There are 52 Sundays each year. We hold worship on all of those Sundays and other times — Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Wednesdays in Lent, the longest night, and Christmas Eve. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that not one of us has been at all of these services, your pastors included.
Worshipping is essential to being human, and it’s a piece of what it means to live a full life. Even if you don’t get to every service, I think there are many of us who come to worship looking to be uplifted. That’s a good thing. That’s part of what God has on offer for us in worship.
But, do we come to worship expecting our lives to be disrupted? Do we come hoping that God speaks so deeply into our souls that we leave changed? I mean, that’s too big of an expectation every week, but when was the last time you worshipped expecting your life to be disrupted?
Today we met Zechariah. He has devoted his life to living faithfully and serving the Lord. Luke’s gospel takes pains to show us how Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth, are pious. Quietly and persistently, they lived the way God had laid out for them according to the law. Our expectation with this kind of faithful living would be that they would experience God’s blessing in their lives, but they were childless, a sign, perhaps, that something was off.
Still, the time came when Zechariah’s duties summoned him to Jerusalem for worship. Surely he’s been on duty many times. They would cast lots to see which priest would preside at the altar of incense. If the lot fell to you, this was the only time in your entire life that you could do this, so Zechariah’s heart must have been bursting with excitement. After all these years, this was his chance. Who wouldn’t be fully engaged in worship when you had this honor?
Still, the unexpected happened. He was going through the routines of worship when Gabriel, an angel who stands in the presence of the Lord, disrupts everything. He astounds Zechariah, not just with his presence — although that would probably be plenty for any of us — but also with his words about the son that Elizabeth will bear. They are going to be parents to John, who is the one preparing the way for the Messiah. It’s astounding and disruptive news.
But, don’t we all live settled lives that have come to the place where we accept our lot? We had dreams — the perfect job, the right place to live, the spouse and 2.5 children — yet, things didn’t go as we’d planned. The perfect job ended up being in a toxic work environment. The house you dreamed about had issues with its foundation. The partner you hoped for never crossed your path, no matter how many dating apps you tried.
When dreams die, we go through grief. I think we’ve all heard of Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’ five stages of grief — denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. When things don’t go right, we make our way through those stages.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were there. They no longer dreamed of being parents; they had accepted that reality. But on their way to acceptance, it’s not hard to imagine that they grieved. It’s not hard to imagine their denial for the first few years of infertility. It’s not hard to imagine that leading to anger — “God, we do the right things. We live the right way. We serve you faithfully. Why aren’t you blessing us?” It’s not hard to imagine them moving to bargaining — “God, if you only give us a child, we’ll dedicate him to your service.” After all, they have the biblical example of Hannah doing just that. It’s not hard to imagine them becoming depressed. It’s just not happening. This dream is dead.
And then they land in acceptance. The reality is the reality.
It’s interesting, though. Zechariah’s name means “The Lord remembers.” He’s actually one of 32 people with that name in the Bible. The name became popular when things were particularly hard for God’s people. The name is a plea for God to remember his promises and reach out to help. God’s present action is rooted in past promises.
So, God even disrupts acceptance. Into their old age, God shows up powerfully . But this child of promise isn’t just any kid. Their dreams of Sunday School and afterschool soccer practice aren’t part of the deal. No, their child is going change the world, and he’s going to suffer for doing it. Zechariah’s acceptance of childlessness is disrupted by God, and this is a tough pill for him to swallow, so much so that he doubts it’s even possible for him and Elizabeth.
Friends, in so many stories in the Bible, including this one, we see how ordinary folks have learned to accept something new and different and let that reshape their lives. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story closely resembles Abraham and Sarah’s struggle with infertility, as well as Hannah and Elkanah’s. In all these stories, God fulfills promises through unexpected children. God makes a way where there seemed to be no way.
Let me be real with us right now. God is involved in our lives, whether we acknowledge that truth or not. Many of us live as though God’s involvement were a polite add-on, but that’s really not the case. Rather, life with God is disruptive because God loves us too much to leave us to our own devices.
