God of the Impossible
Luke 1:18-25
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.
24 After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said, 25 ‘This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.’
Zechariah was caught completely off guard by the angel’s message. He and Elizabeth had learned to live with the heartache of being childless, and they (or at least he) had lost hope of ever being parents. The angel’s message was a shock. Zechariah did not want to get back on the emotional roller-coaster of hoping and then having those hopes dashed. And so he wants proof – how can I know? (vs. 18)
On one level his question is reasonable but when we remember that he was a priest, a religious leader who preached a message of trusting God, of believing God’s promises, his doubts take on a different feel. Here is one who is sworn to be God’s voice in their community, but Zechariah does not believe the message from God that the angel brings to him. The words he preached to others of hope and promise had not touched the deep heartache of his life. He had let that heartache turn into a situation that he believed God could not solve. And since Zechariah did not trust God to respond to the deepest pain in his own life, he was silenced until he could see God do the unimaginable and touch the deepest pain in his life.
In our lives there are places of deep heartache – places that we have come to think are not fixable – that even God can’t fix them. Zechariah would remind us to never say never when it comes to God’s ability to act. In Advent we are invited to give those places of deep heartache to God, and to trust that God who has promised to reconcile all things, will also reconcile the deep heartaches of our lives.
PRAYER:
O Lord, there are burdens and heartaches that we have carried for so long that we have come to doubt if they will ever change. Teach us to never give up on what you can do, to never give up on your promise to reconcile all things. Call us anew this Advent to trust you with the impossible things of our lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.