Master 220: Advent 2010, Zecharias' song

At the church that I attend, during the Advent season, we went through a sermon series on the four "songs" of Christmas. These have been an important part of the Church (Universal)'s ritual and celebration for centuries. At my own church, we looked at these songs under the overarching theme, Repeat the Sounding Joy! The songs are all found in the gospel of Luke and are spoken by Zecharias, Mary, the angels, and Simeon.

In this series, I want to make some comments about each of these songs and the events that surround them. I won't even try to treat each passage exhaustively but just want to highlight a few ideas that might be interesting and helpful. I think it is a good idea to consider these songs, in part, because they express the various speakers' understanding of what the events surrounding Christmas were all about. In our contemporary culture, certainly, Christmas has come to mean many different things for many different people. And even Christians, I suspect, may have difficulty articulating just why the birth of Jesus Christ was so important and significant. So I think it is helpful to consider what these different speakers thought about the events that were taking place around them.

So with that in mind, let's begin by looking at Zecharias' song. The story of Zecharias (the father of John the Baptist) and the song that he sings can be found in Luke 1:5-25, 57-80. Here is the text of his song, which I'll follow with some comments about both the song and the surrounding events.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of David His servant--
As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old--
Salvation from our enemies,
And from the hand of all who hate us;
To show mercy toward our fathers,
And to remember His holy covenant,
The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand 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 on before the Lord to prepare His ways;
To give to His people the knowledge of salvation
By the forgiveness of their sins,
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us,
To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:67-79)

There certainly are a number of overlapping themes if you compare the different Christmas songs in Luke. So we should pay attention to what all the songs share as well as to what is unique about each. One theme that is common to at least three of the songs is the redemption and deliverance of Israel. Zecharias, Mary, and Simeon all understood that the Messiah was soon to come to the nation of Israel. The people of Israel had been waiting, for centuries, for the one who would deliver them from political oppression and lead them into the fulfillment of God's plan for them.

Notice, though, how Zecharias describes the goal or end of this salvific work. He quotes Psalm 106, which speaks of salvation from Israel's enemies, with the goal that they (the people of Israel) might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness. The proper end of salvation is that those who are saved would come to serve God, their creator and redeemer. Now the idea of service is not a popular one, in our contemporary age, but that is at the heart of the biblical picture of the ideal and perfected person. To be in a position of service to God is the best place that one could be, according to the Bible. I won't mount a defense for that claim here, but will just invite you to consider the people who served God, as described in the Bible. Don't just consider what happened to them, but think about what kinds of people they were.

It's interesting that Zecharias would emphasize this point because, at the beginning of his story, he actually was not ready to serve or be used by God. Zecharias belonged to the Jewish priesthood and is reported to have been a very good and upright man. In fact, Luke says of him and his wife, "And they were both righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord." (1:6) Yet, when the angel Gabriel came to him and announced that he and his wife would have a son who would actually point people to the Messiah, Zecharias doubted. He said, "How shall I know this for certain? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." (1:18)

We're told that Zecharias was obedient to and revered God. So why did he express doubt? Why did He hesitate? --Am I saying that doubt is a bad thing? No, but you would think that a man who had served God for his whole life, who belonged to the priestly class, who was familiar with the stories of how God had miraculously brought children to aged or barren women, who received this announcement from an angel in the temple of God--you would think that He would have been ready just to say, "Yes," to God. But he wasn't. Again, we're told that he diligently followed the commandments and requirements of the Lord, and I'm not saying that keeping God's commands is a bad thing, but maybe that's not the same thing as knowing God and being ready to serve God.

Zecharias, no doubt, had been praying for a child for a very long time--just like the people had been waiting for their Messiah for a very long time. And Zecharias lived in a culture where people would look at him askance once they learned that he had no children. Why don't Zecharias and Elizabeth have children? they might wonder. Why has God prevented them from having children? Why has God chosen to withhold the blessing of children from them? These are the questions that people in the culture might have asked. And they are probably also questions that Zecharias and Elizabeth asked. Did anything change about their external actions? No. Zecharias and Elizabeth continue to obey God's law and live as righteous individuals--but maybe, just maybe, they began to doubt that God was really watching out for them, that God had good things in store for them, that He would provide for all their needs. Maybe that's why, when the angel Gabriel came with his announcement, Zecharias did not throw himself wholeheartedly into God's plan for him. Instead, he held back.

