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The Other Family’s Story
A sermon by Dr. Jesse
Fletcher
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
The Second Sunday of Advent
December 9, 2007
You know, I think the word
"adventure" emerges very easily from advent. While they tend to mean two such
different things to us, I look at the advent month and the opportunity to
revisit that period that is so fundamental to our common faith as an adventure
each time, discovering new things, discovering feelings that we might not have
known we had before or insights into our faith that we might not have had
before.
I hope you will continue
your adventure during this advent time. I'm so aware of the nativity scene
throughout advent, not just the Holy family with Mary and Joseph and the baby
Jesus. Not just the rich and the learned who came or the simple and the humble
or the overarching celestial accompaniment. It permeates our music and our
atmosphere when we are in the adventure of advent.
But sometimes we look at
another family that has a very vital part in the Christmas story. In the book
of Luke where we get so much of our Christmas story, Luke begins with this
story. Starting with the fifth chapter in the first verse of Luke and going
through that long passage, 80 verses.
He tells something of the
initial story of Zacharias and Elizabeth and the birth of their son John who
became John the Baptist, the other family. Let me read portions of the
scripture for you starting with the gospel of Luke in the fifth verse.
5THERE was in the days
of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of
Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
6And
they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord blameless.
7And
they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now
well stricken in years.
8And
it came to pass, that while he executed the priest's office before God in the
order of his course,
9According
to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went
into the temple of the Lord.
10And
the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
11And
there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the
altar of incense.
12And
when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
13But
the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy
wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.
14And
thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
15For
he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's
womb.
16And
many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
17And
he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of
the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to
make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
18And
Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man,
and my wife well stricken in years.
19And
the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of
God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
20And,
behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these
things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be
fulfilled in their season.
21And
the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the
temple.
22And
when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had
seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
23And
it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were
accomplished, he departed to his own house.
24And
after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months,
saying,
25Thus
hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my
reproach among men.
And then to fast forward,
if you will, to the end of John's life, when in the 11th chapter of Matthew,
Jesus pronounces a blessing which turned out to be a benediction on John.
8But
what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that
wear soft clothing are in kings' houses.
9But
what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a
prophet.
10For
this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
which shall prepare thy way before thee.
11Verily
I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater
than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven
is greater than he.
I will try to help you
understand that blessing in just a moment.
I think in the story of
that other family, we see something that most of us who have lived very many
years watched other people or experienced ourselves the kinds of difficulties
and the kinds of confusing life scripts that so often come our way. We can
learn something from the life of John.
Zacharias was a priest who
lived out in the countryside because his priesthood duties only happened three,
four times a year and he would come in when his order was due and he would
perform whatever function they assigned him. It was very rare to be assigned
the function of incense, and probably something he had wanted to do all of his
life.
On this particular day, it
was his office to do the incense. It was to give sweet smell to the offering
that was to rise up to God. And in the smoke of the incense, that was part of
the mystery of the moment, but this was different. For as Zacharias looked, he
saw an angel. Not just any angel, the angel. He identified himself as
Gabriel. And he brought the news to him that he and his wife were to have a
child.
Now, as you read this
particular passage, it said that John and Elisabeth were pretty advanced in
years. In fact, they have a very innocent term, "well stricken with age. “
I thought a lot about
that. I have experienced that “stricken with age.” I don't know if I have been
well‑stricken with age yet or not. We haven't had any children lately so that
could be part of it. But this was something that was trying to define that
these people weren't expecting to have any children. They already were
experiencing the reproach that often went to childless couples in their period.
But Elisabeth did
conceive. She was a woman of faith. She accepted it immediately. God was doing
this. God was in this. And then a very strange scene. Gabriel appeared to
another one. This woman was Mary, the mother of Jesus. That's the story we
know well.
Sometimes we forget she
went to visit Elisabeth in Elisabeth's sixth month and said they were cousins.
More likely the same language could be used to define the child of a mother's
sister. And this might account for the age. It might account for the visit.
Now, did Mary go to help
Elisabeth? Or was Elisabeth helping Mary?
Mary was in her first
trimester. Elisabeth was going into her last. I remember in our first
trimester, Dorothy had a tough time, first trimester of the many times. Dorothy
had a tough time, and she didn't have nearly as tough a time as I did. I had
sympathy type of things. And she would get sick, but I would throw up. It was
my role during that particular period. So we're not sure which they were doing,
but it says she stayed three months and so there's almost the implication that
Mary was staying to help Elisabeth and the child was born. Then it switches
back to Elisabeth and Zacharias' story and Mary disappears until the next
chapter, if you will.
But Zacharias had his own
kind of experience through this time. When he heard from Gabriel that they were
to have a child, he couldn't believe it. He didn't believe it. Gabriel said,
well, you are not going to be able to speak because you don't believe it. He
was dumb struck because of his doubt. Now, that has also been a problem for me
because I should have been dumb struck a lot more than I've been over the
years.
There have been times I
was opening my mouth and you were not hearing things because I was dealing with
doubts even as I tried to share the faith that I was bringing to those doubts.
Doubts help define faith.
This is a good example of
it. Well, we reach out despite ourselves to embrace that faith is an act in
itself of believing. So, finally, when the child came, Zacharias was freed up
from his dumb struckness and he began to prophesize about what his son would be.
