Advent 2025: Silence and Vigilance - Kathleen Parker - Luke 1vv5-24, 39-45, 57-80

Intern Kathleen Parker kicks off our Advent series by guiding us through what Christmas entailed for Elizabeth and Zechariah. 

Transcript

Setting The Advent Frame

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. As Ian said, I'm the seminary intern here and I work with our teens. But I find it helpful to know who's talking to me, so I thought I would start with a little introduction. I am the second of four children, but the oldest girl, so you know I know how to keep people in line and on time. I was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, in a Christian household. So I came to Christ very early and have been working to live with him ever since. And I tell you these things because I think it's very distinctly shaped my experience with Bible stories and particularly the repeated ones around Christmas and Easter. So I think that when something is presented as routine, you can come to miss the really obvious, beautiful things that are happening, particularly in the scriptures. So today there may be some things I say or repeat that are fairly obvious, and that's just purely for my own edification, and just bear with me as I go. So, as we've said multiple times, this is Advent, and we are counting down to Christmas. But Ecclesia is following the events laid out in Luke and particularly the women in Jesus' genealogy. One of the most wonderful, amazing, astounding things to me is the way that God fulfilled promises of Jesus' ancestry and lineage through women. Women who are sidetracked for being unable to carry on a family name. It seems silly, but it was a genuine concern in ancient societies where women's allegiance lay. They had blood ties to one family, marital ties to another, and there was this sort of belief that you couldn't really know whose side they were on. Add to this the custom of marrying daughters for peace and tensions just rise. It seems a little ridiculous to us now, but there are certainly modern equivalents. Where do you go for the holidays? Who do you live closest to? Who gets the first call for babysitting or dog sitting? They all speak to this question of allegiance that runs beneath the struggles and tensions of forming a new family. If push comes to shove, who's chosen over whom? But Jesus' genealogy is such an inversion of this fear that it's kind of funny. I love how God makes such a clear statement about the new family being made through Christ in every single woman surrounding Jesus, not just Mary. Over and over and over again, God lifts up women in the life and lineage of Christ in ways that subvert cultural norms and narratives. So instead of following the path of a family tree, like the one you may make in kindergarten with the trunk and the branches and the leaves, God's shifting our perspective to look up into the intertwining and overlapping leaves and branches of the whole forest. So, without further ado, let's dive into the passage. If you will allow me, I'm going to go through this passage the way I would with our teens. So we go through passage by passage in chunks and address each section with the new information that it brings up. So, first slide, please. In the time of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zachariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abisha. His wife, Elizabeth, was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord's commands and decrees blamelessly, but they were childless, because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Okay, there we go. So in these first few verses of introduction, we're still given kind of a lot of information, but it can get lost in all the titles. So Zachariah is a priest, but Elizabeth is a descendant of the first priest, Aaron. Essentially, priestly royalty. Within the circles I grew up in, this would be like saying you were a descendant of Billy Graham. So a little backstory on me. My mom's side of the family is pretty prolific. She was also one of four children. All of her siblings had at least two kids. So very loud, very crowded family gatherings. And on top of all that, we all attended the same small Bible church. So if a child got in trouble for hiding in the baptismal, nine out of ten times it was me and my cousins. And we very quickly learned which family names to say to get out of trouble. So when I read this passage about Elizabeth and Zachariah, it sounds like how my grandmother would begin a story. Here's a person, here's how they're related to us or why they're important to us. Track so far, Luke is telling us about a descendant of one of Israel's great ancestors, but the catch is the husband married into the prestige this time. Carrying on. They followed the law, they followed the commandments, they did it right and they did it the right way, but they didn't have children. So we once again return to this theme of ancestry and lineage, because without children, your line dies out. More importantly, without children, you have no secured care in your old age. As a woman, additionally, this is the only way you can tie yourself more permanently to the project of heritage and lineage. By giving birth to the next generation, particularly sons. A woman was rooted to someone that