1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, 2 just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, 3 it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.
5 In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. 7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.
8 Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. 12 And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. 14 And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
18 And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” 19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” 21 And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. 22 And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. 23 And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
24 After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, 25 “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”
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Now that we’re in the thick of
winter, it seems like a good time to think about summer, right? When it’s freezing cold and we’re
contemplating how many layers of fleece to put on, it’s a good thing to focus
on the coming warmth, despite the fact that it’s another 3 weeks until winter
even truly begins. As of this moment, we
have five different space heaters in our house.
The fifth one is a new addition—4 just weren’t enough. Hard to believe we were both raised hundreds
of miles north from here. We don’t fare
well in the cold.
We know what the depths of winter
feel like. It’s achingly cold, and the
car cannot warm up quickly enough. We
find every warm piece of clothing we have, and yet the wind somehow sneaks
through anyway. We try and seal the house
against the elements, but a draft gets in and reminds us of the winter
cold. Snow flurries drift down and
torment us. Sometime around the
beginning of February, it feels like winter will never end.
And yet, just as surely as the sun rises
in the morning, each and every year the cold of winter turns to summer
heat. The question for you is this: when does winter end and summer begin?
Now, each and every one of us may
answer this question differently. For
you, it may be when the first flower blooms in early spring, when the crocus
appear and give us green in the midst of brown.
Perhaps it is Easter Sunday, when the church is in bloom. Maybe it’s March 21, the first day of
spring. For me, winter ends every year
on February 15, when pitchers and catchers report to spring training. Each and every one of us may latch on to a
different sign, but the point is that there are all sorts of different
reminders for us—each one points to the reality of the coming spring, to the
return of warmth, and the end of the winter cold. They are all signs that point to the coming
future.
At one point, we’ll be standing
outside in mid-July when it’s 115 degrees outside and we’ll be unable to
contemplate the fact that it was once 25 degrees outside. We’ll have forgotten what it feels like to be
cold, because we’ll be too busy melting into the parking lot. All we’ll know is heat. The cold will have been lost to the past.
In a similar train of thought, Scripture is
moving. God is moving creation from one
place to another. The world is changing
around us. Creation is being
transformed. And there are signs along
the way.
Take a moment to look at Genesis 1,
the beginning. Verse 2 says that the earth
was a formless void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. In the beginning, there is nothing but
darkness. God’s first creation is light.
Now, flip to the other end of
Scripture, from the beginning to the end of the story. There, in Revelation 22, its says in verse 5
that there will be no more night, for the Lord God will be the light
forever. In the end, there is nothing
but light.
So we move from darkness to
light. From one end of the spectrum to
the other. At one point there was no
light, and in the end the darkness will have been vanquished and there will be
nothing but light. It is as drastic a
change as you can imagine. Similar to
the transition from freezing cold to searing heat—in the midst of the light, we
will scarcely be able to remember what the darkness was like.
And along the way, there are
signs. God has given us reminders that
the light is coming. God has sent
prophets and apostles and angels and miracles to assure us that the light is
indeed coming, because the darkness is still here. We are in a transition period, a time when
the world is being shifted from darkness into light, and the darkness is not
yet gone. We do not have the ability to
forget what darkness is like, because it is all around us.
And yet, there is also light. There are signs of God’s presence and God’s
work in our midst. We are constantly
being reminded that God is coming, that darkness will vanish. We are being reminded that God wins. We just need to remember to pay attention to
the signs, and to let them encourage us in our common walk with Christ.
So we come to Advent, here in the
middle of winter, a time when the leaves have fallen off the trees and the
weather outside is pointing to the dead of winter, and we spend these 4 weeks
being reminded that Christ not only has come but also is coming. We look forward to celebrating the birth of
the Christ child, that pivotal moment in history when the light himself entered
into the darkness and shone among us, even though the darkness did not
understand it. We also look forward to
Christ’s return, when the light shall conquer the darkness and destroy it,
catching us up in the light forever, banishing the darkness to the pages of
history. Advent is a time to be reminded
of the light.
The story today, the story of the
announcing of John the Baptist, is another one of those moments. John the Baptist’s parents were too old to
have children, and yet God brings life to Elizabeth’s womb. It had been barren and hopeless, and yet it
was there that God brought life. When
Zecheriah dared not to believe the angel Gabriel, he was struck mute until the
time that the baby was born. God gave
the people a sign, life in the midst of death, a reminder that the darkness
would not win, and signpost pointing to his final victory over sin and
death.
The Bible is littered with
signposts that God sent to remind us that the light wins in the end. God was constantly reminding us that the
darkness would not prevail. When Abraham
and Sarah were too old to have children and God promise to make a nation out of
them, Sarah laughed at the promises of God, and yet she gave birth to a
child. When the children of Israel were
stuck between the watery sea and the Egyptian army, God made a way through the
water, bringing them to safety and life when threatened with death. Throughout history, God has a habit of
reminding us that life conquers over death.
When the Roman army had invaded Jerusalem and there seemed to be no
champion for the Jews, God brought life into the womb of a virgin and Jesus
Christ was born. When Jesus was dead and
in the tomb, a place of darkness and death, God brought forth resurrection to
demonstrate that life would win over death.
Friends, God has not ceased sending
these signposts into the world. God has
not stopped reminding us that life is bigger than death, that darkness will be
forgotten and light will prevail. The
question for us is whether we are willing to pay attention to what God is
doing. There is resurrection in our
midst.
So, this Advent season, I invite
you into the discipline of waiting and watching. Will you watch for signs of life that are all
around you? Will you wait patiently as
God reveals himself to the world around us?
Will you stop trying to make everything happen on your own and trust in
the God who promises to make light prevail over darkness? When the walls are closing in and frustration
and despair are all around, will you look to the hills, from whence your help
comes?
I know that there are plenty of
reasons for despair. As a congregation,
there is pain and suffering in our midst.
We mourn. We pray for miraculous
healings. We struggle to look for hope.
Advent is a season of hope. It is a time that we are reminded that it is
not by our own strength that we conquer, but by the strength of our Savior that
we will prevail. God’s light will win,
and in Christ we, too, will win. All we
have to do is trust in him, and as we do so may we have the wisdom to look for
the signs of life that are all around us, to look for light in the midst of the
darkness, and hold onto hope that spring is coming.
Let us pray
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