Disqualified from Christmas?

I’m not much of a gambler but I find odds fascinating.   For instance, in any given year, the odds of being struck by lightning are around 1 in 500,000.  Those odds are 20,000 times better than winning the Mega Millions jackpot – which are 1 in 302.6M.

According to scientists, those odds are better than the odds of us even existing. 

Going all the way back through our family tree, our ancestors had to meet, like each other, get married, have children and so on up to our four grandparents meeting, liking each other, getting married and having children who in turn, met, like each other enough to get married and have children – you and me.  

Scientists have calculated the odds of any particular person being born as one in 400 trillion.

The fact we are here is mind-boggling.   

But God is not a God of chance.  He is a God of purpose. And despite those crazy odds put out there by the scientists, you and I are not an accident.

Advent is when we look back on the first coming of Christ and look forward to when Christ comes again. We live in this in-between time of kingdom building and Advent should be when we are most focused on sharing the Good News of Great Joy. In all of the merriment of the season, though, it’s easy to the focus on the baby in the manger, what God has done, and forget what God is and will do. Advent is our reminder that we are not here by chance.  God was intentional about the first coming. He’ll be just as intentional about the second coming.  And, despite what we might think sometimes, there is nothing chance about you because you are chosen on purpose and for a purpose in God’s redemptive story.

How can we be sure of this?

“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. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense” (Luke 1:5-9).

Every year, when I read the beloved scripture stories of the first coming of Christ, it seems like a cosmic game of chance that it was Zechariah and not some other priest on duty that day. It’s in this place of “chance” where we can step into this Christmas story and discover for ourselves that nothing happened by chance.    

 Zechariah was planned for centuries before, not long after the Israelites left Egypt.    

Imagine the ancient scene.  The Israelites have crossed the Red Sea and are camped at the base of Mt. Sinai. They received the Ten Commandments, and have confirmed their commitment to the covenant. “Yes Lord we will do as you say.” (Exodus 24)

Moses then takes his third trip up the mountain where he stays for 40 days and 40 nights.  During that time, he receives these instructions from God:

“Call for your brother, Aaron, and his sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Set them apart from the rest of the people of Israel so they may minister to me and be my priests.” (Ex 28:1, NLT)

Meanwhile, at base camp, the Israelites get restless over Moses’ absence and want Aaron to make them gods like those they left behind. Aaron complies, instructing the people to bring him their gold earrings. He fashions a golden calf and leads the people in the worship of this idol. When Moses returns, Aaron tries to deflect the fault when called into account by saying “I just threw the jewelry into the fire and out came this calf”.

Really – it wasn’t my fault. (Exodus 32) 

1400 years before Zechariah, God established the priesthood through the line of Aaron.  At the very time Aaron is being chosen by God to the spiritual leader to Israel, he’s building an idol – breaking the very command he’d committed to upholding not all that long ago. 

Aaron’s story is important because it directly impacts Zechariah – and how our lives intersect with his during Advent. Most of us, in our humanness, would immediately disqualify Aaron for such an important role after that. 

But thankfully God is not like us. Despite Aaron’s errant leadership, God still sets him, his sons, and all of Aaron’s future generations apart as holy. The only people who could serve him as a priest.  He doesn’t change his mind.

Aaron’s past didn’t disqualify him from being chosen, and neither does ours.

Aaron had 4 sons, two of whom died.  The two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, had families who, by the time of David, had grown so large that structuring the administration and worship duties of the Temple became paramount.  

David, and the two leaders of the priestly families, Zadok and Ahimelech, set about the task of

organizing the priestly families into 24 divisions and then determined their appointed order of ministering in the Temple by casting sacred lots.

This order established by David was the basis and authority for the practices of the restored community and was in use during Zechariah’s time.  His family’s lot had been determined 980 years before Zechariah’s appointed time to serve.   

When it was each family’s turn, the individual priest would also be chosen by lot.  

Serving in the Temple to burn the incense and offer the daily sacrifice was a once in a lifetime honor.  Once a priest was chosen by lot, they were not permitted to serve in that role again.  And it was conceivable a priest would never be selected. To us, the casting of lots might seem a bit arbitrary – not very intentional, a game of chance. A little like buying a lottery ticket.   To the ancient Hebrews it was anything but that. The casting of lots was a sacred action designed to remove human choice, human influence from the outcome – allowing for God’s divine choice to be revealed. It ensured that no claim of favoritism could be made.

