this is the first sermon in the series Advent/Christmas Eve series on angels. As I mention in the sermon, this series does not analyze angels but looks at the angelic interactions in the birth narratives. I enjoyed working on this sermon and preaching it.
If I did the sermon again, I would end it with the section just before the conclusion. When i reached that point in the sermon, it felt right, but I liked the conclusion, so I kept on going. Lesson relearned - when it feels like the right time to stop, stop! The conclusion seemed like an unnecessary add-on to the sermon.
I originally had the following illustration as part of the sermon. It would have been found as Move 2, b. 5. When I reached that point of the sermon, it felt like to use this illustration would have shifted the flow back, instead of moving the sermon forward. it might actually read better than it would have preached. It's a pretty cool illustration, so i will use in some other Advent sermon. It would work really well in a sermon that had AV support so i could show the painting.
16th century Peter Brueggel’s painting, Numbering at Bethlehem, depicts a wide-angle scene of a Flemish village as it would have appeared in his day, complete with a church spire. The villagers are busy: skating on the frozen pond, talking over the fence, slaughtering a pig, queuing up to pay taxes at the inn. Amidst the hubbub, one barely notices a woman heavy with child, riding on a donkey toward the inn, her carpenter husband walking alongside with a saw hanging from his belt. her is a poignant, Advent moment. The Holy Family is coming into the midst of the people. that they overlook the moment is not because the people are bad or blind; rather, it is because their eyes and ears are not attuned to the Advent hope that the Holy might come among them and transform their priorities (“Journal for Preachers,” Vol. XXXVII, number 1, Advent 2013; to see the painting, go to https://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Pieter-The-Elder-Bruegel/The-Numbering-At-Bethlehem-1566.html)
The Fleming Rutledge book I referenced looks like a really neat resource. I have just skimmed through part of it, but it looks to have lots of great insights into Advent.
“Angelic Exhortation: Wake Up” SAPC, December 2, 2018; Luke 1: 5-23; Advent 1
Luke 1: 5-23 5 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 a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. 6 Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. 7 But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.
8 Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 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. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” 18 Zechariah said to the angel, “How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” 19 The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. 20 But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”
21 Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary. 22 When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.
Introduction: I am not really much of an angel person. Maybe you are. maybe you are not. Even if you are not and angel person, I bet you know someone who is. someone who has angels all over their house, and not just at Christmas time.
We are going to spend Advent reflecting an angels. I will not tell you exactly what an angel is or how angels work. Your angel friend probably will tell you (and I probably would not agree!).
We will look at what the angels says and do in the stories surrounding Jesus’ birth as a clue to what God was doing in those stories and what God might be doing in our lives today.
Move 1: Wake up - the angels come to tell us that God demands our attention.
a. Let’s be clear - the angels in the Christmas story are not the cheery souls, or even the bumbling Clarence who is trying to earn his wings in the Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Agnes Norfleet’s article “Peripheral Angels,” in Journal for Preachers, Vol. XXXIV, Number 1, Advent , 2010, 13-15 sparked my thoughts for this section of the sermon).
1. In fact, the angel who visits Zechariah in this story and Mary in a later story in Luke is Gabriel, which means “‘God is my strength.”
2. A strong, powerful angel with an important message.
3. If you like musicals, you may remember Cole Porter’s show “Anything Goes.” It has a rousing number sung by Reno, the female evangelist turned night club singer who belts out “Blow, Gabriel, Blow,” that sings of Gabriel blowing his trumpet to get everyone’s attention (for you biblical scholars no mention of Gabriel’s trumpet in the biblical record) [https://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/anythinggoes/blowgabrielblow.htm]
3. Gabriel does not sing a sweet lullaby to Zechariah, but brings an exhortation — wake up! It’s time to be a witness to what God is doing.
b, Gabriel’s announcement to Zechariah about the birth of his son takes us back to Abraham and Sarah, who also received a visit from an angel and moves us forward to Mary and Joseph, who will receive an angelic visit as well.
1. Sarah and Abraham received the unexpected news about having a son late in life; Mary and Joseph about the son of God being born to Mary.
2. All of them - Sarah and Abraham, now Zechariah and Elizabeth, and later Mary and Joseph - will find their lives disrupted.
3. Are you next?
The angels call us to wake up and pay attention.
Move 2: Wake up - God is working in the real world.
a. Catches Zechariah at his place of work, albeit a temple.
1. There Zechariah is, doing about his business, when an angel suddenly appears on the right side of the altar of incense.
2. When I was in seminary, a mentor (Bill Hedrick) told me that he always preached the sermon each week to an empty sanctuary. He would imagine the congregation sitting there, and it gave him a feel for what it might sound like when the pews were full.
3. I started that practice years ago while on internship, and still do it every week. Sometimes, on a good week, I am in here on Friday mornings preachings; always, I am in here early on Sunday morning preaching to you even before you are in the pews.
4. One Friday afternoon at the church I served in KY, I was preaching in the pulpit. It was a center pulpit, right in the middle of the chancel area, a straight line to the top of sanctuary, a straight line to the top of the sanctuary where bats sometimes roosted; a straight line a bat chose to fly that day and zoom so close to the top of my head, I felt it go through my hair.
5. That less than angelic presence terrified me and I went running out of the sanctuary.
6. Zechariah found out funny things can happen in the workplace; maybe even an angel of God.
b. Notice that God did not send Gabriel to sweep Zechariah away to some heavenly temple.
1. An angel will not transport Mary and Joseph to some heavenly cloud, some cumulus birthing room.
3. The angels will not send the shepherds traveling down some gold-plated highway to heaven.
4. The angels will tell us again and again that God is coming to be in our midst.
c. God is going to be at work in the real places where we live.
1. When we look at our war-torn world and hunger for peace, there we will find God at work.
2. when we find ourselves in broken relationships, there we will find God at work at reconciliation
3. when we come disheartened at the divisiveness in our world, there we will find God at work at reconciliation.
4. When we find ourselves in difficult medical struggles, there we will find God.
Wake up - God is at work in the real world.
Move 3: Final warning - wake up, but be careful with those angels.
a. Fleming Rutledge, the renowned Episcopalian preacher, tells about how much she loved Advent as a child. The whole sense of expectation was exciting. But, she says, she had Advent all wrong. She thought that she was supposed to spend Advent pretending that Jesus had never been born so that when they read the story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve, it would be like a new thing had happened (Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ, Fleming Rutledge, 58)
, 1. maybe we all feel a little of that as we move through Advent and speak of expectation and a sense of waiting.
2. But Advent is also about reflecting on our lives and asking what God is calling us to do now.
3. the God who has already come, the God who will come again in the Second coming, is the God who is calling us now, in surprising ways.
b. I love the exchange between Zechariah and Gabriel.
1. When the angel tells Zechariah he and Elizabeth are going to have a baby, just like they have asked, Zechariah basically responds, “i am old.”
2. A Sleepy response. Zechariah’s not ready.
3. the angel’s response: “I am Gabriel. You Better hang on because God is coming. and you may get what you ask for and even more.”
4. that’s why we hear the angel for the first, but not the last, repeat the ongoing angelic refrain, “Do not be afraid!”
5. God is at work, and God wants us to be a part of it. Beware!
Conclusion: One kid reading the Christmas story to another kid. Peers over the book and says: “God sent an angel to proclaim the baby's birth because they didn't have email then.
God has come and will come again. And in this moment God is calling you.
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