December 10, 2000
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the Peace Today in Disciples of Christ congregations all over the nations Peace Sunday is being celebrated. Peace Sunday began in a time when the world stood on the brink of nuclear annihilation. You may remember that time when congregations proclaimed themselves dedicated to peace making. They supported the conversations and negotiations among world leaders. There were the first trips to the former Soviet Union. They wanted to do all that they could to turn back the clock from five minutes to nuclear midnight, and mutually assured destruction to a more reasoned time. Churches understood then and I believe we understand now that peace is shalom. It is not just the absence of war, conflict, or chaos, but it is a sense of well being, of safety, and security. (Texts for Preaching, Year C p. 10) "At Advent, something in afoot in God’s world. There is a terrible, hopeful newness about life: terrible because it promises to overthrow all our old, comfortable, sinful ways; and hopeful for the very same reason. We know its shape, and yet we do not know it. It is the working of the same God who, in ancient times, brought Israel out of Egypt, established Israel in the land, forced Israel into exile and reestablished Israel in the land. But this ‘old’ God is breaking in upon human life in awesomely new ways – a Babe in a manger, a crucified, risen Lord, a triumphant return." This second Sunday of Advent, while we wait for the Christ child to be born in our lives; some of us for the first time, and for others of us, for the child to be born in our lives again. We hear today how a prophet of God, and the father of a prophet help us prepare to find the peace of God and brings us a sense of peace. Malachi, whose name means ‘my messenger’, will give us a vision of one who will bring to the people a sense of restoration and forgiveness. Malachi says one will come in grace and judgment who will purify, and remove all that is not useful in us. What will be removed? How about any pettiness, jealousy, any boredom that leads us to a kind of tiredness that makes us want to quit. Like a refiner, who takes raw gold and silver and burns it until it shines, revealing what is precious, so God will bring a time of healing and restoration. Like the fuller, whose job it was to take newly shorn wool, and to bleach it or dye it, or thicken it, or shrink it, so it will be with us. What is left is offered to God in righteousness. (New Interpreters, volume IX, p. 60) "Throughout the gospel of Luke, peace is closely associated with God’s redemptive work and the salvation that comes to God’s people. Angels announced Jesus’ birth with the refrain of ‘peace on earth’ (2.14), and those who followed Jesus answered antiphonally, ‘Peace I heaven,/and glory in the highest heaven!’ (19.38). Jesus brought peace to those who received him: Simeon (2.29), the woman who wept on Jesus’ feet (7.50), and the woman with the hemorrhage (8.48). Through faith, each found peace." Zechariah, the father of John will sing a song of prophetic hope as he holds his newborn son. He proclaims a time of peace as God’s promises are fulfilled. Who is Zechariah, and how does he come to sing his song of peace? Here is the back story. Zechariah is a priest who is told by the angel Gabriel that his wife Elizabeth will give birth to a son whose name will be John. This child will have some special gifts, he will according to Luke 1. 14-17 bring joy and gladness, he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or strong drink. At his birth, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, he will point people to God as did Elijah, a strong prophet of the Old Testament. As John goes about his ministry, he will turn the hearts of parents to their children, the disobedient to wisdom, and help people ready to receive the coming of Jesus Christ. What was Zechariah’s response? Just like Sarah and Abraham, when they got the same news about the birth of Isaac, Zechariah cannot quite believe what he is hearing. "What did you say? Do you not see that I am old? Don’t you know that my wife is past her childbearing years? What are you talking about?" For his disbelief, Zechariah is rendered mute and did not speak until all that was told to him happened. Eight days after the baby was born, on the day of his circumcision and naming, as people speculated whether the boy would be named, Zechariah, Junior, Zechariah writes on a tablet, "his name is John". Then his tongue is loosed, and the Holy Spirit fills him as it has filled his wife and his son, and Zechariah begins to sing a father’s song fill with praise and hope. I believe that peace came upon him, as he sensed in his son the fulfillment of the prophesy of Malachi. About what did Zechariah sing? First, he sang a song of blessing for the promises of God. His song, known as the Benedictus, blessing in Latin, and Berakah in Hebrew. God is blessed because God has through Zechariah’s son brought into the world the one who will announce God’s own Son as redeemer of the world. God is blessed because God will raise up Jesus, here called savior, and in other translations the "horn of salvation" from the house of David. God is blessed because by God’s grace and mercy, we are saved from our enemies, from those who would destroy us. Who are our enemies? Outwardly, they are the people who would violate our national borders, our personal property, our person, our integrity, who disrespect who we are, we just do not see us as God’s own people. Inwardly, our enemy is that voice of doom and doubt that says what is not possible, what cannot be done, what is overwhelming, self-defeating, confidence stealing. We have been promised redemption. God can be blessed by us, because through