Sermon for November 30, 2025: A Terrifying and Overwhelming Hope based upon Luke 1:5-13

Luke 1:5-13 The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no children because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
​
Once when he was serving as priest before God during his section’s turn of duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to offer incense. Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.

---

    Four Sundays. Four words to help guide us through the season of Advent. What are the four words that will guide our worship over the next four weeks? Does anyone remember? Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. What is today’s theme? Hope. Advent always begins with hope. The name for the season Advent comes from the Latin word “adventus,” which means “coming” or “arrival.” Who are we hoping will come during the season of Advent? Jesus. That’s right. Like anyone who is expecting a new member of the family, we are getting ourselves and our place ready for their arrival. Because, as with any new member of the household, Jesus’ arrival will change everything.

     We have already done a few things to prepare. We’ve added special paraments in purple to remind us of the season. We’ve added a tree that we will decorate throughout the season. We’ve added the special wreath of candles, one of which we’ll light every week. Does anyone light candles at home, too? If you want some candles and don’t have them yet, we have some out in the lobby. You’re welcome to take them when you leave worship today.

     In the Northern Hemisphere, where practices of Advent first developed, we start these practices of hopeful expectation in the darkest part of the year. Together, we’ll move towards the winter solstice, where the days would finally start to get longer again, days after which we will celebrate Christ’s birth. I’ve often wondered if part of the reason we want to have extra candles around during Advent is because we need a little more light and warmth in the dark and the cold. It has come to mean a lot to me personally that something beautiful and powerful and awe-inspiring and overwhelming will arrive in the darkest season. And we’ve been handed down tools to make our way through the dark together.

     There are people we usually talk about during Advent. For those of you who have celebrated Advent before, can you remember some of those people? You may have heard some of their names in the story Lacey read for today. (let the congregation name some of the people, who might include Mary, Joseph, Herod, Elizabeth, Zechariah, Angels, maybe Jesus’ whole family line, the magi, shepherds, Herod). Our reading today started by telling us the name of a king to help us understand what time frame we’re hearing about. What was that king’s name? Herod.

     Was Herod a kind king? No. He wasn’t. In a commentary on our story, Dr. Boyung Lee, who is a professor at a theology school in Colorado, reminds us that Herod had been appointed the leader of Judea by Rome. The people of Judea were accustomed to having a king that they thought God appointed, not an outside nation. Herod, and everyone else, knew he only had the job of king because Rome wanted him to. They could remove him at any time. He would become cruel and mean-spirited, hurting anyone who he worried was trying to remove him from power. He was not a kind king. He was a bully who was mean to the people he was supposed to be taking care of because he was afraid.

     Part of what is powerful about Jesus’ birth is that he won’t come into the world when everything is perfect and in a place where everything is just right. The Gospel of Luke wants us to see God’s Word become a human in the midst of a hard time in a place led by dangerous people. God will be born into humanity in a special way within a regular family living in a challenging time. This family was also a family that was being sustained by their faith in a hard time. We’ll learn more about that as we meet Jesus’ parents. Even in his extended family, who we meet in today’s story, faith in God was a vital part of their lives. Elizabeth and Zechariah, Mary’s older cousin and her husband, were deeply faithful people. And even they were surprised by God in this story.

     Elizabeth and Zechariah wanted to have a baby but had never been able to do so. Dr. Lee reminds us that in this time, if you wanted to have children but were unable to become pregnant, lots of people thought that meant God was mad at you and therefore wouldn’t help you to become pregnant. The Bible tells us that God wasn’t mad at them, though. They just were having a hard time having a baby and had thought that they were so old that they never would. But, as Dr. Lee says in our devotional, “their faith endured, even in waiting.” They are good examples for us as people living in a hard time both because they had a wicked king and because of medical issues in their family. They show us how faith and our faith practices can be a tool for making our way into a future that is unclear.

     It’s interesting, isn’t it, that when the angel of God appears to Zechariah, even though he was faithful and hoped something like this would happen, he was still afraid. We don’t stop being afraid of surprising things just because we love God. Dr. Lee points out that Zechariah isn’t just slightly startled. He’s afraid in a way that leaves him shaken in body and spirit. When enough bad stuff happens, we can come to expect only bad things. Or, as Dr. Lee puts it, “we may grow so used to disappointment that when hope finally arrives, it startles us. When God interrupts, we flinch.” One of my hopes for us in this season of Advent, is that we can be reminded that fear is a natural response to scary things and uncertain things, but we mustn’t let fear totally shape how we engage with the world. Today’s scripture shows us a God who hears our fears first. And then, responds to them.

     Dr. Lee points out that Zechariah’s fear does not disqualify him from receiving a gift from God. Instead, this moment of fear is the beginning of Zechariah’s transformation. The transformation will not be easy. Zechariah’s not going to be able to speak for a while... like the entire nine months of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Elizabeth seems to have gotten most of the bravery in the family. Eventually, her faithfulness appears to move her husband. When their son is born and she wants to name him John, Zechariah agrees with her that that will be their child’s name. In standing up for and with his wife, Zechariah finally allows himself to be overcome with hope and is able to speak again. Fear is a part of his story, but it doesn’t stop him from being present with his wife, and it doesn’t stop him from embracing the son he thought he’d never have.

     I read a commentary from the Salt Project this week that talked about a Christian monk named Bernard of Clairvaux, who lived about 900 years ago. Bernard wrote about “three Advents.” The first Advent was when Jesus was born into a human family. The third Advent will be Jesus’ return in the future. He called everything thing else that is happening between that first Christmas and Christ’s return the “middle Advent.” We are living in that Middle Advent. This is the “everyday arrival of Jesus” in our ritual life at church, in the Spirit that moves us in our hearts and minds, and in the faces of the hungry and thirsty people, weary asylum seekers, and those isolated in prison. As we go about the work we’re called to, as Zechariah worked in the temple, we may find ourselves afraid and overwhelmed. Let us remember that our fear does not make us incapable of carrying out the mission God calls us to. And, in the end, may our faith and hope overwhelm the fear that has kept us silent. God has heard our prayer. May we hear God’s messengers who assure us that the future we have hoped for can still come to pass.

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
General Advent info: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/11/26/be-ready-salts-lectionary-commentary-for-advent-week-one
A nice history of Advent from the United Methodist Church: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/book-of-worship/advent
​An introduction to the season from the UCC: https://www.ucc.org/sermon-seeds/2025-2026-advent-and-christmas-series-may-peace-be-within-you/
Boyung Lee, "In the Time of Herod, We Long for God to Break In, " from What Do You Fear? Insisting on Hope This Advent, a devotional from A Sanctified Art: https://sanctifiedart.org/what-do-you-fear-advent-devotional-booklet