if you’ve been made serve the master

you’d be frightened by the open hand

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke!

We can relate to this story, can’t we?

Those of us who have been commissioned to share the Good News; we all know what it’s like to lose our voice…

There are a few reasons the church loses its voice these days.

First; we’re not as powerful as we once were. There’s more folks who mark “no religion” on their census, than there are Lutherans, you know. We lose our voice as one after another, more and more folks walk away from the church…

Second, in these changing days, we’re far too likely to turn on each other. In the face of the new challenges the church must address, we turn on each other and fall into internal dissension. We lose our voice when we get too caught up in our own little squabbles to bother speaking to those folks who have walked away from the church; or those folks who have never been in a church in the first place.

The most devious reason we lose our voice, though, turns out to be our own doubt; our own doubt…

There isn’t a one of us in here who hasn’t wrestled with doubt…

We’ve all had those nagging doubts creep in; that’s it’s all been for naught, that there’s fewer folks here because of something we did wrong, that our contribution to the church doesn’t make any difference, that maybe this is all just a waste of time…

We all know what it’s like to sit with those doubts.

Yes, tragically the truth is, more often than not, the reason we lose our voice these days, is our own doubt…

That’s how it was for poor Zechariah, after all.

Zechariah, who has volunteer to get the temple ready for worship. Zechariah, who knows all the Sunday School stories. Zechariah, who even sat on the council, probably. 

In today’s Gospel we find Zechariah getting the temple ready, since it was his turn that month. Well, while he’s pouring wine into those little plastic cups, he hears a sound and looks over his shoulder. Lo and behold, it’s an angel of the Lord!

The angel tells Zechariah the he and his wife’s prayers have been heard, and God will bless them with a child; and not just any child either, but a holy child, a child who will make ready the people.

The problem, though, is Zechariah isn’t so sure…

Now, we like to imagine that if we just saw an angel or witnessed some miracle ourselves, we wouldn’t have to wrestle with that nagging doubt anymore.

The Bible, however, takes doubt much more seriously. 

The witness of the Bible knows faith is not simply some matter of proof - seeing isn’t believing; trusting, that’s real belief. 

Belief is not about wrapping God up in some box that we can prove. No, belief is about the daring reliance upon God’s Word, trust in God’s promises.

That was the problem for poor old Zechariah…

Zechariah knows the Bible stories. He knows about God giving Sarah and Abraham a child in their old age. Why, he even knows about God hearing the prayers of the people then they were enslaved out in Egypt. 

What Zechariah can’t bring himself to do, though, is trust that this work of God could happen to him; in the temple where he worships, in the life he has to live daily, live with the fact that he and Elizabeth have no heir…

See, Zechariah, like all of us, has had to live with all the things that make a person doubt. And like all of us, Zechariah has tried to trudge on. Zechariah volunteered on the Music and Worship committee. Zechariah seems to have tried not to doubt God despite an auspicious lack of heir.

But when the moment of truth comes, when the angel does show up, when God’s promise is declared; Zechariah can’t help but doubt. How can he be sure? After all, Zechariah and Elizabeth are getting on in years, and as the years have passed, little by little, they’ve let go of actually trusting God would make good and bless them with a child…

So Zechariah can’t help but wonder, “How will this be so.” 

In the face of such reservation, though, Gabriel stiffens his back and bellows, “Why I stand in the presence of God, and I’ve been sent to speak this word of promise to you, and here you are in God’s temple; and yet you ask me how this will be so?!?” “Well, since you’ve already robbed yourself of your own voice,” Gabriel barks, “you won’t be able to speak until God has brought this thing to pass.”

And then he’s off. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the music and worship committee wonder what’s taking Zech so long. When poor old Zechariah does come out, indeed, he cannot speak! All he can do is point; his voice has been taken away…

And that, sisters and brothers, leads us to the important way we can relate to Zechariah and Elizabeth today; we too are barren.

We too are unable to bring God’s Work to pass ourselves, we must rely on God. And admittedly, this is hard; it’s hard to trust; it’s hard to rely on the promises of God - we always want to hedge our bets and add our effort, persistent doubters that we are…

This story, though, in the end, is not about doubt. 

This story is about God’s refusal to let anything stop God’s Word from coming to pass before the end. This story is about God coming to our barren lives, and delivering us from that nothingness, that doubt…

Zechariah couldn’t speak because of his own doubt; in the end, though, what really took his breath away, was God.

And we know what that’s like too, don’t we? We’ve all stood barren and impotent before the presence of God’s mighty work, and reeled because despite that, despite our persistent doubt God has spoken to us. 

And in the presence of that kind of goodness, we too, could not speak.

Like Zechariah, before God’s choosing, all we can do is point; point because there are no words, because the words simply won’t come, because there is nothing else to do…

…Honestly, I too could point to some of those stories, stories of you all; stories where I’ve witnessed you do something so utterly faithful, that even when I’m tempted to thrown in the towel; I have to admit that God is at work despite my barrenness. 

‘Just look at what God did there!’

And each of you know what that is like, too. You’ve received the blessing of someone’s prayer, you’ve heard God’s Word of promise that finally silences all your doubtful rebuttals and leaves you unable to do anything except point to what God has done. 

Today’s Gospel, isn’t about doubt; it’s about God, about the promise that not even our doubt can silence God, that God comes to where we are barren and gets to work. Today’s Gospel is about God speaking, God speaking even when we won’t or can’t. 

It’s still Christmas, and Christmas is about the incarnation, the promise that God has decided to be at work here; in our lives, in this world where we wrestle with doubt, in this world where we must struggle to keep the faith amidst all those things that give us pause, to wonder how can this be so. 

Christmas is about this strange and wonderful thing God has done of God’s own volition. Christmas is about this miraculous thing that we can only point to.

Today’s Gospel, finally, is about the promise that what will ultimately rob us all of our voices won’t be doubt, but God’s wondrous love.

That’s the kind of Good News that makes us, at least, whisper “amen.”
Amen.