Sunday, Day 8 - The Second Sunday in Advent: God Comes To Show Us He Cares: "Surprise"

For Kids:

Do you like Surprises?

When was the last time you were surprised?

Sometimes surprises can be fun…like a birthday surprise party, or your parents telling you that “we’re going to a fun place” like the Zoo, or Ice Cream stand, or to visit someone we really like.

At Christmas we’re surprised by the presents under the tree at Christmas, and wanting to know which present is for you. 

Waiting for Christmas to come seems to last forever.  

There are little things that make it clear it is getting closer - Mom's baking, or your parents are doing Christmas shopping, or they’re putting up the tree and decorating the house.  

All these (and more) make it clear that Christmas is coming, but we it has not yet arrived.

The biggest surprise in all of history was the time that God came to earth, as a little baby born to a young girl who was not yet married.  That was a big surprise to everyone.

But, before that surprise, God sent his angel – His Chief Angel – to visit a man and the angel surprise him while he was doing his work.  This is the story of Zechariah – a man working for God who God surprised. 

Luke 1:5-7
⁵  During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest assigned service in the Temple of God in Jerusalem. His name was Zachariah. His wife was Elizabeth.
⁶  Together they lived honorably before God, careful in keeping to the ways of God. ⁷  But they were childless because Elizabeth could not have a baby, and now they were quite old.

Zechariah had been hoping to have a son with his wife, Elizabeth.  But his wife was not able to have children.  

We don’t know why they couldn’t have children; but they were sad that they couldn’t have children.

Zechariah served God as a priest and besides hoping for a son, he was also waiting – with all of his people – for the Messiah (the one who God promised he was going to send to save his people) to come. 

He had prayed a long time for both things.  He had prayed over and over for a son and he had prayed over and over for the Messiah to come.

One day, while on duty in Temple, God surprised him.  

When it was time for God to send his son to the earth, God first told Zechariah something else was going to happen first.  

We can read it in Luke 1:8-12:

⁸  It so happened that as Zachariah was carrying out his priestly duties before God, working the shift assigned to him,
⁹  it came his one turn in life to enter the sanctuary of God and burn incense.
¹⁰  The congregation was gathered and praying outside the Temple at the hour of the incense offering.
¹¹  Unannounced, an angel of God appeared just to the right of the altar of incense.
¹²  Zachariah was paralyzed in fear. 

God surprised Zechariah, and when the angel appeared Zechariah was afraid.

Why was Zechariah afraid?  Because he had never seen an angel before.

I imagine if we would see an angel it might cause us to be afraid also.

God surprised Zechariah by telling him that his prayers would be answered…he was going to have a child, a son was going to be born to him.

Luke 1:13
¹³  But the angel reassured him, "Don't fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you. You are to name him John.

But God had a reason for the surprise birth of this son, John.

Luke 1:17
¹⁷ He will tell everyone of God's arrival – he’ll get the people ready for God."

That was the big surprise. 

The baby born to Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth was going to be a special baby.  They would name him John and he would tell everyone that God was coming. 

What a surprise! 

What if we all grew up to be like John?  

What if we all would tell people that God has come and Jesus lived on the earth?

Sometimes we don’t realize that God really cares about us.  Is there a way that you can show someone that you really care about them?

In this time before Christmas – remember it’s called Advent – we can realize all over again that God really cares for us, and he proved it by sending us his Son, Jesus to save us from our sins.

You might want to watch this animation of the angel’s visit to Zechariah:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IC4EZigVXJg

On the next page is a picture that portrays Zechriah and the angel.  We don’t know exactly what angels look like, so it’s just a picture of what they might be like.

For Parents and Other Not Kids:

The cast of characters in the Advent drama are few:

• An aged priest and his can’t-bear-children wife,
• a virgin teenager and
• her confused, but soon-to-be husband,
• some shepherds on a hillside who were lucky enough to do “night” duty,
• one – didn’t-have-a-clue-what-was-about-to-happen – Innkeeper.  
• Lastly, some astrologer Magi who went exploring a celestial anomaly. 

THESE were the people God chose to introduce his Son into the world.  

THESE are the cast of characters that God chose to make known the coming of His son.

Nothing to me could be clearer contrast about the way God thinks and the way I do; and, I might add, nothing so clearly shows that God has a sense of humor than in seeing the people God chose to reveal his plans to.

There's more to the story of Zachariah for us to learn:

• There were 18,000 priests in Israel and all had a chance to get selected to serve in the temple, but the odds of any one out of 18,000 is pretty large. 

This service in the temple was privileged, so it was possible for a priest to serve in the Temple only once in their lifetime.  Yet, on that day, Zachariah pulled the lot and was given the duty to enter the holy place to burn the incense.  

• There are 30 Zachariah’s in scripture, but this one…this one is specific to God…the Zachariah that God reveals himself here is THIS one – a child of Aaron’s line, and a man who tried to order his life around God, a man whose name means "Yahweh Remembers".

• “Yahweh remembers” was something he had to exercise as faith…because his country was occupied by a foreign power – a mark of shame…and he was childless – a mark of personal shame.

• Angels aren’t on every page, so when they appear something usually quite amazing is being announced – and in this case, it’s Gabriel, an angel close to God who appears.

• The announcement seems improbable to Zechariah…and his reply is simple:  “You kidding me?”

After years of trying to have a child, and years of praying for one, an angel of God comes into the Holy Place to tell him it's going to happen...and his reply?  "You kidding me?"  

Sometimes we wait so long for something that personal disappointments can weigh us down and we lose sight of God and faith.

• Gabriel says, “Be Silent”…an act of judgment for unbelief?  Perhaps, but perhaps it is a sign of the “awe” events that are about to take place in the next few months.

Advent involves waiting in faith.  As Jesus came the first time, and this is what we are celebrating now; so also scripture says Jesus will come again…so we wait.   

Zachariah waited and when God sent his angel to tell him “your prayers are answered”, Zachariah might as well said, “what prayers?”  "You Kidding?" 

Brennan Manning once wrote:
“It never ceases to amaze me why God could not have chosen "better" people to do His work in the world. Yet if God can use them, and reveal Himself through them in such marvelous ways, it means that He might be able to use me, inadequate, and unwise, and too often lacking in faith that I am. And it means that I need to be careful that I do not in my own self-righteousness put limits on what God can do with the most unlikely of people in the most unlikely of circumstances. I think that is part of the wonder of the Advent Season.” 

Did we sometimes think we are too little in the universe?  

I do!  

I wonder at times, does God - in this vast universe he has created - really know or see who we are? 

Then in places like this, I look…for here God shows that he is more than capable of bringing the universe to each of us!  

Advent is a season where we are challenged to think about our "waiting" prayers, the ones that have gone on and on, and be reminded that faith often involves waiting. 

Galatians 4:4 (NRSV)
⁴  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 

Is there a “fullness of time” in God’s working in our lives?  I do believe there is.  We pray with hope and expectation but we also pray with perseverance. 

It is in our praying that we say all over again, “Lord I believe…even though I wait…and that’s ok…because I trust you”.

 Peace