Josh BrowardNovember 28, 2010
KNU International English Church
Do you ever feel confused about life and God?
Do you ever wish God would show himself more clearly?
Do you ever wonder if God cares about you and your life?
Do you ever feel like you’re just going through the motions? Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Sleep. Wake up. Go to work. And on and on and on.
Do you wonder if your life has any larger meaning? Is there something in life that is bigger than us? Is there a larger plot that gives meaning to our little dramas and comedies?
Do you ever feel like nothing is ever going to change?
Do you struggle to obey God or to maintain active faith in God?
Do you ever feel like God and the Bible are so far from our natural world that it’s difficult to see the connection, or at least difficult to live in a connected way?
Do you ever feel disappointed with the way your life has turned out?
Do you ever feel like you’re too human, too sinful, too broken for God to really use you in a significant way? Do you ever feel like real Christianity is for those other people who are holier or smarter or have easier jobs?
Do you ever feel that church is boring or irrelevant or maybe even corrupt?
Do you ever feel that it’s hard to connect with what’s going on here when we gather on Sundays? Maybe there are just too many happy people for you. Maybe you don’t believe everyone is actually this happy, and that puts you off. Maybe the style of music or sermon or whatever is not what you want.
Do you ever wonder if you’ll ever find a church that feels right for you?
Do you ever wonder if you even want to be part of a church at all?
If you ever feel like any of this, then today’s story is for you. During the Advent Season, we’ll be reading through Luke chapter 1. We’ll start in verse 5. Let’s read Luke 1:5-26.
All of Luke chapter 1 is about God’s action as the director of the Salvation Story. God is busily working to prepare the stage for his personal arrival as Jesus. Luke is extremely concerned to show that God is not starting a new story with Jesus. Rather, the Jesus story is the continuation of the same salvation story that Israel has been telling for a thousand years. The first two chapters of Luke are like an “echo chamber” of the Jewish faith.1 If you listen closely to our Old Testament readings during Advent and Christmas, you’ll hear their words and themes repeated again and again in Luke.
But Luke also wants the people to know that the Jesus story connects with the end of God’s story as well. The prophet Daniel got some strange visions about the end time, and Gabriel showed up to tell Daniel about the Messiah and some of the things that would happen at the end (Daniel 8-9). And Gabriel virtually quotes some of the prophecies from Malachi, the last Old Testament prophet. Malachi said before the end, God would send a prophet like Elijah to prepare the people for the Lord and to turn the hearts of fathers to their children (Malachi 3-4). Luke is saying that the Jesus story connects with Israel’s past and future. The Jesus story is the hinge of history, moving the old salvation story forward to the beautiful conclusion that God has always planned.
But within this story, the characters and cast are not always cooperative. We humans do not always listen to our Director (God). In fact, the great drama of this story is how God tries to work with a rebellious cast to bring healing to the world.
The beautiful truth of the gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us. God never gives up on people. No matter how broken we are ... no matter how sinful we humans get ... no matter how messed up our institutions are ... God is unshakably committed to humanity, and God will work with humans to save humanity no matter the cost. God loves us too deeply to quit. God loves us too deeply to abandon us. God loves us too deeply to leave us out of his salvation story.
Maybe it would be helpful for us to take a look at some of the characters in this one scene of God’s salvation story. We’ve already talked about Gabriel and how he connects the story to both the past and the future.
The other obvious characters are Zechariah and Elizabeth. These two were ultra religious. Luke says they were “blameless according to all the commandments and regulations,” and there were a LOT of commandments and regulations! They did everything right. To top it off, they were both descendants of Aaron, the first high priest. This would be something like being a grandchild of Billy Graham or Martin Luther.
But they were old, and they were barren. No kids. No matter how much they tried, now matter how much they prayed, they couldn’t have children. In our cultures, not having kids is kind of sad (or maybe very sad), but in ancient Israel it was considered a curse. People thought that barrenness was a sign of God’s displeasure, a punishment for some secret sins. Elizabeth would be shamed in the market place. People would wonder what was wrong with Zechariah, and if he should even be allowed to continue as a priest. They endured a lot of shame and disgrace for this.
