There are three very important prayers from the Gospels connected with the Advent season.
The most famous is probably Mary's prayer which we call the Magnificat. The second Simeon's blessing of the infant
Jesus at his presentation at the Temple known as the Nunc Dimitis, and the final one, our reading for today, Zechariah's
prayer the Benedictus.
We would do well to remember as we begin our meditation today that this gospel lesson is really a parent's prayer.
If you have children, or grandchildren you know the kind of expectations that mount as Christmas approaches and
the incredible pressure such holiday celebrations can bring on an already stressed family system.
It's easy to make excuses for an increase in poor behavior as Christmas draws nigh, and I don't just mean on the
part of the children. I heard one adult say recently "I know I could be a great parent if it wasn't for the
kids!" And how many times have you heard someone say to a new parent "If only they came with a guide
book and instructions."
Zechariah and Elizabeth were first time parents, and pretty far along in the game at that. Those who have been
fortunate enough to have more than one child know the benefit of having been down some roads before. you tend to
be a little more confident, and a little less rigid in your routines. After all, you can look at a second or third
child with the knowledge of babyhood, toddling, primary school, high school, etc. behind you and that perspective
gives a slightly better picture of what both a parent and a child might have to do.
It isn't however an insight into the future of what a child will be. That is still a promise waiting to be revealed.
Yet any adult will tell you that for better or worse their parents had a pretty big impact on the way their life
turned out.
From a Church perspective we believe that when parents actively desire and persistently seek "the hand of
the Lord" to be on their child, a whole new and wonderful set of possibilities begin to open up, and that
is the basis of Zechariah's prayer. Some would argue that it is not possible for any parent to force a future of
faith onto their child, but God knows we all are the products of countless other things we continue to blame our
parents for forcing onto us, so why not faith?
I want to suggest that parents can decide to impart the knowledge of what it means to be servants of God in each
of their children from the time of their baptism, and then stay the course with them throughout the formative years.
Elizabeth and Zechariah drilled it into John that he had a place in God's plan, and according to scripture John
filled it.
If all children could live daily with the knowledge of how important they are to God's Kingdom, maybe they would
know for certain that there is a place for them too.
The oracles of Malachi, which Christians believe pointed to the birth of John the Baptist dealt with the religious
and social conditions of the period. The Persian dominance of the ancient Middle East had extracted a heavy price
on the people through taxation and levies of conscripts for the overlord's military exploits. Nature had added
to their miserable poverty with drought and plagues (3:10-11).
A century after the return from exile in Babylon, the glowing visions of Second Isaiah had already faded. Not only
had the whole populace lost heart, they had also lost faith. Many had nothing but contempt for their religious
traditions (1:14; 3:7-12)
This short selection we've been given today taken from the last book in our Old Testament is part of the fourth
oracle (2:17-3:5). It is a response to a complaint that not a single sign of divine activity could be discerned
in Israel and a fear that was sweeping the land that Yahweh had grown weary of this favored nation.
Someone or something kept that response alive for over five hundred years when the authors of the New Testament
gospels interpreted this passage as a reference to John the Baptist and his role as the forerunner of Jesus. All
the narratives of John's ministry are really midrashes on this prophecy. Vss.2-3 later formed a profoundly moving
passage in Handel's famous oratorio where they provide the setting for the promise of the Messiah's birth.
In all probability our gospel lection for today was created for this place at the beginning of Luke's gospel. It
is a composite of expectations drawn from the psalms of the Old Testament as a celebration of Jewish messianic
hopes which in Luke's estimation John fulfilled.
His role was to be the Messiah's forerunner, a prediction which combined the prophecies of Malachi and Isaiah.
No doubt this belief first known to us through Luke, probably reflected the teaching of the Apostolic Church, many
of whose early believers, like many of the first disciples, first came to the faith through their association with
the ministry of John.
Luke sets John's word in history, and tells us the news came when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, when Tiberius
Caesar had been Emperor for fifteen years, when Herod was tetrarch (that is, ruler of a fourth) of Galilee, and
when Caiaphas was high priest.
That makes it possible to be pretty precise in dating. About 27 or 28 A.D., perhaps in the month of August or September.
