December 20, 2015: Zechariah’s Song

Luke 1:5-13, 57-80

⁵ During the rule of King Herod of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was a descendant of Aaron. ⁶ They were both righteous before God, blameless in their observance of all the Lord’s commandments and regulations. ⁷ They had no children because Elizabeth was unable to become pregnant and they both were very old. ⁸ One day Zechariah was serving as a priest before God because his priestly division was on duty. ⁹ Following the customs of priestly service, he was chosen by lottery to go into the Lord’s sanctuary and burn incense. ¹⁰ All the people who gathered to worship were praying outside during this hour of incense offering. ¹¹ An angel from the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. ¹² When Zechariah saw the angel, he was startled and overcome with fear.

¹³ The angel said, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayers have been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will give birth to your son and you must name him John.

⁵⁷ When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a boy. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives celebrated with her because they had heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy. ⁵⁹ On the eighth day, it came time to circumcise the child. They wanted to name him Zechariah because that was his father’s name. ⁶⁰ But his mother replied, “No, his name will be John.”

⁶¹ They said to her, “None of your relatives have that name.” ⁶² Then they began gesturing to his father to see what he wanted to call him.

⁶³ After asking for a tablet, he surprised everyone by writing, “His name is John.” ⁶⁴ At that moment, Zechariah was able to speak again, and he began praising God.

⁶⁵ All their neighbors were filled with awe, and everyone throughout the Judean highlands talked about what had happened. ⁶⁶ All who heard about this considered it carefully. They said, “What then will this child be?” Indeed, the Lord’s power was with him.

⁶⁷ John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied,

⁶⁸ “Bless the Lord God of Israel
    because he has come to help and has delivered his people.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us in his servant David’s house,
⁷⁰     just as he said through the mouths of his holy prophets long ago.
⁷¹ He has brought salvation from our enemies
    and from the power of all those who hate us.
⁷² He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³         the solemn pledge he made to our ancestor Abraham.
He has granted ⁷⁴ that we would be rescued
        from the power of our enemies
    so that we could serve him without fear,
⁷⁵         in holiness and righteousness in God’s eyes,
            for as long as we live.

⁷⁶ You, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High,
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way.
⁷⁷ You will tell his people how to be saved
    through the forgiveness of their sins.
⁷⁸ Because of our God’s deep compassion,
    the dawn from heaven will break upon us,
⁷⁹     to give light to those who are sitting in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
        to guide us on the path of peace.”

⁸⁰ The child grew up, becoming strong in character. He was in the wilderness until he began his public ministry to Israel.

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Introduction:

Perhaps you’ve found yourself “fast-forwarding” through a movie you’ve already started in order to get to the part you haven’t yet seen. It’s time for us to do something similar in these devotions. Last week the exiles from Judah had returned from Babylon, rebuilt the Temple and worshiped God amid tears of joy.  It was around this time that, in addition to being called “the people of Israel” they also began to be called “the Jews” or the “Jewish People.” They carry this name to this day. 

Prophets had spoken about one who was to come in the future, an individual who would make all of God’s promises come true in a way that hadn’t happened before: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel had all spoken about this in one way or another.  Time passed, a lot of time! They continued to worship the LORD, to sacrifice at the Temple and to study the Scripture that was compiled by scribes.  As the “Old Testament” ends, they are in Promised Land, but the one promised by these prophet had not arrived: the Jewish people were still waiting.  It can be hard for us to wrap our heads around the “gap” between the Old Testament and the New Testament, but it was major. Imagine fast-forwarding through a movie…a LONG movie like Gone With the Wind, The Ten Commandments or Lawrence of Arabia (In the old days of VHS you’d have to switch to the second tape on the way). The Jews had been waiting for awhile for God’s promises to come completely true. In the meantime they kept up their relationship with God, it was a way of life.

The Technical Stuff:

After their return from exile (515 B.C.E.) the Jewish People remained a part of one empire after another: first the Persians (515 B.C.E. to 333 B.C.E.), followed by the Greco-Macedonians (333 B.C.E. to 160 B.C.E.). At this point they achieved political independence under the Maccabees (also called the Hasmoneans). This independence was limited at first, but eventually became complete.  After nearly one hundred years they were conquered by the Romans in 63 B.C.E. Those are quite a few dates and perhaps you are a bit overwhelmed, but the important thing to realize is that empires came and went, but the people continued.

