Zechariah Luke 1: 5-19

We are now entering into the season of Advent - the beginning of the Christian year. While the world is winding down the calendar year, we begin anew our Christian journey together by waiting. Not waiting for the ball to drop, as we do on New Years Eve, but waiting for the coming of Christ - both as the babe in the manger and the King who will come in final judgment. 

Waiting is not a word most people want to hear. As a child many of us were told to wait our turn. To be patient. As adults we spend a lot of time waiting - in lines at the grocery store and the bank. Even as we try to make our lives more efficient, we still have to wait - for a reply, for an answer, and for so much more. But even as adults, it doesn’t seem like waiting becomes any easier - so for many of us, an entire season of waiting, Advent, is hard. We would rather fly through the next four weeks so we can sing our favorite Christmas carols and celebrate candle lighting services together. For many its Christmas that holds fond memories, not Advent. 

And yet. And yet, Advent is so important to our Christian walk that it begins our year together, for waiting allows us to become people who seek after God. According to author, Enuma Okoro, Advent is important because it is during this time that, “we are invited to walk alongside faithful men and women who also sought after God and waited upon God to answer their prayers and to keep God’s promises.” In waiting we remember stories that have shaped our faith. In waiting we seek our patient partners in prayer through the people in scripture. As we hear ancient stories anew, we are invited in our waiting to make ourselves available to God in new ways. To come, seeking God, patiently together. 

When you think of the Advent story, who does your mind immediately go to? To Mary? The Angel Gabriel? To Joseph? How about Zechariah. The husband of Elizabeth. Father of John the Baptist. It was he who the angel Gabriel came to first to announce the coming of the one who would prepare the way for the Lord. 

In so many ways, the story of Zechariah is one of waiting and patience. Zechariah was a priest, one who was assigned to holy work in the temple. His wife, Elizabeth, was a decedent of the tribe of Aaron, the priestly line. This morning’s scripture lesson tells us that they were righteous before God and lived blameless lives. But… Elizabeth was barren. In a culture where children carried on both the family legacy and took care of their parents as they aged, barrenness was considered to be a curse from God. Even in a culture where stories were told of barren women who were devoted to God - Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Hannah - barrenness was still seen as a direct result of sin. Barren women were to be avoided, as if the cause of their affliction could rub off on to others.

Elizabeth and Zechariah remind us in their barrenness that even the most devout have questions for God and unanswered prayers. Here are two individuals whose family line and current call were to serve God, which they did faithfully, and yet, their faithfulness isn’t rewarded. Isn’t that how it is supposed to work? That the good guys get good things, and the bad guys get what they deserve? This couple, at the beginning of our Advent narrative, make us come face to face with the uncomfortable reality that sometimes the faithful aren’t rewarded. Enuma writes, “Many of us could probably name someone (if not ourselves) in a similar situation of having led an earnest life of faithfulness and yet living in the reality of unanswered prayers.” Can you identify with Zechariah and Elizabeth, waiting, longing, for a child. In a culture where many families had houses full of children, they couldn’t seem to even bring forth one. Can you connect with what they had to be feeling - the heartache, the sleepless nights, the crying out to God in prayer, asking “Why?” What emotions do you think Zechariah experienced as he prayed for Elizabeth? Did even he begin to doubt her righteousness? Or did he begin to blame God? Did he have doubts? Do we, have doubts? Do we cry out to God when things are not as they should be? Do we bring our pain before a holy God, or do we try to talk ourselves out of it, or avoid pain entirely?

But even in the midst of the despair of not being able to conceive, Zechariah went about his work, his calling in the temple, where we encounter him in this passage from the gospel of Luke. Zechariah attended to his faith by doing his priestly duties, even in the midst of unanswered prayers, longing, and waiting. Zechariah was selected to be the one to enter into the holy of holies, while the offering of incense was brought forward to the alter. He was alone in one sense, just him and the Lord, but he also had the community praying for him outside as he went about this sacred duty. Then in the holy of holies the unexpected happened - if there is any place we would expect God to show up, it would be here, where the tabernacle that went with the people of Israel for centuries to symbolize the very presence of God was held. And yet, as Zechariah was going about his job in this special place, he was overwhelmed when the presence of the angel Gabriel appeared at the right of the alter. 

Zechariah entered the temple to intercede for the people - which was both a duty and a privilege. But in that place, at that moment, the angel of the Lord showed up and told him that God has been hearing Zechariah’s prayers and pleas all of these years, and now was the time they would be answered. Gabriel revealed himself to Zechariah as he was going about the task he was supposed to be doing that day. How would you respond if God sent you a personal messenger to tell you that your prayers have been heard? How would you respond if you were going about your daily job and suddenly found your waiting ended, and your prayers had been answered. Would you too need to be told to “Do not be afraid”. In this moment we see grace and divine kindness - a God who listened to Zechariah’s cries, tenderly caring after his immediate needs in the face of unspeakable fear. 

The angel goes on to tell Zechariah that the child he would be blessed with was more than he could have ever imagined praying for. He would be great in the sight of the Lord. He would turn the people of Israel to the Lord their God. The child, to be named, John would be a blessing to the entire nations of Israel. 

Some time ago Whitney Huston released a Christmas Song that asked the question, “who could and would imagine a King?” as she pondered what the parents of Jesus must have thought about their child and what he would become. A similar question could be asked by Zechariah as he listens to the angel Gabriel - who could or would have imagined that this is what their child would become?

Which is pretty much how Zechariah responded - “How can this be so?” Even in the midst of having his prayer answered - a prayer that he had prayed time and time again - he had doubts. Have you ever had a similar experience where God answers your prayer but you can’t quite bring yourself to believe it? Zechariah couldn’t bring himself to believe the good news God was trying to bring him because it didn’t fall in line with his beliefs, or logic, or circumstances. His wife was beyond the age of bearing a child. It was almost as if he prayed, but didn’t believe at this point in his life that God would actually answer his prayer - and it is in the midst of that unexpectedness and doubt that God showed up. 

How can we hold onto a deep belief in God’s promises in the midst of our doubts? How can we cling to the character of God we know to be true, when the answer to our prayers seem so wildly illogical? Many of us know the story of Zechariah because we have lived it - season after season of unanswered prayer. But we keep praying, keep believing that God will come through. But even as we pray, there are still doubts - for as Zechariah has shown us, even the righteous and devout have doubts. The question is what do we do with our doubts? Do we bring them before God? Do we expect God to answer in unexpected ways? Or do we only want our prayers answered in our way and in our timing? 

Zechariah was a man of patience and waiting - and yet, when the waiting was over, the time had come for his prayer to be answered, he didn’t know how it could be so - he didn’t know how to respond. Brothers and sisters, how will you respond when God answers your prayers of deep longing? Will you doubt that it could be true? Or will you praise the Lord? And how will you handle your season of waiting? Will you cling to the character and promises of God, or will you turn away from the faith? Will you keep on going - praying and doing what God has called you to do - or will you give up in disappear? Brothers and sisters, during this season of waiting, however long it may be, do not lose hope. Do not cease praying. For as Zechariah reminds us, the day when the Lord will answer our prayers may be just be coming. Amen.