Sermon:  “Impossible Hope”

Today’s scripture lesson, from the beginning of Luke’s Gospel, may not be as familiar to you as the other parts of the Christmas story.  For one thing, Elizabeth and Zechariah don’t appear in anyone’s Christmas pageant, nor does John the Baptist – that famous, hellfire-preaching and locust-eating prophet.  That’s probably a good thing, since even as a baby, John probably had a good set of lungs on him!  And for some reason, the Common Lectionary skips right over this part of Luke.  And since Pastor Jen and I and many other Protestant and Catholic churches use the lectionary to choose our Sunday Bible readings, you may never have heard it read in worship – much less acted out. But thanks to Pete’s wonderful skit today – and the willingness of the Dorrells to help him bring it to life– you may never forget this story of the miraculous conception of John the Baptist.

What I love about Bible humor, and clowning, is how it can help break scripture open in new ways.  A skit can give the “shock of recognition” we need to chip the truth out from under what my friend (and clown) Margie Brown likes to call the layers and layers of “Bible varnish” that make scripture stories seem too shiny and special to ever matter to us.  And when that happens, we ordinary Christians tend to zone out in church like so many “pew potatoes,” our eyes fixed on the glare of God’s grace, but still not really seeing it. 

Did you start to see yourself in Elizabeth or Zechariah in our Time for Children today?  Well, let me tell you a little bit more about them – things that may not have been obvious to you from either the scripture reading or the drama.

First of all, we read of “a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah” whose “wife was a descendant of Aaron.”  With all that pretty Bible-speak, and hearing it begin “in the days of King Herod of Judea,” we might think they were a very distinguished aristocratic couple, maybe even friends of the king.  But that was highly unlikely.  Naming their ancestors was more like providing their last names – good old Zack Abijahson, who married little Liz Aaronson.  Sure, Zechariah was a priest, and he and Elizabeth were descended from priests – but so am I.  I’m a pastor and so was my great-grandfather.  (He even had a brother named Elijah Abijah – poor guy – it can’t have been easy for him on the playground!)  So it’s not that holy or unusual to have a minister in the family, right?  Back then in Judah, the priesthood had 24 divisions of about 750 men each, which amounted to about 18,000 priests in all.  They were mostly poor farmers, like the rest of their people, and they served the temple in two week-long shifts a year. Zechariah’s clan had week 8.  They were much more like midwestern Army Reserve chaplains than the kind of glittering religious elites we might imagine – such as high-ranking cardinals or bishops who live in Vatican City. 

Still, when we read, “both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord,” it sounds like they were supernaturally saintly, perfect in every way.  But all that means is they were observant Jews, good folks.  So we need to picture them a lot like the Dorrells – good church people, all right, but not miraculous, not royal, and certainly not elderly – just old enough to be surprised about the baby – that’s the reality that makes their story of “impossible hope” worth hearing.  We can identify with them – as ordinary Christians doing our best to hold onto an ancient faith in an increasingly modern and faith-less world. 

I mean, just imagine what this angel visit must have been like for Zechariah. The Greek says he’s probaino, or "well along in years," so he’s been doing this routine temple service for some time.  It’s less an honor than we might think, the way our deacons and ushers serve in rotation.  Getting picked by the lottery out of 750 other men to go into the Holy of Holies to burn incense was a rare honor, but he still wouldn’t have expected to hear from an angel – not any more than any of us would expect to see angels in church.  He certainly wouldn’t have expected the angel to answer a prayer that he had probably given up praying about 10 years before – that his wife Elizabeth might finally bear him a son.

