Advent is not linear in its celebration. There’s a time for preparation, a time for examination, and with that confession. There’s a time for celebration, for rejoicing, and for rehearsing the promises of God that were fulfilled in Jesus’ coming. We enter into Advent to look back at Christ Jesus’ first coming, and we continue through Advent hoping for the fulfillment of God’s promise for Jesus’ second coming at the end of the age. Advent is a time for HOPE.
Hope is not always easy to put our finger on. We hope for many things throughout our
lives. As a child, we hoped at Christmas
for the gift we were getting. As an
adult, we hoped (perhaps) for marriage, for our children to grow into young men
and women, for a satisfying career, and for our life to be enjoyable as we grow
old. We recognize that many of these
hopes may not come to pass. Marriages go
through rough times, and some don’t make it.
Children grow up and make their own decisions about life which we don’t
always agree with. Careers don’t always
develop into meaningful jobs that we enjoy.
Hope, in the normal sense, is a desire for the unknown of life. When we get what we desire, we are happy, but
even then, we don’t always understand that it is a hope fulfilled.
Let’s go back to Zechariah’s story in Luke 1. God sent his Angel, Gabriel, to the temple as
Zechariah was serving in his priestly duties.
Gabriel announces to Zechariah that his prayers have been answered. I asked the question before, did Zechariah
wonder, “What prayers”?
Zechariah, as a priest doing his evening prayers, was concentrating on
his prayers for the Messiah to come, for the deliverance of his people from
Roman occupation, for the religious leaders, etc. Yet it is not those prayers that Gabriel
comes to tell him are fulfilled.
Instead, Gabriel has come to tell Zechariah that his prayers for a
child, a boy, are being fulfilled. He
announces to him, that he and Elizabeth will have a child they will name John,
and he will “turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God… With
the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him, to turn the hearts of
parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous,
to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:16-17).
The Angel was telling Zechariah that they would birth the
forerunner of the Messiah’s coming. The problem was Zechariah didn’t believe
the message. Gabriel had enough of his
doubts and pronounced “The angel replied, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the
presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this
good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be
fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day
these things occur" (Luke 1:19-20).
Zechariah returns home, unable to speak, and yet, the
impossible happens – Elizabeth is pregnant and Zechariah is silent!
“Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she
bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his
great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day, they
came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after
his father. But his mother said, "No; he is to be called John."
They said to her, "None of your relatives has this name."
Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted
to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is
John." And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened
and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God” (Luke 1:57-64).
Naming a child was the Father’s prerogative, but Zechariah
couldn’t speak. When Elizabeth says that
the newborn is to be named John, the various friends and leaders are
shocked. Surprises seem to abound in the
story of Zechariah. His prayers had been
answered, but he didn’t believe it. In between “your prayers have been
answered” and “I’m too old, its impossible”, months of reflection
passed and prayer changed from “no way” to “wow”. It happens all of the time. We say we believe, and circumstances come to
us that in the natural realm make things impossible, until we give our doubts
to God and learn to say “I trust you”.
Nine months is a long time, but during that time Zechariah
came to a place of complete faith and believing, and so when he wrote on a
tablet his name will be John, the silence the Angel imposed upon him was
released - “He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is
John." And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened
and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over
all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the
entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said,
"What then will this child become?" For, indeed, the hand of the Lord
was with him” (Luke 1:63-66).
I’m convinced that all of us have a little bit, sometimes a
lot of Zechariah in us. What strikes me
in this Advent narrative is that Zechariah grew to “see”, “understand”, and
“believe”. It was St. Anselm who wrote,
“We have a Faith that is seeking Understanding”. Faith is not faith if understanding is first
in line.
Peace
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