How Does a Weary World Rejoice? We Allow Ourselves to be Amazed. Luke 1:57-66, December 17, 2023
How Does a Weary World Rejoice? We Allow Ourselves to be Amazed
Luke 1:57-66
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins
December 17, 2023
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.
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I don’t know how the Holy Spirit works in your life, but I want to share with you an example of how the Holy Spirit sometimes works in my life.
It might start with an idea from someone else.
For example, the “For Such a Time As This” team met for our very first meeting back in late August. This team, you may know, is leading a process for helping us clarify our mission, vision and values as we prepare to enter into our 75th year of ministry next year. The initial meeting was mostly for the purpose of getting acquainted, but our team leader, Linda Silrum, gave individuals a chance to talk about their hopes and dreams for our church. Nate Ryan, drummer extraordinaire and team member, works with foster families, and suggested that we reach out to the foster family community and invite them to be a part of us. The rest of us kind of went, “Huh.” None of the rest of us had ever thought about that before.
No action was taken, but I logged it mentally in the “great ideas” section of my brain.
Back to the Holy Spirit. I don’t generally act on great ideas the first time they land on my radar screen. The number of great ideas out there are in the millions—there’s no way to act on every great idea. I tend to hold brand new great ideas loosely. If the Holy Spirit wants me to act on a great idea, the Holy Spirit will find a way to make that clear to me.
So, I go through the fall months holding the great idea of reaching out to foster families loosely, not thinking too much about it.
Then in late November I receive a call from someone who lives in the Atlanta area—she and her husband have a place here they retreat to off and on. They worship with us when they’re here. She tells me that she and her husband would like to donate gift cards to . . . get this . . . foster families. Can you imagine how my ears perked up when I heard this? She said that she and her husband wanted to cash in points from his company’s credit card for this good purpose, and asked if I had way to get these gift cards to foster families. I said, “Yes!” And I mentioned Nate. Now, at this point, I’m thinking $100 or maybe $200 worth of gift cards. My new friend said, kind of nonchalantly, “This will probably be over $10,000 worth of gift cards.” Whoa!
Next thing you know, I’m texting Nate, asking him if he can facilitate getting $10,000 dollars worth of gift cards to foster families. “No problem!” he said. So, I’m thinking that I’ll serve as a go-between this generous couple and the foster family system. Awesome! “How’s that Holy Spirit?” I mused to my thick-headed self.
A few days later, I’m sitting down with our minister of education, Joe Creegan. We’re wondering how or even if we can host an Advent celebration for kids and families—a demographic we’ve struggled to reach. And in that meeting, Joe said he saw it on my face the moment it happened, the Holy Spirit knocked me upside the head and caused me to realize . . . that our Chapel Santa can be the one to distribute these gift cards to foster families right here in our church!
This is often how the Holy Spirit works in my life.
· A first hint of some ministry opportunity—a droplet
· A second mention of the same—a dollop
· A third “can’t miss this” landing on my lap—a deluge
I reached out to the benefactor—she was completely on board. Joe and I called up Sue Moncrieff and Kay Morgan—they saw it as an amazing opportunity. Adrienne Archer jumped in. And when the 100 slots for the “Lunch With Santa” filled up immediately after posting, and I asked, “can we do more?” all three of them said, “It’s Christmas! Of course we can do more.” We took a big, collective gulp, and we opened up registration to everyone who had been on the waiting list for a grand total of . . . 53 families, something like 250 people.
Now the next part of the story is almost as miraculous as the first. This is where you come in. I came to you like a deer caught in the headlights. I said something like, “Heeeeeellllllllppppppp!” We needed volunteers . . . lots of volunteers. And so you did! So many people stepped up!
I can’t express my appreciation. As I looked around, and saw everything running so smoothly, I couldn’t help but stand in awe of this church community, dropping plans and turning on a dime to pull off something extraordinary for a group of people who hadn’t been on our radar previously.
