Luke 1:5-25 " God Comes when we Least Expect"

 God Speaks in our New Church Year Advent

How Should We Begin a New Church Year of Advent? Luke 1:5-25

Today's Gospel that we will consider is about Zacharias , Elisabeth and the birth of a child, that was unexpected. (John the Baptist) " And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren." 1:7 Not only that but they were both quite old. " well stricken in years. This account today is for us as we contemplate the spiritual lives we sometimes feel that we are going through the motions. In the silence of our meditation, God does hear and know, and He acts. I Corinthians 2:9 came to my mind, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him."

God wishes our silence and our trust. I like this:" We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls."

Mother Teresa

Point 1 is this how God works.He comes when least expected and in our barreness just as Elisabeth. Too much noise is not helpful when we are trying to listen. It was this way for the prophet Elijah. "...the LORD was not in the wind.....and the LORD was not in the earthquake, ( nor the fire)...and after the fire a still small voice." I Kings 19

The Apostle Paul said it this way and we often have heard this scripture, " My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9 This is God's way of doing things. Our weakness is made new in His Strength...not our own.

You may be going thru a trial of some kind right now and you feel barren in your soul. All the prayers just bounce right back. It is a glass ceiling if it were richocheting back to you. Why did this have to happen we ask in our lives? What are you trying to teach me O God? What should I do? Yet in Luke 1 we hear this, " For with God nothing shall be impossible."

Zacharias means God remembers. It has been 400 years since God has spoken to His people through the prophets. Elisabeth means the oath of the fulness of God. John means "the Lord has been gracious." God certainly works in His time and in His way. We do not know His ways as we said the other day, " Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. FOR MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS, NEITHER ARE YOUR WAYS MY WAYS, SAITH THE LORD." " so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. ....so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please...." Is 55

Point 2. What are we to do while waiting for clear direction from God?

Keep on the path God has already shown us. As we heard last week in the OT reading, " Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man." Ecclesiastes 12

Zecharias executed the priest's office just as he had always been doing. Both he and Elisabeth were " righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." 1:6 of Luke

“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”

― Martin Luther

Yet it was 400 years before God came and spoke to His people again. But they had the written Word that had already been delivered to them. That is what we have as well. The Word of God is sufficient for us. Hebrews 1:1reminds us that " God ...spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets , hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son."

Lastly and in the lesson we see that God acts: " And it came to pass , that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord....And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altarof incense. ...and the angel said unto him, ' Fear not' Zacharias for thy prayer is heard ..."

When Zacharias questions this that Elisabeth shall have a son...the angel 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." Gabriel means man of God or my strength is God.

Conclusion- Our problem is that much like Zacharias who was unable to speak because of his unbelief at the angel's words, we are in the same category. We are impatient, self-serving, unable to wait, and spiritually bereft in our service. God has spoken. He will bring everything to pass in the way He said He would. We do not need a new-fangled invention outside of the Word of God. Our problem is unbelief, and our tongues are tied.

How do we begin a new season of the Church? We should begin it expectantly knowing that God will work in our barreness to bring much fruit through His Spirit and His Word. That is the way He works in His Church and in His people , and no matter how much we try and re-invent what He has already said to make it less or give credit to human initiative, this is always the way of God. God makes us wait, then in our faithfulness He works out His plan that was foreordained and in the deepest counsel of His loving will. God is our Strength.

Amen.