the promise of the coming of Christ, we will have redemption. As we are redeemed, saved to a place with God in to eternity, we are freed to focus our attention and our worship to God. There is peace in being blessed and in blessing God. Zechariah sings for the memory of God. Worship is an act of memory and hope. We gather to recall what God has done and to look forward to what God will do in our lives. Zechariah reminds us that God does not forget the covenant, even if we do. "If you obey my commandments, I will be your God and you will be my people, - not because you are the biggest, or the richest, or the smartest, or the most deserving but because I love you enough to have kept you, protected you, fed you, and led you from the beginning of time until now." Time and again, we say, "all that you say, we will do", and then we don’t. We forget, we get distracted, something happens and we go on as if God does matter at all and we find ourselves in a state of disturbance, with no peace and no peace of mind. We forget. God remembers and has been ever more creative in renewing the covenant with us, from the time of creation, through Abraham and Sarah, through Moses, Aaron, Miriam, the prophets, the exile, the return, restoration, all the way to Jesus. Why renew the covenant? We do it in order to remember that we cannot save ourselves, that we need God, and for Christians, we need Jesus, who helps up remember who and what is sacred and holy about this season. So third, Zechariah sings for what is sacred and holy and be led to serve God fearlessly. When we serve God without fear, there will be no concern that people will think we are too weird, too out of control, too pious, too nice, or too anything. Let it be said of us that we were so grateful that we were courageous enough to reach out to others, to celebrate, share, support, and serve wherever there is a need, that is the 2000 year history of the church of Jesus Christ. If we are honest, we know that the church has at times yielded to fear and it has at times lapsed into silence on matters when its voice would have made a positive difference. When the mainline church is silent rocks and stones cry out. The good news of faith always finds a way to break the silence. When churches are silent or complicit voices with in it will raise up. It was the church courageous that cared for the sick during the Bubonic plague. It was the church that served God without fear that formed the abolitionist movement, and the anti-Nazi movement, and underground churches in areas where the church is oppressed. They found the faith sacred enough to risk everything for the sake of the gospel and so they became the proclaimers of peace. There is peace in memory and peace in what we hold sacred. Notice that greatest part of Zechariah’s song is directed to God. He sings about God to God. Then he picks up his son John, and Zechariah sings for the gifts in his son. Child of mine, you will be the prophet of the most high God, the one to announce that God has taken on human form and come into the world. Your gift will be to prepare the way for the one who is the savior of the world, God’s messiah, the Christ. You will tell and announce, and give to people the people, he will teach and equip, by the forgiveness of sins as he helps people see when they are out of relationship with God, and how to make the relationship right. Our task as the church is to announce that hope and peace are coming, the messenger of God now is us, and we are at our best as messengers when we have a sense of peace about our own gifts. Some of us can identify our gifts with ease. Thank God for those of you who are teachers, singers, planners, who can decorate, who are generous, who can design and build, and paint, and bake, and whose mere presence uplifts us. Some know there gifts but are not using them, they are not sure it is needed, it is probably is, pray for the discernment to use the gifts. Others do not know what their gifts are. Look at what gives you joy, helps others or gives you a sense of shalom. Pray for a spirit of discovery of your gifts. There is peace in knowing our gifts and using them to the glory of God. Finally, Zechariah sings for the time when light will break into our lives. The tender mercy of God whose judgment is tempered by grace, will come upon us like sunrise over a mountaintop. And as it does, we will move from shadow to light, from death to life, and will find our feet on the ways of peace. One commentator tells us that (vol. IX, p. 61) "the Benedictus affirms that God’s purposes are being fulfilled in the delivering of God’s people from their oppressors. Their feet are being guided in the way of peace so that they may worship without fear. Where then are the sons and daughters of peace who can receive this word of faith? Here we are. We can share the peace that is in us, we receive it in the cheerfulness and positive attitudes of some who do not give up or give in when they are ill, but who find a kind of peace that is born of God’s love and presence in their lives. We give that peace when we help pick up people who are down – when we visit those who are alone, or who need food to eat, water to drink, or clothes and shelter. We proclaim God’s peace when we continue in that long line of Christians who prepare people as we have been prepared to point people toward God. We share the peace when we sing our own song of blessing for all that God has done in us, through us, with us, and for us. Let’s sing with passion and gratitude. God will be here with us and we will be blessed. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Dr.
LaTaunya M. Bynum |
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Broad
Street Christian Church
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