Some people look at what happened next as a kind of punishment. The angel announced, "And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their proper time." (1:20) Certainly one could see it as punishment, but I like to think of it as an enforced discipline of silence. Zecharias had become the kind of person who was not ready to be used by God. And when He first had the opportunity to respond to the action of God in his life, he spoke words of doubt and hesitancy. So God, recognizing that Zecharias had a character and tongue that were going to get him in trouble, silenced his tongue. And so, for nine months, Zecharias did not speak. He did not share his wisdom or experience with anyone, he did not teach anyone, he did not offer prayers at meals or meetings, he did not talk or speculate about what was happening in the life of him and his wife. Sometimes what we most need just is to be silent. The impulse to make a remark, contribute something to a conversation, and impress people with our erudition can be so strong--yet they often lead us to speak imprudently and unwisely. The impulse to talk often shortcuts the thinking process. So God gave Zecharias nine months to think, to reflect, to pray silently, to meditate, and his only conversations were with the One for whom no words are necessary. And when Zecharias' second chance to respond to the things that were taking place came, he spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit (1:67).

He did speak of God's deliverance, the coming messiah, salvation from enemies. But he also pointed out that the purpose of that salvation was to enable people to serve God in holiness. Freedom from oppression is not an end in itself. When the people of Israel were delivered from their enemies in the Old Testament, they over and over used that as an occasion to disobey and reject God--which was contrary to His plans. Zecharias announces that the opportunity to live in that relationship of servitude to God has been opened up once again.

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Now what does this have to do with us and what does it have to do with Christmas? In Zecharias mind, the Messiah was going to come primarily for the nation of Israel. But the other song-writers and Luke, himself, will help us to see that God's intentions, in sending Jesus Christ, were not only for the people of Israel, but for the world. In the Old Testament, God chose a particular people to live in a special relationship with Him and serve as a model to the world. With the coming of Christ, the opportunity to participate in that special relationship is made available to everyone. Zecharias may not have understood this, but he actually hints at it in the last couple verses of his song. Whereas salvation from enemies is the focus of the first half of the song, salvation from sin is the focus of the second. The proverbial net is being cast more widely, bigger problems and more people are being encompassed by the salvation that is being worked through these events.

But how do you enter into that special relationship? Should churches just start announcing to people that they should serve God? Maybe not. After all, an angel came to Zecharias with the invitation to serve God and he wasn't ready for it initially. So maybe churches need to think about how to prepare people to serve God--how to make people ready so that when the invitation to serve God comes, they will be ready to respond. Not only was that Zecharias' experience, but that was the role that John the Baptist would fill. Zecharias prophesied over his son, "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways". (1:76) I fear that we don't place enough emphasis on the preparation in our churches. And many Christians, in their own lives, don't give enough attention to preparation. So when the invitation comes to serve God, to trust in God, to step out in faith or obedience, they are not ready.

How does one prepare? Silence is a great first step. Not just silence for the sake of silence--but silence as a way of listening and being attentive to what God is doing.

Of course, there's plenty more that could be said, but that's enough thought-provoking comments about this passage.

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.

Master 219: The Ultimate Man-Challenge

Actually I don't know if it's the "ultimate" man-challenge, but it comes pretty close. And the challenge is presented in, of all things, a poem. But I find myself challenged by its message and I hope that you will too. We live in a world in desperate need and yet are easily tempted to mediocre aspirations. But rather than have you read my commentary, I'll just present the poem and leave you to reflect on it.

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God, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and ready hands;

Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;

Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;

For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

(Josiah Gilbert Holland)


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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.

Master 218: Walking in the Light

The gospel of John is full of such rich imagery. One of the images that he employs repeatedly is that of light and darkness. Here are three places where it comes up.

In John's prologue to his gospel, he says of Jesus, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." (1:4-5)

In Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, He says, "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed." (3:19-20)

And finally, Jesus proclaims to a crowd in the temple, during the Feast of Tabernacles, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." (8:12)

Drawing upon this theme of light and dark, I want to look very briefly at one the most memorable moments in Jesus ministry. The following reflection (despite its length) does not attempt to treat this passage in its full breadth, but I hope that you will find the invitation presented here to be both challenging and compelling.

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"But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began to teach them. And the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery, and having set her in the midst, they said to Him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?"

And they were saying this, testing Him, in order that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground. But when they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up, and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

And again He stooped down, and wrote on the ground. And when they heard it, they began to go out one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman, where she was, in the midst. And straightening up, Jesus said to her, "Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?"

And she said, "No one, Lord."

And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more." (John 8:1-11)

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This is surely one of the most compelling and memorable demonstrations of Christ's compassion and mercy. But the interpretation of this passage remains controversial. Some will take it as an indictment on all forms of judgment. That seems to carry the point too far. So what exactly is Jesus opposed to in this case?

