Luke 1:67-79
2nd
Sunday of Advent
Elizabeth M. Deibert
December 9, 2012
Last week our theme was hope and as
we read the promises of God from the prophet Jeremiah, we were reminded that
hope is hanging onto the promises of God expectantly. H – hanging. O – onto
P – promises E –
expectantly. Today we move to the great
word, our favorite theme: Peace. People
eagerly awaiting coming Emmanuel.
The opening chapters of Luke's
Gospel are like a musical drama. At all
the significant moments the characters break into song. And in the music, one finds the heart of the
message. In the first two chapters of
Luke we have three famous songs: the Magnificat sung by Mother Mary,
the Benedictus
sung
by Uncle Zechariah, and the Nunc Dimittis by Simeon, devout elder in Jerusalem. If you removed these three songs along with
the songs of the angels, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to
all people” the narrative would lose all its power. You'd hardly know anything was
happening in Bethlehem.
Hear now the Benedictus, which is Latin for Blessed. The Benedictus tells us first – what God has
done; second – what we are supposed to do in response, and third – what the
prophet John the Baptist will do, and finally – what God will ultimately do.
Luke
1:68-79
68 "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on
his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,
70 as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71 that we would be saved from our enemies
and from the hand of all who
hate us.
72 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
and has remembered his holy
covenant,
73 the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us 74 that
we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear,
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;
for you will go before the
Lord to prepare his ways,
77 to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their
sins.
78 By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,
79 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way
of peace."
(NRSV)
Now as the Benedictus has been sung
for most of the generations of the church, hear it set to music. (Sing Hymn 602. Vs. 1)
In the first part there are seven
active verbs of which God is subject. God has looked with favor on us and redeemed
us. God has raised up a mighty Savior as God promised us. God has saved us
from our enemies. God has shown mercy and remembered his covenant. In other words, friends, God has been
faithful. God has not let us down, even when we were faithless. These words are uttered by Zechariah before
the birth of Jesus, but they speak of the Savior as if he already is. Remember Luke is crafting the memory, the story,
knowing already the life and death and resurrection of Jesus.
We then, being rescued by God, are
called to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days. It is important to note that we are first
rescued. God doesn’t call to us when we are
drowning in the deep waters of fear, sin and death, and tell us to swim to shore
so God can forgive us. No, God rescues us. Then we are called to serve without
fear of death and in thankfulness for our rescue.
Our holiness and righteousness are
in response to his rescue. The Old
Testament reminds the Israelites
sixty times that it was God who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. God
rescued them. God rescued us from our slavery to sin. Our grateful response is to live
holy and joyful lives.
John the Baptist is called the
prophet of the Most High, the forerunner. He goes to prepare the way, to give
knowledge of forgiveness. John prepared the way for the first coming of Christ.
We Christians are called to prepare the way for the second coming, which we
anticipate during Advent. Our
responsibility, like John’s, is to share the good news of God’s forgiveness in
word and action. You see, if you are really in touch with the
fact that you nearly drowned and God rescued you, you cannot help but be filled
with gratitude and with forgiveness of others. You want to love people into believing this
good news, not judge them.
The last two verses of this passage
are the promise of what God will do. God, filled with tender mercy, will make
the dawn break upon us, giving light to those who sit in darkness and in the
shadow of death, guiding us in the way of peace. This message is peace is just what
we need. It’s what the world needs. The world waits in the dark shadows of
night for the light. We wait in the
eery, long hours of night, hoping for the
light. We wait for daybreak, for some sign of peace and hope that we are not
forgotten. We wait in the darkness. (Lights out)
A very sad example of darkness. Just last Sunday, one of our sister
Presbyterian Churches in northern Pennsylvania, experienced the horror of
having their organist gunned down in the middle of worship by her ex-husband. Two elementary school teachers, a soured
divorce. I cannot begin to understand
this darkness.
We wait in the darkness, knowing
that God promises daybreak. We wait in the darkness in solidarity with those
for whom life is dark and scary. We wait in the darkness of our sin, aware that we
ourselves have extinguished light by our actions, by our attitudes, by our
inability to do what we wanted to do, what we ought to have done. But we do not
sit in the darkness without a light. Do you see how even two Advent candles
illumine this entire room?
All it takes is a little light. How many of you watched the CNN Heroes Award
presentation last night? It was truly
inspiring – people with courage and with vision, accomplishing great things to
benefit others – a school for girls in Afghanistan, where getting an education
is unusual for girls. A gym with
special goals and esteem-building exercises for those recovering from addiction. A program to support children and youth who
are caregivers for their parents or siblings with disabilities and at risk of
losing their own childhood. A program
that has helped 1000 kids in Ohio, mostly poor minorities, learn to swim,
started by a grieving mother whose son drowned at age 16. A center to provide compassionate care for
children in Nepal who were stuck in prison with their parents.
When my siblings were 2, 4, and 6,
my dad spent a year in a TB sanitorium, unable to see his kids, unable to work.
My mom struggled to make it. The Presbyterian Church reached out to a
young mother at home alone with three children and no money. They provided
Christmas for my family and that’s how my family joined the Presbyterian
Church. You are providing Christmas for
several families in the worshiping community of Presbyterians at Mission
Beth-El. And you are making a
difference in the lives of people in many countries through your Alternative
Gifts International donations. And you
help one another in times of crisis.
You pray, you visit, you provide the caring support of Stephen
Ministry. You give to the discretionary
fund, by which I can confidentially help people in our congregation and beyond
who have unique needs, due to crises. It
is beautiful to see a compassionate church, reaching out and reaching in to
care for all in need. In the light of that compassion, we see the dawning of God’s
peace. We see the glorious dawn when estranged people
forgive one another. We see the glorious dawn when nations put down their guns
and work on diplomacy and when we try to figure out together how to feed the hungry.
Advent is a time of waiting for the
light of the world which will overcome every dark corner of death and despair.
God has not finished what was started on that silent and holy night in Bethlehem.
We’re waiting for the Dayspring to disperse the gloomy clouds of night in Syria
and in Jerusalem. And we’re waiting for
the day of rejoicing when Immanuel comes again to put an end to our cynicism
and rampant materialism. We’re waiting for death’s dark shadows to be
put to flight in this global economic recession, which leaves us feeling uncertain
but leaves the most vulnerable in great peril.
We’re waiting for the dawning of
peace, a day when greed and power do not rule the day and prevent leaders from
negotiating justice and peace for all. We’re
waiting for the dawning of peace for everyone who is depressed or grieving or suffering
in any way. We’re waiting for the dawning
of peace in family relationships, where harsh words and hard judgments and
bitterness tear at the fabric of love and unity. We’re waiting for the dawning of peace in
our diseases and addictions, longing for day when health and freedom come to us
all.
We’re waiting for the dawn of peace,
that peace which reminds us once again that we are all forgiven of all our
sins, and able to begin anew with the full assurance of God’s love and God’s
strength and God’s grace.
But we do not just wait, we worship
and we work with God to bring light to dark places. The Incarnation is about God’s love being
made flesh, and so we take our own flesh, our bodies into the dark places of
the world to bring God’s light. We are
the body of Christ, the body called to be Immanuel, the God who is with the
people, with us. And so we are with
other people, waiting and working for the dawning of peace. By our presence and by our love, we can
remind them that God comes into every dark corner of life where people are in
pain, bringing light, bringing life, bringing peace.
Let us pray:
You are our light and our
salvation. You are the Prince of Peace. No darkness can overwhelm your light. Guide our feet in the ways of peace, that
we like John the Baptist, and his parents Elizabeth and Zechariah, might
prepare the way for you, Immanuel, our God with us.