I wasn’t the only one who was in awe. The families who came to our church for the very first time felt the same way. I received a photo from one family who went straight from our event with their Wal-Mart gift card and bought a brand-new car seat for their infant foster child. She went to the trouble of sending me a photo. Additionally, listen to what our liaison with Family Support Services wrote to Nate after the event:
I hope lunch with Santa was fantastic! During our holiday drive this past week, I chatted with some caregivers who attended, and they raved about what an amazing time they had. They mentioned how welcoming the event was. Thanks for providing such a wonderful opportunity for our families. I’m excited about exploring more ways we can partner in the future.
Here’s the thing . . . the reason I’ve gone to great lengths to tell you how all of this went down. It wasn’t to pat ourselves on the back. I told you all of this so that together, collectively, we could stop, and be amazed.
Through this Advent season, we’re exploring together the question, “How Does a Weary World Rejoice?” The first Sunday of Advent, we considered that naming our weariness, acknowledging there’s a problem is the first step in finding a way to rejoice in an often weary world. Then last week, the second Sunday of Advent, we thought about how we find joy through connecting with others. This week, on the third Sunday of Advent, I want to suggest that one way we can rejoice despite a weary world is to allow ourselves to be amazed.
After last week’s Lunch with Santa event, we could have checked it off our “to do” list and not given it another thought. We could look at the mound of toys collected for disadvantaged children in our community and think, “Meh.” But when we dismiss things like this, everyday miracles, or when we compare them with that other church or last year or whatever . . . we miss the opportunity to experience joy because we miss the opportunity to be amazed.
Here's the thing with awe and wonder and amazement—each day presents multiple opportunities to be amazed, and we miss most of them.
How many of you drank tea or coffee this morning? When you think about everything it took for that to happen, for you to be able to make a cup of coffee or tea, it’s miraculous! That coffee beans grow or tea leaves sprout—the soil and the rain and the sun, the planting and the harvesting, the packaging and shipping, the placement of the items on the shelf for you to find, the dexterity of fingers to open the box or the bag, the clean water that you didn’t catch with a rain bucket. The electricity you didn’t harness but used to heat the water. Think about how many dozens, even hundreds, of individuals were involved just so you could have a delicious, warm beverage this morning. Isn’t that amazing?
· The rain that falls from the sky that waters the plants that hydrates the animals . . . amazing!
· The breath we take that fills the lungs that oxygenates the blood that pumps through our arteries and veins . . . amazing!
· The night sky filled with planets and stars and galaxies and constellations and black holes . . . amazing!
All of this, every day! And countless ways to be amazed beyond this.
My doctoral thesis was an academic study of whether the spiritual practice of gratitude journaling could elevate the levels of joy within the congregation I was serving at the time. The clinical term for joy is “subjective well-being” or “subjective happiness.” My research included a pre-test and a post-test in which participants ranked their levels of joy in various aspects of life. Like many researchers before and since, my research indicated that yes, gratitude journaling has a positive correlation with subjective well-being . . . joy. The increase was not exponential, but subtle. Here’s something interesting . . . participants didn’t realize they were more joyful at the end of the forty-day study than at the beginning, even though the data I collected from them showed slightly higher levels of happiness. The one thing they did notice in focus groups after the study . . . they had become more aware of the good things in their life. They noticed a shift in their awareness.
Most of us life our lives on autopilot, unaware, completely ignoring, even expecting, the everyday miracles that surround us.
· A car that starts? Amazing!
· A friend who cares? Amazing!
· A show to watch on a TV that works? Amazing!
· A song to play on a speaker that . . . speaks? Amazing!
Sure, we can ignore these every-day miracles, but we do so to our own peril. Want more joy in your life? Want to know how a weary world can rejoice? Allow yourself to be amazed.
