Luke 1:67-79, 3:1-6

(Pastor Julie sings “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” ala Godspell)

The beginning of Luke’s gospel always reminds me of a musical. I can’t help but hear Godspell’s John the Baptist, calling through the city streets a song so compelling it interrupts people’s daily life and they leave the office and the dance studio to start a whole new way of life in preparation for God’s kingdom.

But before John called out “prepare the way of the Lord,” his father Zechariah had a song to sing. It’s one of three songs that appears in the first two chapters of Luke. It’s as if Luke were writing a musical, with three couples who take center stage. First it’s Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist; then, Joseph and Mary, Jesus’ parents; and finally Simeon and Anna, prophets in the Jerusalem temple. Each pair has a song to sing about God’s intervention, the world turned upside down and made right again.

We’ll hear all three songs during an extended Christmas season. Two weeks from now we’ll hear Mary’s song of praise, and on February 2, the Feast known as Presentation of Our Lord, we’ll hear from old Simeon in the temple.

But today we concentrate on Zechariah’s song. Traditionally known as the Benedictus, from the Latin word, Blessed, which begins the song, Zechariah’s song proclaims God’s salvation as freedom from enemies and as light in the darkness.

But I am getting ahead of myself. First we need to hear the story of Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest in the Jerusalem temple; Luke says that he and his wife Elizabeth were righteous in God’s sight but childless and beyond childbearing years. One day when Zechariah was serving in the temple, he encountered an angel of the Lord in the holy of holies. The angel told Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would bear a son whom they were to name John. The angel said that their son would be “great in the sight of the Lord” and that he would “make a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zechariah, however, didn’t believe the angel and was struck dumb because of his unbelief. Elizabeth nonetheless became pregnant, just as the angel had said—and just as the angel had said, Zechariah was mute until the baby was born. His first words were this song.

Zechariah’s song comes in three parts. In the first section, Zechariah praises God for seeing the plight of God’s people and intervening to help: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He proclaims God’s faithfulness to God’s promises spoken long ago and how God is rescuing them from their enemies. God’s action means that God’s people can live without fear, serving God.

In the second section he addresses the infant John, ⁷⁶And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High;  for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,  ⁷⁷to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins.
Zechariah’s song closes with the implications for the whole world: ⁷⁸By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us,  ⁷⁹to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,  to guide our feet into the way of peace. It’s the dawn of a new day for everyone, that all the world will be guided into God’s wholeness and righteousness.

I am struck by the fact that after nine months of imposed silence, Zechariah’s first words were a song in praise of God. In fact, all three of the songs of the first two chapters of Luke are songs of praise. People are filled with the Holy Spirit, and it is as if praise just spills out – the praise cannot be contained.

Notice, however, the praise is not because things are necessarily cheerful. Recall that Zechariah and his people were living under Roman occupation. The appointed Jewish authorities were at times even worse; it was just months later that King Herod killed all the baby boys in Bethlehem in a jealous rage. Jesus and his parents narrowly escaped because they were warned in a dream to flee to Egypt.

I think this is an important spiritual truth for us today. Today we sing God’s praises for Christ’s redeeming work among us, for the light Jesus brings into the shadows of our world, the mercy, justice, and peace that our Savior brings. But Jesus’ presence among us does not eliminate the darkness of our world - the fear, lust for power, violence, and strife that we see all around us and even within us. Instead, the praise is an acknowledgement that God has acted and continues to act. It is a defiant note, an insistent call that interrupts our routines and shakes us out of our satisfaction with the way things are to form a vision within us of the way things should be. These songs of praise awake us from our stupor into alert attention: God is faithful! God shows up! The dawn from on high will break upon us! Be on the lookout, and be a part of what God is doing!

And as we sing our praise, we answer that call to be a part of God’s reign in Christ, to defy the powers that seek to diminish and oppress; to give voice to those who have been silenced; to set our feet onto the path of forgiveness and peace.

We sing with Zechariah with our voices and our lives that we serve God without fear: in Christ, God has fulfilled God’s promises! Therefore this Advent, may we share the tender mercy of our God. May we shine the light of Christ that dispels the shadow of death. May we walk in God’s way of peace.