was believed that if God had a dwelling anywhere on earth, this had to be the place.

It was not God who appeared to him; that would be too much even for a holy, honoured and aged priest. An angel appeared and gave him the most bizarre news. He, Zechariah, and Elizabeth, two old people were going to be parents!

Zechariah was so stunned that he expressed his, very understandable, disbelief and for this he was struck dumb.

Now if Zechariah had taken a moment to think he would have remembered the stories we also know: of couples whose children were born in similar circumstances. Then again, with true holiness comes the humility that truly says, “I am not like them. It’s not possible that God could act in my life in that way.” Zechariah did not know what he was really getting into and he certainly did not know that the stories of his family would be in the holy book of a whole new faith community; he did not know he would be “in the Bible”.

Many years before, Sarah and Abraham were promised a son and Sarah laughed because it was so funny - at her age! Hannah and Elkanah had a child after years of trying and a vow made in prayer on the steps of the temple. Biblical strongman Samson was the product of a similar situation.

Even though the Bible is clear that these people are the product of two biological parents, who conceive their child in the regular way, their problems with infertility are clearly stated in the story. These births are primarily God’s doing - so that their acts as adults are seen to be God directed and God focussed. Their origins are clearly stated so that God’s people know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the God of heaven and earth has acted and brought these people to lead them and bring them to a knowledge of God’s abundant love.

So here we have Zechariah, speechless at the news that he was going to become a dad. At their age! Diapers. Two hour feedings. Weaning and potty training. The feel of a sleeping child on his chest as he rocked him to sleep. The probing questions about life that only a chid could ask. A small trusting hand in his as he walked to the merchants to buy leather for yet another pair of sandals for a growing boy’s feet. Teaching him about the ways of the holy God he had lived his life to serve.

He could hardly wait; he had to get home and see if this could possibly be true. We are told that after he arrived home she remained in seclusion for five months. I wonder if this news was seen as joy or embarrassment? At their age! What would the neighbours think? How would they cope? Then, as now, there is a reason that young people are the ones who have the children!

So here we have the prelude to the Christmas story beginning with God. It is a story beginning in miracle and uncertainty. It is a story of getting what you have wanted all your life, but almost too late.

There is a great deal to this story and how it is told the way it was. It seems clear to me that Luke wants to make it clear that both John, as odd as he was, is clearly and solidly within the He brew tradition. The tradition of prophets living in the desert and not cutting their hair was a solid one in their tradition. John was clearly Jewish and Jesus was clearly a Jewish Messiah. John was there to prepare the way. He was there to build the highway. He was there to tell the people that Jesus, the one who was to come, was the saviour they had been expecting. John was the one to say that their wait was almost over.

So John is important. John’s origins and manner of birth are important. And Luke tells us the story; the whole story and he leaves nothing out.

I was walking along the new stretch of street yesterday morning and noticed how the lower edge of the curbing is still a couple of inches above the new pavement. Next year, when the second coat of pavement is laid, it will be even with the bottom edge of the curb. The engineers have planned it this way. They see to it that the water runs into the storm drains and the sidewalk dips down to the street at all the crosswalks. They see that the lines are painted on the roads as they are, for a reason. If it is not safe to pass the stripes should tell you that!

This was John’s role. To announce the coming of the Messiah. To give time for people to prepare themselves. Its not the baby Jesus that was the focus of John’s ministry; he was just a baby himself, but it was the grown up Jesus.

But here we are in late November 2009. We are laying the road for Christmas this year. Have we left room in our plans for the unexpected? Have we left room, not only for “baby Jesus” who will warm our hearts, but for the gown up Jesus whose teaching and ministry and very being will change the world.

A number of years ago, in one of the congregations I served at that time there was a couple with two children, both girls. They wanted a boy but had resigned themselves to being a family with two girls, and took steps to prevent more children. But just under the wore came an unexpected pregnancy and when that father told me that he had a son there was clear joy in his eyes. You see they had just built a new house with no room for a boy. They had planned their lives as a family of girls only, but then there was this call with test results from the doctor’s office and life changed. Things had to be rearranged. Expectations changed. Life changed. The good news was life-changing - I’m not sure if they put a bedroom in the basement or what they did - but this good news was, at the very least, inconvenient, as well as welcome. Everyone in town chuckled at the news (you cant hide anything in a small place) but everyone also rejoiced with them.

