This morning, we enter into the season of Advent. Advent is not Christmas. Advent looks toward Christmas – but before we get there – Advent invites us to stand in our lives – and remember what it is to long for the coming of God into a broken and hurting world. It’s no mistake that Advent comes, in the Northern Hemisphere, as the days grow short and the shadows lengthen, as we light candles in the shelter of the night. Advent is a season of quiet and preparation – as, with folks down through the generations, we stand in the hurt of our world – and pray for hope and peace and joy and love – and look for the coming of the Christ.
This year, we have drawn our Advent theme from the hymn, It Came Upon the Midnight Clear, which we usually think of as a Christmas carol.[1] But have you ever noticed? – It Came Upon the Midnight Clear doesn’t mention the birth of Jesus.[2] Instead, it looks back and focuses on the angels singing. (1) It remembers the angels singing hope into that night. (2) It brings their invitation to hope into our current moment – into a world still full of woe – and then (3) it looks forward to the day when all the world will join the angel’s song. Our theme comes from the line: “O, Rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.”
We’ll do that by turning to the Advent stories right at the start of the Gospel of Luke where angels bring tidings of great joy, and liberation, and revolution.[3]
Now, I don’t know what you think about angels. To be honest, up until a few years ago, I hadn’t thought about them much at all. Popular culture is full of angel imagery. Google “Angels.” And the first thing you’ll find is a baseball team, from a city named after angels. Wikipedia describes an angel is “a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings.” There are Precious Moments angels. And guardian angels. In Silicon Valley, there are angel investors. So take all that – and set it aside for a moment – clear the clutter.
In Scripture, angels are super-serious. Angels are messengers sent from God to announce what God is doing in the world. And what God is doing in the world is usually turning the world upside down – or rightside up.[4] Angels bring messages that shake the world. So when they appear in Scripture, angels almost always begin by saying: “Be not afraid.” They say that, because the folks in the Bible, experiencing the angel are... afraid. In Scripture, angels are, as one writer puts it, “interpreters of God’s action in the world and comforters of human fear.”[5] So when our Advent theme says, “And hear the angels sing” – get ready. Because, yes, what the angels sing is full of comfort and joy – AND angels announce the toppling of the powers, the end of oppression, and the lifting up of the lowly. You who are bowed down low, rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.
The Gospel of Luke – in these Advent scriptures – begins with a host of angel encounters – Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds. And they follow a pattern:
1. an angel appears;
2. there is an initial response of fear (and a “Be not afraid”);
3. the angel announces their divine message – here’s what’s coming;
4. there’s resistance; and
5. the angel offers a sign – a sign pointing toward what God is doing in the world.[6]
We’ll use that as our framework for looking at these stories.
And, we should notice, that we are back in the Gospel of Luke. Advent starts a new year in the church calendar. For the past year, we’ve been exploring the Gospel of Mark. This year, we dive into Luke, and as we get started, we should say some things about the world of the gospel.[7] Luke’s world is a world of layered power. The Roman Empire occupies the land. They’ve installed a puppet king – King Herod. The Temple exercises power over the people too.
Each level of power extracts something from the people. Most folks live a bare subsistence living where their day-to-day lives are focused on feeding their family, trying to farm the land (or work their trade), and satisfying the demands of the state and religious authorities. It is a world structured on power and privilege.
The Gospel of Luke announces that, in Jesus Christ, God is turning that world rightside up. God is bringing down the powers, and lifting up the lowly. God is shattering the barriers that keep people separated and cast out. Everyone is welcomed in. Everyone finds a place at the table. Jesus brings good news for the poor, healing for every brokenness, release for the captive, freedom for the oppressed, and the forgiveness of every debt.
And it all starts, when an angel comes to visit Zechariah. All we know about Zechariah and Elizabet at the start of the story is that they are righteous people, good folks; that they are well-along in years; and that Zechariah is a priest. And when we meet him, it’s his turn to go into the inner temple and burn the incense offering, while the people wait outside for a blessing. It’s a big duty.
Zechariah goes in and starts the incense burning, and as he does that, he prays the prayers. And suddenly, an angel appears – a startling messenger from God, and the angel says... “Be not afraid... Be not afraid for your prayers have been answered.” Your prayers have been heard.. Notice that, while Zechariah has been saying the prayers of the people, he has also been praying his own... hope against hope, that he and Elizabeth, old as they are, might yet have a child. “Your prayers have been heard. Your wide will have a child. His name will be John. You will be filled with joy and gladness and the whole world will rejoice. For, you see, he will be filled with holy spirit. He will turn many to God; he will turn the hearts of parent to their children; he will turn the disobedient to wisdom.”
The turning – turning the world rightside up – is just getting started.
(Notice that “turn parents toward their children” part. Parents will no longer turn their children backward; their children will turn their parents forward.) [8]
So we have (1) an angel appearing, (2) fear, (3) a message of what God is doing.... and (4) there is resistance. “How can this be? I am old. My wife is old? How can this be?” All these words, all this good news, all this turning.. it is too much for Zechariah to comprehend. How can this be? And the angel, replies, “Oh, this will be.” And the angel offers (5) a sign: “You will be silent until the child is born.” Hush now. And you will see.
Now, I think we get to this part of the story, and we see this imposed silence as almost a punishment. The angel spoke; Zechariah didn’t believe; the sentence for that is 9. months of silence – basically, the time of gestation. It’s like the angel puts Zechariah in a “time out.”
But what if we looked at it like this. What if this silence isn’t punishment, but a gift. What if this silence is a gift. What if the silence is a blessing. Yes, Zechariah, what I’ve just said may indeed be too big to comprehend. This is God turning the world rightside up. Here is time and space and quiet to take it all in.
Hush. What if this silence is a gift.