As Empires rose and fell around, they continued to worship, study and pray while waiting for a savior. “Judah” became known as “Judea” and King Herod ruled the land, under the overall domination of the Rome.  In other words, Herod could do what he wanted…as long as he stayed in line with Rome.  Herod was a great builder who began to improve the Temple in Jerusalem and many other sites, but he was also extremely cruel, paranoid, and bloodthirsty.  No one thought that he could be the Messiah.  There was no one “image” of what this savior or “messiah” would look like. Some thought he would be a military leader like King David or the Maccabees who brought political independence. Others thought he would be a supreme spiritual leader who would usher in a theocracy and a transformed world. Others still combined these two images in a variety of ways.  If you asked ten Jews, you’d probably receive eleven different opinions! Still, there was hope that a savior was to come.

In our lesson today, Zechariah receives a visit from an angel in the Temple, telling him that he and his wife Elizabeth will have a son. Despite the fact that he is a priest of Israel and a faithful man Zechariah doesn’t believe the message and is struck dumb by the angel (in contrast to Zechariah, a young girl named Mary from Nazareth is able to believe and is called blessed by the angel Gabriel).  He regains the ability to speak after the child is born and uses his voice to great effect: singing about the greatness and goodness of the LORD, the God of promise, relationship and life.  The promises are coming true:

Bless the Lord God of Israel
    because he has come to help and has delivered his people.
⁶⁹ He has raised up a mighty savior for us in his servant David’s house,
⁷⁰     just as he said through the mouths of his holy prophets long ago.
⁷¹ He has brought salvation from our enemies
    and from the power of all those who hate us.
⁷² He has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors,
    and remembered his holy covenant,
⁷³         the solemn pledge he made to our ancestor Abraham.
He has granted ⁷⁴ that we would be rescued
        from the power of our enemies
    so that we could serve him without fear,
⁷⁵         in holiness and righteousness in God’s eyes,
            for as long as we live.

His son, named John, will also receive another moniker when he grows older: “the Baptist.” He will proclaim the coming of the savior, the Messiah, who is named Jesus.

    

What Does This Say to Us?

This has been a long story with many twists and turns over the centuries. There is approximately as much time between the time of Jesus and Abraham (2,000 years give or take a few hundred) as there is between Jesus and our own time.  Plenty has happened and we’ve certainly needed to “fast forward” through centuries. Again and again, however, we come back to our central themes of God’s promise, our relationship with God and each other and the good, abundant life that this brings.  The promise might feel delayed and the relationship can be strained, but there is still life in God’s name.  The experiences of the people of Israel apply to our own existence as well. This “applicability” makes their story, OUR story.  We are in need of a savior, just as they were.  We can rejoice in the rescue, salvation and freedom of which Zechariah sings. 

We can also follow in the footsteps of Zechariah’s infant son, John. We too can tell people about the salvation that comes from the forgiveness of sins, fear and death. Like John, we too can point to Jesus so that others can receive the same hope that we have.  We can remind people of the promise of God’s love, invite them into a relationship with Jesus and encourage them to have life in his name.

December 13, 2015: Rebuilding the Temple

Ezra 1:1-4, 3:1-4, 10-13

1 In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia’s rule, to fulfill the Lord’s word spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Persia’s King Cyrus. The king issued a proclamation throughout his kingdom (it was also in writing) that stated:

² Persia’s King Cyrus says: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. ³ If there are any of you who are from his people, may their God be with them! They may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. ⁴ And as for all those who remain in the various places where they are living, let the people of those places supply them with silver and gold, and with goods and livestock, together with spontaneous gifts for God’s house in Jerusalem

3 When the seventh month came and the Israelites were in their towns, the people gathered together as one in Jerusalem. ² Then Jeshua, Jozadak’s son along with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel, Shealtiel’s son along with his kin, started to rebuild the altar of Israel’s God so that they might offer entirely burned offerings upon it as prescribed in the Instruction from Moses the man of God. ³ They set up the altar on its foundations,^[b] because they were afraid of the neighboring peoples,^[c] and they offered entirely burned offerings upon it to the Lord, both the morning and the evening offerings.

⁴ They celebrated the Festival of Booths, as prescribed. Every day they presented the number of entirely burned offerings required by ordinance for that day.

¹⁰ When the builders laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple, the priests clothed in their vests and carrying their trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, arose to praise the Lord according to the directions of Israel’s King David. ¹¹ They praised and gave thanks to the Lord, singing responsively, “He is good, his graciousness for Israel lasts forever.”