So here we are, back in Luke 1, standing with Zechariah, fulfilling his once-in-a-lifetime duties in the Temple because God had, centuries before, set into motion all of the events that would need to occur for him to selected, by lot, on that day.

Why do we ever doubt that God intentionally chooses us too?

There is much we do not know about Zechariah.

We don’t know anything about his physical appearance. We don’t know anything about his status in the community or his friendships; his leadership skills or praying skills. We don’t know how good he was at performing sacrifices. We don’t know if he was considered wealthy or not. We don’t know anything about his schooling. We don’t know any of this because it isn’t important.

We are the ones who say “I am too old, too young, not educated enough, not eloquent enough, not experienced enough, not…not…not…”  We focus on our present circumstances, measuring ourselves against others.  God does not choose based on any of the things we likely disqualify ourselves over. 

What did Zechariah do?  He finished up his duties as Priest, went home and, in faith, did what it took to make a baby with Elizabeth. God kept his promise. Both of them. John the Baptist was born nine-months later and the first coming of Christ, Israel’s Messiah, happened six-months after that.   

Priests had a very sacred position and if we were to spend more time in the Old Testament, we’d see that the Lord established many of his “rules” – the Law – around the duties, responsibilities and behavior of the priests. They were set apart as holy to serve a holy God

By the time of Jesus though, much about the priesthood had become political, even perfunctory. They went through the motions of following the law – for show, for status, for personal gain.  These are some of the people Jesus called out as hypocrites, along with the Pharisees. 

Zechariah and Elizabeth, unlike some of their peers, they followed God’s law from the heart. They were faithful to observing the Law and did so, not for show, but because they were a people of integrity. Luke tells us that Both Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in the sight of God.

Luke also tells us they were childless and very old.     

How might Zechariah have been feeling that day as he entered the Holiest of Holys?  A little euphoric because he had been chosen to burn the incense –the pinnacle of his career, but maybe also a little weighed down by the knowledge his family line was ending with him. 

Zechariah’s performing his duties when Gabriel suddenly appears at the altar filling Zechariah’s spirit with with dread, or terror.

In the Old Testament, angel appearances and conversations with God were not uncommon.  However, at the time Zechariah is serving, God had been silent for 400 years. When God decides to break his silence to Zechariah, alone, in the most holy of places – it’s safe to say that Zechariah was thinking – oh man, this can’t be good.

“But Gabriel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17).

As a priest, Zechariah would have been interceding on behalf of the nation of Israel –  praying for the coming of the Messiah, the redeemer of Israel. And because of the cultural significance of having children, we can be certain that both Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed fervently for a child.

Gabriel’s pronouncement is two-fold. Zechariah’s prayer – both of them – whenever it had been whispered, even if it had become the poignant yearning of a seemingly unanswered prayer, even if it was the required intercession by the priest for the people – had been answered. They would bear a son and the Messiah’s coming was imminent. 

Poor Zechariah – I think his brain stopped processing anything beyond “Elizabeth will bear a son”. He knew how old he was.  He knew how old she was. That simply could not be. He was dumbfounded and blurted out the first thought that crossed his mind.

Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time” (v 18-20)

God planned for this moment 1400 years earlier.  Zechariah didn’t doubt his position as priest.  He didn’t question why he was there that day. But in the moment – Zechariah’s doubt about having a baby in his old years broke through and it spoke more loudly than God’s promise.

Zechariah gets a bit of a reprimand from Gabriel for voicing his doubt – but you know what?

Zechariah’s doubt didn’t disqualify him from being chosen by God. And neither will ours.

The scientific odds may be against us even existing but if we can learn one thing from Zechariah’s story this Advent, let it be this: God planned for us, created us as his special masterpiece.  He has prepared in advance for us, to be here, in this time for a purpose. There is nothing – not our past, not our present, not even our doubts – that can disqualify us from being the one God has chosen to fulfill our own role in his redemption story. All it takes is a small Zechariah step of faith.