Ordinary People, Ordinary Days

The message given in the Sunday morning worship services in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on November 27, 2022.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:5-25, 57-66.

Many of us probably remember the old TV show “Touched By An Angel”.  Every week, these angels would intervene in the life of some ordinary person who was having trouble of some sort.  The angels would appear to be ordinary people for most of the show, but then, at the climax, there’d be this beautiful golden glow surrounding them, and everyone would know they were angels.  The angels would say exactly the right thing to help the person through the tough time, and everything would work out right in the end.

            That, of course, is the Hollywood version of an angel:  an attractive, kindly, nice being who helps us through the rough spots in our lives.  There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, I guess, but I don’t think it’s how angels really are.  My reason for saying that is that, whenever we read about someone in the Bible seeing an angel, they’re scared to death.  That’s how Zechariah reacted to the angel Gabriel in our reading today.

            Zechariah and Elizabeth were the parents of John the Baptist.  John the Baptist, of course, is the person who let people know that Jesus was coming.  He prepared the way for the Savior.

           We know that now, but Zechariah and Elizabeth did not know it then.  Zechariah was a Jewish priest.  We don’t know a lot about him besides that.  We’re not told that there was anything special about him.  He was apparently a veteran priest, because we’re told that he was “well advanced in years”.  As our story opens, Zechariah is chosen to be the one to offer incense to God in the holy place.  That was quite an honor for a priest, but he was not chosen for any particular reason.  Someone had to do it, and he was just chosen at random.

            He was probably a little nervous before he even went into the holy place.  The holy place was a special place in the Jewish temple.  Only one person was allowed in at a time, and it was only the one who was selected.  The incense offering was a precise ritual that was intended to please God.  A priest only got one shot at it, and he did not want to mess it up for fear of angering God.

            So, Zechariah goes into the temple, and nervously starts offering incense.  All of a sudden, here’s the angel Gabriel standing next to the altar.  Do you blame him for being terrified?  He probably thought he’d made a mistake somehow and was going to be killed for it.

            Gabriel tells Zechariah not to be afraid.  Gabriel tells him that he’s going to have a son.  Not just any son, either.  His son is to be named John, and John is going to be “great in the sight of the Lord…he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.  Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.  And he will…turn the hearts of the…disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

            Zechariah must have been overwhelmed.  Still, he apparently overcame his fear to do the other thing almost everyone in the Bible does when they see an angel.  He raises doubts and questions.  He says to Gabriel, look, my wife and I are both old.  Why should I believe you? 

I don’t know if angels have emotions, but if they do, they must get awfully frustrated sometimes.  They come to give people these messages, and every time they do, people question them.  Gabriel basically says, “Why should you believe me?  Because I’m the angel Gabriel, that’s why you should believe me.  What part of “angel” don’t you understand?  I spend my time in the presence of God.  God gave me this message for you.  That’s why you should believe me.”  Gabriel then says that, because Zechariah did not believe, he won’t be able to talk until this actually happens.

So, Zechariah comes out of the temple, and sure enough, he can’t talk.  People realize something must’ve happened, but they don’t know what, and of course Zechariah cannot tell them.  Time passes, and just as Gabriel said, Zechariah and Elizabeth have a son.  The family wants to name the son Zechariah, after his father, but Elizabeth says no, we’re going to call him John.  

Now, since Elizabeth was not present when Gabriel appeared to Zechariah, we assume that Zechariah must have communicated that name to her somehow.  The family cannot understand it, but Zechariah writes down that, in fact, the child’s name is to be John.  And instantly, Zechariah can talk again.  He tells everyone what happened, and everyone’s scared again, wondering what in the world this baby, this “John” is going to be.  They know it’ll be something special, because God is going to be with him.

So, at this point, some of you may be asking “So what?”  I mean, it’s a good story and all, of course.  Given that the Bible is the inspired word of God, we assume everything in it is there for a reason.  Knowing more about what’s in the Bible is always helpful.  Still, just what are we supposed to do with this story?  How is knowing it going to make our lives any better or help us get closer to God?

