Sermon: Zechariah’s Song
December 22nd, 2019 Rev. Betsy Perkins
First Baptist Church, Delavan WI
Scripture passage: Luke 1:5-25, 57-80
I see your pastor put down the title for this morning’s message as “Zechariah’s Song”, even though I have a song – 2 songs! – included in Luke’s Good News. The men always get first billing, but where would they be without us?!
Shalom, God’s grace and peace to you! My name is Elizabeth. Zechariah is my husband. Wonderful man, patient, kind and full of goodness toward me even though I failed to give him a child for many years. When we were young, newly married, we dreamed of a family. We were so hopeful. Each month we prayed to God and did our part. But no child came; my womb remained empty, our arms remained empty. My mother-in-law became unkind, accusing me of all kinds of sins, my barrenness as God’s punishment. The longer we waited, the more hurtful her words. But dear Zechariah, he defended me before his family, before our neighbors. Yet there were days when I felt so discouraged, so disappointed, so empty. Zechariah was always there for me; we were there for each other. Our love grew strong and deep.
As time went on, we gradually came to accept this as God’s will, yet the ache within us never went away. Every time another niece or nephew arrived, when my sisters became grandmothers, and great-grandmothers – each baby so cute and cuddly, soft and special – oh, my heart would break again. Zechariah would hold me as I cried, and slowly our tears would turn into prayers and our hearts would lift – not in hope really, for by the time I was a couple decades beyond menopause. There wasn’t that kind of hope to have – but acceptance… And our love for each other, and our love for God, would ease the pain.
I’ll tell you something else about my good husband, Zechariah. He was always talking, talking, talking, preaching, preaching, preaching. Being a priest was not just the role he was born to in a family of priests; it was the role he was created for. Zechariah loved to teach. He loved to stop along the road and talk with friends and neighbors and even perfect strangers, to give encouragement and give advice. He talked with his whole body – his hands waving, his head bobbing, his feet emphasizing. He would fall asleep talking to me, telling me about his day. In the morning, the moment his eyes opened, so did his mouth. The only reason I’m getting to tell you this story at all, is because Zechariah stayed home – a journey to Wisconsin is too cold for me, he said!
His favorite journey was the one to Jerusalem. Each year he traveled there for his turn to serve God for two full weeks in His Holy Temple. He loved being there in God’s presence, spending time reading the ancient scrolls and debating questions of interpretation, questions of when God’s promises would be fulfilled. They would discuss who among the young leaders might be God’s chosen servant as they read Malachi’s prophesy about the prophet like Elijah who would come to usher in the great and dreadful day of the Lord’s coming, who would turn the hearts of parents to their children and prepare a people to receive the Lord (Mal.4:5). And they would try to imagine what it would be like when Joel’s prophesy arrived, when God would pour out His spirit on all flesh, sons and daughters speaking through the power of the Holy Spirit, old men dreaming dreams, young men seeing visions, everyday workers, both men and women, filled with God’s Spirit (Joel 2:28-29). But, it had been nearly 500 years without a prophet or a promise; 500 years of silence from God.
Each time Zechariah went up for his time of service in Jerusalem, I made him promise to pray and ask God again that by some miracle we might have a child – I would remind him of the story of Abraham and Sarah who had a child when Sarah was 90 years old (I was still younger than Sarah!), and the stories of others whose wombs God had opened – Rachel, Hannah. He would say, “Oh, Elizabeth, count your blessings.” And then he would recite a psalm, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” Honestly, while not having a son was a great disappointment to Zechariah, it was an even greater disappointment for him that each year he was passed over when the lots were cast to decide which priest would have the great privilege of entering the Most Holy Place in the Temple to burn the incense and set bread on the altar. So Zechariah would agree to pray for me, and I would pray to the Lord for him.
Then, one year, as I watched the road for his return, I could see my Zechariah coming – his hands waving, his feet bouncing, his body bobbing, but bless his heart, not a sound coming from his mouth! Truly I tell you, we invented that game you now call Charades! Four words / Second word, sounds like (make gestures) – we played till I figured out each and every word that the angel had spoken to him: “…you are to call him John!” John, “The Lord is merciful.” The Lord is merciful, indeed!
We had such fun for his joy was overflowing, and the moment I realized that our joyful intimacy had left a child growing within me, my joy overflowed as well! I had my miracle! I sang and sang: “The Lord has done this great thing for me! In these days the Lord has shown love and grace. He has taken away my disgrace among my community!”
