Sermon – Luke 1:68-79 Zechariah’s Song

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Luke 1:68-79 Zechariah’s Song

December 6, 2015

I recently heard a testimony given by a Navy chaplain speaking at Fuller Seminary. In her ministry she had made a practice of just walking around the ship asking sailors how they were doing. One day a sailor came to see her. He had noticed her walking around the ship and thought, maybe, she could help. The first thing he told her was that he was an atheist. In their conservation this atheist talked about his desire to kill himself. Suicide seemed the only way to deal with his trouble. The chaplain prayed with him and told him that God loved him, wanted to bless him, and would be with him. This helped the sailor tremendously. And he told the chaplain that she could pray for him whenever she wanted.

The atheist had a hard time believing in a transcendent God. He just couldn’t buy the idea of a God in heaven sitting on a throne in charge of the world. How could this be given that the world seems to be out of control? But he could believe in God who was with him, loves him and could be counted on to save him.

This is the God, an immanent God, which we worship as Christians. We believe in a God who left heaven and came to earth to be with us and love us. God lived in a garden with Adam and Eve, and he came back to earth to be with us with the birth of Jesus, whom the prophets called Emmanuel, God with us. The heart of our faith is our experience of God in the world around us. This experience is confirmed by our reading of scripture. And that's why we enjoy Advent and Christmas so much. This is a time when we celebrate and worship a God who is with us.

One way I experience God in the world around us is with the sunrise over the ocean. It is a beautiful sight when the sun peers over the boundary between sky and sea. At that moment, when the day ahead is filled with possibilities, God seems to me to be very near. Another person who experienced God in the sunrise was a country priest named Zechariah. He sang about this God with us in a song he wrote to celebrate his son's birth. We will get to this song, but first let's pray.

“Merciful God, you sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation. Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.” (BCW p. 174.)

When John the Baptist was just eight days old his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, took him to be circumcised. During this ceremony Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and began to sing a word of prophecy. Here is the beginning of the song he sang.

68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
    because he has come to his people and redeemed them.69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
    in the house of his servant David70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),71 salvation from our enemies
    and from the hand of all who hate us—72 to show mercy to our ancestors
    and to remember his holy covenant,73     the oath he swore to our father Abraham:74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
    and to enable us to serve him without fear75     in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Zechariah was singing about the covenant between God and Abraham which was symbolically recognized in the circumcision of his son. Let's listen to the terms of this covenant from Genesis chapter 17.

1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me faithfully and be blameless. 2 Then I will make my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”

3 Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

9 Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. 10 This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. 

So, the covenant was between God and Abraham and included all of Abraham's descendants. God promised Abraham descendants numerous enough to form a nation, in fact many nations, he promised them land to farm, and he promised to be their God. Abraham and his descendants promised to be obedient to God's law. Circumcision was required of all of Abraham's male descendants as a sign and seal of this covenant.

On the occasion of his own son's circumcision, Zachariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and he praised God for the fulfillment of this covenant. God was faithful. He did provide descendants numerous enough to form nations. He did provide land for them to farm. But the people had come up short on their obligations under the contract. They were to faithfully obey God's commandments, but they didn't.

Zechariah was overjoyed because he was the first to know the good news. God had decided, in his mercy, to forgive this disobedience. All that was required was a change in how we live. If we now live lives of obedience our past disobedience will be forgiven and we will have fulfilled our end of the covenant. And Zechariah was overjoyed that his own son would make this proclamation. John would be the prophet sent by God to proclaim repentance for the forgiveness of sin. Let's return to Zechariah's song and listen as he sings about his newly born son.

Luke 1:76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
    for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
    through the forgiveness of their sins,78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
    by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven79 to shine on those living in darkness
    and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

John the Baptist will proclaim the good news of salvation through the forgiveness of sin. And he will proclaim that a savior is coming, God himself will be with us to forgive us. Zechariah described this experience of God with us, as a rising sun shining on a people living in darkness.

This is good news for us. We have been adopted into Abraham's family. The promises of God’s blessings are offered to us through repentance, change in our behavior from disobedience to obedience, leading to the forgiveness of sin. If we do this, God will do something amazing. He will be our God. He will be with us, Emmanuel.

Circumcision was the sign and seal of the original covenant. The sign and seal of the covenant offered to us is the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. As we gather around this table we experience God with us in the bread and juice. As we commune together we are the sign to the world that God is with us. As we eat this bread and drink from this cup the promise of forgiveness is sealed upon us. And so just as we experience the presence of God with us in a beautiful sunrise on the beach, so too do we experience Emmanuel, God with us, here in the sacrament of communion. Let's pray.

“God of our salvation, you straighten the winding ways of our hearts and smooth the paths made rough by sin. Keep our conduct blameless, keep our hearts watchful in holiness, and bring to perfection the good you have begun in us. We ask this through him whose coming is certain, whose day draws near; your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Worship p.174)