Luke 1
When you think of celebrations, what comes to mind? If you are old enough, you may remember the celebrations at the end of WWII. My father was in Leyte Gulf in the Philippines with the US Navy and he says he has never experienced a celebration as grand as that one.
In November 1989 when the Berlin Wall came down, that was a celebration. But there are not a lot of opportunities to celebrate on that scale. What is far more common are celebrations for sport’s teams.
In 1986, the Boston Celtics won the Basketball championships in the US. That year I watched almost every game they played (on TV) and when they won, I was ecstatic.
Brazil celebrated the World Cup last year and the Brazilians know how to celebrate.
So when we picture a celebration, what picture is in our minds? Streets crowded with people getting together to celebrate the victory that has just been won. People smiling and laughing, hugging strangers. People so full of joy they cannot contain it.
There are two scenes of celebration in the first chapter of Luke, which were read for us this morning.
The first takes place after the angel Gabriel made a visit to Mary.
Gabriel brought to Mary the message that she had been chosen to be the mother of Jesus and as evidence that it would be so, that she would conceive a child even though she was a virgin, Gabriel informed Mary that her cousin Elizabeth, even though she was past the age of childbearing, was in her sixth month of pregnancy.
So Mary set out to visit Elizabeth, a journey of 50 miles or 80 kilometers. Before Mary arrived, there was already a sense of wonder in Elizabeth and Zechariah’s household. It was clear that something had happened to Zechariah when he went into the temple to offer a sacrifice for Israel and then unbelievably, Elizabeth became pregnant. Something strange was happening.
And then Mary arrived. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb, six months under way, leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and cried out
“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
Elizabeth said things that she could not have known except that the Holy Spirit revealed them to her at the moment that Mary greeted her. And her words inspired Mary who burst into her song of praise that was just read a moment ago.
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
The second song in Luke comes from the lips of Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest married to Elizabeth. At the point of this story, they were both advanced in years, childless, well past the age of childbearing and they had prayed many times for a child. Not having a child was obviously a deep sadness in their lives and yet they did not abandon God. They were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations faithfully.
One day, Zechariah had a once in a lifetime opportunity, to go into the temple and offer incense to God on behalf of Israel. While he was there, Gabriel appeared to him and told him his prayer had been heard and that Elizabeth would bear a son whom he would name John.
Because Zechariah questioned Gabriel about how this could possibly be, he was struck mute and came out of the temple unable to speak.
Elizabeth became pregnant and in her sixth month of pregnancy, Mary came to visit for three months. Mary left just before Elizabeth’s delivery and when the baby was born, there was great celebration at the blessing she and Zechariah had received.
After eight days, when it was time to have the baby circumcised and given a name, she told her neighbors his name would be John. When they protested because John was not a family name, Zechariah took a tablet and to their astonishment, wrote His name is John. At this his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed and he was filled with the Holy Spirt and prophesied
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come and has redeemed his people.
69 He has raised up a horn
of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Some people are better at celebrating than others. I have a hard time celebrating. When it comes to celebrating I am a follower rather than a leader. In fact there is a large part of me that prefers being an observer than being one who is celebrating. If I am in a crowd of people celebrating, you will observe me observing others rather than celebrating myself.
Because I have a difficult time celebrating, I thought we might talk this morning about some of the obstacles to celebrating that came to my mind this week as I studied this theme of celebration.
The biggest obstacle for me is this first one. You might call it a fear of being like King David. Let me explain.
When King David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem he celebrated. You may remember that the ark of the covenant contained the stone tablets of the law that Moses had brought down from Mt. Sinai. It contained a pot of the manna that God had provided for Israel in their wanderings through the desert and it contained the rod of Aaron. The ark of the covenant was the heart of God’s presence and was placed in the tent or temple in the most innermost part, the holy of holies.
When King David brought the ark into Jerusalem, he brought it in with great ritual and celebration. David was so caught up in the celebration that he took off his clothes and danced almost naked in front of the procession bringing the ark.
David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, 15 while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.
16 As the ark of the LORD was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she despised him in her heart.
20 When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”
So this is the picture. David stripped down to his underwear dancing like a fool in front of the ark and his wife, Michal, watching from a window is embarrassed for herself and for him.
My fear is that if I give myself unreservedly to worship of God, I will lose control and appear foolish. So I hold back a bit.
This is the tug I feel. On the one hand I want to celebrate before the Lord as David did and on the other hand, I am afraid of doing so because I might make a fool of myself.
This is rather curious to me because I am generally not afraid to express an opinion that is not in the mainstream. I am not afraid of being different. But when I express an opinion I can still be in control. To give myself undeservedly to worship of God is another matter.
Listen to David’s response to his wife Michal who was offended by his public worship.
21 David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. 22 I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”
I see in David’s response a goal for me. David celebrated, dancing and singing, because he was caught up in the presence of God and felt free to worship without inhibitions.
It was before the Lord. I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.
I throw this out as a challenge to you as well as myself. When you come to worship, make your focus God and not those around you.
Do you feel like raising your hands? Do you wonder what people might think if you raised your hands? Do you feel like dancing? Do you wonder what people might think if you moved out of the pew and began dancing?
There is obviously a balance. I don’t think we need people taking off their clothes and dancing in the aisles. But I want us to be increasingly free to express ourselves in worship as we are being led to do.
When you do, some people may feel uncomfortable but God is the focus in worship, not the people around us. We all have to get used to the different ways people worship.
This may mean that others around you are raising their hands but if you don’t feel like doing so, don’t feel pressured to do what others around you are doing. The goal is not to do what others are doing but to worship God.