But they were stubbornly faithful. Zechariah continued serving his people and his God as a priest. They kept praying, with or without kids, with or without the approval of their peers. They kept being faithful, walking a blameless walk.
Then, God interrupts their story with a major plot change - at least a change from their expectations. Not only has God hear their prayers for a child, God now promises them a son. And not just any son. God promises a son who will grow into a prophet like Elijah. Their son will prepare people for the Messiah and all of the beautiful healing the Messiah will bring.
Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story of pain and unfulfilled longing is now wrapped into the larger story of Israel’s pain and longing. God’s saving action in the life of Zechariah and Elizabeth is part of God’s saving action in the larger story of God’s saving action for Israel.
But even still, Zechariah doubts. Even in the face of an angel, who just about made Zechariah pee his pants, Zechariah still doubts, “But how can I be sure this will happen? I’m an old man, and my wife is also getting up there.”
Have you ever wished God would just send you a sign? Maybe you thought, “Oh, if only I could see an angel or see God face to face, then all of my doubts would be taken away, and I could fully believe God’s promises.” Have you ever felt like that? I sure have.
But it doesn’t seem to work. Israel had all kinds of awesome signs from God: the 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea, the thunder and lightening at Mount Sinai. (See Exodus.) But as soon as Moses was gone for a few weeks, they built a golden idol and started worshiping it instead of God.
Zechariah is standing there looking at an angel. And I don’t mean the kind of angels we had here last week, with the little pin on feathery wings. I mean some kind of blinding, blazing, glorious, soaked in power and light, ANGEL! And still Zechariah says, “OK, Mr. Fancy Pants, all bright and shiny, how can I be sure about this? We are pretty old.”
Gabriel seems a little ticked off and gives Zechariah a case of holy laryngitis as his “sign.” But here’s the real beauty of this story. God doesn’t give up on Zechariah just because Zechariah had doubts. God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
The next character in this story is actually an institution. It’s the Temple. This “character” is the building of the Temple, the institution of the Temple, the traditions of the Temple, and all of the people who work in the Temple.
The Temple was the spiritual, religious, social, and political center of Israel. Everything extremely important happened in the Temple. The Temple was the central focus of God’s presence in the world. In the Temple, the people of Israel brought God daily sacrifices and incense offerings every morning and evening. Nearly every major rite and event in the life of an Israelite was celebrated with some kind of activity in the Temple. Luke tells us that the Temple is a beautiful and holy place.
However, Luke also tells us that the Temple is also deeply flawed and corrupt. Later, Jesus will enter the Temple in anger because the Temple leaders have bartered their spiritual leadership for financial gain. The whole system of sacrifice and offering had become corrupt and abusive. The leaders were making money by cheating the worshipers. Jesus shouts out that the Temple has strayed from its true purpose.
Yet, even so, Jesus still cares enough about the Temple to purge it. Jesus still comes to the Temple every day that he is in Jerusalem to pray and to teach the people. And in our story, the Temple, with all of its flaws and problems, is still the location for the beginning of God’s fresh activity in our world. This is the beautiful message of the Gospel again. God doesn’t give up on the Temple. God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
The next major character in this story is the whole nation of Israel. Gabriel connects Zechariah’s story to the whole story of Israel. Zechariah’s son John will turn many Israelite’s hearts to the Lord, and he will live as a prophet, preparing the way for God to come with all his saving power.
The very name “Israel” means “one who wrestles with God.” Throughout Israel’s history they argued and complained and wrestled with God. Israel and God had this love/hate, on-again-off-again relationship. Israel was a great ball of contradictions. They were a mixture of stubborn faithfulness and stubborn faithlessness. They were divided and fractured, arguing among themselves. They longed for God’s Messiah to come, but they couldn’t agree on how to get ready for the Messiah or what the Messiah would actually do when he came.
Yet, here’s the great beauty of this story. God didn’t give up on Israel. Despite all of their failings and stumbling and stuttering, God continued to work for Israel and through Israel. The wonder of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
So let’s connect this story back to our lives. Let’s think about a few more characters, some of the characters here in this room today.
