Geneva Presbyterian Church

Weekly Sermon

December 10, 2000 - "Zechariah: An Expert in Hope"

Reverend Anne Benefield
Geneva Presbyterian Church, December 10, 2000

Isaiah 42:1-9; Luke 1:67-79

Luke 1:67-79 Then [John's] father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us In the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 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." Prayer: Heavenly Father, we know that over the centuries you have worked through earthly fathers like Zechariah. Help us to understand Zechariah's words and follow his lead in being faithful to you. May his words light our path and illuminate our understanding of your word. Amen. More than time separates us from Zechariah. His culture and station separate us, too. He was an elderly, lower-class priest, one of thousands of priests who worked a few days a year at the Temple and who would seldom be chosen by lot to enter the holy of holies and offer incense to the Lord. He was a humble man living in a humbled country. And yet…there was something good and fine that God saw in Zechariah and his barren wife Elizabeth. God chose them to be the parents of his messenger John the Baptist. I wonder if what set Zechariah apart was his hope, a hope we hear so vibrantly spoken in his blessing of his newborn son, John. Zechariah had a lot of time to think about what he wanted to say. You may remember that when Zechariah questioned the angel Gabriel about how Elizabeth could have a child in her old age, the angel struck him mute until the baby was born. He had nine long months to think about what he would say. The result is one of the most beautiful poems in the Bible. Zechariah begins with praise of God. I think that is a powerful place to begin. In a time of great rejoicing, Zechariah first words are praise for God. Toward the end of his song of praise, Zechariah blesses his son. This is where we see the hope of Zechariah. He says to the babe in his arms: "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 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." This child, John, born to poor, aging parents, is destined to be the prophet of the Most High. What glorious hopes Zechariah has and they are hopes that will not be disappointed. Zechariah was an oppressed man living among oppressed people, but he knew they would be set free. We aren't oppressed people living in an oppressed land, but we need freedom, too. I think about the articles in our magazines on sleep depravation, teenage achievement stress, and the concept of 24-7, and I wonder if we aren't oppressed by our need to meet expectations for wealth, advancement, and prestige. Zechariah was oppressed by different things, but he may have an answer for oppression that could help us, too. We can learn from Zechariah to change our priorities. We can approach life with a transformed attitude. What is important to Zechariah is to begin with praise of God. Then, as he blesses his newborn son, he advises him to: 1. Prepare the way of the Lord 2. Share the knowledge of salvation 3. Walk in the way of peace. How do we prepare the way of the Lord? That is a difficult question. It seems to me that living as the Lord would have us live is the best way we can prepare the way of the Lord. As we are more and more faithful in our lives, we make a smoother and stronger way for the Lord to enter. Do you remember The Happy Hypocrite by Max Beerbohm? The happy hypocrite is a wicked man who wore the mask of a saint to woo and win the saintly girl he loved. Years later when a castoff girl friend discovered the ruse, she challenged him to take off the mask in front of his beloved and show his face for the sorry thing it was. He did what he was told only to discover that underneath the saint's mask, his face had become the face of a saint. [As retold by Frederick A Buechner in Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC, (Harper & Row, Publishers: New York, 1973), p.52] One way to become a saint is to live as one, and living as a saint may be the best way to prepare the way for the Lord. After Zechariah charges his son to prepare the way of the Lord, he challenges him to give knowledge of salvation to his people. This is a tricky admonition, too. Most of us are pretty uncomfortable sharing our faith and our knowledge of salvation with others. The way we keep our faith to ourselves reminds me of a story that Dorothy Day included in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness. She tells about picketing different organizations and businesses. There were some people who regularly picketed with them including a woman who was sent to them from a hospital after an unsuccessful operation for a tumor on her brain. "She was not too well informed as to issues and principles, and when one of the passers-by asked her what the picketing was about, she answered tartly, 'None of your business.'" We act like our faith is nobody's business, but it is. We are called to share it. There are any number of ways to share our faith. We can do small things like bringing gifts for children who otherwise would not have a new toy for Christmas. We can do harder things like delivering meals on wheels on a regular basis. We can do the hardest thing: We can be honest with our friends and tell them about our faith and invite them to come to church. Whenever I think about ways to share our faith, I am reminded of a man named Bill DeVries. I knew him in New Jersey. As a teenager, he went to work for Woolworth's in the shoe department. He was a hard worker and a smart man although he had little formal education. Eventually, he ran all of the shoe stores in Woolworth's. A few years ago, when Woolworth's went bankrupt, the shoe stores were the only profitable part of the chain. I believe that Footlocker bought them out. The closing of Woolworth's was very painful for all the employees. Bill himself had to tell his employees that the chain was closing and their jobs were ending. There was one young man who spoke up to Bill DeVries. He told him, "I could leave here bitter for now I am going to have to start all over, but I am not leaving bitter because I leave here with something very special. I leave with an image of what it means to be a good person in business. You have provided the model. I know that you are a person of faith, even though we have never talked about it. I know by the way you live. I hope to be as faithful as you are both at work and at home. Thank you." Bill DeVries says those words meant more to him than anything else that anyone has ever said to him. He was affirmed in his faith. He had found a way to share his faith. When we live according to our faith, it shows, even though we may never say a word about it. The final challenge Zechariah gives to his baby son is to walk in the way of peace. The world tries to teach us that success and happiness are based on being aggressive and competitive, but that is not the way of peace. I have been happy over the past few years to hear how many elementary schools are teaching children to work on projects in teams because success in life is overwhelmingly based on being able to work with others. What counts is our attitude. We have to be on the look out for peaceful ways to live with each other. One of my favorite professors in seminary was a man named Donald Capps. In his book Reframing: A New Method in Pastoral Care, he talks about finding new ways to be open to peace. He writes: "During one of the many nineteenth-century riots in Paris, the commander of an army detachment received orders to clear a city square by firing at the rabble. He commanded his soldiers to take up firing positions, their rifles leveled at the crowd. As a ghastly silence descended, he drew his sword and shouted at the top of his lungs: 'Ladies and gentlemen, I have orders to fire at the rabble. But as I see a great number of honest, respectable citizens before me, I request that they leave so that I can safely shoot the rabble.' The square was empty in a few minutes." [Donald Capps, Reframing: A New Method in Pastoral Care, (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 1990) p. 17]. That old commander found a way to walk in peace. Sometimes it takes a little imagination, but we can walk in peace, too. Our lives would seem pretty hopeless if there were no chance of change-if we couldn't get out from the oppression of expectations of wealth, prestige, and success. We want all those things, but we need something else. We need hope and that we can only get from Christ. We don't know if Zechariah actually met Jesus Christ, but we do know that his life was filled with hope because he knew Jesus was coming. Amen.