What is wrong with the Pharisees in this passage? (Yes, some might retort, "What is right about the Pharisees?"--but stop and think through the case with me.) Clearly the Pharisees were not concerned primarily with the sin that had been committed. They were concerned primarily with trapping Jesus. This is made clear (1) by the fact that they used this woman's case to pose the challenge to Jesus and (2) because they failed to bring the man, who was equally culpable according to the law, before Jesus. What else is wrong with the Pharisees in this case? They rushed into this situation, claiming to be concerned about the law and justice--and yet, the truth is, the Pharisees were just as guilty as this woman of breaking God's law. Yet they were ready and even eager to expose her to humiliation, condemnation, and judgment that they would never have wished upon themselves. Jesus highlights just this point when He gives the invitation, "He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Now you might be wondering, at this point, what does this event have to do with light and darkness? Here's the connection.

Look back at the quoted passages about light and darkness. Now consider, this woman belonged to the category of those who walk in darkness and sin. She was involved in an adulterous relationship with a married man. She knew that this was forbidden by the law and condemned by society and yet she allowed the relationship to continue. The Pharisees also belonged to the category of those who walk in darkness and sin. Jesus frequently rebuked them for their hypocrisy and unwillingness to recognize Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God.

Now think about what the Pharisees do in this passage. They take this woman and they throw her into the blinding light. They break into the home where she is lying with her lover, they drag her off the bed, out of the house, and into the streets. This woman must have tried to resist, tried to get away, but the crowd pushes her all the way through the city to the steps of the very Temple. The city population has swelled because of the visitors who came for the festival. How many people saw her as she was pulled along? How many people wondered at the commotion and started to follow the excited group of religious leaders? Finally she is thrown down in the middle of a large group of people and one of the Pharisees loudly declares, "This woman has been caught in adultery, in the very act." How terrifying. How mortifying. What thoughts must have run through this helpless woman's mind as she lay exposed before all those people?

The light is terrifying. The light of reality, the light of truth, is often mortifying. That's why people hide from it. That's why they prefer the shadows--to hide the worst and darkest parts of themselves. For some people, it's not even bad things that they are hiding; they are just afraid to be known fully. "If people knew how I really was, they would think I was stupid, simple-minded, naive, childish, unmanly, a loser"--and so they hide in the darkness.

We avoid coming out into the light. We make tacit agreements with one another: Don't look too closely at my life and I won't look too closely at yours. Don't bug me about the garbage in my life and I won't bug you about the garbage in yours. And, of course, one of the greatest harms that we can inflict on a person is to throw them out into the light--to expose them to the world for the failure, fraud, weakling, loser, sinner that they are. The darkness is where we find safety. The darkness is where this woman had found safety, and where the Pharisees found their safety.

How terrible, then, for this woman to be cast out into the light--or was it? For what did she discover in that light? While she was confronted with the stark truth about who she was, she also encountered the living Truth. While she lay in the blinding light of awful reality, she encountered the Light that is the source of life. There's no question that what the Pharisees did to her was cruel and terrible, and yet in the midst of that awful experience, she met with grace and love, forgiveness, compassion, and mercy. Isn't that interesting?

The truth is that grace, love, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy can only be found in the light. Those who choose to continue living in darkness can't experience these things. Think about it. You know that people love you if they love you in spite of your faults and failings. The only people who need forgiveness are people who have done something wrong. And if you're not willing to acknowledge that you have done wrong, then you can never experience the full power of grace and mercy. So many people have this all backwards. They think that safety is found in darkness and in hiding. Don't give people the chance to hurt you--that's the best thing you can do, they say. But this woman found something even better than safety from harm. Through her pain, she found grace, love, compassion, forgiveness, and mercy.

Notice the situation of the Pharisees after Jesus poses His challenge. They face three alternatives. They can throw the stones at the woman--but they know that such an action will permanently mark them as hypocrites in the eyes of all the people. They can acknowledge that they, too, are sinners and in need of grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Or they can slink back into the darkness, defeated for the time, in order to make new plans to undermine and even kill Jesus. Unfortunately, they choose the third option. They probably think that is the best option because they don't realize that if they were to stay in the light, they would receive grace, mercy, and forgiveness. They want to pretend that they were righteous. They want to retain the appearance of righteousness and authority, and so they miss out on the chance to receive the righteousness and authority that only God can provide.

This woman, on the other hand, is transformed by her encounter with Jesus. How do we know that she is transformed? Because of Jesus' instructions to her. He says to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go your way. From now on sin no more." When this woman leaves Jesus, she doesn't need to slink back into the darkness. She doesn't need to go back to her lover or into the arms of any other man. Jesus has set her free from that. He had shown her true love, true grace, true acceptance, true forgiveness.

