1 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,120 So our teaching scripture for this morning is from Luke 2 00:00:12,440 --> 00:00:19,080 chapter 1 verses 67 through 80. It says then his father 3 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:23,200 Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied. 4 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:28,200 Blessed be the Lord of God of Israel, for he has looked 5 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:31,320 favorably on his people and redeemed them. 6 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:37,200 He has raised up a mighty Savior for us in the House of His child 7 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,880 David, as He spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets of 8 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:45,480 old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of 9 00:00:45,480 --> 00:00:50,400 all who hate us. Thus He has shown the mercy 10 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:54,840 promise to our ancestors and has remembered His holy covenant, 11 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,880 the oath that He swore to our ancestor Abraham to grant us 12 00:00:59,880 --> 00:01:04,400 that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might 13 00:01:04,400 --> 00:01:09,240 serve Him without fear and holiness and righteousness in 14 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:13,200 His presence. All our days in you, child, 15 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:16,800 shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go 16 00:01:16,800 --> 00:01:20,440 before the Lord to repair His ways, to give His people 17 00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:24,600 knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. 18 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:29,720 Because of the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high 19 00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,040 will break upon us to shine on those who sit in darkness and in 20 00:01:34,040 --> 00:01:37,320 the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of 21 00:01:37,320 --> 00:01:40,920 peace. The child grew and became strong 22 00:01:40,920 --> 00:01:44,520 in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he 23 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,640 appeared publicly to Israel. This is the word of the Lord. 24 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:53,880 Great. Good morning, everybody. 25 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,400 How was your snow day last week? Good. 26 00:01:58,400 --> 00:01:59,920 I'm glad. I know you're you're all 27 00:01:59,920 --> 00:02:07,720 grateful. So most pop songs tell you 28 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:10,840 exactly what they're doing almost immediately. 29 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:14,280 Sometimes it's in the very first line. 30 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:18,800 I'm walking on sunshine. I'm on top of the world. 31 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:21,320 Tonight's going to be a good night. 32 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:25,280 We were both young when I first saw you. 33 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:29,960 I'm sorry Swifties, but it's it's two on the nose. 34 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:34,200 There is no suspense about where this thing is headed. 35 00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:40,600 The mood has been announced, the emotional range is set from the 36 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:44,000 very beginning, and the payoff is already baked in. 37 00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:48,040 We spend the next 2 1/2 minutes reiterating the point that has 38 00:02:48,040 --> 00:02:51,360 already effectively been made in the 1st 2 seconds. 39 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:55,000 Everything about these songs is clear right away. 40 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:59,120 You don't have to sit with these for very long to know exactly 41 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:01,240 how they are trying to make you feel. 42 00:03:02,320 --> 00:03:07,000 I have been listening to Dylan's Blonde on Blonde quite a lot 43 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:12,000 lately, and what I love about that record is many things, but 44 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:15,440 particularly how uninterested he is in doing any of this. 45 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:19,520 So for the uninitiated, this is the one you're looking for this 46 00:03:19,520 --> 00:03:21,360 afternoon. When you go to listen to it, 47 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:29,480 it's long, it's wordy, it takes its time, and it refuses to sort 48 00:03:29,480 --> 00:03:33,480 of hurry you toward clarity. It's not making an obvious 49 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,280 point. The final track, Sad Eyed Lady 50 00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:39,520 of the Lowlands, is almost 12 minutes long. 51 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:47,440 So what we're doing here is sitting with thoughts, pictures, 52 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:51,720 ideas. It's patient, and Dylan seems to 53 00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:54,520 trust that something happens to you. 54 00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:59,200 If you stay with these songs long enough, you don't need to 55 00:04:00,160 --> 00:04:05,840 listen to that record to extract a point as quickly as possible. 56 00:04:06,440 --> 00:04:09,520 The whole idea is that we're we're painting a broad picture 57 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:12,240 and we're kind of going somewhere creative together. 58 00:04:12,920 --> 00:04:17,399 And as we've spent the last four weeks teaching through Luke 59 00:04:17,399 --> 00:04:23,520 chapter one, I've been thinking about how the gospels open in a 60 00:04:23,520 --> 00:04:27,600 number of different ways, and you can almost sort of feel 61 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:32,400 their personalities right away. The Gospel of Mark opens with a 62 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:36,320 headline, the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. 63 00:04:37,080 --> 00:04:40,000 I'm not trying to compare the Gospel of Mark to a pop song, 64 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,400 but the opening is pretty on the nose. 65 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:47,520 The Gospel of Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus the 66 00:04:47,520 --> 00:04:51,400 Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 67 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:55,400 So again, abundantly clear where we're going with this thing. 