“HOPE AND THE INCONCEIVABLE CONCEPTION”

LUKE 1:5-25

5  In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.

6  Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.

7  But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.

8  Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty,

9  he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.

10  Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.

11  Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.

12  When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him.

13  But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.

14  You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

15  for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.

16  He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.

17  With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

18  Zechariah said to the angel, "How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years."

19  The angel replied, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

20  But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur."

21  Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary.

22  When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak.

23  When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

24  After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said,

25  "This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people."

When you look at the future what do you think?  Do you think it’s going to be better or worse or stay pretty much the way it is right now?  Are you optimistic or a pessimist? Do you get a little cynical every now and then or are you hopeful?  How would you answer that question when it comes to your own life? 

If you tend to be a little cynical from time to time then you’d probably get along really well with Zechariah.  If you tend to be hopeful then you’d probably get along really well with Elizabeth. You know if it’s true that opposites attract then Zechariah and Elizabeth were made for each other. We don’t know much about this elderly couple. What we do know is that Zechariah was a priest in the Temple and that Elizabeth was one of Mary’s cousins. We also know that when the angel Gabriel showed up with his announcement Zechariah reacted with skepticism while Elizabeth showed herself to be a humble woman of faith.

Zechariah had his doubts when Gabriel told them Elizabeth was going to finally give birth.  Elizabeth, on the other hand got the credit card out and when shopping for maternity clothes. Zechariah basically said, “Yeah right Gabriel.  What do you think I am? An idiot?  There’s no way Elizabeth is going to have a baby at her age.  Now if you don’t mind Gabriel, I’ve got a lot of work to do here.  I’ve got candlesticks to polish and there’s a huge pile of burnt offerings in the holiest of holies that needs to be swept up.”

Zechariah had the same outlook on life that radio star Fred Allen exhibited from time to time.  One day Allen saved the life of a boy who was selling newspapers on a street corner.  When the boy didn’t see a truck bearing down on him Allen pulled him out of the way just in time.  He then scolded to boy.  “What’s the matter with you, kid?” he scowled. “Don’t you want to grow up and have troubles like everyone else?”

You know it’s easy to be a little cynical these days.  That’s because we’ve become jaded by all of the negativity.  We’ve become jaded by all the political scandals and the selfish me first mentality. We’ve seen millionaire basketball players climb into the stands to fight with fans who threw beer at them.  We’ve see a husband convicted of killing his wife and unborn child because he wanted to live the life of a care free bachelor.  You used to be able to trust ministers and priests and rabbis without giving it a second thought.  Unfortunately, that’s not true any longer. Then there are those moments when the cynicism hits a little closer to home. It happens when you trust someone and that person let’s you down or betrays you. How does that cynical saying go again?  Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice shame on me?

Yes. Integrity is in very short supply these days.  Take the woman who got on a bus one day and realized after she sat down that she hadn’t paid her fare. When she got up to go pay it her friend was shocked. “Why bother?” the friend said. “You got away with it. So, just sit down and enjoy the ride.”  “Oh no,” the woman gasped. “I couldn’t do that.  Besides, I’ve found that honestly always pays.”  A few minutes later the woman came back with a smile on her face.  “There, you see,” she said to her friend.  “I told you honesty always pays.  I gave the driver my quarter and he gave me fifty cents change.”

Sad to say, but that’s the way things work these days.  No wonder we tend to be a little cynical at times.  Zechariah was  the same way.  Not Elizabeth though.  Listen again to what she said when she heard the good news. Elizabeth said, “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured…” 

Elizabeth’s faith in God gave her hope. She knew that with God all things are possible.  She knew that God is always working behind the scenes to bring joy out of sorrow, healing out of pain, new possibilities out of the ashes of defeat.  Now isn’t that what this season is all about?  It’s about hope.  That’s one of the reasons why I like the title of Emanuel for Jesus. I like it because in English that Hebrew word means, “God with us.” God is with you.  God is with me.  God was with Elizabeth. God was also with Zechariah even though he had his doubts. 

