You Can't Do That

Sermon for SMHP, Year C, Advent IV, Luke 1 Series, Dec. 23, 2018

Luke 1:57-80                   

               ⁵⁷Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

               ⁵⁹On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. ⁶⁰But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ ⁶¹They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ ⁶²Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. ⁶³He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed. ⁶⁴Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. ⁶⁶All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him.

               ⁶⁷Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:
⁶⁸ ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
   for God has looked favorably on God’s people and redeemed them.
⁶⁹ God has raised up a mighty savior for us
   in the house of God’s servant David,
⁷⁰ as God spoke through the mouth of the holy prophets from of old, 

⁷¹   that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
⁷² Thus God has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
   and has remembered God’s holy covenant,
⁷³ the oath sworn to our ancestor Abraham,
   to grant us ⁷⁴that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve the Lord without fear, ⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness
   before him all our days.
⁷⁶ And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
   for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
⁷⁷ to give knowledge of salvation to his people
   by the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ By the tender mercy of our God,
   the dawn from on high will break upon us,
⁷⁹ to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

               ⁸⁰The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel. 

          So I know most of you pretty well, and I know that at some point in your lives, and perhaps at several points, you have encountered a moment like the one in which we find Elizabeth and Zechariah this morning.

          You’re explaining something very important to the people in your life, and they are just not getting it. 

          Them:  “It’s just a phase.”  (Anybody ever heard that one?)

          You:  “No, seriously, it’s not.”

          Them:  You can’t really believe that.

          You:  Yes, that is what I believe.  Here are the reasons why.  (List of reasons follows.)

          Them:  You can’t wear that, eat that, do that, sing that, name your child that.

          You:  Um, yeah.  I can.

          That more or less the story over at Liz and Z’s house.  Their baby has been born.  Everyone has been calling him Zechariah, because that’s the custom—babies get named at birth, and first sons after their fathers. 

          But when they say to his mother, Elizabeth, at his bris, “Hey, he’s Zechariah, right?” she replies, “No.  He is to be called John.”

          And instead of saying, “Oh.  John.  Nice name.  I had an uncle named John.” they meddle and argue.

          “What?!!  No one in your family is named John!  You can’t do that?!  That’s not the way we’ve always done it.”

          And then they start waving and gesturing at Zechariah (because he can’t speak, so they assume he can’t hear either).  [Pointing and mouthing]  “She wants to name the kid “John.”  Do something!

          And he takes the writing board he’s been carrying around for nine months—it’s a piece of wood with some wax on it—and he writes on it, “His name is John.”

          Because that’s what God told him, and he is faithful, and we aren’t doing things the way we’ve always done them anymore.  It seems to me that that’s the point of this weird little story, and the biggest reason I wanted us to read all the way through Luke 1 this Advent.  The story of the birth of Jesus, God’s incarnation, God’s desire to be with us in a new way—it’s all so radical that Luke writes a long prologue to it that sets the scene, with angels and divine intervention and mothers and fathers being faithful to God, even when it seems odd to the people around them.

          And finally, a song of faithfulness that reminds us once again that our faithfulness is a response to God’s faithfulness.  Zechariah’s Song, the verses that make up most of our lesson for this morning.

          The whole first half of the song is the perfect ending to the first chapter of Luke’s gospel--a description of how God has been faithful through the years.  “Blessed be the God of Israel, who has looked favorably on us and redeemed us,” Zechariah begins.

          Then he goes on to describe God’s faithfulness:

Here’s what God has done.  God has:

--raised up a savior for us in the house of David.  (The people listening probably thought he meant David.  But he meant Jesus.)

God has:

--spoken through the prophets

--shown the mercy promised our ancestors

and

--remembered the Covenant

          God has remembered the Covenant, and now God is establishing a New Covenant, one that will seem odd and different to some of you, but go with it.  Zechariah is the first to speak of the New Covenant, but Jesus will definitely have some things to say about it, and we continue to speak of it each week at the Eucharist.

          Then at verse 76, there is a pivot, in which the father speaks to his newborn son.  “And you, child,” he says, “will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways.”  And indeed, that is the role of John.  It is the role he knew, no doubt prepared by his priestly parents.  It is the role he described to others, when they asked if he was the Messiah.  It is the role he often plays in iconography, one finger pointing to Jesus. 

          This section of Zechariah’s Song is the transition, from what God has done, to what God will do through Jesus. 

          Like God, Jesus brings salvation, but Jesus’ salvation is eternal.

          Jesus brings forgiveness of sins.  Another thing we talk about during the Eucharist.

          Jesus brings light to a people living in darkness, as the great prophet Isaiah promised.  We will hear that word tomorrow night, and some of you read it this past Wednesday.

          And finally, Jesus brings guidance, and this is where Zechariah’s song really looks into the future.  Because this is the part that is about us.  Look at verses 78 and 79: “By the tender mercy of our God,
   the dawn from on high will break upon us, 

 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the way of peace.’

          John is charged to be the prophet of Jesus, who is charged with being a light in the darkness, a Word of hope, and with “guiding our feet into the way of peace.”

          Which means that the charge to us is about our feet.  Who knew that the feet were the most spiritually significant body part?

          But according to Zechariah this morning, the Most High, God incarnate, Jesus Christ, came to “guide our feet in the way of peace.”

          So our role in this song, in this story of Advent and Christmas hope—our role is to have the feet of peace.  To be on a journey of peace.

          The New Covenant of Jesus Christ is a Covenant of Peace.  No longer will God’s people be invited to make war on each other and on neighboring tribes.  We are assured of our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins, and freed up to simply love each other. 

          This fourth week of Advent, love is our theme, and as people of the Incarnate one, the child of peace, we are reminded that love is our one and only charge.  We are called to set our feet on a journey of peace, guided by our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

          And it might seem odd to people around us, all of this peacemaking in a time of grumbling and aggression.  But it is our calling, as inheritors of the New Covenant.  It is the song Zechariah is singing this morning, to his infant son, and to each of us. 

          Let us greet these beloved children, John and Jesus, with a new commitment to peace.  To make peace, to live peace, and to sing our own songs of peace.  Songs that will seem odd, perhaps, to the world around us.  But songs that will indeed redeem that world.

Amen