December 08, 2024
• Rev. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
December 8, 2024
Advent 2
On the Way to Bethlehem
Jerusalem: Place of Waiting
Luke 1:5-13; 18-20
For Advent this year we are thinking about locations on the way to Bethlehem. We are considering not just the events that happened in those places, but the spiritual meaning each location represents and how those places shaped the lives of the characters in the Christmas story. We began last week in Rome. That’s where Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census and set in motion the events of the Christmas story. Today we travel over a thousand miles and come to the next location in the story, Jerusalem.(pic)
Jerusalem is an important spiritual center for the three major monotheistic faiths in the world: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. This importance centers on the gold domed building in the center of the old city known as the Dome of the Rock, which is a holy Muslim shrine. The importance of that building is the rock at the center of its floor. It is known as The Foundation Stone (pic). This stone is roughly the size of 2300 square feet. So much of the religious frictions that impact our world comes down to a rock the size of 12 parking spaces. But it is an important rock.
Legend holds that this is where the creation of the world began, and where God created Adam. It’s spiritual significance goes back to the earliest of times. After Abraham won a battle in Genesis chapter 13, it says he was blessed by Melchizedek, the priest of Salem. Salem is what became modern Jerusalem. So people were worshipping here from the earliest of times.
Later, the place where Abraham was tested to see if he would sacrifice his son, Isaac, took place at Mount Moriah, which is identified as The Foundation Stone. Long after that, the tablets of the 10 Commandments were stored in what was known as The Ark of the Covenant. King Solomon built a temple to house the ark which was placed on the Foundation Stone. There is a rectangular depression on the rock that matches the measurements of the ark of the covenant as described in the Bible.
In the ancient temple, the room housing the ark was known as the Most Holy Place because it was believed that God dwelled there. If you go to the Western Wall today, the nearest access point to this location, there is a sign that says, “You are nearing the place of the Divine Presence.”
Back to our history. Eventually the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and carried the ark to Babylon near modern Baghdad where it became lost, but was discovered many centuries later by Harrison Ford, and they made this into a movie.
Well, long after the Babylonians and even the time of Jesus, in 629AD, the prophet Mohammed, the founder of Islam, had a night vision in which he was transported to the Foundation Stone. This is how it became a holy Islamic site.
So clearly, this is no ordinary rock. It symbolizes the worship of people since the beginning of time. It has been conquered and inhabited by the Jews, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Egyptians, the Ottomans, the Crusaders, the British, and now the Muslims. It is a place as old as time itself where people have come to pray to God, seeking God’s will to be done. If Rome represented the place where we name our longings, then Jerusalem is where we take them…and wait.
This part of the Christmas story focuses on the temple and an old priest named Zechariah. Right off the bat we are told that he and his wife, Elizabeth, come from an impressive religious ancestry. They both are righteous and have been blameless in their obedience to Torah law. But they are barren.
Barren. That’s such a harsh word, but being barren was a harsh reality in that time especially for a priest and his wife. It meant they were not able to participate in the covenant responsibility of raising a new generation of covenant faithfulness to God. Most people reasoned that if you could not have a child, it meant God was withholding this blessing from you. So added to disappointment is shame and guilt. So Zechariah and Elizabeth carry a longing within them, a longing of acceptance—from others and God—and a longing for joy.
Have you ever had a reason to feel barren? Have you ever longed for something that never came? Ever lived with a feeling like an empty hole is inside you? What do youdo with such a longing?
Zechariah and Elizabeth were at the temple carrying out faithful devotion. Actually Zechariah was having a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He was priest on duty. Everyday a priest was selected to serve at the temple. His job was to go into the room next to the Most Holy Place and carry out several functions: clean out the ashes from the altar, fill the lamp with oil, replace the Bread of Presence, and then come out and bless the people.
There were about 20,000 priests in Israel and they were divided into 24 divisions. Each division served 2 weeks a year, and would choose by lot who would serve each day as priest on duty. Once your name was selected it was removed so as to give others this rare opportunity. Most priest never got it, and if you did, it was clearly once-in-a-lifetime. And while Zechariah is having this rare experience, he gets an added surprise.
While carrying out his duty in the Holy Place, he is met by the angel Gabriel and it scares him nearly to death. This is mildly humorous if you think about it. Zechariah is standing is as close to the Divine Presence as he will ever get in his life, yet he doesn’t actually expect to be met by a Divine Presence! Is it possible to do faithful things and lack faith at the same time?
Well if Gabriel’s presence has been shocking to Zechariah, then what the angel says will knock him over. Gabriel declares, “Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.” And the first word Zechariah says is response is “How?” He can’t believe it. It seems too impossible to him now.
Have you ever gotten so accustomed to living with an unanswered prayer, that it would be disturbing to you if God did answer?
**Eric Donoho story…I had breakfast with a church member the other morning. He told me how as a boy he prayed so hard for his dad to stop drinking, but it didn’t happen, at least not for several years. But one dad it did. His dad quit drinking, but by this point this person had become an angry teenager. His dad worked hard to be involved in his son’s life, but all his son could see was a dad who didn’t get straightened out sooner. But over time, he came to see his dad differently, and he realized his prayer was answered. His dad was healed.