In our scripture lesson today, we find Zechariah and Elizabeth dedicating their 8-day-old son. The Jewish custom is to circumcise infant boys on the eighth day, and to officially name the child as a part of this ancient rite. Now, you may recall that the angel Gabriel struck Zechariah mute because he doubted the news that his wife would bear a son in her old age. He’s not been able to utter a word for nine months! And things come to pass just as the angel told him they would. Elizabeth gives birth to a healthy baby boy. When they present the baby boy on his eighth day for circumcision and naming, the community expects that the baby boy will be given his father’s name, Zechariah, as is the custom of the day. So when Elizabeth speaks out saying, “No, he is to be called John,” they question her. They need confirmation from the muted Zechariah. They hand Zechariah a tablet, on which he writes, “His name is John.” Immediately, the scriptures tell us, Zechariah’s tongue is freed and he is suddenly able to speak once again, so he lifts his unmuted voice in praise of God. The Bible tells us that the entire community is amazed by all of this—news of this spreads all throughout the hill country of Judea.
Now, let me point out that these were not fun times for Jewish folks in the hill country of Judea. They were oppressed by a foreign, occupying entity called the Roman Empire. The world was a weary world for first century Jews in Judea. And suddenly, they find reason to be amazed—this story of Elizabeth and Zechariah and baby John the Baptist—this story gives them a reason to rejoice! They could have dismissed it, dismissed Zechariah as crazy or a liar or both. They had every reason, every right to be cynical. Instead, the people in the community around this family claimed their joy, by allowing themselves to be amazed.
We, too, can claim our joy by saying “no” to cynicism and allowing ourselves to be amazed by the everyday miracles all around us. Think about it, right now in this very moment, there’s something you can be amazed by if you’ll open your mind to wonder and awe. With that, what are you amazed by, right now, in this very moment?
I’m amazed by you.
Yes, I’m amazed by how the Holy Spirit orchestrated that whole “Lunch With Santa” event (the cynic in me is tempted to call it “circumstance,” but hey, I’m working on joy here!) And as much as that, I’m amazed by how so many of you stepped up and pitched in.
· If you volunteered in some way with that event, I want to invite you to stand up and remain standing.
· Three days prior to that, a team from our church staffed a golf tournament for CSF, and organization that provides affordable housing to veterans. If you volunteered with that effort, please stand up and remain standing.
· Every month, a team from our church participates in Peace Café, which provides a meal to people experiencing homelessness. If you volunteer with that, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you volunteer with meals on wheels which takes meals to homebound and elderly people, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you participate with Tampa Bay Harvest, which picks up items from Publix and takes it to the Food Bank, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you brought toys for our toy drive for Hope Villages, or food for last month’s food drive, or items for the spa bags for women at the domestic abuse shelter, or items for the cold night homeless shelter . . . please stand up and remain standing.
· If you volunteer here at the church in the choir or as an usher or liturgist or on the board or a committee, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you volunteered with the kids’ reading program our outreach team launched a couple of months ago, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you have supported this church or some other nonprofit financially within the past year, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you have prayed for this church, for this pastor, or for vulnerable people in our community or around the globe, please stand up and remain standing.
· If you showed up to worship here today, offering the gift of your presence to the rest of us, please stand up and remain standing.
Do you see why I’m amazed . . . by you? You are a miracle! Individual “you” and collective “you!” You AND y’all!
How does a weary world rejoice? We allow ourselves to be amazed by the holy “y’all” surrounding us.
Let’s take a moment and express our amazement at one another!
Let us pray:
Holy God, we stand amazed in Your holy presence, acknowledging the very miracle of life and breath that you have given. Yes, we acknowledge our weariness, because we can name a million ways that things aren’t right. But in the midst of this weary world, we find joy in connection, and today, we give ourselves over to wonder, to awe, and to amazement. Open our eyes to the ordinary miracles surrounding us each day we wake up and draw breath. Open our hearts to the wonder of the sunset, to the miracles of nature, to the marvels of the human mind. And remind us to be amazed at the goodness in one another, never taking a good deed for granted. Finally, Holy God, enable us to be amazed at the gift of your Son, Jesus the Christ—whom we celebrate with great joy during this season. Through his name we pray. Amen.