was intrinsic to the family lineage in mutual care. She cares for them as babies, and they care for her in old age. Without this blood tie, if a woman was widowed, she could remarry, or she could return to her father's house without consequence, and there lies the fear of allegiance. To be clear, I think we all know that this presentation of women as fickle or easily swayed is not at all accurate. But these are cultural narratives surrounding ancestry and families, so it's important to know them, name them, and see how God is purposefully upending them in this story. It is also worth noting that while perhaps you could have known who was the result of infertility, it's very easily possible that it was unknown and simply laid at the feet of women because it was a woman's job to provide children. So, despite all their best efforts, Zachariah and Elizabeth can't have children. Elizabeth bears the weight of that social shame and potential instability, and now they're both growing old. So our characters are laid out, and Luke commences with the story. So next slide, please. There we go. Once, when Zachariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by Lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zachariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 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. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go on before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Woof. So uh I know this is a very educated crowd, so once again I say this mostly for my own breakdown of the passage, but it's pretty jam-packed with honors. And if you escape past them too fast, you can miss the true magnitude of what is going on. Zachariah is called to Jerusalem for his week of service in the temple. Given the number of priestly divisions, a cohort would only come to Jerusalem about twice a year. On top of that, there are so many priests within a cohort that a priest would likely only be chosen to go into the Holy of Holies once in their lifetime. So Zachariah is called into Jerusalem. He's chosen to go into the Holy of Holies to burn incense. It is his moment, he's the guy. And then, as if this story couldn't be important enough, a messenger of God appears. I imagine even if a messenger of God appeared to me to give me the grimmest of possible news, I'd probably be just a little stoked that they came to me. Maybe that's just me, but it isn't grim news. It's amazing news. God heard their particular prayers. The thing they've been waiting for, the thing that has shamed them, kept them on the outskirts, is being gifted at last. And not only that, the child that they have prayed for is specially ordained by God. He will bring back people to the Lord and make way for the Messiah. And oh yeah, the Messiah is coming in your lifetime, in your child's lifetime. So, to fully embrace all the crazy life-altering news that's being shared, I feel the need to make a list, as is my way. The greatest day of your career has come. You're finally honored with the greatest of all jobs. While performing this job, you're visited by a messenger of God, something very few great, righteous servants of God can say has ever happened to them. And the messenger tells you, your prayer has been answered. You're having a baby. Your baby is blessed by God with a special job for the Messiah, the one you've been waiting for for years and years and years and years. Your son will be a particular special servant to that guy. Overall, this is kind of crazy news. Like honestly, bonkers news, to be real. Zachariah's world as he knows it is about to change in every conceivable way. And yet, next slide. Zechariah asked the angel, How can I be sure of this? I'm an old man, and my wife is well along in years. Essentially, Zachariah said, Ooh, I hate to tell you this, but I'm actually old, and that's not how it works. I genuinely can't think of a worse answer. Mary had the medical physical impossibility of being a virgin and politely goes, I'm so sorry, but how are you gonna do that? Zachariah is older than the average dad and argues with an angel about geriatric fertility rates. One of these guys. We got a couple sleds here. Yeah. Next. Next. Yeah. Uh-huh. And we can just we can just leave it on that one. If any one of these guys tells me anything, I don't think I'm gonna have breath, let alone a comeback. Which is why I absolutely love the angel Gabriel's reply. Okay, next slide. The angel said to him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time. I was raised in an aggressively Disney household, so I hope I don't offend anyone by drawing a comparison between the Bible and a cartoon, but I can't help but hear this in Robin Williams' voice, Allah the genie from Aladdin. He uh straightens up, silences the inconsequential details of human ability, and says, I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and tell you this good news. So be silent until all that I told you comes to pass. What I find so interesting about this particular fate of Zachariah is the way that it mirrors the cultural position women would often hold in childbearing. Before recently, many cultures, women during pregnancy were secluded and sequestered. It gave them time to physically and emotionally prepare for the life-altering