What If I missed It? Repost

 Scripture Reading Luke 1: 5-20

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold

5 In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

8 Once when he was serving as priest before God during his section’s turn of duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But 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. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for 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. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 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.” 18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19 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. 20 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.”

Sermon                                 What If I Missed It?

Friends, happy new year! No, don’t panic, it’s December 3rd, and no, your pastor hasn’t lost her mind. Yet. But, like I told you last week, Christ the King Sunday is the New Year’s Eve of the Church year, the very last day. And the First Sunday of Advent is New Year’s Day. In nerdy pastor speak: last Sunday was the last Sunday of year A in the Revised Common Lectionary, and today we begin year B.

Woohoo! Par-tay!!!

No no, you’re right to find those details boring. It speaks well of you, you’re way more fun at parties. It also means you intuitively understand something important about this season of Advent, that we begin today: the party hasn’t started yet. Contrary to the message a lot of us are getting from community organizations, holiday parties we’re getting invited to and even asked to plan, retail stores, and all kinds of advertisements, it’s not Christmas yet. That holiday doesn’t begin until December 25th. Until then, we’re in waiting mode, in this season called Advent, which means “coming”. It’s still coming. We’re in the waiting room, staring at that white door that the doctor comes in through. We’re expecting news, and hope, and relationships, and new things, and change. So much change. 

While we enter this season of waiting, I’m starting a sermon series based on the book An Unlikely Advent: Extraordinary People of the Christmas Story by Rachel Billups. In this short Advent Study, Billups focuses on the people that show up in the Advent story…but not the ones you think of first. Billups bemoans how so many of our beautiful, beloved Nativity sets sit as heirlooms on a shelf but never interacted with, and missing a lot of characters that Luke and Matthew went out of their way to lift up in their birth accounts of Christ. 

We put out all of our Christmas decor last week, and I understand what Billups means, especially after seeing my kids play with both of our Nativity sets. My parents had a beloved Nativity that they got shortly after they got married that I wasn’t allowed to touch as a kid, even though I was dying to, so when I became a mom I specifically looked for Nativity sets that couldn’t easily break, that I could let the kids play with all they wanted. One is made of wood, and the people all look like pegs, and the other is from Fisher Price and it’s made of plastic. Lily and Xander both think that if everyone was there to meet a new baby, then they wouldn’t be standing all neat and organized around the creche, they’d be crowded around trying to see Jesus. They further think the two groups of Nativity figures would get together and talk, and that other random toys from around the house would also be curious to meet the newborn Christ. Therefore, according to my kids, Godzilla, the Little Mermaid, Barbie, and Batman have all made appearances in Jesus’ birth story. Can’t argue with that logic. Such an important event, why would Batman miss it?

I’m not going to focus on questions like “What if Batman met Jesus”, but I am going to lift up some of the B-list characters in this story, and explore how they interact with this story more than we usually do. And today that’s Zechariah and Elizabeth.

Neither Matthew, nor Mark, nor John say a word about Zechariah and Elizabeth, despite them being the parents of a very important character in Jesus’ life: John the Baptist. According to Billups, Zechariah and Elizabeth make us confront an important, but uncomfortable question: is it possible in this life for our big opportunity to pass us by and never come around again?

It’s not a fun question to ask ourselves, but we live in a culture that pushes that idea. We have it stuck in our minds that big life milestones have to happen by arbitrary ages: high school graduation by 18, college graduation by 22, marriage by 30 if you want kids, kids by 35 if you want to be able to keep up with them. Home ownership around that time if you don’t want to miss your window. First big job by 25, climbing up the corporate ladder in your 30s, and retirement by 65. Especially as our congregations age, and all of our Boomer friends head into their senior citizen years, this question gnaws on all of us every once in a while, even the young’uns like me: What are we looking forward to? Are we too old to have realistic goals? Can God do anything new with any of us? And if the “typical age” to do the thing we’ve always wanted to do has come and gone, then is it too late? Have we missed our chance?