So, are we like Zechariah and Elizabeth, older, set in our ways, comfortable (if not lonely) in our lot in life and yet, making room for the most unusual and unsettling news ever. 25 years earlier would have been perfect - but it didn’t happen that way. God does not always appear on our schedule - are we ready for the unusual, and unsettling ways in which the good news might come to us this year with, “God has a plan for you ......”

God has a plan for each one of us. Are we willing to be unsettled, embarrassed and inconvenienced by it?

Emmanuel will come! Open your eyes! Open your hearts. Prepare the way!

Amen!

NO SERMON -- It is "White Gift" Sunday and the Sundauy School gives me the Sunday off from preaching.

Luke 1: 39-56

But.....What if?

“And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”.

In a way these are such unlikely words to come from the mouth of someone in Mary’s situation: young, pregnant and unmarried. Joseph might believe the story about the angel, but the rest of the family and the neighbours wouldn’t, for sure! She must have been terrified! No wonder she went to see Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, of all people, would believe her and she would understand the words of the angel. She would assure her that she was indeed a “favoured one” even though the angel’s news had turned her life upside down. While these are indeed unlikely words for a woman like Mary to utter, what she is really proclaiming are the hopes of a nation which has lived in darkness and despair far too long. She is proclaiming the hopes of a people who have, in effect, stopped hoping for the Messiah. They have become so accustomed to their fear, oppression and darkness that they have forgotten that their God could indeed give them the true light and true hope, that had been promised for generations. As Luke is writing his story many, many years later, he is reflecting on this moment; two women meeting, each one pregnant with hope and possibility. Like Hannah, long before, Mary is expecting a child whose life and ministry will change the course of the history of his people. Like Hannah’s child Samuel, about whom a similar song was sung, this child will be a part of the fulfilling of the promise made to Abraham on that lonely star-lit night so long before. These passages tell us: God keeps the promise, even if the people fail.

When a couple is expecting their first child, it is as of the whole world rejoices with them. But, in the case of Zechariah and Elizabeth the “exciting news” had its unique characteristics; and in the case of Mary and Joseph, the tongues would have been wagging. So Mary went to Elizabeth’s, because she knew that Elizabeth would understand.

Elizabeth would understand about angels and meeting God in the unexpected and even unwelcome. Sometimes you can grow so accustomed to having your prayers remain unanswered that it is unwelcome and very inconvenient when they are answered. Mary, like all of her relatives, friends and neighbours and their parents and grandparents before them had grown up with the promise of the messiah. When would he come? Surely things cannot get much worse! Would he come in this generation?

But one thing no one would have imagined would be that the messiah would be born in their family, or to them, especially one so poor and from the sticks.

We think of the Christmas story as a happily ever after story. We think of Joseph taking responsibility for this child and teaching him the trade of a carpenter, but the road must have been very hard for them.

Mary and Elizabeth knew something that we often forget: that their children were gifts from God. Our own native people teach us that: EVERY child is a gift from the creator. They don’t worry as much Mary’s family and neighbours would have that she wasn’t married or that Elizabeth and Zechariah were too old; they don’t worry about it in the way we do.

The story of Christmas is about the unexpected. It is about God acting in ways that could even be seen as shocking, to give hope to a world in darkness and despair. As we look into the eyes of a baby, as we catch the smile of a child interacting with the world, we see the light of hope. We see the newness that can find as much joy in the box in which the toy comes as from the toy itself. In the eyes of a child we see delight in delight itself. When you look into the eyes of a child, you can’t help but hope in a world made new. You can’t help but believe in a world where the poor are given what they need; those who suffer violence can now like without fear and in safety.