change that was about to occur. It kept them safe physically. But God puts Zachariah in this position of silence and waiting with the almost implicit assumption that Elizabeth does not need the reminder or the lesson. And I think this is significant to how we understand the new family that God is building, as it is one where we follow the lead. We sit in silence and stillness. And I think this stands in great contrast both to the Roman culture occupying Israel and to the assumptions of power and circumstance that often accompanied the messianic prophecy. There's no missing the comparisons that Luke is teasing out between what the people assumed to have power and authority, the temple, human authorities, men, and the people God grants authority, women, children. And the particular thing about them is that they are following where their faith leads them. They are listening and responding as opposed to acting. So outside of this being a funny story where a woman carries important lineage and a man is literally silenced for trying to mansplain, this passage is important for the tone it sets for the new family God is creating. This story stands up as the supposed beginning the Jewish people were expecting from their Messiah. Clear status, connection to the temple. But instead, Luke 1 takes an abrupt turn after this. We turn to a teenage girl. Luke begins his gospel and the story of Jesus' birth with the story of how even the most devoted members of Israel are failing in their lengths of faith. God demonstrates the insufficiency of human legacy, human ancestry, and lineage, and silences it. Because God doesn't just speak, God acts. And when God's people don't listen or pay attention, God silences them until they get it. Luke 1 continues with Elizabeth getting pregnant, Mary being told of her pregnancy, and even of John and Jesus meeting in utero, and Mary praising God for being true to the word told to her. But this opening gets so close to all the important signifiers of Jewish status and then takes the abrupt turn. And I would like to suggest that this is Luke's way of showing why God must make a new family in the first place. Elizabeth's ancestry with Aaron may be incidental, but I don't think it is. Instead, I think that God wanted to make his point and eat it too. God calls up the forgotten women of the ancestry and still makes the point that only the divine can make things right. Meaning that God can lift up the marginalized of the narrative and still show the insufficiency of humanity. I hesitated a little bit with my choice of passage, as Elizabeth is certainly a central character, but she does not appear or act within these verses. But ultimately, I think it helps to underscore this point. Throughout the Gospels, the Lord lifts up the marginalized and oppressed, putting our human hierarchies to shame. But the conclusion to the gospel is putting all human systems to bed forever. God forges a new path that does not involve our sacrifice or intervention at all. And this story holds that tension of it well. It presents the upside-down kingdom of God while silencing any illusions of human sufficiency. And I think this is really important because it's a reminder that while God lifts the weak and powerless and gives voice to the voiceless and centers the marginalized, we all must still submit to the power of God. God isn't interested in remaking the same story or repeating the same patterns with different characters. God is starting completely over, creating a new family where all are welcome, where hierarchies and power dynamics are laid to rest at the feet of Christ. And at the feet of Christ, there is stillness and quiet and peace. Luke's opening story of Elizabeth and Zachariah is powerful because it encapsulates all that's to come with the Messiah and the new family he's creating. And in the silence, we must sit with our doubts and simply watch God at work. So, in a season that's marked by never-ending songs and carols and activities and events and sales and discounts and markdowns and ads, silence is really hard to come by. Even in religious spaces, we like to do things and be productive and helpful. But perhaps that misses the point. In the birth narrative of Christ, religious leaders are silenced. Major cities become ancillary, and we are just asked to sit and watch and witness. So I wonder what that might look like for you. In your life and family and traditions. So in the moments as the worship team comes up, before they start to play, consider in your own hearts where God may be calling you to stillness, where you may insert some silence to witness God at work in your life. Because it is a season of waiting, the season of Advent, that we are given particular encouragement to simply watch God at work. Will you all par with me? Lord, we ask that you see us see you at work in our lives. Help us find stillness and silence where we can rest and marvel at your power. In a season that is extraordinarily busy and loud and loaded, we need your help to set aside what feels pressing and what is pressing. Don't let us forget the miracle you began to bring us into your family. As we go from this place, please be a steady, peaceful reminder of our role as witnesses to you and for you. In your son's name we pray. Amen.