After Thanksgiving, the preparations for Christmas can begin. Now, if we listen to the forces of our culture, it would be more like after Labor Day, but my wife and I agree on this one, after Thanksgiving. Fortunately, we have a period of time to get ready. In the church we call it Advent. A time to prepare our hearts and lives to receive the miracle that is Christmas. And given how slowly our family prepares for Christmas (we’ve given up and called our family Christmas letter a holiday letter, partially out of deference to our non-Christian friends, mostly cause it doesn’t get out some years before Epiphany, January 6th), we need it.
Christmas is truly a miracle. In case you’re new to the story, God had been trying for thousands of years to get the people on Earth back on track. God would try to show us the way, but we would wander away. Time and time again, we would as the Bible says “do what was evil in the sight of the Lord”. Thankfully, God realized early on that just whipping the slate clean, save a few good folks, was not the way to go (see: Noah & the Ark). So God tried miraculous signs (e.g. burning bushes, stone tablets, etc,), which didn’t work either. So God tried wonderful speakers and leaders, a.k.a. the prophets. For a time, sure we’d listen, but then most likely we would turn on them. We as a species say we like straight talkers, right up until they say we’ve got to change. Finally, God decided it was time to come down and be among us a child, Jesus.
Every year, we celebrate that child’s birthday, by making room, making some space in our lives to receive that miracle again. We honor the child by showing our love for each other, right? Right (said in best sarcastic voice), that’s how we celebrate Christmas, remembering the Christ child, that’s the ticket. Well, maybe, or maybe we get to do this every year to give us another chance to try to get it right, cause it seems we can’t quite do that.
We’ve all seen signs that we don’t do such a good job on that, don’t we? Family fights and blow ups over whom will be welcome at the family Christmas gathering, and who won’t, sound familiar? Prince of peace, anyone? Out of sight consumer purchasing and rampant materialism to honor the birth of the champion of the poor? People getting trampled, some times to death for the sin of trying to get a cheap GPS or the hottest video game ring a bell? Ok, so it does seem we need to keep practicing this one until we get it right.
Over the next four Sundays at the Village, we are going to look at stories from the Bible to get us ready and invite us to “Make Room for the Miracle” this year. Next week we are going to hear the story of a young, teenage girl with a calling named Mary;. After that, John the Baptist and his call to drop our baggage; Finally, we’re going to hear about the shepherds, no, not the kids in the bathrobes all squeaky clean, but the rough and tumble shepherds who God chose as God’s messengers.
Today, our story was about Zechariah and Elizabeth. If you want to check if God has a sense of humor, this is one of those stories that will show you, God does. God needs a herald, someone to prepare the world for Jesus, an opening act if you will, John the Baptist. But John the Baptist needs parents. Given all of the choices available for God, a elderly couple who’ve given up on having kids, is not a very likely choice. Then again, God loves to prove God’s sense of humor, or just that God values those society we value least. Either way, I like it. Zechariah gets the humor of the situation though, he, like me, needs to watch when we, I mean he expresses it.
Zechariah was a Jewish priest. He and his wife were very good folks (a rare statement in the Bible it seems at times). He and his group of priests were doing their duty in the Temple. Once in a lifetime, these priests would be allowed to go into the inner most part of the Temple, the holiest of holy places, and it was Zechariah’s once in a life time chance. When he was there, the Angel Gabriel appears and tells Zechariah that he is going to be a father. His reaction, was essentially “you’re kidding me right? My wife and I have been praying for years to be parents, but now when we’re old and gray?”Gabriel’s reaction was “fine, don’t believe your prayer for a child was answered in God’s time (one of my least favorite time zones) then you can be quiet until the baby is born”. Zechariah is rendered mute on the spot.
God has a habit of doing big things to get our attention. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a good thing. Go back to my blog article from August, called “Watching the Signs”, subtle is BAD when you need to get someone to go somewhere or do something. Missing a sign, a direction, etc can get you into some real trouble (or if you read the blog, at least cost you an extra 10 miles of riding and no pancakes). In this case, God made Zechariah mute, so there would be no doubt, he would be listening.
We all need to take some time to listen. If not, we miss those important things in life. But our society has gotten away from those times of calm where we can hear the important things. We used a great clip from the movie Contact in worship to illustrate this point. Theologian Palmer Joss (played by Matthew McConaughey) is appearing on the Larry King Show. He is talking about despite the advantages of our modern technology, how alone & empty we are. He is talking about how we try to fill those voids with quickly taken vacations, deficit spending trips to the mall, etc. Meanwhile, Ellie Araway (an astronomer played by Jodie Foster) makes the discovery of the Century, if not all of recorded history, because she is listening when others who work with her are not.
Now, as we prepare for another Christmas, what are we really preparing for? Are we preparing for the miracle of God coming into the world to show us the way to a better life? Are we clearing space and getting ready to accept this incredible gift? Or are we working on getting the house decorated just so, the perfect Christmas card out, the perfect set of cookies baked? Wouldn’t it be horrible if we missed a great gift, a great calling to do something real for this world, cause we were busy trying to hang up the perfect Christmas light display?
Well, at the Village we’re going to give you some chances to slow down, and clear some room in the midst of this crazy month of preparation. We will still have our usual, Sunday morning worship celebration and our after service Bible study. But we are adding to this, contrary to popular church logic which is to not add anything, but rather subtract at this time of year. We are going to give you several new opportunities to interact with God.
On Tuesday Nights @ 7 PM, starting this week, we will be offering a small group, a prayer group. Along with listening for the voice of God, this group will be taking prayers from it’s members and our greater community and giving them a voice back to God. Also, starting Tuesday at 12:15 PM, Pastor Cheri will be offering an opportunity to slow down for a bit and try to get some calm. She will offering a 15 minute, quiet time called the Lunchtime Prayer Break. Bring your lunch and take a few minutes to get some calm and peace in this crazy time. You don’t need any knowledge or expertise with prayer for either group. In fact, there’s really no such thing. It’s just a matter of praying. Like anything else, you get better at doing it with practice.
So, take a little while this week, in a group, or by yourself and listen. You don’t know what message you may get, but if it is from God, it will be a good one.
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