To look into the eyes of a child and to believe in hope is to sing with Mary the words of the Magnificat. (And that title, by the way comes from the first words of the passage in Latin) The Magnificat is a passage about divine reversal. I’s about those things we carry in our hearts that say, “Things just should not be this way”. The Magnificat is about the world made right; the Magnificat is about the poor getting what they need to live in dignity; it is about the blind being able to see, the lame walking once more and the deaf being able to hear, not only the good news but all of the sweetness of creation.

If you believed all of the commercials on television you would think that everyone has a perfect Christmas, or they will if they shop in the right place.

Yet, at Christmas especially, we know that this isn’t true for everyone. We know that many folks are relying on the generosity of others for their daily bread, as well as their annual Christmas dinner. Christmas shopping has a different meaning for those who have no place to put their tree, if they managed to find one.

We also know that there is much sadness behind those decorated doors and around those trees propped up by mountains of expensive presents.

As Christmas approaches we are challenged to look at the good news given to us as an opportunity for praise. We are challenged to see it as an opportunity for faithful action. I was talking to a man who was beginning to volunteer for the hospice program and he said, “Life has been good to me, I feel I can give something back in this way.”

Sometimes situations are tragic and there is nothing good IN them, but what if we began to look at them in such a way that we tried to see what good could come OUT OF THEM.

An illness causes great stress in a family but they find new strength in numbers and in community. What was important is not as important as it once was.

We know that stress increases at Christmas for a number of reasons as people cant make their lives a copy of the “idea Christmas” sold by the “world” of BestBuy and the local grocery giants. Loved ones die and marriages break up and people feel less and less like “repeating the sounding joy” but yet the world seems to disregard their loss and loneliness.

But, listen to the good news. Christmas hope isn’t about tinsel, trees and the right hors d’oeuvres . Mary and Elizabeth were dealing with real life, serious matters. Yet they knew that the God of heaven and earth was fulfilling his promises with each step they made in faith.

Because of Jesus, millions of people have fastened onto a hope that saw them through the darkness. Because of this Jesus millions of people have carried this hope to others who would not otherwise have enjoyed the good news of warm clothes, hot food and the strength of caring community.

Christmas is a time for us as the family of God to do our part to be the fulfilment of that promise made so long ago, but being fulfilled each time a child of God acts in faith and sings, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirt rejoices in God my saviour”. In us the promise can be fulfilled. In us the words can come true. In Kings County, Prince Edward Island, in 2009. In our lives, today. Tomorrow. In this church service today. In our lives, each and every day. Emmanuel.

Amen!

Luke 1: 57-66

We are ready. The stage is set. The actors are all in place. The dress rehearsal has taken place with the understudies are ready in case someone comes down with H1N1. We are anticipating a perfect show. Things will go flawlessly, we are certain.

Now, we might think that the whole Christmas drama starts with the “in the days of Caesar Augustus, a decree went out that all the world should be taxed ......” but there is one person that needs to arrive first; one more story needs to be told. I suppose they would call it a flashback in the movie business! In publishing they go back and write the first book, last.

Just as the adult John the Baptizer needs to begin his ministry before Jesus does, he also needs to be born first. According to the gospel writers, it’s part of the plan.

As we know, John’s birth is a little unusual in that his parents we well beyond normal childbearing years and had all but given up hope for a baby. Zechariah had a vision while he was serving in the temple and all of that changed. Soon a baby was on the way, Zechariah was literally speechless, his wife Elizabeth was in seclusion and cousin Mary had come to visit. Now Mary, also expecting, had gone back, to wait for her time, and Elizabeth has giving birth.

There were some things that were normal and expected; one of them was the name of the baby. OF COURSE he would be called Zechariah, after his father. That was the tradition; the way things were ALWAYS done. That was the expectation. After all, Zachariah, a person of stature, had to have a son carrying his name and this WAS certainly Zechariah’s very last chance!

But the stroy turns out differently. Zechariah, still without speech, eight days after John was born, gestures for a post-it note and a sharpie and when it is stuck to the fridge door it proclaims for all the world to see, “His name is John”.

