Trusting Beyond Tradition

FOURTH  SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Zechariah 2:10-13; Matthew 1:18-25
 Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, December 22nd,2013

A printable PDF file can  be found here

As we pause for a moment on the brink of Christmas, I'd like to focus on some words from the prophecy of the Old Testament Prophet Zechariah, chapter 2, verse 3 “Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling."

Traditionally this is the busiest holiday of the calendar season. Shopping, decorating, cooking, Visiting, carol singing, and all the rest of it! Why we even have three services over the next three days, including one of them at nearly midnight! This does not happen at other times of the year.

We all have our Christmas traditions. I was talking to the children earlier about the 'Parang' tradition from Trinidad and Tabago that lay behind that wonderful Calypso feeling carol, 'The Virgin Mary had a Baby Boy'. 'Parang' bands would go from house to house, and be welcomed with food and drink, and rituals of welcome and departure. A busy time!

Some people like to go into the city at Christmas time. See the displays. Visit Santa at Macy's. The Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Skaters in Central Park. Go to a show. Watch the Rockettes perform. A busy time.

Others like to head South, away from the cold of winter, and may well celebrate on a beach with a Barb-Q and the application of sun-block as they sing Christmas carols squinting through sunglasses. Not really a busy time, but a different kind of time for sure.

Some may be overwhelmed and just say “Bah, Humbug”... that's not what it's all about. They said that last year, they'll say it this year and they will say it again next year. That's their tradition. Today I want to talk about 'Trusting beyond Tradition.' I want to encourage us for a moment to focus on the gospel message that goes so much deeper than our celebrations imagine.

So again back to Zechariah, chapter 2, verse 3 “Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling."

Zechariah is thought to have spoken his words of prophecy some time after the nation of Israel had begun to re-establish themselves after their exile in Babylon. They had been through some bad days... and the good days were still far ahead of them. You could say it was neither the best of times nor the worst of times.

Zecharaiah's name in Hebrew meant 'God has remembered'. In verse 10 (that we read this morning) that sense of God seeking to restore the fortunes of God's people is reflected. "Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD.”

Maybe for some of us in our own lives we face neither the best of times nor the worst of times. Or maybe we have been though a time of feeling exiled from God or others. Maybe for some folk these really are the hard times, and like those Israelites still in Babylon, the day of deliverance seems like a forgotten dream.

Whatever and wherever we are today, in the midst of all the traditional busyness, the message of Zechariah still offers hope. He tells us that God remembers us. That we are neither abandoned nor forgotten. Though we may at times abandon our faith and forget about what God requires of us, God is still at work, calling to us, seeking to guide us and help us, if we can but pause from our busy-ness and be still enough before Him.

There is so much busy-ness around the nativity story. Mary and Joseph. Preparing for a wedding. Then a baby that they hadn't expected. Preparing to have to make a journey because of a census. That's a lot to deal with. Joseph was pretty stressed out about the whole affair! In fact Joseph is so busy that the only time God finds to speak with him is in Joseph's dreams.

Matthew 1:20-21 “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save his people from their sins."

Joseph is also told that he is to name the child 'Immanuel', which meant 'God is with us' – another way of saying 'God has remembered us.' As you read the bible accounts of the Nativity you do have the impression that it was all very unexpected and unanticipated. The birth of Jesus comes as a tremendous surprise, not just to Mary and Joseph, but to shepherds out on the hillside and Herod in his palace. 

There are a few people in the story though that are watching and waiting. Simeon in the temple. The prophetess Anna. Far away wise men interpreting the stars and prepared to make a journey to welcome a new King. There were a few who took to heart the message of Zechariah “Be still before the LORD, all mankind”.  And they were the ones who discovered that “He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling."

In order to trust in God, there has to be moments when we turn away from our busy-ness and seek to be still and discern what God is doing. It is often only in those still moments that we understand that God is at work in and around our daily lives. That God remembers us. That God is with us.

That just as God came to the people of Zechariah's time, recovering from the soul destroying experience of exile in Babylon, so God, in Jesus Christ comes to us, to save, to forgive, to renew and restore. Hope can still be born into our lives, because God knows us, God remembers that we are God's children, God longs to transform our lives by the presence and activity of His Holy Spirit at work within us and around us.

I well understand that we all have our traditions and rituals and ways of celebrating the Christmas season. I certainly do, and really don't want to let go of any of them. Yet the challenge every year is as to whether we can look beyond our traditions and allow this season to be more than just busy-ness and celebration and actually find the message of our Savior generates deep trust in God within our lives.

Zechariah 2:3 “Be still before the LORD, all mankind, because He has roused Himself from His holy dwelling."

Isn't that what we celebrate at Christmas? That we do not have a God who is content to sit back and let us travel to an uncertain fate. That we have a God 'who has roused himself from His holy dwelling'. That in Jesus Christ... God comes to us, is born amongst us, is born as one of us, as one who remembers us, understands us and comes to save us from ourselves.

As the children sang for us, 'The Virgin Mary had a baby boy, And they said His name was Jesus. He came from the glory, He came from the glorious kingdom, oh yes believer, ... He came from the glorious kingdom!”

Like Joseph we may struggle to understand how such a thing can be. Like Joseph we may even be so busy that it's only in our dreams that God can get through to us! Yet there is life and love and hope to be found, waiting for our response, waiting to embrace us and renew us, if we can but be still for long enough to taste and see and know that God remembers God's people.

As we sing our carols, as we visit with our friends and families, as we watch our traditional movies and go through our traditional routines, take time to consider the Jesus who lies at the heart of things. Take time for trusting beyond tradition. Then we truly will be celebrating the Christmas message. “He came from the glory, oh yes believer ...He came from the glorious kingdom”

May the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, through the presence and peace of His Holy Spirit, illuminate our Christmas celebrations this and every year we travel through this season. And to God's name be all the glory.  Amen.


The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.