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Hope for the Journey
The
first in a series of Advent messages entitled, “Journey to the Manger”
by Dr. Jim Somerville, pastor
Richmond’s First Baptist Church
Richmond, Virginia
November 30, 2008
Luke
1:5-25
Unless you haven't been paying attention, you have heard that today is the first
Sunday of Advent. For those of you who are still new to this tradition, Advent
is the first season of the Christian year, a four-week period of getting ready
for the coming of Christ. Not only to celebrate His first coming, but also in a
very real sense to prepare our hearts and minds for His eventual second coming.
It is a wonderful season filled with beauty and power. But this year we're
going to do it just a little differently. Instead of waiting for Christ to come
to us as we always do, we are going to go to Him, travelling through Luke's
story of Christmas, accompanied by the traditional themes of the advent season:
hope, peace, joy, and love. On this journey to the manger, we will spend time
with Zechariah and Elizabeth, talking about hope; some time with Gabriel and
Mary, talking about peace; some time with Mary and Elizabeth talking about joy;
and finally, appropriately, some time with Joseph and Mary, talking about love.
It's going to be a wonderful journey and it begins with an old man and an old
woman who want something they can't get.
Luke says in the days of Herod there was a Priest named Zechariah who belonged
to the Priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron and her
name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous before God, living blamelessly
according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. In other words,
if there ever was a couple that deserved the full measure of God's blessing,
Zechariah and Elizabeth were it. Zechariah, a Priest from the order of Abijah.
Elizabeth, descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, the first high Priest in
the land of Israel. Both of them were righteous and blameless, keeping all the
commandments and regulations of the Lord, ready to receive God's blessings; but
there was a problem, as there is in every good story. And the problem in this
story is that they had no children. Because Elizabeth was barren, Luke says,
and both of them were getting on in years.
When I read this passage to women, they say how do we know that it was Elizabeth
who had the problem? Maybe it was Zechariah, you know, who was barren.
I
don't know that for a fact. But the Greek that Luke used is Stira. From that we
get sterile. Luke was a doctor, I believe him. But it wasn't only Elizabeth's
fault. You notice that he says both of them were getting on in years, not only
Elizabeth, but also and maybe especially Zechariah was getting on in years.
If ever they had held out the hope that they might some day have a child, that
hope was wearing thin. You can imagine that in the early days they used to look
forward to that time when Elizabeth would conceive and bear a child. As those
days turned into weeks and months and years, they began to pray, “Dear Lord,
give us a child. Give us a child.”
As those years turned into decades, they began to wonder if it would ever happen
at all. Eventually, they may have given up hope or maybe it was only one of
them who gave up hope. I can picture Zechariah inviting Elizabeth into the
bedroom and her shrugging her shoulders and going back to her knitting. What
would be the point?
It's like that for us sometimes. If we have to hope too long, we begin to lose
hope. Some of you in this congregation have hoped for a child you are still
praying for. Some may be hoping for a rebellious son, praying that he will come
home again and return from those ways in which he has been travelling.
Some of you may be waiting for that true love that has not yet come, but you
keep hoping, praying. If it takes too long, though, eventually hope wears out,
running dry. You stop saying those kind of prayers.
I
wonder if it had become that way for Zechariah and Elizabeth, if they no longer
prayed like they used to pray for a child. Maybe their hope had run out.
But Israel's hope had not run out. For centuries they had been waiting and
praying for a Messiah. Someone who would come and deliver them from their
enemies. Someone who would restore Israel to its former glory. They watched
and waited for that day when God would hear their prayers and send them a
Messiah.
On this first Sunday of Advent, we typically read passages from the Gospels
about the second coming of Christ. And usually I preach on that theme on the
first Sunday of Advent. I talk to members of the congregation about Christ's
eventual return and sometimes they look back at me as if they had lost hope that
Christ would ever come back. It's been 2000 years. They say how much longer
should we wait and hope and pray for something that will never happen?
Hope wears thin. Sometimes people give up. They stop praying for the things
they want most. Maybe even Israel had come to that point after 400 years of
silence, without the voice of a prophet in the land, maybe they thought the
Messiah would never come, maybe they had given up hope.