The Church of Jesus Christ is a lot like Israel and a lot like the Temple. We in the church are broken and wounded and sinful, and so the institution of the Church is necessarily broken and wounded and sinful. Through out the history of the Christian Church, we have seen beautiful successes and unselfish sacrifice for others and horrible failures, injustices, and apathy.
The simple truth is that the Church is one of the largest stumbling blocks for faith in Jesus. A guy named Dan Kimbal wrote a very successful book called, They Like Jesus but not the Church. It’s all about how people in their 20’s and 30’s today are entranced with Jesus but repelled by the Church.
As an institution, the Church is really struggling in the developed world. Young people are leaving the Church in record numbers. One of the great problems for our age is that the old forms of the Church are not connecting well with newer generations. We can see the problem happening, but we aren’t sure what changes we need to make or even if we want to make those changes.
In terms of our local church, KNU International English Church, we are right in the midst of all of this. Some people get frustrated and leave our church because we’re too progressive. Other people get frustrated and leave our church because we’re not progressive enough.
As a pastor, sometimes I get frustrated with our church. The truth is that I’m a perfectionist, so our imperfections really drive me crazy. But the truth is also that my dreams for our community are often pretty unrealistic. My dreams are sooooo big, and our progress is real but soooo slow. As a church, we are a great mixture of faith and doubt, beautiful love and ugly apathy, unselfish sacrifice and self-centeredness. We are everything good and bad all mixed together.
But here is the beauty of this story. We are exactly the kind of people that God loves to work with. Yes, it’s true that we are broken and sinful and imperfect, but these are exactly the kind of people God uses most. The great beauty of the Gospel is that: God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us. So if you are frustrated with our church, keep in mind that God might be a little frustrated too. But ... But! ... God isn’t giving up on us. God is continuing to work in and through us, for our healing and for the healing of the world around us. If you’re frustrated, then I encourage you to act like God and don’t give up. Stick with us. Work with us and within us so that we can become together the kind of people God really wants us to be.
The final set of characters we need to talk about is us - you and me - as individuals. Let me be really honest with you. I already told you I am a perfectionist. I have high expectations for myself and for others. In fact, I have unreasonably high expectations, impossibly high expectations, especially for myself. There is no way in the world I could meet my own expectations for myself as a pastor, as a husband, as a father, and as a friend. I would have to have a 1,000 hour work week and another 1,000 hours to play and to relax with my family. The great irony of being a perfectionist is that perfectionism is itself an imperfection.
The net result here is that I often live with a constant sense of disappointment in myself. I feel like I can never measure up. I can never do enough. I can never say enough well enough. I can never be enough to satisfy my own relentless longings for love and justice and grace and beauty and -- well perfection. So, often, I often have to battle a deep underlying sadness and disappointment with myself.
Passages like this one today help me, and they can help us. The great beauty of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us. I don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be perfect.
We are broken and messed up. We sin and make mistakes. We believe and doubt. We love and betray. We care, and we ignore. We trust grace and doubt grace. But even so grace remains. Even with all of our brokenness and wounds and failures, God still has grace for us, and God can still use us to share that grace with others. The great beauty of the Gospel is that God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
This season, during Advent, we want you to develop a feeling of anticipation. God is working in our world. God is working in our church. God is working in our lives. God is still working in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us. Expect it. Anticipate it. Pray for it. Demand it. Look for it.
Today, at the greeting table, there are these little purple ribbons. Pick one up and tie it on your key chain or cell phone or something you will use every day. Your life may feel really dark right now, but home comes in the morning, and morning is coming. As we progress through Advent, we’ll see the colors change like the morning sky as the sun slowly rises. At the beginning, there is just a hint of purple amid the blackness. But that purple slowly changes to blue and pink and finally blazing white and gold. If all you can see now is that hint of purple hold on to that. Take hope because of that purple. If all you can see is the brokenness and pain, just remember the great truth of the gospel: God works in our broken lives to continue his drama of salvation in us, through us, and around us.
Christ has died. Christ is risen. And Christ is coming again. And this happens in us, through us, and around us every day. Keep your head up, and pray for eyes to see what God is doing.
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