68 00:04:55,760 --> 00:04:59,880 The Gospel of John, a little bit more esoteric, a little bit more 69 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:03,360 mysterious, but it's clearly about the cosmic Christ. 70 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:07,760 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 71 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,320 the Word was God. And then there's the Gospel of 72 00:05:11,320 --> 00:05:14,960 Luke. After a brief dedication to the 73 00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:18,480 patron who funded the writing of Luke Acts. 74 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:23,600 Luke begins like this. In the days of King Herod of 75 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,720 Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah. 76 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,640 No thesis statement, no immediate mention of Jesus. 77 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:39,160 Just a rural priest and his wife and a long standing 8 that they 78 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,920 both hold. Luke seems to sort of trust that 79 00:05:42,920 --> 00:05:46,400 if you stay with the story that he's telling long enough, the 80 00:05:46,400 --> 00:05:49,480 meaning will begin to emerge through the different threads 81 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:51,480 that he's starting to weave through his book. 82 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:55,920 And so in the passage that we're looking at today, Zechariah has 83 00:05:55,920 --> 00:06:00,760 been silenced after an Angel announces that he and Elizabeth 84 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:04,720 will have a son. And for nine months, a priest 85 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:11,160 whose life is effectively shaped by communicating with words is 86 00:06:11,240 --> 00:06:15,280 silenced, and he's carrying a promise that he can't yet 87 00:06:15,280 --> 00:06:18,200 explain. Luke is teaching us something 88 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,640 important here by the way that he frames the story that waiting 89 00:06:21,920 --> 00:06:27,200 is one of the ways that the love of God is formed inside of us. 90 00:06:27,480 --> 00:06:31,040 Not the only way, but a very real way. 91 00:06:31,840 --> 00:06:35,000 Sometimes faith responds immediately. 92 00:06:35,400 --> 00:06:39,320 So last week on our our snow day, I was supposed to preach on 93 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,160 Mary's magnificent and I we actually still recorded the 94 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:44,680 sermon and it's going to be available on the podcast because 95 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:46,840 I just felt like I had something to say both weeks. 96 00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:49,960 So you can enjoy that on your own time. 97 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:55,720 But what's happening here is we begin to see the ways that 98 00:06:55,960 --> 00:06:59,880 sometimes what God's doing takes a little bit of time to unfold. 99 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:03,520 Mary sings her song a few verses earlier. 100 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:08,200 Almost immediately upon having this realization of what's 101 00:07:08,440 --> 00:07:13,720 happening in her life, Zechariah takes his time, nine months of 102 00:07:13,720 --> 00:07:19,200 silence. And so in both cases, God is 103 00:07:19,480 --> 00:07:23,840 shaping people so that when they speak, their words carry trust 104 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:27,720 rather than fear. Their words carry some measure 105 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:31,800 of security, some measure of the knowledge of the love of God for 106 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,400 them. And so that raises a question 107 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,120 for us this morning as we look at this text. 108 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:45,160 Most of us know seasons where we want to act or speak or respond 109 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:51,120 decisively and faithfully, but we're not really sure how yet. 110 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:56,800 Times when silence doesn't feel particularly spiritual or 111 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,760 particularly chosen, but like, it's kind of been thrust upon us 112 00:08:00,760 --> 00:08:04,640 a little bit in some kind of waiting period that we didn't 113 00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:08,600 necessarily ask for. There are moments in our lives 114 00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:13,880 where pushing for clarity seems to only increase our anxiety 115 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:17,800 rather than resolve it. Can you relate? 116 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:19,680 Have you ever had an experience like that? 117 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:24,360 And so for some of you, that waiting might be close to home. 118 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:29,200 You might be facing challenges in your work or as a parent 119 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,679 where the next faithful step for you and the wisdom that you need 120 00:08:34,919 --> 00:08:39,000 seems just out of reach. And others of you might be 121 00:08:39,000 --> 00:08:43,000 carrying difficult family situations into the holidays, 122 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:47,160 where conversations are tense and people are at each other's 123 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:51,640 throats and you can see what's wrong, but you are just not 124 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:55,880 quite sure how to become a person of peace in that room or 125 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:58,960 at that table. And for many in our city this 126 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:01,480 week, the waiting is heavier still. 127 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:05,800 Some of you are lying awake at night with anxiety knotted in 128 00:09:05,800 --> 00:09:09,360 your chest because of the reality of unjust immigration 129 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:13,480 enforcement that has moved from being an abstract issue to 130 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,240 something that is directly impacting your neighbors and 131 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:21,160 people you love. We're worried about people we 132 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:23,400 love. We want to respond with courage. 