But God had not given up hope. From the beginning, from the time He made the
world and the people in it, He hoped some day they would love Him just as much
as He loved them. Year after year He sent His prophets to the people, begging
them to come to Him, to return to Him. Year after year, He tried to woo His
people back to Himself, hoping that their hearts would turn to His great Godly
heart, the one who loved them so much. God had never given up that hope, never
even once. And it's in the context of that hope that we hear this story, about
Zechariah, a Priest from the order of Abijah.
Ellen Colpepper tells us that there were 24 divisions of Priests in Israel.
Each division spent about one week, twice a year, serving in the temple.
Zechariah was from the order of Abijah, which means twice a year he would saddle
his donkey and ride down to Jerusalem from Judea, to serve in the temple, one
part of which was offering up incense in the sanctuary. It's not something that
every Priest got to do every time. In fact, usually a Priest only got one
opportunity in a lifetime to offer incense in the sanctuary.
And so the Priests would cast lots among themselves, among those who had not yet
had the honor. And this time it was Zechariah who earned the honor of going
into the sanctuary, offering up the incense.
According to the description in the Mishna it happened like this: one Priest
would climb the steps of the temple, clear off the altar, dump the ashes into a
bin and prostrate himself before the altar before coming out and standing on the
front porch of the temple.
Another Priest would go in, carrying live coals, and arrange them and pat them
down until they were ready to receive the incense. Then He would prostrate
himself before the altar and come out and stand on the porch, waiting for the
third Priest who would carry in a carefully measured portion of incense, dump it
out on the hot coals and let that aroma fill the temple as he prostrated
himself. And he came out to stand on the porch.
Once all three Priests were standing there, and the congregation waited, they
would announce the benediction, saying, “The Lord bless you and keep you, the
Lord let His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you, the Lord lift up His
countenance upon you and give you His peace.” That was the prescribed order.
And on the day that Zechariah was to offer the incense, that's what he was
prepared to do. The first Priest went in and cleared off the altar. The second
one went in and arranged the live coals. And then Zechariah went in carrying
that measure of incense.
And don't you think that as he entered the sanctuary, that place where God's
presence was so tangible it could be felt, don't you think Zechariah was
offering up one last desperate prayer, “Dear God, give us a child. Dear God,
give us a child.” He prayed with his eyes closed. And when he opened them,
there just to the right of the altar stood that angel. I picture an enormous
angel with large wings moving slowly back and forth. So that Zechariah was
terrified, Luke says, overwhelmed with fear. Incense flew into the air and
Zechariah fell down before the angel. The angel said, “Do not be afraid,
Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife will bear a Son and you will
call him John.” Do you think Zechariah heard anything the angel said after
that? Picturing his wife, Elizabeth, dear old Elizabeth, giving birth to a baby
boy and him holding the child in his arms, looking down on that beautiful face.
Calling him John.
Do you think Zechariah heard anything the angel said? But the angel went on
still speaking. “You'll have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his
birth. He will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or
strong drink. Even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He
will turn many people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit of
Elijah, he will go before them to turn the hearts of parents to the children and
the disobedient to the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
When the angel finished speaking, there was a long and awkward silence.
Zechariah lay there at his feet, prostrate, not knowing what to say. But
eventually he looked up on the face of the angel and said, “How will I know that
this is so? For I am an old man. And my wife is well along in years.” In
other words, “How could this even be possible? We stopped dreaming about a baby
long ago. Here you are telling us that we're going to have one. I'm an old
man. My wife is getting on in years. How can this be?” There was another long
and awkward silence before Gabriel said, “I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence
of the Lord. He has sent me to you, to deliver this good news. It will be as I
have spoken. But because you did not believe, you will be mute until the day
this promise is fulfilled.”
And so it was. All those people standing outside the temple, waiting for
Zechariah to come out, wondering what was going on in there. One Priest had
gone in and come out again. Another Priest had gone in and come out again.