All of the people shouted with praise to the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s house had been laid. ¹² But many of the older priests and Levites and heads of families, who had seen the first house, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this house, although many others shouted loudly with joy. ¹³ No one could distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, because the people rejoiced very loudly. The sound was heard at a great distance.

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Introduction

Are there important buildings in your life? Places that are significant, special or even sacred?  I have stood in many wonderful houses of worship over the years from the grandest (Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome wins that prize, even for this Lutheran) to the most simple (no one particular place comes to mind here).  I’ve also stood in “normal,” or mundane spaces that have been converted into sacred places: classrooms, forest glades, or sidewalks that have been turned into places of worship.  But whether it’s the grandest cathedral or the smallest chapel, we humans have special relationships with specific spaces.

While the promise and relationship between God and God’s people hadn’t ended with the exile, there was something special (“holy”) about their homeland, the city of David and the places where they had worshiped the LORD for generations.  When they are given the chance to return to that place, it was a time of great significance and it marks another stage in the story of God and God’s people.

The Technical Stuff

The people of Judah were in exile in Babylon for approximately fifty years before they were caught up in another drama on the world stage.  The Babylonian Empire that had conquered them was in turn conquered by Cyrus of Persia in 539 B.C.E. When it comes to empires, there’s always a “bigger fish” out there. It reminds me of the movie Gunfight at the O.K. Corral where Wyatt Earp tells a young man “I learned one rule about gunslingers, there's always a man faster on the draw than you are, and the more you use a gun, the sooner you're gonna run into that man.” Babylon ran into a “faster draw” and his name was Cyrus.

Cyrus was the most powerful man in the world and he was extremely intelligent as well. He allowed many of the exiled people in Babylon to return to their original homelands. This made him extremely popular and also created a huge number of people who owed him everything they had. The authors of the Bible saw God at work in what Cyrus was doing.  As Cyrus decreed that they could go home, they saw that the promises of comfort and a return from exile coming true.  The story of that return is found in the Old Testament books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Interestingly life was not easy for the returning exiles. If they thought that they’d be able to “ride into the sunset” and live “happily ever after” they were in for disappointment.

They had been gone for approximately fifty years and their new neighbors were understandably unhappy to have these exiles elbowing in on their territory. Jerusalem was a ruin, the Temple (God’s house) was in shambles.  Before the exile, the people of Judah had believed that the Temple was the actual, literal house of God: the location where God lived. It held the Ark of the Covenant, which had been moved to Jerusalem so many years ago by King David. The Ark had winged cherubim, which the people believed was the literal throne of God.  The destruction of the Temple in 586 B.C.E. had been an excruciatingly terrible spiritual and psychological blow to Judah. For it to be rebuilt and rededicated was of immense importance. The Ark of the Covenant was gone, lost to history (apparently waiting for Indiana Jones save it from the Nazis according to the wonderful, exciting and completely FICTIONAL movie Raiders of the Lost Ark) but the Temple was still a very special place. 

While the exiles returned in the first few years after 539, the Temple was not completed until 515 B.C.E., while Cyrus’s grandson Darius was the Emperor of Persia.  Our story today tells how the people made burnt offerings to the LORD, celebrated festivals and did other things in accordance with the “Instruction from Moses.” They were able to take up parts of their relationship with the LORD. It must have been a very moving, emotional moment. No wonder some people cried, others celebrated and all of them shouted praise to God. 

What Does this Say to Us?

We all have buildings and places that are important, even sacred, to us. They can bring us closer to God and each other.  The Temple was certainly important to Jesus: he visited it with his family according the “Instruction of Moses” (Luke 2:22, 41) and was extremely angry when he saw being misused by merchants and moneychangers: “It’s written, My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a hideout for crooks.’” (Luke 19:46) His followers continued to go there to worship and pray after he had ascended into heaven (Acts 2:46 and 3:1) The Temple was important, it was sacred and special. But God is not limited to Temples, walls or certain “sacred” spaces. The Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, once again, in 70 C.E. by the Romans and has not been rebuilt. 

For us today, our worship spaces are important and should receive good care, but they are only a means to an end, not the end itself. Jesus tells us that where two or more are gathered in his name he is there (Matt. 18:20) and that “I myself will be with you every day until the end of this present age.” (Matt. 28:20) May our buildings keep us close to God, not take the place of God. May they help us remember God’s promise, stay in relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have life in Jesus’ name.