Prophecy Fulfilled

Scripture Lessons: Jeremiah 31: 31-34 and Luke 1: 67-80 Sermon Title: Surprised by a Fulfilled Prophecy Preached on December 20, 2020 We’re now getting very close to the big day, the most important day for most every child in every state of our nation. The morning when, having made their lists and been as good as possible, they drag their sleeping parents out of bed, rush to the living room to see what Santa’s left under the Christmas Tree. It’s a morning of promises fulfilled. Of wishes made and granted. Christmas morning is the essence of hope and joy. Even if there’s not peace on earth exactly or abundant blessing on all humankind on Christmas morning, it feels like it for just a minute. It’s fleeting, but it’s there. Even if before the wrapping paper is even cleaned up, most of our kids will be thinking about what they’d like to get next year, there is something beautiful about their attitude. Yet think about it. Regardless of the self-interest and materialism, they’re kids who know that dreams do come true and if you really want something you might just get it. Adults don’t think about it that way. On Christmas morning we stand back and watch it happen without feeling exactly the same hopefulness and joy ourselves. Of course, adults still love Christmas morning. I love Christmas morning, but I don’t look at it the same way I once did. I don’t look forward to it as our girls are looking forward to it right now. I wonder if many adults, like me, would rather have Santa come down the chimney to pack up some stuff from my basement and take it back to the North Pole than deliver anything else. A member of our church had too much, so was having a yard sale last weekend. She’s someone with outstanding taste, so as soon as Sara and I heard about it we made or way to her driveway. Then, last Sunday, when a nice armchair hadn’t sold, she invited us back over to pick it up if we still wanted it. Well, we did, and while I was loading it into our car, I asked her what the yard sale had been like. Most people don’t like yard sales. I don’t like hassle of hauling everything outside, then getting up early to stand around while people pick over my stuff. Interestingly, this woman said that the hard part of having a yard sale for her was giving up and moving on. “To have a yard sale, you’re admitting that you’re not going to get to all those things you thought you would. If you’re selling it than you’re facing the fact that you’re never really going to learn how to re-cane those chairs or refinish that dresser.” Your son is never going to come back for his catcher’s mitt. Your daughter really doesn’t want her grandmother’s paintings. To have a yard sale you have to give up on something you imagined or promised yourself that you would do, which is even harder than finding out that some people are only willing to pay fifty cents for what you paid $50 for. Most children aren’t ever thinking like that. They’re still filling up their lives, not downsizing. To them, the whole world is full of possibility, and their dreams are coming true on Christmas morning. They’re good at wishing for. On the other hand, some of their parents have had to master the art of letting go, moving on, and settling for less. If we didn’t imagine how full all our basements would be. Some brides hang onto their wedding dresses, imagining that one day their daughter might wear it. Some grooms hang onto their tuxedos, imaging that they’ll fit back into it. It’s a hard thing to face the fact that neither of those things are likely to happen, so congratulate yourself if you’ve had a yard sale. Give someone else the chance to make their own pasta or brew their own beer but be careful. Let go of your motorcycle, but don’t let go of adventure. Let go of your golf clubs, but find another way of getting outside. Let go of your bassinette, but don’t give up on the future, don’t give up on the promise. For Zechariah it had been so long, surely he had given up on the idea that it would ever happen. Our Second Scripture lesson from Luke is the account of what Zechariah said once he had finally regained his speech. What he says in our Second Scripture Lesson is in celebration of his son’s birth, John the Baptist, but the background for this Scripture lesson is that he had been waiting for a child so long that the bassinette had been sold or given away. They wanted a child, but the child never came, so rather than keep wishing they let go. Is that wrong? Well, it depends. Elizabeth and Zechariah were good and righteous people. The Gospel of Luke goes so far as to say that they were, "Both of them... righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord." Not only that, Zechariah was a priest and Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron, the original priest of Israel, but none of that guarantees their lives are full of faith, hope, and love. None of that ensures that they really expected the living God to step into their lives. What we should all assume is that they knew how to pray, but at some point they started to wonder, “what’s the point.” Month by month the disappointment became too much to take, and rather than be the victim of their high expectations, they lowered their sights and settled into the reality that children would just not be in the cards. After all, "both were getting on in years," and part of growing up is letting go of fairy tale dreams, so they had a yard sale and let go. Zechariah continued on as a priest. He kept wearing his priestly garments, saying his priestly prayers, and was surely honored when he was chosen to go offer incense in the holiest place on earth, the sanctuary of the temple, the place where all good Jews knew God was must truly present. Surely, he was honored, but as a man who had gotten good at letting go of some of his dreams and some of his hopes, did he still believe he might meet God there? Had it been you, what would you have expected? Parents know that their kids are growing up when they stop believing in certain things, but where does the stop-believing-in stop? If your kids like Harry Potter, maybe you broke the news that an acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witcraft and Wizardry isn’t ever coming? But don’t you still want them to believe that the world is full of magic? At some point I had to let go of my dreams of being a professional baseball player, but did I also let go of the idea that I could be anything I dreamed I could be? Zechariah had stopped asking his wife Elizabeth about it. Now a stomach bug was always just a stomach bug, but having given up on that dream, as he entered the Temple, the place thought to be the sanctuary of God, did he expect anything special to happen. What did he expect to see? When we start letting go, it’s so easy to let go of too much. The words we say in here can become empty, so that it’s easy to participate in the rituals without believing that they mean much of anything. How often have I said to you, “Know that you are forgiven, and be at peace” and how often have you really believed it? How often have I stood at the table, reminding you that Christ died for your salvation, and how often have you really taken it in? I think this is true of Zechariah, that this man who must have known all the stories of Scripture by heart, all the accounts of God speaking to Abraham and Sarah and Rehab and Jacob and Moses, all the times angels appeared, all the miraculous events that changed the course of history, still this man was terrified when an angel of the Lord was there, exactly in the place that an angle of the Lord is supposed to be, because he had let go of too much. He had even let go of the truth that God is alive and makes miracles happen. We are now very close to the big day. Christmas. And Christmas is about this God being born. Christmas is about God really being born and walking around on the earth, but do you really believe he’s coming, are you really ready for his birth, or have you given up believing such miraculous things? Zechariah wasn’t a faithless person. He was a priest after all, but when an angel really showed up and told him that his prayer for a child would be answered he was terrified. His wife on the other hand, you might be thinking, “and you thought Zechariah was afraid,” but Luke tells us that “after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. Then she said, "This is what the Lord has done for me when the Lord looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people." On the other hand, because of his faithlessness, the angel made Zechariah mute. Finally, once he was able to speak again, having only been able to watch and listen, he spoke the Second Scripture Lesson which we just read, not like a rational, measured old man, having learned how to give up on his unfulfilled dreams, but like a faithful prophet, having had his eyes opened to the God who is still at work in this world doing impossible things. There is so much ritual to our celebration of Christmas, but do not forget that there is something wonderfully real beneath all the wrapping paper. It is a love that changes everything. By the tender mercy of our God, The dawn from on high will break upon us, To give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace. These are not empty words. This is no idol tale. This is the prophecy fulfilled. The Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.