133 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:29,640 But maybe we are not quite sure what faithfulness looks like in 134 00:09:29,640 --> 00:09:33,960 this moment. And Zechariah's song helps us 135 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:36,400 here. Because Zechariah is someone who 136 00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:39,760 has been confronted with something overwhelming and 137 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,760 disorienting to him that he did not expect. 138 00:09:44,920 --> 00:09:49,840 He's given news that upends everything that he thought about 139 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:53,520 how his life was going to go, his future, his limits. 140 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:59,320 He struggles to believe it and as a result he is silenced until 141 00:09:59,320 --> 00:10:03,080 the promise unfolds. And so for nine months, he lives 142 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:06,480 with something true and life altering that he can't yet 143 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:11,240 articulate or even act on in the way that maybe he would hope to. 144 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,640 And what's striking to me as I've sat with this text is that 145 00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:23,000 when the time finally comes for Zechariah to speak, his words 146 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:26,960 are not remotely panicked or reactionary. 147 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:29,880 They're not defensive. They're not self protective. 148 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:32,760 They're clearly born of the love of God. 149 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:41,640 His mouth is filled with praise and clarity and mercy, and the 150 00:10:41,640 --> 00:10:44,320 waiting has done something to him. 151 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:50,360 It has formed him so that in the beginning he's skeptical about 152 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:52,320 what's about to happen to his family. 153 00:10:54,040 --> 00:10:57,040 But he's been formed so that when his speech is finally given 154 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:00,920 back, what comes out reflects the love of God rather than the 155 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,560 fear of the moment. And so Luke is inviting us to 156 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:08,800 trust that God works this way for us, too. 157 00:11:09,760 --> 00:11:13,480 There are moments when faithful action comes immediately. 158 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:17,120 God does this by his Spirit. When we pray that prayer, come 159 00:11:17,120 --> 00:11:19,720 Holy Spirit. We're anticipating that God 160 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,600 would give us clarity and wisdom in moments where we need to act 161 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,720 decisively. We have an important decision to 162 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:32,440 make, and not much time to make it, or there's something going 163 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:34,800 on in our sort of sphere of influence. 164 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:38,080 We're put in a position to act, and God is asking us to do 165 00:11:38,080 --> 00:11:40,760 something. There are moments where that 166 00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,960 action comes immediately, as it does with Mary and her song. 167 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,600 And there are other moments where love is formed in US 168 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:52,000 slowly, in prayer and attention and restraint until the right 169 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:58,200 words and actions can emerge. Waiting doesn't mean passivity. 170 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:02,200 It means that God is shaping us so that when the moment comes 171 00:12:02,200 --> 00:12:06,920 for us to speak or act, what we offer is going to be grounded in 172 00:12:06,920 --> 00:12:09,480 love rather than in the anxiety of the moment. 173 00:12:10,160 --> 00:12:13,120 And so in talking about this text this way, what I don't want 174 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:16,400 to do is I don't want to be prescriptive about where you 175 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:19,880 might be at in this process. What I want to do is just sort 176 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:23,360 of center this idea of Advent waiting and the way that God 177 00:12:23,360 --> 00:12:28,800 forms us while we wait so that when the opportunity comes for 178 00:12:28,800 --> 00:12:32,240 us to act or to speak, we can trust that God will fill our 179 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:36,760 mouths with words that reflect the gracious love of Christ. 180 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:41,560 And so I just want to ask, where, where does that show up 181 00:12:41,560 --> 00:12:44,520 in your life right now? And what might it mean for you 182 00:12:44,520 --> 00:12:48,840 to trust that God is already at work in you in that place, 183 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,360 forming the love and the wisdom and the courage that you will 184 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:55,920 need when the time comes for you to act? 185 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:04,440 Zechariah begins where faithful worship always begins, with who 186 00:13:04,440 --> 00:13:07,640 God is rather than what God is about to do. 187 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:12,280 He opens his song, Blessed Be the Lord God of Israel. 188 00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:16,640 And that opening matters because Zechariah doesn't begin with 189 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:20,240 plans or projections. He doesn't begin with this 190 00:13:20,240 --> 00:13:23,560 beautiful prophecy that he delivers about his son John the 191 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:26,640 Baptist. He begins with praise, and as 192 00:13:26,640 --> 00:13:29,960 the song unfolds, God is remembered and God is named as 193 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:34,240 present, and the promises of God from centuries before are 194 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:36,920 recalled and recounted. He's the one who has acted 195 00:13:36,920 --> 00:13:41,440 faithfully over time, and before Zechariah imagines the future, 196 00:13:41,720 --> 00:13:46,200 he rehearses the past to himself and to the people who are 197 00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:50,160 listening, and the same pattern actually appears in Mary's song. 198 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:55,800 In both cases, God's character comes before God's acts, and so 199 00:13:55,800 --> 00:14:00,280 their hope is grounded in what God has already done, not in 200 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:04,160 speculation about what God may or may not do next. 201 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:10,520 So after nine months of this sort of imposed silence, praise 202 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:15,320 is how Zechariah re enters the world with language. 