Zechariah had gone in and had not come out. They were all waiting and
wondering. You may know that in those days, only one person entered the holy of
holies and that only once a year, the high Priest on the Day of Atonement would
go into the holiest part of the temple. And when he did, they would loop a rope
around his ankle in case he died in the presence of God. They would have to
haul his dead body outside with the rope. They must have wondered if that
happened to Zechariah in that holy place. Not the holy of holies, but a holy
place nonetheless. He was an old man. He might have had a heart attack. Who
knows what might have happened.
They waited, watched, wondered. And finally he came out. And when he came out,
they could tell that something happened. His face was pale. His eyes were wide
and he was motioning to them, trying to tell them what happened in there.
“There was a big angel in there, in there. And he told me, he told me that my
wife -- Elizabeth is going to become pregnant and have a baby. A baby. Me.
Us. Imagine.”
And the people didn't know what to say. Of course Zechariah couldn't say
anything. Finally, the other two Priests walked right into the Aaronic
benediction. “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine
upon you and be gracious unto you.” And Zechariah must have been thinking,
“Well, He has. He has.” “The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give
you peace.” “He has,” Zechariah thought. “He has.”
Luke says that he stayed out the rest of the week. He completed his service in
the temple. But don't you think that as soon as his service was completed, he
saddled his donkey and made haste to return to the hill country of Judea,
driving that donkey at a full gallop over the hills, home to Elizabeth who came
out to meet him. And she was surprised that he was home so soon. She said, “I
thought you'd be another hour at least.” He embraced her. Although he couldn't
say a word to her, he motioned her to go inside. He went in with her and asked
for a writing tablet and he sat down at the table and wrote out these words. “An
angel of the Lord appeared to me and said to me that you are going to have a
baby. And I am going to name him John.”
And when Zechariah looked up from writing on the tablet, he saw the tears
streaming down Elizabeth's face. Tears of disbelief, tears of joy. She didn't
know whether to laugh or cry. It was all of it. Too good to be true.
Zechariah finally got up from the table, went out, took the donkey to the barn,
gave him a good rub down, sweaty from that long, hard ride. Gave him water and
grain. Made sure there was hay in the manger. When he came inside, he saw
Elizabeth serving up his favorite meal. She had been waiting for him, preparing
for his arrival. They sat down together to eat. An old man and an old woman,
neither of them saying anything, Zechariah because he was mute. Elizabeth
because she was speechless with wonder.
After supper, Zechariah went to wash up. When He finally came to the bedroom,
he saw that Elizabeth had had lit candles all around and was waiting for him
under the covers. Have any two people been more hopeful than Zechariah and
Elizabeth on that night? And so it was that five months later, she sat in front
of her bedroom mirror, combing out her long gray hair. Obviously, inarguably
pregnant. And saying, “Thus the Lord has done for me. To show His favor to me
and to take away from me the disgrace I have endured among my people.”
There is an old saying. In fact it's in the Bible, in the book of Proverbs,
that hope deferred maketh the heart sick. But desire fulfilled is a tree of
life. I think it was that way for Elizabeth and Zechariah who had been hoping
for such a long time that a miracle would happen. When it did, it was
especially sweet.
My prayer is that for those of you who are still waiting and hoping for miracles
to occur, that when they do, they will be especially sweet. Hope that is
deferred makes the heart sick. But desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Picture
Elizabeth sitting in the shade of that tree, combing out her long gray hair,
thanking God that in those latter days of her life he had taken away her
reproach and given her the desires of her heart.
Shall we
pray? Lord God we ask that you would give to us also the desires of our heart.
Some of us have been hoping for a long time, praying for the things we want, the
things we need. We have come to you again and again until there are calluses on
our knees, praying for those things. And again and again we get up from prayer,
wondering if it will ever happen. If you will ever hear us and answer. God,
once again today on this first Sunday of advent we offer up our prayers. And we
offer them up hopefully, knowing that if you can do this thing for Zechariah and
Elizabeth, if you can do this thing for the nation of Israel, you can do great
things for us. We bring our prayers to you in the name of Jesus, who has taught
us that nothing will be impossible. It's in His name that we pray with hope.
Amen.
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