A spiritual director named Paula Gamble-Grant puts the challenge to us like this, “Sometimes our greatest faith and transformation happen as we let God come to us as we are, not as we think we should be.” I cannot begin to count the number of times I’ve seen people back away from Christian community and worship because their lives aren’t put together at that moment. While I understand the impulse, I always want to shout, “But that’s precisely when you need loving Christian community the most! This is a hospital for sinners, not a social club for the perfect!”
Zechariah and Elizabeth’s life was not perfect, but it was settled. It was into that reality that God entered, disrupting their tidy world with a son, whose very existence would trouble the waters of all who encountered him. It started with his name, John, which wasn’t in keeping with the custom of the day. It continued as he left home for the wilderness, dressed in camel skin, eating locusts and honey, and speaking the truth that people needed to repent and be baptized.
God’s disruption of our lives does not necessarily mean that things are going to break our way. That’s a lie we tell ourselves that is actually incredibly damaging to living a good life. Rather, it means that — come what may — God is with us in it all, the good and the hard. I have no doubt that Zechariah hoped his son would be faithful, but I also suspect that John’s path disrupted Zechariah’s expectations constantly.
Our lives are constantly cycling through those stages of grief, and even when we get to that more settled place of acceptance, we know that something will happen that will alter the story of our lives once again.
So, how do we experience God’s disruption as good news? The key for us is learning how to trust God in the disruption — that ultimately God is bringing good out of the unexpected or hard or tragic. We see this in the lives of others, like Joni Eareckson Tada. Joni had been an athletic and active teen, riding horses, swimming, and hiking. One day, she dived into the Chesapeake Bay at a spot that was too shallow, and she was paralyzed from the neck down. Surely she grieved this, but ultimately, Joni turned her condition into an asset. Still active today, Joni became focused on helping churches welcome people with disabilities. She took her tragedy and found a way to bring healing to herself and others. It takes courage to face the reality of our stories.
Or, let’s think about this on a far simpler, less heroic level. This wintry weather has disrupted our lives this week, even closing our schools. For some, this inconvenience made life harder. How am I supposed to work when my kids are home today? But, what if we took this disruption and asked God what we should do with it? What if the snow day was a chance to connect deeply with your kids? Was it a day to build a snow fort and relax over some hot chocolate? Was it a chance to play a game together instead of everyone being glued to their screens?
Or, what if you had to make a quick trip to Meijer to have everything you needed for dinner. You’re in a rush, but across the produce section, your eyes meet a friend you haven’t seen in awhile. They beeline for you, and you realize your quick stop was going to get longer. Still, they come up to you and share news that they’ve been busy helping their brother out because he recently was diagnosed with cancer. They’ve been driving him to his treatments, and your friend is scared that he won’t get better and that he can’t afford the bills. With the cilantro still paused between your hand and the bag, you realize that your friend needed you right there and then and that this trip to Meijer was not about the cilantro but about being present to another. You give them a hug and offer to pray for them. You promise to call next week and set up a time for coffee. Your disrupted life God has just used to offer some healing and encouragement to another. It’s all about perspective and accepting that God is working in all moments of your life, even the hard ones.
We read that Zechariah left the Temple unable to speak. He shares his news with Elizabeth somehow. She does get pregnant, and stays in seclusion for five months before Gabriel breaks the news to Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary, who is about to get astounding news herself.
I actually think that it was healthy for Zechariah not to talk for nine months. Why? It gave him space to listen and soften his heart towards what was coming. It was an opportunity for him to come to accept what God was doing and to enter with awe the mystery of God moving in such a way in their lives.
Throughout these stories that lead to the arrival of Jesus, Gabriel begins with these words, “Do not be afraid.” God is aware that disruptions put us into a defensive position, that change can make us afraid. But God also reminds us that this is working towards great news — that God is invested in our lives and in the world, that God is coming even into the darkest of nights and into the hardest of realities.
True to the meaning of Zechariah’s name, the Lord remembers his promises and will set things right. Those promises are what we still cling to today, which leads us to praise. After John is born and Zechariah affirms his name, Zechariah’s first words are a song of praise. After months of silence, the acceptance of what God was doing through him streamed forth in joy and truth. Life would still bring more hardships, as it does for all of us. Still, we take it all, and we seek to offer it as best we can back to the One who loves us and saves us and calls us to life, come what may.