203 00:14:16,040 --> 00:14:20,200 He doesn't take the opportunity to explain himself or narrate 204 00:14:20,200 --> 00:14:23,680 what has happened. That would be my first instinct 205 00:14:24,440 --> 00:14:27,720 if I had sort of mysteriously been silent for nine months 206 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:31,760 after an Angel miraculously shut my mouth in some way, I would 207 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:33,680 think that the first thing that I would want to do would be to 208 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,360 explain to the people around me why that had taken place, 209 00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:39,320 because that's a strange way to behave. 210 00:14:41,640 --> 00:14:45,480 But Zechariah says that this work of God is ordered toward a 211 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:50,960 life lived without fear. Mary's song names upheaval and 212 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,760 reversal and the interruption of the status quo. 213 00:14:54,040 --> 00:14:58,160 And Zechariah's song names freedom, especially freedom from 214 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:02,600 the kind of fear that quietly shapes our decisions and our 215 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:07,080 relationships and even the ways that we pray we are actually 216 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:10,440 invited to rely on. And I think this is important, 217 00:15:10,720 --> 00:15:15,680 the faithfulness of God, not the measure of our own faith, not 218 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,480 what we can muster up from inside of us, but actually the 219 00:15:18,480 --> 00:15:22,720 testimony of the faithfulness of God to sort of hang our hopes 220 00:15:22,720 --> 00:15:27,520 for the future on. And so that that raises another 221 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:31,480 question. Zechariah is talking about an 222 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,680 enemy in his song. What kind of enemy is Zechariah 223 00:15:34,680 --> 00:15:37,440 really describing? The threat that he names most 224 00:15:37,440 --> 00:15:44,280 clearly is fear itself, the kind that sort of narrows our view of 225 00:15:44,280 --> 00:15:48,280 the world around us. It shrinks our imagination for 226 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:51,480 the future, and it shapes the way that we make decisions. 227 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:56,880 Contemplating God's faithfulness is one of the antidotes for this 228 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,920 kind of fear that can sort of creep in and control our lives. 229 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:07,240 And so then Zechariah reaches for one of Advents most powerful 230 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:12,680 images in this song. The dawn from on high will break 231 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:16,520 upon us. Because of the tender mercy of 232 00:16:16,520 --> 00:16:19,960 our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us. 233 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:27,080 And so, friends, on this darkest day of the year, if you're not 234 00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:29,640 aware, today is the least daylight. 235 00:16:29,640 --> 00:16:35,120 Yeah, Winter solstice light enters the the shadowed places 236 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:38,160 of human life. There's an invitation in 237 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,480 Zechariah's song to consider the ways that even in the midst of 238 00:16:41,480 --> 00:16:44,240 things that are difficult, even in the midst of questions that 239 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:48,680 we don't have answers for, the light of Christ is dawning. 240 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,120 And the light doesn't eliminate the darkness all at once. 241 00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:00,760 Over the last couple of weeks, as I've been preparing to preach 242 00:17:00,760 --> 00:17:03,760 and, and I've just been contemplating, you know, folks 243 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,920 who struggle with mental health in these like, dark weeks and 244 00:17:07,920 --> 00:17:11,920 months of the year. And I, I just want to speak to 245 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:15,119 you, if that, if that's you, you know, we can often sort of trick 246 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:18,040 ourselves into thinking that once I get on the other side of 247 00:17:18,040 --> 00:17:21,760 this or once I feel better, I'll experience the presence and the 248 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:23,359 love of God again in a meaningful way. 249 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,319 And what Zechariah is communicating in this song, one 250 00:17:28,319 --> 00:17:31,800 of the things that the tradition communicates to us through the 251 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:36,120 centuries in the Advent season, is that the light of Christ 252 00:17:36,120 --> 00:17:40,360 enters into the midst of dark and difficult circumstances. 253 00:17:41,160 --> 00:17:44,200 And so to those of you who might have just sort of walked in here 254 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:46,680 like struggling a little bit this morning, I want to 255 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:49,720 encourage you that you don't need to wait until you're on the 256 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:53,240 other side of the things that you feel uncertainty about or 257 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:57,080 the things that you feel some sort of inner conflict about to 258 00:17:57,080 --> 00:18:00,360 experience. A, a, a powerful and meaningful 259 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,800 measure of the love of God by the Spirit. 260 00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:07,000 I want to show you a painting that sort of helps us see what 261 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:12,000 Zechariah is describing. This is the raising of Lazarus 262 00:18:12,360 --> 00:18:14,760 by Rembrandt. I don't know if you can kind of 263 00:18:14,760 --> 00:18:16,360 see it. It's a little hard with the 264 00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:18,920 glare on the screens. Looks like there's more light 265 00:18:18,920 --> 00:18:22,880 than there actually is. But Rembrandt used light with 266 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:25,960 great intention. And he does this in a lot of his 267 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:30,400 paintings to sort of direct our attention to where the meaning 268 00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:34,920 in the painting is unfolding. And most of the canvas remains 269 00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,640 dark. The the way that this painting 270 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:41,840 is sort of constructed. Lazarus isn't quite fully alive. 