From #blessed to #benedictus Luke 1:68-79

Transcription

1 Garrett Vickrey Advent 2 From #blessed to #benedictus Luke 1:68-79 Woodland Baptist Church San Antonio, TX Those of you who are not avid social media users might be perplexed by this sermon title. Is this sloppy typing? An error we didn t catch before printing? That never happens here (by the way tear out p. 2 of your Advent booklet and throw it away). Those pound signs are a social media organizational tool called a hashtag. They can seem confusing. But, they are a filing system (in a way) that organizes conversations and the way we communicate online. It started on Twitter but now is used on Facebook and Instagram. The hashtag has become a part of our common language. In 2007, web developer Chris Messina proposed, in a tweet, that Twitter begin grouping topics using the hash symbol or pound sign. Twitter initially rejected the idea. But in October 2007, people began using the hashtag #SanDiegoFire, at Messina s suggestion, to tweet updates on a series of forest fires in San Diego. Now, this little hashtag symbol shows up everywhere, even church. I bring this to you this morning, not because I am encouraging you to sign up for Twitter. But, because one of the most popular hashtags is the first word of this scripture from Luke 1. It is a word that has been used and abused. And it is a word that I hope we can reframe to retain going forward as followers of Christ. But, we have to begin to think of it differently. And Zechariah can help us. The word is Blessed. #Blessed has become a phenomenon the past few years. Instagram (the photo-sharing social media site) has had over 44 million #blessed posts. We might think that is a good thing people are grateful. But, what people are grateful for matters. There s a difference between being thankful to God for giving us life and bragging about an exotic vacation with Oprah. According to #blessed, God has been active doing things that might seem mundane for the divine Lord of all the earth. Jessica Bennett wrote in the New York Times last year about a few of the ways that God has touched her 1

2 social network She says, God helped a friend get accepted into graduate school. (She was blessed to be there.), God made it possible for a yoga instructor s Caribbean spa retreat. ( Blessed to be teaching in paradise, she wrote.) God helped a new mom outfit her infant in a tiny designer frock. ( A year of patiently waiting and it finally fits! Feeling blessed. ). 1 There are millions and millions of these chirps of blessing out there some humble brags and some heartfelt songs of thanksgiving. Diana Bridges articulated the difference well this past week in her article in our Advent Devotional guide when she quoted Thomas Merton. Merton said, We can either love God because we hope for something from him or we can hope in him knowing that he loves us. I think what gives many a bad disposition toward these espoused blessings is the material aspect of their blessing. They are blessed because of what they are able to grasp for themselves, but Zechariah turns this notion of blessing on its head. Zechariah sees himself as blessed because in God s presence he becomes keenly aware of the limitations of his grasp. He and Elizabeth were beyond child bearing years, but God gave them a child. He has no future in this world without God s gift (which is by the way the literal meaning of the name John). Zechariah shows us how to move from loving God because we hope for something out of him to hoping in him knowing that God loves us. Zechariah s song is joyful; which is surprising coming from such a grump. This passage of poetry today is something like a hymn to God Mary sings a hymn to God in this chapter too we know that as the Magnificat (more on that in a few weeks). Zechariah sings a song of blessing to God known as the Benedictus, a title coming from the first word of this passage in Latin Benedictus, translated here as Blessed. Zechariah and Mary are both visited by the angel Gabriel. They both question the announcement of the miraculous pregnancies. Mary gets a little grace here. She is let off the hook for her questions. Zechariah does not have that luck. Perhaps, it s because he is a grown-up, a priest, and someone who is expected to know better than to question an angel standing 2

3 before him. Or maybe it was the grumpy look on his face. Either way, he is stricken mute and deaf from that moment until the birth of his son John. He has had time to reflect. This forced silence gives him time to consider the disappointments and dreams of his people and of his own life s journey. He considers his life with Elizabeth. He s had time to remember how most of his life (besides thoughts here and there) he has believed that God would redeem his people. And he has had time to reflect on his own name, Zechariah, which means God remembered. This time of silence has changed Zechariah and he is moving from understanding that he actually has everything he needs. He s no longer addicted to the affection he tries so hard to get. He no longer needs a child as a symbol of status or anything external as a symbol of blessing. He s not waiting on external gratification or future events to prove his blessedness. He is blessed because he is rooted in the One from which he came. This is the move from blessing to benedictus. And this is where he regains his voice. Henri Nouwen once said, As long as you run from where you are and distract yourself, you cannot fully let yourself be healed. A seed only flourishes by staying in the ground in which it is sown. When you keep digging the seed up to check whether it is growing, it will never bear fruit. Thank about yourself as a little seed planted in rich soil. All you have to do is stay there and trust that the soil contains everything you need to grow. 2 As long as our blessings are shallow we will lose our voice to speak blessing to the world. That word (itself) will lose its meaning, and sink back into the noise of culture where ego is the only greater power to give gifts that matter. But, there s still hope for blessing. When the child was born everyone gathered around Elizabeth on that 8th day to find out the name of the child. Zechariah was still unable to speak, but I wonder if he sat there with tears in his eyes looking at this child. He know (even before he could speak) that he held the bridge to the prince of peace. The people gathered there (probably a lot of family) asked Elizabeth what the child s name would be. She 3

4 said, John. And they said, that s a ridiculous name. No one in your family is named John. His name is Zechariah, right Zechariah? And they started motioning to Zechariah telling him to get his wife under control. And the mute father of the child took a tablet and wrote, His name is John. As soon as he did he was able to speak again. And his first words are these prophetic words of praise and blessing the Benedictus. John s life shows us the true meaning of blessed. John s life was a gift. As is ours. He lived in the wilderness. No designer frocks for this toddler, only camel-hair onesies. Still, he was blessed. He wasn t blessed because of what he got out of life, but he was blessed with a calling that was significant for the life of the world. That s the kind of blessing understood in light of the benedictus that remembers God s grace on bad days. John would ultimately be killed by a paranoid King, but we still say he is blessed. Hope for the peace God s future brings sometimes puts us at odds with the present and with those desperate to keep things as they are. And it is up to the blessed ones to make that peace happen. How might the Spirit breathe new life into words like blessed so that we can better understand God s presence in our world? Sometimes God brings fresh faith from vintage spirituality. God speak to us through old hymns and old people dreaming new dreams. My former pastor and mentor Steve Shoemaker once said, That sometimes God shuts our mouths; for both glib belief and glib unbelief get in the way of truth trying to be born; and that if we keep singing God s songs the Shalom of God will come upon this world. 3 The blessings often voiced these days are about avoiding pain or suffering, but Benedictus is about opportunity and vocation. #Blessed says things like: Thank God I wasn't in San Bernardino on Wednesday. Benedictus says, God speak to us so that we might be healed by your word, make a way forward to your peace and make that way through me. 4

5 1 Jessica Bennett, They Feel Blessed, The New York Times, May 2, 2014, blessed-becomes-popular-word-hashtag-social-media.html?_r=0 2 Henri J. M. Nouwen, The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom, (Doubleday, New York, NY: 1998) Steve Shoemaker, Songlines of Salvation: Zechariah and Elizabeth, sermon from Myers Park Baptist Church, December 2,