This is why waiting is essential in the Christian life. It allows us to see life in slow motion. Some things we miss in real time. We have to pause, slow down, reflect in order to understand them, in order to understand God’s presence in them.
This is why Zechariah is a vital part of the Christmas story. He shows us how to wait. There’s no judgment of him carrying out his devotion without an expectant faith. Just the opposite. He is what faith looks like to most of us most of the time. Not with full hearts brimming with confidence for all God is doing, but with doubts, with fears, with longings. He shows us what you do with that. You keep practicing faith even when you’re not full of faith.
Sometimes just showing up is the most courageous act in the world. What this story shows is that our faith or lack of faith is not a determiner of what God can do. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Being faithful is more important than having faith. Because when we keep showing up, even when we aren’t certain we still believe, we allow ourselves to be surprised one day.
Having faith is great, especially if it motivates us to show faith. But if we depend on feeling faithful to be faithful, then most of the time we probably don’t do faithful things. That’s what a story like Zechariah and Elizabeth is so important. That’s why Jerusalem is a key stop on the way to Bethlehem, to remind us that just showing up is an act of courage. And when we keep showing up, it can keep you from giving up.
I’m leading Pastor’s Book Study on Wednesday mornings this month. In fact, if you want to carry on the conversation from these sermons, join us at 10am on Wednesday in the Commons Room. We are talking about the sermon topics. This past week, as we explored longings, one woman admitted how discouraged she has felt since the election. She’s been lethargic and felt helpless. But then she said, “What can I do? I can go to the food pantry and help hungry people. I can do that. I can help people who are struggling!”
That’s faith. I believe faith looks like that more than it does having such supreme confidence in work of God that makes us want to go out and carry the world on our shoulders like a modern day Atlas. No I believe more of the time faith looks discouraged. It looks tired. It looks like an old man carrying out devotion. He’s having a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He presents the image of joy, but deep down there’s a longing. There’s a missing piece in his heart. But he shows up, because when you keep showing up, you stand the chance of being surprised.
So if Rome was about identifying our longings, Jerusalem is about what we do with our longings. We wait. We wait and…and pray. We wait and worship. We wait and serve. Until God shows up.
But this doesn’t answer an important question. Why? Why does God make us wait? Waiting, of course, is recurring theme in the Bible. Abraham and Sarah had to wait for a promised son. The Israelites waited 400 years in slavery. Simeon and Anna waited at the temple their whole lives to see the salvation of God. When Jesus ascended he told the disciples to wait to receive the Holy Spirit. The Bible ends with people waiting on the return of Christ. The Bible makes clear that waiting is part of the life of faith, but why?
Let me off two thoughts. One is to consider The Waiting of God. We like to think of God as a divine despot who can disperse answers to prayer in a flash, but have you ever thought of God’s waiting? Listen to this verse from Second Peter:
“But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance.”
Another way to say that is that God displays incredible patience with us, because God wants everyone to have a chance to change. While God could come down and by authority just make the world different, that might not makes us better. And God wants to make us better. Maybe the next time we get impatient with God, we might try asking, “What does my waiting have to do with the waiting of God?”
A second thought is this: The Gift of Waiting. Have you ever considered waiting as something we need? One of the best answers I’ve ever come across as to why we must wait is something I read many years ago by John Ortberg who said, “What happens in us while we wait is as important as what we’re waiting for.” That sentence is worth holding onto. Getting what we want when we want it sounds great, until it’s not. Waiting sometimes gives us space to make better requests. Waiting oftentimes helps us see better what God has been doing. And waiting always prevents us from trying to become God ourselves.
So let’s consider one last thought about Zechariah. The Angel Gabriel told him that God heard his prayer. Long after giving up that his prayer would be answered, the angel told Zechariah that Elizabeth will have a son. Zechariah didn’t believe it’s possible, so the angel tells him that he will not be able to speak until the child is born. He was left with being silent. All he could do for the next nine months is listen.
(soft piano begins) That is a helpful place for us to end the sermon today, thinking about how we can use silence in our advent practices. Silence is not easy for us. We’re so addicted to noise in our society that silence feels threatening. We’ve become masters at multi-tasking. We can listen to music, be around people talking in public places while working on our phones or computers, but it doesn’t mean we are more efficient. It doesn’t mean we are less anxious or worried. Some would say it’s just the opposite.
Sometimes we appreciate noise because it keeps us distracted from things we don’t want to face. But what if there is a better way of coping than distraction?
There are experiences of God that come only through silence, so I want us to close the sermon today with an experience of silence. I want to offer a few thoughts and questions we might take into our silence. I will give a first one, then allow time to reflect and listen. Then a question, and after that, a final question before we stand for our closing hymn. This will probably feel awkward and uncomfortable, but welcome it as a new way to be encountered by God. So get as relaxed as you can sitting in a pew. You may even want to place your arms on your lap with palms turned up as if you are in a receiving position. Try to release any tension in your body. Close your eyes. Breathe deep and exhale slowly…(music stops)
Begin by telling God what you are waiting for today…
O God what do you want to say to me?
God, what are you waiting for me to do?
I’ll lead a closing prayer (music can begin for closing hymn)
(After my question then stop playing)