All patterns of worship are cultural. There is no Biblical way to worship. There is no right way to worship. There are abuses of worship and Paul dealt with those in some of his letters, notably in his letter to the Corinthians. But there is no right way or style of worship.
Let God move in your heart and enable you to respond as you feel comfortable.
This may seem a bit contradictory, but one of the ways to help you and me be more free to worship is to feed off of the worship of others. Mary’s song of praise was a response to Elizabeth’s burst of praise. It might be that if Elizabeth had not been filled with the Holy Spirt and spoken, Mary would have never spoken her song of praise.
I have to confess that I feed off of the worship of others in our congregation. When I sit in the pew I can be uninvolved emotionally in the singing and readings and prayers. But when others are responding to the service I begin to sense the spirit of their worship which begins to engage my emotions as well as my head in our worship.
It’s like going to a party where there is a pool. It is a hot evening and the pool looks inviting but some people stand around and wonder if it is permitted to jump into the pool. Is the water too cold for swimming? What would the others say if I were the first to jump into the water? Is the chlorine level too high for a pleasant swim? Some might stick a toe or a finger into the water to test it out.
But there are others who when they come into the party and see the water, run and jump into it and have a great time. Once these are in the pool and having a great time, those who had been standing around asking questions will jump in and have a great time as well, but they follow the crowd rather than lead it.
There are leaders in our worship services and they are not only the ones standing in front of the congregation. Greg is one of those for me. God has gifted him with a heart that opens to God’s presence and allows others to follow him. I am grateful for him and for others in our congregation who encourage me and lead in worship.
Let me say to these leaders as well as to ourselves. We must fix our eyes on Jesus. We must open our selves to the presence of the Holy Spirit and push away the fear of offending others or embarrassing ourselves. God is the one we worship. God is our audience, not each other.
Don’t let those around you inhibit you in your response in worship. Be set free to worship as God directs you.
A second barrier to celebration is disobedience. This seems fairly obvious, but I thought I would mention it because the positive side of obedience is so powerfully modeled in the lives of Joseph and Mary and Elizabeth and Zechariah.
What do the Gospels say about the parents of Jesus and John?
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.
Matthew says Joseph was a righteous man. Mary’s response to Gabriel’s announcement was one of graceful submission. “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
These descriptions of the parents of John and Jesus are backed up by the accounts of the events in the Christmas story. God choose the parents of Jesus and John, in part because of the obedient lives they were living. They were able to celebrate the strange and wonderful births of their sons because they were obedient followers of God.
Obedient lives are lives that live in fellowship with God. Obedient lives are lives that seek each day to walk with God. Obedient lives are open to the work of God in their lives.
Think about Elizabeth and Zechariah. Gabriel said Zechariah’s prayer had been heard. The sense I get is that he and Elizabeth had prayed and prayed and prayed for a child. What were the emotions they went through over the years? Were they at times angry with God for not giving them a child? I would guess so. But whatever they felt, they continued to be faithful to God. They hung on to God despite the pain they experienced at being childless.
They hung on and were finally able to celebrate.
Celebration comes to those who wait on God, who turn their eyes to him, fix their attention on him.
Celebration does not come to those who live lives of disobedience, If I am stealing food from the markets and I find it difficult to celebrate in church, why should this be a surprise? If I am engaged in some form of illicit activity to make a living and I have a difficult time worshiping God in church, it is only natural. If I am involved in an inappropriate relationship with another person and I am frustrated because church just doesn’t seem to be what it used to be, wake up and see the reality of your lust that is pulling you away from God and a life lived in obedience to him.
You know this morning if you are being disobedient to God. If, as I talk, God is bringing something to your mind, deal with it. Confess the sin, resolve to not continue that sin, forgive where forgiveness is called for. Whatever it is that is making you disobedient, change what you are doing. Give it up and see the difference it will make in your experience of worship of God.
My life in church would be a lot easier if I settled down and contented myself with the status quo. It would be more comfortable for me to just relax and accept things as they are. But I must ask you and me a question?
How hungry are you? How thirsty are you for a deeper, richer, more intimate experience with God? Do you remember how Psalm 42 begins?
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
Part of what makes me thirsty is the tastes I have received in the past of God’s intimate presence and those tastes have made me thirsty for more.
Two years ago, Graham Kendrick led worship at a Palm Sunday weekend celebration in Marrakech. Four hundred of us were gathered there and the emotion of the event was extraordinary. We were swept off our feet into a celebration of singing and dancing and I thought I was in heaven.
There are a number of our worship services here at RPF that I carry with me in my memory as times when we really celebrated.
I remember being in Vancouver, Canada in 1986 for a day of prayer event and David Bryant spoke. I took off my shoes while he was speaking because I felt that I was standing on holy ground.
These experiences have been a little taste of what it will be like to be in heaven in the celebration of all celebrations and I am greedy. I want more. I need more.
Are you thirsty?
We celebrate communion this morning. We celebrate the victory God has won through Jesus. We celebrate the life we are permitted to live because Jesus died for us.
Jesus took the bread on the night he was betrayed, broke it and said to his disciples. “This is my body broken for you. Whenever you eat this bread remember me.”
In the same way he took the cup and said, “This is my blood shed for you. Whenever you drink this cup, remember me.”
We celebrate communion which has been given to us by Jesus so that we might have a more intimate relationship with him.
We celebrate communion to have a more intimate relationship with Jesus who said,
“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”
Open yourself this morning to the Holy Spirit who was promised by Jesus when he spoke of living water that would flow from those who come to drink. Open yourself to a foretaste of what our communion with Jesus will be on that day when we are raised to eternal life and come to the wedding supper.
Revelation 19
Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!
And blessed are those who are thirsty and open themselves to a fuller, richer experience of God.