Think of our own world. As Thich Nhat Hahn describes it, day after day, we take in “a steady diet of noise....a constant stream of noise and information all day long, without interruption. Even if no one is speaking to you and you’re not listening to the radio or some other sound system, there are.. calls, texts, social media, computer screens, bills, flyers, so many other ways that words and sounds” rush in.[9] And, these days it can be pretty scary news and noise. “Even in those rare moments when there is no sound, text, or other information coming in from outside, our heads are filled with a constant loop of thoughts.”
Monastic traditions across religions have long taught that silence is the threshold to the holy, to real encounter with creation and with ourselves.[10] Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk says, “We need silence as much as we need air, just as much as plants need light. If our minds are crowded with words, there is no space for us.”[11] As Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, says, “Silence puts roots down in our soul. It gives us the opportunity to do things thoughtfully. To proceed seriously. To learn to listen to others and to the world around us. ‘A meaningful silence is always better than meaningless words.’”[12]
In a world of layered power over, what if it’s a gift, for someone with some relative power in those oppressive systems to just hush, and take it all in.. what if it’s a gift to that person, and to the world around them.
What if... it’s like the angel takes Zechariah’s cell phone, and says: “I know this is a lot to take in. Let’s power this down. We’ll put it over here. Just hush.”
There Zechariah is now, alone in the Temple. Assigned to say the words, he is now silent. Maybe he smells the fragrance of the incense more vividly than ever before. Maybe the candles burn just a bit brighter. He walks out to the crowd – and sees folks hungry for a blessing in a world in a world that does nothing but take from them all day long. At the temple gate, maybe he sees the poor, begging. Everywhere he looks on his way home, those who have been cast out.
In the days that follow, he and Elizabeth rejoice quietly as they realize she is pregnant. He watches as she goes about her days – this righteous woman – still caring for the widows and orphans in the neighborhood, still making sure that even the stranger finds a meal.
Quiet. Day after day. A holy hush.
To notice and see the world as it is – and to mull the angel’s words.
To rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing.
And on the day when their son is born – as the men of the community argue with Elizabeth over what the boy’s name shall be – Zechariah out of the wisdom of his silence, writes on a board: “Listen to her.” And she says, “His name is John. Just like the angel said.” In that moment, Zechariah can speak, and this is what he says.
Blessed is God who is coming to redeem and set the people free.
God has shown God’s tender mercy from the beginning,
and you, my child, will prepare the way for what God is doing.
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us.
to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Out of this holy hush, what Zechariah has seen and heard and experienced – and what he now speaks into the world – is God’s saving tender mercy – more powerful than any power. None of the words swirling around them in this world of power-over is the last or ultimate word. God is turning the world rightside up – with God’s tender mercy – and you, my son, you will bring that word.
The holy hush that the angel gives Zechariah opens up time and space for him to see truths and blessings and grace that, in his world of words and noise and clutter, he might have just passed on by.
It’s not just a holy hush. It’s a healthy hush.
In an Advent devotion she wrote years ago, Rev. Ruth T. West puts it like this: “Let’s hush our unyielding need to be the focus of attention. Hush our desires to fix everybody so they think, act, feel, and look like us. Hush our anxiety, our need to succeed, and our braggadocious behavior. Hush.”[13]
The invitation this morning is to hush.
Hush.
As we you move through this week, in the clamor of this world,
take a moment.. pause... breathe... hush.
Maybe, for you, that will be in the stillness of the morning – as the fog hovers on the hills – as the new day opens with possibility – but before it roils into action. Hush.
Or maybe you’ll need that in the midst of the day – the day churns into gear – as the world around you gets noisy – for a moment... or two... step out of that, and Hush.
Or, maybe that hush will come for you as night falls and the day draws to completion. There’s this great little nighttime prayer I came across: “This day is complete. There is nothing left to do in it. This day needs nothing more of you.” Hush.
This past week – I’ve even used that word as a one-word prayer – complete in itself:
Hush. Hush. Hush.
In the quiet of that hush...
listen and look
for the stillness of the moment
for the rhythm of your own breathing
for the pulse of life.
Listen and feel and look
for your own ache
for the deep need of the world
for the longing of people everywhere to be loved, and free.
Listen.... for God’s whisper of hope.
"Rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing."
Hush.
And then, when you are ready, if you need words,
you might pray with Zechariah, his song of hope:
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to shine on those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.
© 2024 Scott Clark
[2] See https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-it-came-upon-a-midnight-clear for a brief history of the hymn/carol.
[3] For background on this morning’s Scriptures and the Gospel of Luke, see Stephanie Buckhanon Crowder, “The Gospel of Luke ” in True to Our Native Land: An African American New Testament Commentary (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008), pp.158-60; R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters’ Bible Commentary, vol. ix (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995), pp. 148; Joel B. Green, The Theology of the Gospel of Luke (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 1-21; Sharon Ringe, Luke (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995).
[4] See Green, pp.37-40; Ringe, p.29
[5] See Ringe, p.21.
[6] See Culpepper, p. 42.
[7] See sources cited above, particularly Green, pp. 1-21; Culpepper, pp. 1-30.
[8] See Ringe, p.29.
[9] Thich Nhat Hanh, Silence: The Power of Quiet in a World Full of Noise (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2015 (Kindle Edition)), pp. 21-22.
[10] See Joan Chittister, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life (New York, NY: Convergent Press, 2021), p.51-52.
[11] Id.
[12] Id.
[13] This devotion was one in a series of devotions I curated and edited at San Francisco Theological Seminary. It appears that the devotion is longer posted online. The quote is from my personal records of the devotions.
* The sermon title is from the hymn It Came upon a Midnight Clear.
Photo credit: Simon Berger, used with permission via Unsplash