If we’ve ever felt haunted by those feelings, either as individuals, or as a congregation, then we find abundant good news with Zechariah and Elizabeth this morning. E and Z started out on the “right track” as far as everyone around them would have thought. They married at the traditional age, and E accomplished the highest goal imaginable for women in her time and place: she married well. Z was following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, and went into the priesthood. Based on the events of the story we hear this morning, he’s a highly respected priest, as he was chosen to light incense in the holy of holies, the most sacred place conceivable to him and his peers, a once in a lifetime opportunity. We don’t know exactly how old E and Z are, but they’re old enough that they both know there’s something they wanted to do, but it didn’t happen in the expected time, and now they and everyone around them believe the time for that has passed–they don’t have kids. It’s not the worst fate for Z, who can focus on his position as an esteemed priest, but for E, labeled as barren and blamed, as women in her time were, for failing to give children to Z, it’s a burden. But what can they do about it?

Consigned to nothing changing, Zechariah takes his place for the ritual in the holy of holies. No one is allowed in there with him, out of respect for God, so imagine his surprise when he hears a voice, and it’s Gabriel, who claims to be there for God? I love how the Divine keeps breaking all our rules. Gabriel tells Zechariah, hey dad, get ready to meet your son, he’ll be so cute. No alcohol for him, though, he’ll live in devotion to God, like you. Zechariah retorts with logic: he stops short of calling E old (good man), but he asks Gabriel how he and E could possibly have a child when they’re both “getting on in years”? Now, in fairness to Z, this is very similar to the question Mary will ask the same angel, Gabriel, in another six months when he tells her she’s having Jesus: how can I have a baby? Isn’t that kind of impossible? Gabriel seems to have more patience with Mary, the teen girl who risks her whole future to bring Jesus into the world. Z isn’t in that kind of vulnerable position, this should be nothing but great news to him. Gabriel therefore retaliates, and tells Z “That’s enough out of you, mister. I’m shutting you up for the next nine months.” Interestingly, Elizabeth doesn’t complain…almost like this is a little gift for her.

But, either way, the first piece of good news we receive in this Advent season comes to us from E and Z, who affirm that even when we miss the world’s arbitrary deadline, God shows up and tells us she never had a calendar. E and Z were right where they needed to be when God needed them to bring Jesus’ cousin into the world, the one who will baptize him and set him on his way to his ministry. God has a plan and purpose for them far above what they thought they were capable of. They haven’t “missed it”. 

Now, what we’ll be hearing for the next month until Christmas are, in keeping with much of holy scripture, big stories. Stories that don’t always sound like they fit with the real world. But don’t despair in that, it only means we need to keep listening for God. Is God bringing something new into your life right now?

Put differently, do you feel called to try something, but you’re hesitant because it feels like “the wrong time”? Billups, the author of this book I’m preaching from, relates a story about her mother, who wanted to serve as a missionary in the Holy Land as a young woman, back in the early 1970s. But then Billups’ dad returned from war in Viet Nam, and he and Billups’ mom got engaged, and Billups’ mom figured she couldn’t travel the world, she needed to settle down and focus on her marriage. But 50 years later, as an empty nester, she finally signed up to take a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, to do mission work there. She was in her 70s by then, and considered by many too old to travel, and too old to do a whole new thing. But God willed it, and that was all she needed.

Do you have a dream like that? No dream is too big or small when it’s something God has planted on your heart. A year ago I dreamed of launching a podcast, and heard several people I love tell me “you’re a pastor and a mom, you have zero time for that, this is crazy talk.” Well maybe it was, but it worked, and we just started recording our second season.

Do you have a talent you haven’t fully utilized? Do you have an idea you’d love to see come to fruition in the world? Do you have a vision for what this church should try in this community?

If you do, and you don’t know what to do with those sparks of inspiration, why not share those ideas with a trusted friend? For all you know, you could be conceiving of John the Baptist in your mind right now.

Don’t miss it.

Amen.