271 00:18:42,360 --> 00:18:46,240 See, he looks a little sleepy as he's still getting up there. 272 00:18:46,680 --> 00:18:51,600 And yet the this sort of narrow beam of light kind of comes in 273 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:53,960 from the side of the painting right to where Jesus is 274 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:55,840 standing. And you can even sort of see 275 00:18:56,200 --> 00:18:59,720 some light on his feet right there where he's standing. 276 00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:04,840 Do you see that the light doesn't flood the room? 277 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:07,920 It doesn't erase the shadows in the painting. 278 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:10,880 The painting is actually mostly dark, but the light sort of 279 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:14,800 seems to be part of the main subject matter. 280 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,160 And so it tells you where God is present, and it gives just 281 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:23,600 enough illumination to sort of move forward with understanding 282 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:25,160 of what's happening in the painting. 283 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:29,440 You can see Lazarus kind of getting up out of the tomb. 284 00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:34,280 And so I just want to ask, like, where does darkness feel 285 00:19:34,640 --> 00:19:38,720 ordinary in your life right now? Where does it sort of feel like 286 00:19:39,040 --> 00:19:42,960 just the backdrop for the way that things are unfolding for 287 00:19:42,960 --> 00:19:44,560 you? Where has it become familiar 288 00:19:44,560 --> 00:19:48,760 enough that you've stopped even expecting anything different? 289 00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:56,480 And what might it mean for you in this season to trust that 290 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:02,400 God's nearness is already present in that place, shaping 291 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:07,320 you for the next faithful step, so that when the opportunity 292 00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:11,960 comes, you will speak. You will act out of the love of 293 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:17,080 Christ being formed in you. This is how the arrival of Jesus 294 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:21,080 in our world reshapes hope for us. 295 00:20:21,640 --> 00:20:25,640 God does not wait for the world to be resolved before entering 296 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:30,840 it. God comes close, and God stays 297 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:34,240 in the unresolved middle of human history. 298 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:39,160 Gregory of Nazianzos described salvation this way. 299 00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:43,040 He talks about God coming gently, at a pace that we can 300 00:20:43,040 --> 00:20:47,280 bear, so that healing happens through presence rather than 301 00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:49,480 being coerced or being overwhelmed. 302 00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:57,000 The light arrives softly because love seeks to restore us rather 303 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,600 than control us. And so if you've been waiting to 304 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:05,000 sort of get zapped out of like whatever, you know, moment in 305 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,920 life you're in, I pray that you get zapped. 306 00:21:09,560 --> 00:21:16,040 And know that there is just a high level of awareness through 307 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:18,960 the Christian tradition that one of the primary ways that God 308 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:23,200 works is by coming slowly into the middle of what it is that we 309 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:27,520 are working through to gradually move us toward his love. 310 00:21:29,160 --> 00:21:34,080 Zechariah's song then makes this turn in the middle toward his 311 00:21:34,080 --> 00:21:36,800 son, John the Baptist, and the role that he will play. 312 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,600 And what stands out immediately is how clearly this, this new 313 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:45,960 role is defined with restraint and with direction. 314 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:49,240 John isn't presented as the light itself. 315 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,560 He never claims that role. He outright refutes it himself 316 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:57,080 in his own public ministry. And his work is preparatory. 317 00:21:57,360 --> 00:22:01,440 He goes ahead of what God's doing, helping people to become 318 00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,640 ready for a work that doesn't belong to him. 319 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:11,320 John's vocation is shaped by clearing space for what God's 320 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:15,480 doing in the world rather than arriving with solutions himself. 321 00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:21,360 And his task is to make room for what he cannot bring, orienting 322 00:22:21,360 --> 00:22:26,040 people toward God's action rather than drawing attention to 323 00:22:26,040 --> 00:22:30,640 his own action toward himself. And Zechariah is careful in this 324 00:22:30,640 --> 00:22:33,520 song about how he describes this work that John's going to do. 325 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,840 John will go before the Lord to prepare his way and give people 326 00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:42,080 knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of sins, is what 327 00:22:42,080 --> 00:22:44,240 he says. And Luke is very specific here, 328 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,400 that salvation is experienced through forgiveness. 329 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:52,600 And that's some Christian language that might feel really 330 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:55,760 familiar to us and might actually not have a very sharp 331 00:22:55,760 --> 00:22:57,760 meaning because we've heard it so many times. 