When you get an older
couple of only one child, there is a great investment and that was certainly
true of Zacharias and Elisabeth and John. But he was to be different. They
weren't sure quite how. I had a very close friend growing up who was the only
child of an older couple and they had wanted him to grow up and become a
physician and he was one of those young men who wanted to please his parents so
bad. He tried so hard, and he was just an exemplary young man.
I spent many hours and
days and camping trips and fishing trips with him and he was always an exemplary
young man but he wasn't able to make med school. After a stint as an officer in
the Navy, still couldn't make med school. I don't know whether it was their
expectations or his, but it was more than he could handle. He tried to take his
life. That left a disability. I remember visiting with him after that as he
struggled with trying to regroup his life and rethink about what he was to be or
do. And I remember when the next time he was successful. Those parents and how
disappointed they must have been.
And I wondered at a point,
could Zacharias and Elisabeth have experienced that. Did they say John grows up
to be the wild desert prophet that came out to preach and ‑‑ met such a terrible
death at the hands of Herod. I said, no, they had probably gone. They had
probably passed away in his youth. That might be how he got to the desert. The
other acetic groups were working in the desert deeply dedicated to the things of
the Lord, that could account for his convictions, her spirit, his ability for he
was quite able.
When he began to preach in
fulfillment of his late father's prophecy, he was everything that Gabriel had
told Zacharias he would be. And soon the crowds were flocking to him and soon
he was baptizing and demanding repentance of the people of Israel. Baptism was
usually reserved for a Gentile trying to become a Jew. He was a man saying, You
are all in need to be baptized. Until you get serious about the Lord and really
commit your life to him, and he was baptizing along the Jordan when Jesus
appeared. And the poor runner's role became obvious.
Of course, at the baptism
when Jesus received the blessing of the father, this is my beloved son in whom I
will well pleased, John may have known that was part of why he had come to
pass. Shortly after that, his disciples worried about larger crowds going to
Jesus. The smaller crowds coming to him. He said that's like it should be. He
must increase. I must decrease. He didn't decrease fast enough, though. He
didn't fall under the radar of Herod and he had been denouncing Herod not only
for the cruelty of his regime but for the immorality of his court and erode us
who was part of that immorality deeply resented that and probably was behind
Herod arresting John. After a while, John realized he might not get out of that
prison. He heard stories of what was happening in the crowds that followed
Jesus and he sent his disciples to find out. He had some doubt. Could I have
been wrong?
Maybe he isn't the one.
Jesus sent back a reassuring word. Whether it got there in time, we don't
know. Because you know the story of the daughter, her dance pleasing Herod,
Herod saying I will give you whatever you ask, consulting her mother what they
ask for. And it probably showed the depravity and the degradation of the
situation John the Baptist had on a charger. What an ignominious end. What a
tragic, violent, cruel end.
During the week, I have
been working on this, worked on it a long time. But I have been working on it
this week especially. And I got distracted by my TV one night. I had been
checking the weather to see if the front stretching from Richmond to Abilene
will move on either one of us. Dorothy said it is moving in on them. I found a
movie called Cinderella Man. It was about a fighter. It was the very end.
That's the only part I like to watch any way. Here was a man that had been
ground down by the depression. Couldn't feed his family. Couldn't keep his
jobs but he had once been a fighter. He felt like if he could reenter the
fighting game, maybe he could realize what he needed to take care of his
family. He was very successful. His name was James Braddock.
Finally, he ended up with
a world championship bout against the feared and fierce‑some Max Baer. You know
the story. Despite the fact he was an almost overwhelming underdog, he won that
fight. And people in the streets and all the other down trodden, depressed
workers who were trying to scratch out a living cheered and it was a victory for
all of them and it was so uplifting and exciting and I got the little chill
bumps that come during things like that.
Then I went back to
working on John and I wanted that for John. He had worked so hard. He had been
so unstinting in his obedience. I wanted something other than what happened.
But then I went back and read this passage in the 11th chapter of Matthew. The
blessing of Jesus. And I heard him say, he was the greatest. Greatest of men.
And I thought, "Wait a minute, Herod didn't have the last word. Salome, they
didn't have the last word.
The last word about John
came from Jesus. And then something else, but the least of these shall be even
greater than him. What Jesus was doing in that blessing to John was blessing
all of those who may feel somehow their life script didn't work out the way they
wanted to. He's trying to say in response to me, you always have the blessing.
Jesus always has the last word. As tragic as my friend's situation might have
seemed, Jesus had the last word.
As tragic as some of the
families now who are bringing their sons and daughters home in coffins from Iraq
or from Afghanistan, as tragic as that may seem, as unnecessary as it may seem,
in Christ and in faith Jesus still has the last word. You may be at that place
in life where it's not working out like you thought it would. Like the script
you wrote are the ones your parent wrote come to pass.
But in faith, folks, Jesus
has the last word. And everything may have been simply a preparation and part
of what is yet to be revealed. And what began during this time of nativity.
Well, the great gift that God gave us in Christ was the gift to every one of
us.
Not just for the
possibility of salvation, not just for the possibility that the manger can make
a difference in an otherwise troubled, struggling world. But that every one of
us can find that full meaning of life. And it was inherent in the angel who
said "glad tidings, good news, great joy.
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