Truth is, they didn’t have to have been very old to have given up on ever having kids.  With girls back then getting married as teenagers (like Jesus’s mother Mary) and having 2 or 3 babies by the time they were 20 – if you were married and infertile by the old age of 30, no one would have blamed your husband for divorcing you and trying again with somebody younger.  Back then, a childless woman was thought to be suffering a well-deserved punishment from God for some terrible sin.  So Zechariah was a good man to stand by his wife as she was waiting for a child in disgrace – just like other Bible heroes you might remember from Sunday School.  Remember Abram and Sarah (remember, she laughed at the angel when she heard she was to be the mother of Isaac at her age), and Jacob and Rachel (the mother of Joseph and Benjamin)? In the Hebrew Bible – the only scriptures Zechariah and Elizabeth (or Mary and Jesus) would have read – these other stories of infertile women waiting for a miracle become stories of faithfulness rewarded – stories that reminded and inspired them to hold onto hope, even in the face of public ridicule.  Next week, we hear about the Angel Gabriel’s next visit, to the teenage Mary, which is another kind of fertility miracle – a girl too young and unmarried to conceive – but she too chooses to be hopeful in the face of public shame.  She had read her Bible!

But what the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s long years of infertility has to tell us is that even the most faithful religious people can get worn down over years and years of unanswered prayer.  Mary still had the optimism of youth.  We older people can get more cynical.  Their story as a couple mirrors the story of their own Jewish people – living under foreign occupation in their own land for almost 600 years.  First it was the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, and finally – for just the past 60 years – it was the Romans. My point is, the Jewish people would have been praying for the coming of God’s promised Messiah for so long – and praying for the promised return of the great prophet Elijah for so long – that it would be easy to imagine how they might have been tempted to stop believing God was listening, or ever planning to send them a Savior.  When prayers go unanswered long enough, even the faithful begin to give up all hope.

My point is, until we understand how burned out on prayer and numb with despair Zechariah and Elizabeth probably were, we can’t appreciate why Zechariah would have had the nerve to show his doubt to the angel with his question, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”  It’s such a contrast to Mary, who gets a similar birth announcement in next week’s scripture lesson, but instead asks this same Angel Gabriel not "How can this happen?" like Zechariah, but instead, "How will this happen?"  And that’s when the angel speaks the famous words we chose as this year’s Advent theme, “With God, nothing is impossible.” 

Here’s the thing, I suspect many of us have become a little like Zechariah and Elizabeth and their beaten-down, defeated people, especially if we have prayers that have gone unanswered year after year.  Some of us have practically written off Christmas as a religious moment in our lives – it’s gotten so packed with social events, work deadlines, and the financial and emotional stress of shopping for gifts for a long list of friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers.  We need the impossible hope of God to rain down upon the land our arid souls inhabit – and begin the greening of our new lives in Christ’s reign of love.  Do you have some of those unanswered prayers and impossible hopes?

Maybe you’re literally like Zechariah or Elizabeth, hoping and praying and waiting for a partner or a child?  Or are your hopes and prayers focused on finding you relief from something else that causes you secret despair, and even shame – an addiction or chronic illness in yourself or a loved one, approaching old age and increasing disability, the loss of a job and inability to find a new one, some buried grief or worry about a bleak future, or even bankruptcy and foreclosure?  Or are has the general bad news of the world – you know, global warming or war or famine and disease – has all that so dragged your soul down into doubt that you’ve even stopped hoping and praying and waiting for a miracle?

Know this:  No matter who you are or what may have driven you (like Zechariah) to either outspoken doubt or stricken silence, know that church is the place – this church is the place and the people – that will continue to offer prayers and wait with you through your season of great darkness.  Come and join us this Advent for worship, as we sing hope to the world’s despair, thanking God for the Good News of Jesus Christ – that with God, nothing is impossible.  Amen.

 

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Luke 1:5-25

⁵In the days of King Herod of Judea, 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. ⁶Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. ⁷But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years. ⁸Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, ⁹he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. ¹⁰Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. ¹¹Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. ¹²When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. ¹³But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. ¹⁴You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵for 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. ¹⁶He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. ¹⁷With 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.” ¹⁸Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” ¹⁹The 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. ²⁰But 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.” ²¹Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. ²²When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. ²³When his time of service was ended, he went to his home. ²⁴After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, ²⁵“This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.”