332 00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:03,240 But that order is important. Forgiveness comes before change 333 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:07,480 and before obedience, not because growth doesn't matter, 334 00:23:07,480 --> 00:23:11,880 but because transformation cannot happen where fear and 335 00:23:11,880 --> 00:23:14,280 shame are still in control of our lives. 336 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:20,320 Salvation is described here as a restored relationship rather 337 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:24,160 than a spiritual achievement, and so this tells us something 338 00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:26,600 essential about how the Kingdom of God works. 339 00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,240 In Zechariah's song, God's work begins with mercy. 340 00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:38,160 Grace is the thing that creates the space where change becomes 341 00:23:38,160 --> 00:23:40,120 possible. We're knowing the love of God 342 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:44,840 becomes possible rather than being something that we earn 343 00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:47,880 once change has already happened. 344 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:54,080 And so friends, this is applicable to your life. 345 00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:58,200 It's applicable to the world around us, the ways that we sort 346 00:23:58,200 --> 00:24:03,040 of handle ourselves and what God's doing in our in our lives. 347 00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,400 We're invited toward a posture of mercy and grace, the mercy 348 00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:12,360 and grace of Christ, even for you, even as you sort out what's 349 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:16,400 happening inside. And we feel the pull to reverse 350 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:18,360 the order of these things all the time. 351 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,000 We look for improvement before having patience. 352 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:29,560 We look for clarity before giving mercy to ourselves or to 353 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,720 others. We look for some sort of proof 354 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,640 of what's happening before we trust. 355 00:24:36,280 --> 00:24:39,160 We look for action before understanding. 356 00:24:40,560 --> 00:24:45,280 And we want people, including ourselves, to have things sorted 357 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:51,520 out before belonging. But when this kind of gentleness 358 00:24:52,200 --> 00:24:55,920 that we're encouraged toward is withheld, the thing that sets 359 00:24:55,920 --> 00:24:59,560 the terms of our engagement with other people or with the world 360 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:06,320 is fear, is anxiety. This narrows what feels possible 361 00:25:06,320 --> 00:25:08,760 to us. And the kind of change that 362 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,360 we're hoping for becomes harder to sustain because it becomes 363 00:25:12,360 --> 00:25:15,640 about willpower. It becomes about what we can 364 00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:19,680 sort of force to happen in our lives or in the world around us. 365 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,960 So it's worth asking where that pressure shows up in our lives. 366 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:28,560 Where are we trying to rush toward growth instead of making 367 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:31,400 space for the mercy of God to come to us? 368 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:43,560 Where might forgiveness, freely given to you or from you, do 369 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,560 more than correction would ever be able to? 370 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,600 This is what Advent preparation looks like. 371 00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:56,480 It's a season for making room. It's a season for clearing space 372 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,400 and for receiving forgiveness as the starting point of life with 373 00:26:00,400 --> 00:26:04,880 God, the place where love begins, its work of formation. 374 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,200 And so friends, I would just encourage you, if you are 375 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:14,320 hearing this and, and you feel a need for that kind of mercy in 376 00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:19,560 your life, that kind of grace to be the starting point for where 377 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:23,520 you hope to go, I would love to invite you to receive prayer 378 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:24,920 this morning. We'll have in a little bit, 379 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,480 we'll have prayer people along the sides. 380 00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:31,880 And guys, this is how we do it. It's just one person to another 381 00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:36,160 being able to get proximate to the body of Christ, to the, the 382 00:26:36,160 --> 00:26:43,000 love of one another. And in that, in that space of 383 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,320 prayer, God will do this work. And so, by the end of the song, 384 00:26:47,360 --> 00:26:51,560 Zechariah has clearly emerged a changed person. 385 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:57,080 He seems more settled, he seems more trusting than when the 386 00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,800 Angel had first spoken to him, and he seems more deeply 387 00:26:59,800 --> 00:27:02,840 oriented toward the mercy of God than he was before. 388 00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:07,840 This long stretch of waiting has shaped him, and that shows up in 389 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:11,160 the way that he speaks. His his voice has returned, and 390 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:17,240 it carries the marks of the waiting that came before it. 391 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,200 And when he finally speaks, his words are clear and grounded and 392 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:26,000 generous. Mary shows us what faith looks 393 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,120 like when trust rises immediately. 