1 Be Still and Know (Luke 1:5-25) by Rev. Dan McDowell November 25, 2018 5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. 8 Once when Zechariah s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine
2 or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. 18 Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. 19 The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 The Lord has done this for me, she said. In these
3 days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people. (Luke 1:5-25) Did you ever have trouble with talking too much? That was a problem I had once. Well, you know that is kind of problem we religious types have. We can talk and talk and talk. We always have something to say. By the way, I might not be who you think I am. I understand that there is a strong resemblance between myself and your shepherd Shepherd Dan that is a curious title Why would you call a spiritual leader a shepherd? After all, sheep are so dumb. Well, that is a different subject altogether. Perhaps for another time Zacharias: My name is Zacharias
4 Some call me Zechariah. My name means Yahweh remembers. And it is a very good name. I have reflected often on the fact that God remembers. And yet, sometimes I wondered. As you may already know, I had a wonderful wife named Elizabeth. She was quite the partner for me and we enjoyed our marriage Except that we had no children. Perhaps it is something that you would understand because you have been unable to have children. Or perhaps you do not. If you do not, let me explain. In our culture, when you are childless, it is a sign of an unacceptable life. People think that you have been doing something wrong. God is displeased with you. Believe me, we attempted to obey God s command to be fruitful and multiply, if you know what I mean. But it was not been successful. For whatever reason, that door remained closed.
5 Elizabeth and I prayed long and hard on this subject. But still, there was no answer. The heavens were strangely silent. All our friends were having children. And we just watched from afar, wishing their joy could be ours as well Of course, all our friends reminded us of Abraham and Sarah, like we somehow had forgotten the story! It s not like we didn t know the story. But frankly, when you were the age we had become, why bother hope for that? For at our age, children were a little bit more than what you have energy for. Anyway that was one of those old stories. I believed it to be true. But I was not so sure God worked like that anymore. Now, don t misunderstand. I didn t give up on God. I was devoted. I was devoted to God. We were devoted to God.
6 We did everything we possibly could to be right with God. We obeyed God s commandments. When we sinned, we offered the appropriate sacrifices. We were a part of the synagogue life. In every way, we wanted to be in right relationship with God. As much as humanly possible, we were working to be in tune with what God had for us. But I did discover that God was not done with us. Not by a long shot. Though I had, in a way, thought the Lord was pretty much done with us, especially since we were on in our years. What we found out is that God had been planning things for us for a long time. You see I was chosen. Let me explain Twice a day, a priest goes into the temple to offer incense in the Holy of Holies. How one was chosen was by lot. In other words, it was not some kind of political thing, who you knew, or anything like that.
7 It was God that chose you. And it was literally a once in a lifetime event. Once you did it once, you never could do it again. And since there was over 20,000 of us in the land at that time, many never had the privilege to go into this most sacred place. To be chosen Do you know, this was a great blessing! It was a vindication of sorts. To others, it had always appeared that we were doing something wrong. Since we didn t have children, it was a sign that God was withholding His blessing. And it wasn t just those around us that were thinking this. We thought it too. But I was chosen! This was so phenomenal! I can never express to you the excitement that I felt. It was so unbelievable. God was blessing! As the time came, I rehearsed the actions over and over.
8 I was going into the very presence of God. I was going to the place where the glory dwelt. I thought about what I would do the offering of incense I thought about what I would say the prayers that were to be made. So the time came. I was participating in the prescribed ritual. Now, don t get mistaken here I meant everything I was doing. I meant everything I was saying. And I was praying for the coming Messiah, the Redemption of Israel Oh, how I have longed for this If only God would send us a Savior. If God would only free us from this terrible tyranny. If God would only free us from the oppression we have brought upon ourselves. O God, come and work in us and for us Save us from our enemies! By the way Have you ever prayed for an angel?