For people who insist on living in darkness, it is impossible to "sin no more." Sin is part of hiding. Sin is part of staying safe. As long as one is obsessed with taking care of oneself and one's needs, sin will be necessary--deceiving people will be necessary, stabbing people in the back will be necessary, getting close but not too close will be necessary, stepping on other people to get what one needs will be necessary. But for the one who chooses to step into the light, there awaits the amazing discovery that we don't actually need to take care of and protect ourselves. And once we set aside the project of taking care of ourselves, suddenly the need to sin disappears as well. (Of course it's not always that easy. Breaking this habit of needing to take care of ourselves often takes a lot of work. But the benefits of doing so are worth all the effort.)

I noticed that in the first eight chapters of John, two of the stories recorded are about women. And both of the women are adulteresses. The woman at the well (John 4) had had five husbands and, when Jesus met her, was in a relationship with a man who was not her husband. The woman in this chapter (8) was caught in the act of adultery. Why does John do this? Are we supposed to believe that all the women that Jesus encountered in His ministry were lascivious in this way? I don't think so. I think John was trying to make a particular point.

I suggested earlier that people often run to the darkness in order to find safety and refuge. And women, in the Ancient Near East were among those who most needed and wanted for safety and refuge. Women in these cultures usually had little or no status. What status they did had came from two places--the man that they were married to and what (male) children they bore. Think what it would be like to live in this culture as an unmarried, widowed, divorced, or childless woman. All the messages that came from the culture said to these women, "Your only hope for a good life is to find a man who will marry you and start to have kids." Just imagine how many women couldn't satisfy this standard and so were led to the conclusion that happiness and contentment were forever lost to them. What a despairing situation.

This is just the kind of situation that drives people into darkness--that probably drove many women into darkness. They couldn't find a man who would marry and take care of them and so, in the eyes of society, they were worthless and of no account. And so they resorted to the only path that gave them any shred of hope for happiness--the path of illicit relationships with men who really only used them for physical gratification. At least in those few moments of physical intimacy they could feel like they were loved, that they were valued, that they were worth something. But they would have to remain in the darkness. They would have to hide their true selves and their true hurts from the world and just hope that they would never be exposed to the light.

Interestingly, when both of these women encounter Jesus, it is in the brilliant light of truth. Jesus confronts the woman at the well with her sordid past and the other woman is thrown down before Jesus in the sight of everyone. And notice what Jesus doesn't do. He doesn't say to these women, "I can solve your problem. Here's the address of the man you should marry. Go find Him, say to Him such and such, and your life will be happy and fulfilled." Could Jesus have done that? Of course He could have. He knew all things. He could have fixed both of these women up with stellar husbands. But He didn't. Instead, he set them free from the need for marriage. He set them free from a system that defined their value and worth by their relationship to men. The woman at the well was so transformed that she ran back to all the townspeople who had despised and rejected her, and she began to tell them about the Messiah whom she had met. And the woman in chapter eight was so transformed that she did not have to return to the shadows and darkness when she left Jesus.

Think about the different messages that our culture screams at us, about what it takes to have the good life. Many people still believe that the only way to have a fulfilled and complete life is to be married to the right man or woman. Others, who have rejected the institution of marriage, will tell you that fulfillment comes through sexual gratification. The real man is the one who has all the women. The real woman is the obedient wife. Or maybe she's the one who rejects family life and marries her career instead. The real man is intelligent... but not too intelligent, because being too intelligent makes you stand apart from the crowd, and it's not cool to stand apart from the crowd. Maybe being well off consists in having the most expensive car, or the biggest car, or the most fuel-efficient and environmentally-friendly car. It depends on who you ask. Being cool is still a requirement for having the good life--although what counts as cool varies depending on your age, vocation, and where you live. And there are those on the fringe who still insist that what is really cool is being un-cool. In some circles, if you make a big deal about your salary your thought to be pompous. In other circles, you'll be thought odd if you don't flaunt your seven figures. Trying to sort out all the messages will just give you a headache, because there really is no rhyme or reason behind them. But what is pretty much guaranteed is that whatever standard you pick for success or happiness, you won't be able to meet it. And then there will be the temptation to pretend to have met the standard of success and happiness, and that leads to deception (maybe very socially acceptable deception, but deception nonetheless), and that will just lead you into darkness and hiding.

What's the alternative? To step into the light. To be who you are and who God has made you to be. To give up on the project of trying to take care of yourself and protect yourself. To discover that there is life and love, joy, grace, power, and freedom in the light.

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God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.