394 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:31,240 And Zechariah gives us a helpful picture of what it looks like 395 00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,960 when it's formed over time. And together they give us a 396 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:38,080 fuller picture of what I think this season is sort of meant to 397 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,720 cultivate in us as a church, people who can remain steady in 398 00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:46,880 uncertainty. Remember, truthfully, the 399 00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:50,520 faithfulness of God that's come before us and to speak in ways 400 00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:54,080 that are shaped by the love of Christ rather than fear or 401 00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:56,520 anxiety. I can think of, you know, one of 402 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,360 the hardest seasons that our family has ever lived through. 403 00:27:59,360 --> 00:28:06,040 Back in 2020, great year in the middle of the pandemic and 404 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:10,280 widespread unrest. The church community that I was 405 00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:13,200 pastoring at the time was under significant strain. 406 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:18,840 Relationships were fraying both in the congregation and in the 407 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,440 neighborhood. So we're sort of trying to deal 408 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,960 with this on 2 fronts. And while I find my found myself 409 00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,680 sort of quietly re examining much of what I had assumed about 410 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:33,160 faith and ministry, in this time, I'll just call it 411 00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:38,400 deconstruction light. Our family also suffered a deep 412 00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:43,480 personal loss that remains painful and unresolved. 413 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:48,400 And what made that season so disorienting was not just the 414 00:28:48,400 --> 00:28:52,600 number of challenges, but the lack of clarity about how to 415 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:55,200 respond faithfully on any of these fronts. 416 00:28:55,920 --> 00:29:01,360 It was like I have 10 or a dozen complicated problems in front of 417 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,000 me, and I don't have the answers to any of them. 418 00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:10,120 And we were faced with a choice that many of you will recognize. 419 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:16,120 Do we cling tightly to certainty and control and try to 420 00:29:16,120 --> 00:29:19,840 manipulate an outcome, or do we remain faithful to what God's 421 00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:27,840 given us to do and stay even though much of what we had hoped 422 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:31,680 for sort of remained unclear? And so there were long stretches 423 00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:35,240 where I didn't have the words to explain what was happening to 424 00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:40,840 me, and I didn't have the words to help the community that I was 425 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,280 a part of. And honestly, I didn't even 426 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:46,800 trust myself to speak well in that season. 427 00:29:47,320 --> 00:29:50,760 And looking back, what stands out about that moment in our 428 00:29:50,760 --> 00:29:56,480 lives was that God was present, but in quiet and faithful ways 429 00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:00,520 that were not abundantly obvious at first glance. 430 00:30:00,880 --> 00:30:05,600 But staying attentive to what God was doing in that season 431 00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,320 slowly sort of formed something in me. 432 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:14,000 And coming out of that really trying time of probably about 18 433 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:19,640 months, words eventually returned to describe what was 434 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:23,880 happening inside of me. And they carried less 435 00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:30,840 explanation and more presence to myself, to the people around me. 436 00:30:31,560 --> 00:30:34,240 And the change wasn't that the pain that we were wrestling with 437 00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:37,280 had disappeared, but that something had sort of been 438 00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,360 loosened. And trusting the faithfulness of 439 00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:45,880 God had taken a little bit deeper root because we remain 440 00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:49,000 focused on what God was inviting us to. 441 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,560 The novelist and essayist Marilyn Robertson Robinson, 442 00:30:53,560 --> 00:30:57,320 Excuse Me, has written that love is learned through faithful 443 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:01,040 attention over time. That love grows as we stay 444 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:04,080 present, even when clarity comes slowly. 445 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,720 And I think that's the kind of love that Zechariah's song is 446 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:12,800 giving voice to, a love that's formed in patience and released 447 00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:16,400 when the moment is right. And so, friends, I just want to 448 00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:18,960 reiterate this again. You know, all this talk about 449 00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:22,840 waiting, I want to be open to the possibility that the moment 450 00:31:22,840 --> 00:31:28,560 is right right now in your life, that that the previous season 451 00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:31,920 that's that's sort of preceded everything that's going on right 452 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:36,320 now in your life or in in our community has prepared you for 453 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,000 this moment. And when you open your mouth, 454 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:43,280 God will fill it with words of hope and promise and presence to 455 00:31:43,280 --> 00:31:46,320 the people around you. And it's also entirely possible 456 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:49,120 that you're somewhere in the middle of that that process. 