Of course, you know what happened because your pastor just read the story to you. But I would like to add what I have learned from my experience – that if today you feel barren, if you feel empty – empty of hope, empty of anything you think you have to offer, empty of dreams of happiness or joy for the future – I say, take heart, have hope, for God can still work in your life in ways you can’t even imagine. God can fill up the place where you feel most empty. And if today you are tempted to doubt or despair, if you feel uncertain and question God, as my Zechariah did, take courage, have faith. For God is trustworthy, God is good. His ways and His timing is not ours, but for God there are no impossible situations, no dead-ends – detours, maybe, but no dead-ends. Our God specializes in making a way when there seems to be no way, of opening up a future when all we see is darkness.
Oh, let me tell you what happened next… During the days of my confinement – for you that is just an old fashioned euphemism for pregnancy, but in my day we actually were confined. Once a woman began to be visibly pregnant she was not allowed out of her home. She was to remain in seclusion. Zechariah’s silence was his inability to speak; my silence was a social one. But silence did us both well. You know that psalm, “Be still, and know that I am God.”(Ps.46:10) That is just what happened. Both Zechariah and I finally learned to be still before God. In the silence we spent time recalling words of scripture, recalling all the ways God had kept His promises in the past. The silence allowed us to listen to the Lord.
God gave another blessing to me in my time of confinement. My cousin Mary, well my cousin’s granddaughter actually, traveled to visit us for she had been told that I was expecting a child. Told by an angel, the same angel that appeared to my Zechariah! But before we knew any of this, Mary walked into our home and before I even turned to see who was there my unborn child knew! The baby leapt for joy within me, the first to recognize the Lord! And at that moment God’s Spirit filled my mouth with song again: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you bear! Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her!” And Mary, too, was moved to sing. What day of celebration! God was indeed pouring out His Spirit on His daughters and the men were having visions. God was coming. He was already with us, just as He promised. And who would have thought, a barren old couple, a teenage girl – who were we, that God would choose us?
The time flew by after that! Of course there were moments of fear, as I worried about the difficulties of childbirth in this old body, but then Zechariah would motion – 2 words, second word ‘Not’ – and Mary would repeat the angel’s words to them both, “Fear not.” Fear not! For God was faithful in every detail. Our baby boy was born, and just as the angel had said, many rejoiced in this miracle of ours.
All our relatives and neighbors from miles around crowded into our home for the naming and circumcision ceremony when a full week of life was complete for the little boy. Since Zechariah could not speak, the men decided our son should be named after his father. It never occurred to them to ask me. But the moment they started to use that name, calling him ‘Little Zechariah’, I jumped up from where the women were seated and said, “No! No. He is to be called John.” What a confusion that started! The men were scolding me; Zechariah’s feet were stamping, his head bobbing, his hands waving. Finally, someone gave him a writing slate with chalk and Zechariah wrote, “His name is John.”
In that moment, sound burst from Zechariah’s throat, “Praise be to the Lord, bless the God of Israel!” he sang. He sang words given by the Holy Spirit during the months of silence, words from psalms and prayer, words of prophesy and promise:
“Bless the Lord
God of Israel
because he has come to help and has
delivered his people.
He has raised up a mighty
savior for us in his servant David’s house,
just as he said through the mouths of
his holy prophets long ago.
He has brought salvation from
our enemies
and from the power of all those who
hate us.
He has shown the mercy promised
to our ancestors,
and remembered his holy covenant,
the solemn pledge he made to our
ancestor Abraham.
He has granted that we would be rescued
from the power of our enemies
so that we could serve him without
fear,
in holiness and righteousness in
God’s eyes,
for as long as we live.
You, child, will be called a
prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to
prepare his way.
You will tell his people how to
be saved
through the forgiveness of their sins.
Because of our God’s deep
compassion,
the dawn from heaven will break upon
us,
to give light to those who are
sitting in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide us on the path of peace.”
We sang that song over our dear John, again and again and again, all through his childhood. So he would never doubt that God had plans for him, that God has plans for each and every person, no matter how unlikely or empty-handed they appear.
In these final days of Advent, may God’s Spirit come upon you in unlikely ways – as He did for unlikely mothers, as He did with births against all odds. Against all odds, may you be pregnant with anticipation for the coming of our Lord and Savior. May you look for God to birth new life in the barren places within you and within this world. May the Spirit fill you and shape you and use you to fulfill His promises and as He brings His kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.
God is coming! God is here!
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