Possible

And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. ³⁷For nothing will be impossible with God. Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Luke 1:36-38

 

Nothing is impossible with God.  This is the fundamental truth about the story of Christmas.  The birth of Jesus, the story of Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth, the shepherds and the wisemen, Herod…it is an amazing and miraculous story.  That God would enter into this world and live among us; that God would be so humble by taking on flesh and blood for the sake of humanity. This is nothing less than the impossible becoming possible.

 

Mary was a teenage girl who was inconsequential.  She was no one from nowhere.  She was engaged to be married to Joseph the carpenter, but it was an arranged marriage that she had no say about.  And yet, God chose Mary to bear the Christ child.  God could have picked a queen or a princess.  God could have picked a priest or well know leader’s family to have the child.  God could have done anything, but God chose Mary.  This of course says a lot about Mary.  She was faithful and obedient to God.  She says yes when she had so much to lose.  Yet the story is remarkable not only for what it says about Mary, but more importantly what it says about God.  God chose to come into this world as an illegitimate son.  God chose to come into this world as a child born into to poverty from a family with few prospects.  God chose to live among us in obscurity and incognito for 30 years.  God could have chosen otherwise but did not.

 

God’s decision reveals a lot about God’s heart.  God has a heart for the oppressed and marginalized.  God has a heart for the nobodies of this world.  In Jesus, we clearly see that God is up to something powerful and miraculous.  God is fulfilling the promises made through Moses and the prophets.  God’s kingdom is entering into the world to transform it.  Mary understood God’s big plans and signs the beautiful Magnificat which ends thusly:

 

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Abraham and to his descendants forever. Luke 1:51-55

 

The kingdom of God, ushered in through the birth of Jesus, it is a great reversal.  God’s work in the world is to bring peace and hope and love to a dark, troubled, and broken world.  God will humble the exalted and exalt the humble.  God will bring justice and mercy into this world.  God’s kingdom makes the impossible possible.

A Loss of Hope

Luke 1:1-25; 57-80

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.” Luke 1:18

As we enter the season of Advent and take time to reflect upon what the birth of Jesus means for us today, it is natural to re-read the scriptural accounts.  Some stories we know well, while others are far too often overlooked.  The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth is vitally important to the story of Jesus, because of the divine action in the birth of John the Baptist.

Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were considered “righteous” and “blameless” before the Lord (1:6), despite not being able to have children.  The scriptures tell us that Zechariah had prayed to God for a child (1:13) but they in their advanced age were childless.  As a temple priest, Zechariah would have been seen as a leader in the community but because they had no children there would have been some people who would have questioned Zechariah and Elizabeth’s faithfulness to God.  In those days (and today) children were seen as a blessing from God.  But it was also true that not having children was a point of shame and disgrace, particularly for Elizabeth (the women always get blamed!) (1:25).   They may have prayed for years for a child and yet nothing changed. 

When the angel comes to Zechariah with the news that he will have a son who will be an instrument of God’s work, he should have been thrilled. After all, God heard the prayer and was delivering.  Instead Zechariah responds with doubt and disbelief.  “How will I know this is so?” (1:18). He is asking for a sign from God in order to believe.  If anyone should be able to have faith or believe in the mysterious ways of God it should be a priest or religious leader.  But Zechariah has lost hope. He has lost a sense that with God all things are possible; that just because a situation may seem desperate or bleak God can and will bring redemption and transformation.  Zechariah has lost hope and asks for a sign.  The angel silences him and he is then unable to speak until after the child is born. 

When we lose hope and cannot believe in the promises and presence of God, we live in a silent and devoid world.  We can no longer hear God’s voice or receive the good news. Hope is not wishful thinking or naïve.  Biblical hope, a God-filled hope, is the belief that God can and will turn suffering into redemption, a belief that despite all outward appearances God will heal a broken world, a belief that God’s love is stronger than hatred or division or greed or anything else that divides us.  Hope is a choice to believe despite the evidence to contrary, and despite the long and arduous wait. 

Zechariah lost hope in the midst of waiting.  He lost hope waiting for a messiah and could no longer see what God was up to.  I pray that we all might maintain hope and reminder Paul’s words:

We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not disappoint us. Romans 5:3-5