457 00:31:49,600 --> 00:31:52,480 And so if you feel like things are a little bit quiet right now 458 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:56,920 and you maybe don't have the words or the presence that you 459 00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:03,480 would hope for, stay in it, keep, keep after it. 460 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,800 You know, this is this is where the gospel becomes clear that 461 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:12,280 this way of life is not, it's not a personality trait, It's 462 00:32:12,280 --> 00:32:15,760 not a coping strategy. It's the shape of the Kingdom of 463 00:32:15,760 --> 00:32:19,480 Christ coming into the world that Jesus doesn't announce a 464 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:22,080 quick fix. He doesn't promise that 465 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:24,120 everything will move steadily up and to the right. 466 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:29,240 He invites people into a life that's shaped over time by self 467 00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:33,480 giving love and a love that is willing to enter into 468 00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:38,480 uncertainty and engage suffering and be in unresolved places 469 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,440 without withdrawing from them or hardening up against them. 470 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:47,160 This is the love that we see in Jesus himself, who meets the 471 00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:53,520 world patiently and stays present in its pain and gives 472 00:32:53,680 --> 00:32:57,560 himself for the healing of the world. 473 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:01,280 And so that's the invitation that this season holds out to 474 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:05,560 us, that to remain present in what's not yet resolved, 475 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:11,080 trusting God is at work in us in that place, shaping the words 476 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:13,920 and the actions that we will need when the time comes. 477 00:33:14,840 --> 00:33:18,600 The call of the gospel, the good news of Jesus, is not to have 478 00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:23,920 everything figured out, but to entrust our lives to Christ and 479 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:29,040 allow his Spirit to form us in love that is steady and merciful 480 00:33:29,040 --> 00:33:33,920 and courageous, and to remain present to what God is asking of 481 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:38,000 us in real time. So I want to ask you to give 482 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:44,320 some thought to this question. What kind of voice is God 483 00:33:44,320 --> 00:33:49,680 forming in you right now? And I want to suggest that it is 484 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:54,480 likely not one that's driven by urgency or fear, but that's 485 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:57,160 marked by patience and mercy and trust. 486 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:03,200 And how might our worship, when it's offered simply and 487 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:07,720 honestly, begin to sort of shape the way that we speak in the 488 00:34:07,720 --> 00:34:09,760 moment that God is presenting you with? 489 00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:16,000 So Zechariah's song isn't sung once everything is settled or 490 00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,840 the future has become clear. It's sung in the middle of the 491 00:34:18,840 --> 00:34:21,360 story. Rome is still in power. 492 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:26,159 Life is complicated. Nothing has outwardly changed 493 00:34:26,360 --> 00:34:29,480 for his people. Zechariah blesses God because he 494 00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:34,800 trusts that God has remained present and faithful even while 495 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,199 the shape of the future is still unclear. 496 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:41,280 And so the story is just inviting us to pay attention to 497 00:34:41,280 --> 00:34:44,880 how faith responds in moments like that. 498 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:50,639 One trust doesn't wait for resolution. 499 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:54,679 It takes shape in the middle of the story, as people learn to 500 00:34:54,679 --> 00:34:58,320 rely on God's nearness before the clarity about what that 501 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:01,960 nearness looks like arrives. So some of you may be in a 502 00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:05,000 season where things just don't really add up. 503 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:06,920 You're doing what you know how to do. 504 00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:10,560 You're showing up, you're staying faithful, but you can't 505 00:35:10,560 --> 00:35:14,520 see how sort of coherence or resolution is going to come. 506 00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,160 I want to encourage you that staying present to God in that 507 00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:21,840 place is already an act of faith. 508 00:35:23,080 --> 00:35:26,280 And for some of you, life might look relatively stable on the 509 00:35:26,280 --> 00:35:30,640 surface, but your hope has quietly sort of thinned out. 510 00:35:30,720 --> 00:35:33,600 And you're not in crisis, but you have just sort of stopped 511 00:35:34,120 --> 00:35:37,120 believing that things could be different. 512 00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:43,200 And I want to encourage you that God's light often meets us in 513 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:47,000 that place, not with sudden solutions, but just with the 514 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,040 next step becoming barely visible in front of us. 515 00:35:51,800 --> 00:35:55,160 And so as we move into ministry time, I'm going to invite our 516 00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:58,760 worship team back up. And we just want to make space 517 00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:02,680 for prayer and for you to respond to this story together. 518 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:07,240 So you're welcome to come out to the sides for prayer or remain 519 00:36:07,240 --> 00:36:10,520 where you are and just receive as we worship. 520 00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:15,200 There's no pressure to feel anything in particular, but if 521 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:20,040 joy is really being born in the middle of the ache of being 522 00:36:20,040 --> 00:36:26,000 human, then there might already be light breaking in in places 523 00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,280 that feel a little bit unfinished for you. 524 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:31,360 So I would just encourage you if there are things that are coming 525 00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:33,240 to mind, to come and receive prayer.