9 I mean, that you feel your situation is so desperate that you need God to intervene. You pray Just give me a sign Lord! Well, it is not as easy as it looks You see, I am praying for God s intervention, and Gabriel arrives. Unexpectedly, I might add. I was more than just startled I was scared. I was scared!!! I mean there is a reason they are always saying, Fear not! They are frightening. Have you ever seen a real angel? They are like well they are hard to describe They are bright uh And they are about so tall about so wide
10 Well, that doesn t do him justice either. He just kind of filled the room. Well, an angel just fills the place with his presence And they are Well, you just have to understand that it is very hard to describe. All I can tell you is that when you see one, you know that you have seen one. But I was petrified. And of course, as I look back now, I understand that God was answering my prayer. At the time, though, it seemed like some great mistake. Gabriel told me that Elizabeth and I were going to have a son. He was to be a Nazirite, and thus uniquely different. He was to be purely set apart for God s work and service. He would be one that would be filled with the Holy Spirit, right from the very beginning, right inside of Elizabeth. And he would have a very special mission. He would bring people back to God. Now, remember before you get all fussy with me One, I was petrified.
11 Two, I was being told I was going to be a father. And if you were me, I am not so sure you would have believed it either. That s right I didn t believe it. I kept thinking This is really nice. In fact, this is really great. But are you sure you have the right people here? Maybe you were supposed to see tomorrow s priest Maybe he made a mistake and came a day early. This was a message for a much younger man. Yes, it was true I was faithless. After all I was old. Elizabeth was old. Old people don t have children. Too many years have passed by.
12 Our fruitful years were long gone. And we had learned to accept it. So, then I said the dumbest thing I ever said. I said to Gabriel, God s messenger, How can I be sure? You know, I don t think Gabriel was too happy with my answer which was a question. In fact, he stated it so firmly, you might have thought he was angry. He said, I come from God with this good news! You know, that did kind of said it all. This was not a time to argue or doubt. But I found out rather quickly, that it was too late to take my doubts and faithlessness back. It was out in the open. And we all learned something that day. Well, I am hoping that we will all learn something today. For if you are an unbeliever, that is, if you are a doubter about what God is doing, you need to understand this Disbelief has nothing to say. As I mentioned, Gabriel was not too pleased with my questioning.
13 So the judgment came quick way too quick For the next nine months, I was told I would have nothing to say. It was not a moot point. Rather it was a mute point (if you will forgive the pun). This was, for me, a hard lesson to learn. I was a teacher of the law. I was a talker. So to not say anything, well, this was very difficult It was like the longest time out ever for being bad. But, you know what? It did give one a lot of time to think. And it did give me a lot of time to watch Elizabeth grow. What a sight! And how she glowed! And how we laughed! Well, for me, it wasn t out loud, but I laughed anyway. Why? Because
14 God is gracious. I discovered that our impossibilities are excellent platforms for God to do His work. He is working in us. And, if we are willing to see it, He has tremendous good in mind, even though we might think that He has given up on us. He never gives up. He is always working. And we need to get out of the way. This is at least one of the reasons the Lord set aside my ability to speak. I was getting in the way. I was doubting. I was being faithless. It was like He was saying, I need to use you; now get out of the way. It is rather paradoxical, isn t it? But it speaks to a greater truth that I learned during my period of silence. That is We need to be quiet. There is a lot to learn in silence, but nowadays, you hardly live in a culture that values it.
15 But it is more than just being quiet. It is valuing that silence. It is using the silence. It is listening to God. How many times do you come in to this room and just go through the motions? Walk in. Sit down. Greet others. Stand up. Sing. Sit down. Stand up. Sing. Sit down. Stand up. Read the Scripture Sing. Sit down.
16 Stand up. Sing. Walk out. You come into a place that is designed to meet God. But you never plan on it. We never plan on meeting God. We go through the motions. But we miss the reality. You know that is what happened to me. I was so wrapped up in the blessing of being chosen to go into the temple that I wasn t listening. And if God had not intervened, I would have missed that God had something far greater, far superior than I could have ever imagined. So, what I did I learn? I learned that silence was a gift. And that being quiet was a holy response an appropriate response to our holy Father in heaven. And in that silence, I discovered something. I believed.
17 Believe me I did believe. For when my son was born, I had no trouble naming him. It was the name God had given him. His name was John meaning, God has been gracious. For God had not only been gracious to me, He was being gracious to the world. My son, would later be known, as John the Baptist. He would be the messenger that would prepare the way for His Messiah. God was answering my very prayer. I just had to be quiet to understand that