“John”, exclaim the neighbours, “you can’t do that! It’s not the tradition, its not right”. But do it he did, and the baby was called John.

I believe this should have been a sign that more differences were to come. They all knew somehow that this baby, this “John ben Zechariah” would have a special mission, but of course, did not know what it would be. We know that he marched to the beat of a different drummer and would grow up to be a prophet in the tradition of Elijah, and that he would be the one to herald the coming of the long anticipated messiah when his ministry began.

What always strikes me, all these thousands of years later, is that we all know the story so well that we have forgotten the whole unexpected nature of the “first Christmas”. We forget the element of surprise and the un-expected that is built into the story. Noting went as it should have. Religious rules and expectations were broken right and left. Yet, the Gospel writers continued to proclaim, it was in the unexpected, that was found the very *hand and will of God.

I remember a cartoon I saw a number of years ago and the long and short of it was that when Mary and Joseph had their baby the doctor proclaimed, “Congratulations, you have a girl”.

Well, we certain ly didn’t expect that!

Christmas is about the unexpected. Christmas is about unmerited grace. After all, grace you had to pay for wouldn’t be grace at all, now would it?

Christmas is about the holy God breaking into our ordinary lives and bringing unexpected and Good News.

There are many stories about shoemakers and others who are told the Christ Child will come to them and they wait and wait - only to discover that the Christ came all right, but in what they called the interruptions or the distractions while they were waiting for the real thing. I told one of those to the children a few weeks ago. The stories are fairly transparent; real life, unfortunately, is not. When “real life” is a homeless person who has not had a proper shower or bath in weeks, and whose clothes have not been washed in longer, it’s a little harder to see “the Christ”. When “real life” is a teenager who is on drugs and does not listen to any type of authority figure , it’s a little harder to imagine the “baby Jesus” we expect to see. When “real life” is a man incarcerated yet again, its harder to see the teacher and leader we expect to see.

The magi will come on Epiphany and look for the “King of the Jews” in the palace; a logical conclusion, but as the story goes, a mistake which almost cost the life of baby Jesus. The clash of expectations would be part of Jesus entire ministry; with many not following because they could not believe this carpenter from Nazareth was the “chosen one”.

A few years ago I was working on a cross stitch for a friend. She was not entirely happy with anything I had, but decided to combine two patterns, choosing to “mix and match”. In the end we were left with the corners still undecided. She said, “I don’t want that there, I want a tree in each corner instead.” I could not see how a tree would fit in a 4 X 4 stitch space. She could not see my problem. Finally I said, “Ok draw me the tree using no more that the number of squares we have to work with!” In five seconds she drew the tree: an evergreen tree, or an undecorated Christmas tree. I had not thought of an evergreen because I was so focussed on oaks, maples and apple trees which have a very different shape and could not be done in the space I was dealing with. My preconceptions prevented me from seeing the obvious and simple solution.

We look around us at the problems in the world and we see their solving as impossible because all we see are the conventional and the “already been done”; we need to take a lesson from that first Christmas and open our minds to the unconventional, the unique, the “outside of the box”. We need to move from the palace to the stable and catch the vision of how we get from the way things are, in the world of Caesar and Herod, to the way God wants them to be in the world of angels and shepherds and magi who follow a star because of the hope of a new world dawning.

The climate change talks in Copenhagen have just wrapped up. Given the conflicting news reports, we are not certain what was really decided BUT if we are to proceed and prevent global warming, we need to look at transportation, production, consumption and indeed, just about everything in new ways so that we will continue to enjoy the abundance of this planet and not destroy this precious gift of the creator.

As we come to the table, we come as a broken people who make mistakes. We break the bread of life. We come as a people who have wasted many precious gifts and opportunities and we drink of the grace poured out for us. As we leave the table may our eyes be opened to the ways in which our holy God comes to us — some old and tried and true and some so new we may not notice until its almost too late.

We are the friends and neighbours of Zechariah and Elizabeth wondering what else will be new and different . Let us open our eyes and prepared for the new and stratling ways in which Emmanuel may come to us.

Amen.