Preparation had to take place specifically, some time, not any old time, but this time! Luke gives us the date,
almost the hour and the minute, when getting ready must begin.
It's easy as a reader of scripture to think that the whole world existed right there in the nation of Israel, or
that at least the attention of the whole world was focused there. Luke doesn't tell us that about this same time
the Han dynasty was beginning in China, that Cymbelline was
recognized as King of the Britons, or that London was just being settled. He doesn't care that the Italians were
starting to use soap for the first time-something they had learned about from the French. He doesn't add that the
Pantheon was just being built to house all the gods of Rome, or that a new musical instrument called the oboe had
just been invented and was being described as the "ill wind that nobody blows good." In Japan, the Japanese
had recently started the practice of summa style wrestling, encouraging massive weight gain by the eating of lard.
None of that matters to him at all. Yet while all these other things were going on,-- Pontius Pilate replaced Archelaus
as Tetrarch in Judea, and for all we know, Jesus still lived quietly at home with his mother and his brothers and
sisters.
In Preparation. Incubating. In the womb of history.
Everything was coming together…but no one was conscious of it. Some however were looking for the signs.
Searching the Jewish scriptures for references applicable to the oral tradition of the gospel was an intentional
practice evident throughout the New Testament, and clearly seen in the earliest letters of Paul. Indeed, there
could have been no New Testament without the only "scriptures" available to that early group of believers.
It's all about beginnings and endings once again, and knowing the roots of our traditions in order to have a basis
for moving forward.
Paul too was a searcher for signs.
When he reflects back on his Philippian friends from the vantage point of imprisonment in Rome, he has vivid memories
of his association with them. It was the first place they visited after Paul's vision of the man from Macedonia;
the first preaching of the gospel on European soil. You may remember that the first converts were a group of women
who met regularly for prayer by the river, and that later, as Paul and Silas were going to that place of prayer,
they were followed by a slave-girl possessed of an evil spirit who kept screaming out, "These men are servants
of the Most High God! They announce to you how you can be saved!" It became such a problem for them that Paul
ordered the spirit to come out of her, and the healing had economic consequences for her owners who then had Paul
and Silas arrested as Jewish troublemakers.
They were severely beaten and locked in an inner cell where they prayed and sang hymns to God. Then, in the middle
of the night, there was a great earthquake - the jailer was converted - the magistrates were embarrassed to discover
they were Roman citizens - and they were asked to leave the city…and they never came back.
Yet Paul recognized that much had been put in place for a later time. He was thankful and at peace with the work
he began there, even if he himself could not finish it. He knew it was already accomplished.
William Barclay points out the importance of Paul's choice of words when speaking of that work being brought to
completion and their reference to a life of sacrifice. The words are technical terms used to describe the beginning
and end of a sacrifice as conducted in the Jewish temple liturgy, a sacrificial system Paul would have known intimately
from daily participation in it.
He saw the Christian life as a sacrifice which those who knew Jesus as the Christ not only shared with him, but
entered into with Christ himself. A fact made possible only because the grace of God had been at work in them.
On this anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and our entry into World War II, in the presence of veterans
and baby boomers, and witnesses to ongoing conflicts throughout the world…we light the second candle of Advent…the
candle of Peace.
The dictionary gives two definitions of peace. The first is "a state of calm and quiet" and the second
is "an absence of war or strife." Clearly both are desirable and much needed personally and globally.
But the Biblical concept of peace is an even more desirable quality. The Hebrew word shalom is an _expression of
the ultimate state of well-being, wholeness, and prosperity.
It is that time when everything is operating one hundred percent as it was meant to do. The completion of purpose
Alpha to Omega.
We have been called by the Prince of Peace to work for that kind of complete harmony…for ourselves and for everyone
else we meet. We need to look consciously at what we might in fact be introducing to this stage of history,-- what
we might indeed be ushering into the future-and what it is we may have sent "slouching to Bethlehem to be
born."
For the signs are everywhere for those with eyes to see, and we will see God's promises coming true---just as surely
and suddenly as "mercy breaks the dawn of peace." He has died, he is risen, he will come again!
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