Well, I think there are a few things we can get out of this story.  The first one is that God sometimes works through ordinary people.  In fact, God almost always works through ordinary people.  Think about all the people in the Christmas story:  Zechariah and Elizabeth, Mary. Joseph.  The innkeeper, the shepherds, all of them.  They’re all ordinary people.  No one had ever given them a second look.  Yet, they’re the ones God chose to bring about the birth of the Savior of the world.

God uses ordinary people.  That’s important for us to know, because most of us here would consider ourselves ordinary people.  If any of us thinks that, because we’re just ordinary people, God won’t have any particular use for us, we’ve got it exactly wrong.  Not only can God have a use for us, we’re exactly the people God does use.

Second, we never know when God is going to decide to use us.  Zechariah had no clue that an angel was going to talk to him when he went into the temple that day.  He was just doing his job as a priest, doing what he was supposed to do.  Again, that’s pretty much how it happened for all the people in the Christmas story.  They were all just minding their own business, doing what they did, when they suddenly got the chance to serve God.

God comes to us on ordinary days.  That’s important for us to know, too, because most of our days are just ordinary days.  So, the next time you feel like you’re just having an ordinary day, stay alert.  God comes to us, as ordinary people on ordinary days, and gives us the chance to serve God.

Third, God often asks us to do things we don’t think we can do.  Zechariah did not think he could become a father at his age, nor did he think Elizabeth could become a mother.  Mary and Joseph did not think they could be the earthly parents of the Son of God.  Twenty years ago, I did not think I could become a pastor.  God comes to us, as ordinary people, on ordinary days, and asks us to do things that we think are extraordinary.

Our reaction is usually to doubt and to question.  We don’t think we can do extraordinary things.  We scared of even trying.  We say, how can this happen?  Why should I believe it?  God says, “You can believe it because I’m God.  Trust me.  I’m in control here.  Everything I’m telling you to do will happen the way I’ve told you it will, if you’ll only trust me.”

We don’t understand.  So what do we do?  Do we trust, the way Zechariah and Elizabeth did?  Do we do what God tells us to do, even if we don’t understand what’s going on or why?  Or, do we turn our backs and go our own way?

Each of us has something that God is telling us to do.  God never created anyone without a reason and without a purpose.  That’s true even if we’re just ordinary people.  In fact, it’s especially true if we’re just ordinary people.  There is something God is telling you to do.  There’s something God is telling me to do, too.

We don’t always get to hear what it is directly from an angel.  That’s probably lucky for us, considering how scary angels apparently are.  It may take us some time to figure it out.  Still, there is something God is telling you to do.  There’s something God is telling me to do, too.

If you want to know what it is, here’s what I’d advise you to do:  pray.  I’m not talking about just any prayer, though.  I’m talking about praying specifically for God to give you a chance to serve God.  I can tell you that there’s never been a time when I prayed for a chance to serve God that God did not answer that prayer, usually within a very short time.

The way God answered my prayer was not always the way I’d have chosen.  In fact, sometimes the way was the last thing I wanted to do.  Sometimes the way God gave me a chance to serve scared me.  Sometimes I reacted like Zechariah did, with doubts and questions.  That’s not God’s fault.  God did what I asked.  God gave me a chance to serve Him.

God will give each of us chances to serve.  God will come to each of us ordinary people, when we’re having an ordinary day, and give us the chance to serve God. 

When God does that, we may have doubts and questions, like Zechariah did.  That’s okay.  The question is whether we’ll do what Zechariah then did.  The question is whether, even if we don’t feel qualified, and even if we don’t understand, we’ll go ahead and do what God tells us to do.

Zechariah ultimately trusted God.  May we all trust God, and do whatever it is God is telling us to do.  We may have doubts and questions.  But in the end, it will be worth it.