the question of Zachariah: how can I be sure of this? Tom Cowan Interim Lead Pastor English Congregation Vancouver Chinese Baptist Church Vancouver, British Columbia Sunday Sermon for 4 December 2011 Scripture Passage Luke 1-18
One of the primary differences between an ordinary story and a really good story is that you will read a really good story over and over again. Children and grandchildren understand that. That is why they bring you their favourite book to read over and over again. Babysitting several years ago, I was reading to one of our grandchildren before they could read. We had read this same story countless times before and I was wanting to watch something on television which was due to start in a few minutes, so I did what any reasonable adult would do. I did a little summarizing to get fast to the end, kind of the readers digest version, thinking to myself, they would never know. I was very curtly told, grandpa! You’re not reading all the words. The Christmas story is one of the best stories ever written. It does not begin once upon a time. It begins, in the days of Caesar Augustus, telling us that it was rooted in history. Read it again this year, and by the way, you have to read all the words. Woven into its narrative are vital questions that we are still asking. We will look at over these 3 Advent Sundays. These are questions about faith that continue to echo from people. 2 Sundays from now, Mary asks, how is this possible? Next week, the wise men, the magi ask, where do we find Jesus to worship him? Today, question from a man called Zachariah, how can I be sure of this? Let me tell you about Zachariah—his story. He was going to be the father of John the Baptist. His wife Elizabeth was related to Mary who was going to be the mother of Jesus, which means that their sons John and Jesus were related. Luke 1 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because 2 WORSHIP: THE TRANSFORMING PRIORITY
of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” This question about the birth of John is a faith question that still reverberates in our minds. We still ask this: how can I be sure of this? When we consider the events and the facts of the Christmas story, we may ask: how can I be sure of this? That one day in an obscure village in the middle east, God stooped down and touched the earth and through another human being sent his son into the world, did the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob come and put on our humanity? Did he break all the normal process of obstetrics and gynaecology, clothe himself with our humanity, and walk in our neighbourhood? How can I be sure of this? We read about his miracles, healing the blind and lame, and we ask, how can I be sure of this? We need to ask that question again as we fast forward some 33 years and come to a cross. This reminds us that Bethlehem and Calvary are not two separate stories, they are the same story. If we think of Jesus only as a baby in Bethlehem, and if we keep him in the manger, we will never get beyond the Christmas story. We confine Jesus to the manger and do not let him grow up. Thousands of people died on crosses. This kind of public execution was not unique to Jesus. The Romans used it as way of keeping people in line. It was public execution at its worst. Nails were often hammered into soft flesh. People died screaming in agony, yet about this one death it says, he died for us, he died for our sins, that’s what made the difference, how can I be sure of this? One day in an upper room in city of Jerusalem, Jesus says to his followers. 1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were
not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. There is absolutely nothing in the history of our cosmos to support such a promise. So every time we stand at a graveside and read the words of promise about eternal life, there is a place prepared for us. We ask, how can I be sure of this? If I can be sure of his birth, who he said he was in his life. If I can be sure of what he did on the cross. If I can be sure of his promise to return, that is nothing less than utterly life-changing. How can I be sure that when I ask Jesus to come and forgive my sin, new life starts within me that will stretch all the way into eternity, change my eternal address, change how I live each day? How can I be sure of this? We all have moments of doubt. We wonder, can this be true? Doubt is not the opposite of faith. When we come to moments of doubt, we have not lost our faith. Doubt is not the same as unbelief. To be in doubt is to be in two minds, trying to hold two antithetical or opposing opinions at the same time and feeling the impossibility of that. We are caught between two forces. The decision to believe and the decision to deny the truth, or as Romans puts it, to suppress the truth, which takes work. It always takes work and effort to push the truth down. Away from pushing its way to the surface of our lives. Doubt is a kind of spiritual limbo where we stand in the middle. We cannot stay in the halfway house of doubt forever. When I was a university student, reading philosophy, I came to a personal crisis of faith. A crossroads. The question was, how can I be sure of this? My life has always needed what I call intellectual integrity. Some solid ground on which my faith could plant its feet. If I could not find that, the only reasonable alternative I saw was to become an existentialist = eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. So I began as best as I could to take my faith apart. If I could not be sure 3 WORSHIP: THE TRANSFORMING PRIORITY
of it, I would walk away. But if I could be sure of it, I would commit my life fully to it. That was my crossroad. What will move us towards the side of faith? Faith roots itself in history. The world of Christian faith is not a make-believe world. The Christmas story does not begin once upon a time, but in the days of Caesar Augustus.... We have 4 extraordinary books we call the gospels which tell us about the life of this person Jesus. The evidence of the manuscripts about the life of Jesus is better than anything else we have from the first century. Faith does not grow on thin air but on facts. The instinct of faith is always to earth itself in reality. Faith always wants us to do our homework. Faith is never afraid to be examined. I have asked every person who has told me and said that they don’t believe in God or the Bible. I have asked them, have they ever read it? No one has ever said yes. They simply have not done their homework on the most important issue in life. Very simply, we need to do our homework on the most important question we will ever face, who is Jesus Christ and what is his life about? We need to read and discover the real God of the Bible. Not someone who is somewhere between superman and Santa Claus. Listening to Christmas carols in the mall this week, Santa Claus is coming to town. Are you naughty or nice? So be good for goodness sake! Some people think that’s the question God will ask. But its not. He will ask us what have we done with Jesus. But it is more than just doing our homework, and gathering all the facts. By its nature, faith involves mystery. Faith is not against reason, but it lies beyond reason. Faith may gather all the facts that it can in its demand for intellectual integrity, and then it has to step beyond that. It is not a blind leap in the dark. Faith has to trust. It has to step forward into the unknown. In the final analysis faith is about trust. Faith has to believe. To step into the unknown. Faith
swallows its hesitations, suspends some unanswered question. In the ultimate sense faith is a radical reliance on God and his word. In the ultimate sense, faith cannot know everything. We cannot see everything, so we step out in faith. Faith lets go of its fear. It swallows it timidity, and it steps forward. We may never be fully sure of everything. Each of us have moments of honest uncertainty at some issue. Then we practice what is called suspended judgement, which means, at this moment I do not know why. But I know why I trust in God who knows why. When we come face to face with mystery, questions for which we do not have answers. The questions of evil, the death of children, faith that understands why it has come to trust must also trust where it cannot understand. Faith reaches back in to the past and also reaches out into the future to hold on to God in the present moment. How can I be sure of this? Because at those times we have nowhere else to go. Jesus said in his word that he would return. That is all we have. Just his word—only his word. The question is: do we accept the truthfulness of His word? Each of us as Christians is responsible to know our faith. To know both what we believe and also why we believe. 1 Peter 3:15 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, Who asks you to give the reason for the hope. Word for reason is word APOLOGIA, which does not mean we apologise for being Christians. Almost the very opposite. We are able to give a thoughtful, clearly understood presentation of exactly what we believe and why. I challenge you this Christmas season to do your homework, and be well prepared in your own mind and heart to be able to do that. This Christmas season, be sure of Jesus, who he fully is, what he really came to do. 4 WORSHIP: THE TRANSFORMING PRIORITY