God is with us and when God is with you there’s always hope. There’s always hope because God is great and God is good.  God can do amazing things.  Of course that simple conviction almost gave one man a heart attack.  It all started when the pastor of a small country church sent one of his parishioners to the big city to order a Christmas sign for the front of the church.  When the parishioner got to the big city though he discovered that he’d lost the paper that had the inscription and the dimensions of the sign on it.  So he sent a telegram back to the pastor.  The telegram said, “Rush copy of inscription and dimensions.”.  A little while later a different clerk in the Western Union office got the reply and almost fainted.  The reply simply said, “Unto us a child is born.  Eight feet long and three feet wide.”

Oh well, God can still do amazing things.  Even so, when it comes to God and hope there’s a couple of caveats that you need to keep in mind. The first caveat is that God’s timetable may not be the same as your timetable. Look at Zechariah and Elizabeth.  They waited for years and years and years for their little bundle of joy to arrive.  Why didn’t God do something sooner? Why did God make them wait?  I don’t know the answer to that question. The one thing I do know is that if a prayer isn’t answered right away it’s because God knows that the time isn’t right yet to act.

So when it comes to God and hope you have to be patient and that’s something that isn’t easy to do these days. That’s because we live in a world of instant and immediate gratification.  We live in a world where we want what we want and we don’t want it tomorrow.  We want it now. You can see this attitude in a comment that Phillip Brooks made one day. I’m not sure if this was before or after he wrote the words to “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.”  In any event, one day a friend saw him pacing back and forth in his office.  When the friend asked him what was wrong a very irritated Brooks replied, “The trouble is that I am in a hurry, and God is not!”

God’s timetable may not be the same as your timetable.  That doesn’t mean though that God isn’t paying attention to what’s going on in your life.  It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care what’s going on in your life.  It simply means that God is waiting until just the right moment to do something wonderful for you just as he did for Zechariah and Elizabeth.

The second caveat that you have to keep in mind when it comes to God and hope is that God always knows what’s best.  What that means is that God’s way of handling things isn’t always going to be the way you want God to handle things. You don’t see that in the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, but you do see it in the birth of the Christ child.  When Jesus was born it wasn’t exactly what the people had in mind.  The messiah was supposed to be a powerful king with a palace and an army and riches beyond your wildest imagination. What the people got instead was a baby born in a dark, dirty and dingy stable to a couple of nobodies named Mary and Joseph. 

It didn’t make any sense to the people back then, but that’s the way God often works.  When it comes to hope you always, always, always have to be open to the possibility that God isn’t going to handle things the way you would like them to be handled.

This past summer I got a first hand experience of God and hope. It happened in Alaska when our Outward Bound class ended up in a difficult predicament. We were hiking across a glacier at the time.  We were heading back to our base camp when a fog bank closed in on us and made it impossible to see. You really couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of you and because of that we ended up getting completely lost. Now crossing a glacier in the fog can be dangerous. That’s because the fog makes it hard to watch out for avalanches, crevasses that you can fall into and the occasional bear that you see while you’re up there. Well after a couple of hours of hiking with all of our gear and our 65 lb. backpacks we weren’t exactly a happy bunch of campers.  We were hungry, cold and exhausted. So, we stopped for a short rest and while we were resting our fearless instructors took the opportunity to ponder our options.  As we sat there on our back packs one of the students turned to me and suggested that I do something. “You’re the minister here,” he said jokingly. “Why don’t you use your connections to get us out of this mess.” “I’m sorry,” I said, “but I’m in sales. Not management.” I did tell him though that a prayer was in order. So, I prayed and believe it or not about 10 minutes after I prayed the fog lifted. It only lifted for a couple of minutes but it was just long enough to see where we were and where we needed to go to get back to our base camp. 

Now Zechariah would probably tell you it was just a coincidence. Elizabeth would probably tell you it was a wonderful gift from God.  I know what I think. The question is what do you think?  How you answer that question will determine if you’re going to live your life like Zechariah or Elizabeth.  It will determine whether you’re going to live your life with cynicism or the hope that comes from God.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

November 28, 2004