Deeper S4, E6: Prophet

Right at the start of Luke's account of the life of Jesus there's a song sung seemingly spontaneously by an old Priest.  He has been childless all his life, and when he's nearing retirement, he is given a gift of a child.  The child grows up to become John the Baptist.  The Priest (Zechariah) bursts into song when the boy is named, and its a song that's also a prophecy.  But is it also a prophecy for who people of faith are meant to be in the here and now?

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Hi there, welcome to episode six, season four of our Deep Podcast. Now, if you're listening in order, you will notice that episode five wasn't kind of like a half episode. It was a little extra gift for you where the spoken word poetry at the end of episode four was given its own least of life. So in this episode, episode six, we're going to be looking at a seemingly spontaneous song sung by an older man who's been waiting for a child his whole life. And when that child arrives, it's going to be the one we now call John the Baptist. And God's all over this story of John's birth. So brace for impact, this is profit. Father God, you're the one who sees the big picture of the whole of time and space, and we all too often just have our heads down trying to get through this one single day. Help us as we hear about this amazing story to be able to lift our eyes to you, to hear the words that maybe your spirit is telling us. Help us to put things down that we are carrying or thinking that are not from you, and even to question some of our core beliefs that aren't what they should be. I mean, that takes courage. So help us, God. Help us to make be bold and gutsy enough to re-examine everything in the light of what you say. To teach us, God. We are listening. Amen. Right then, so this amazing story takes place at the very start of Luke's gospel. That's the account of Jesus' life that we have from the writer Luke. And uh here's the lead up to this song that we're going to talk about today. So there's an older priest called Zechariah. He's serving in God's temple in the Holy Land. By the time Zechariah is around as a priest, the priests have all been divided up into 24 different sections, and each section comes and serves for a week at a time in the temple and then goes away. In the week that they serve, priests are chosen by lot, which is like drawing straws, to perform certain holy tasks. And the task of starting off the whole worship for the day by lighting the incense on the sacred altar is one of the most sought-after tasks. So, so sought after that that priests would only really get to do it once in their whole lifetime. Zechariah is already old when he comes to do this, so it's probable that he has been waiting his whole lifetime for this to happen, and he's also been waiting his whole lifetime for a baby. But he and his wife have been unable to conceive. And in Zechariah's time, if you're a childless, it's often mistaken for there being some kind of judgment from God on you. So poor Zachariah is there year after year, he got no child, and he's not chosen for this significant ritual. But this time, he is chosen. And when he goes behind this huge curtain, he's setting up the whole worship for the day, for the whole nation of Israel, and Gabriel, one of the highest angels that we know of in heaven, he suddenly appears. And he's behind the curtain with him, and he's telling him that God's chosen him and his wife Elizabeth are gonna have a child, and that this child is going to be the one who is gonna bring in this time that the nation's been waiting for when this liberating figure they call the saviour is going to arrive. I mean, Israel's literally been waiting centuries for the liberator, the saving one. This is massive. It's it's absolutely massive. Zachariah can't quite believe what the angel is saying. So the angel strikes him mute until the baby is born, so somehow Zachariah finishes his week serving in the temple, suddenly no longer able to speak, and then he goes home to his wife, and I don't know, he mimes or writes for her what's happened. Very soon, uh, even though they're past the age where they're able to have children, they do fall pregnant, and along comes the one we call John the Baptist. So before we go any further, let's we're gonna we're gonna pause on this thought here. I mean, there might well be something that you have been waiting for or longing for. You might even have been asking God about it. Some of us have been pleading with God for some of these things. Maybe it's even so emotional or emotionally difficult that you have you've maybe stopped asking about it because you are afraid that if God says no again, it might harm your relationship with God, your faith in some way. It's true that God doesn't always say yes to the things we want. One of the key concepts shared by Jews, Christians, and Muslims around the world is that prayer is not this like manifestation vending machine, it's a relationship. Prayer is a relationship with a real, living, conscious God. But it's also true that sometimes the answer to a prayer hasn't been no, though we thought it was, it's been not yet. Zachariah must have thought for years and years that God was silent on his two prayers to serve in the temple and to have a child. And when he finally gets into that special place in the temple, yeah, it's been on hold because that's where Gabriel is going to tell him that he's gonna have a child. And and and had Elizabeth fallen pregnant when they wanted all those years ago, John the Baptist would not have been around at the same time as Jesus. There would have been a whole generational gap. Mary, we think, was super young when she fell pregnant, maybe around 15. So you've got uh Elizabeth who's in her possibly her fifties or sixties, and Mary who's fifteen. Uh that means there's a like a 30-year gap between the two. But they needed to grow up six months apart in age. So Elizabeth's baby needed to wait seemingly until all hope was gone. But not for God. Not in God's timing. And with God, all things are possible. So when baby John is born, he's circumcised on the eighth day, like he's supposed to be, that's the naming day as well, and Zechariah is still unable to speak, but he writes on a tablet, his name is John, and that's that's the moment when his voice returns. He's immediately filled with God's spirit, and this song isn't just a song. Luke describes the song he sings as a prophecy. The first half of the song talks about God's faithfulness to Israel, how good he's been to them, how this is the moment that people are going to look back to and realize the promises he's made all through the Old Testament are coming to pass. Something that Zechariah is living out in his own experience at that moment. Um, but it's the second half of the song that God's been putting on my heart recently. It it says, It says this. So if you want to follow along, it's chapter 1 of Luke, verses 76 to 79, and this is the moment that Zechariah is holding his newborn son in his arms, this miracle baby. His friends and his family are all standing around him, and he's in the middle of speaking this prophetic song, and he says this. And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high God. For you will go before the Liberator to prepare the way for him. You're going to reveal to all people that they can be rescued through the forgiveness of all of their sins. In the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us to shine on those living in darkness in the shadow of death, and to guide us all so we can walk the path of peace. Isn't that beautiful? When Zechariah says that, he's talking about John the Baptist, who goes on to live in the wilderness and spends his whole life's work telling people that God's kingdom, which means the way of living with God, a centrally part of the world, God's kingdom is already here, and they can receive this kingdom and live inside it. But they need to do a complete 108-degree turn. We need to stop living self-focused lives and live lives, live lives that outwork God's values and God's love. And and basically that's exactly what ordinary people start to do with John the Baptist around. People from all walks of life come to him, but especially it's people who are living in ways that are nothing like a godly life, that religious people have put aside and said, God can't have anything to do with you because of how you live. And these are the people who come to John the Baptist and say, Well, what should we do? If if there's this possibility of coming to God, tell us what we do. And he says to them, if you've got two coats, then give one to someone who's not got a coat at all. If you've got more than enough food, give some to someone who's got no food. If you're paid enough, don't keep asking for more. If you're strong, stand up for the week. It's it's really challenging stuff, but they go for it. I mean, mostly they go for it. But you know what's been going around and around in my head about this song, and the more I read it, the more it feels that God's impressing this on me, and I and I do read it like two or three times a week normally, because it's part of our normal pattern when we pray in the mornings in the Church of England. I just can't shake that God is wanting to whisper this this part of this song to all Christians everywhere. That it's not just about John the Baptist, it's about us, that we are meant to take up this mantle ourselves. Let me read it again. This time, open yourself up to the possibility that this might well be God speaking to all of us, and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High God. You will go before the Liberator to prepare the way for him, to reveal to all people they can be rescued through the forgiveness of all of their sins. In the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us to shine on those living in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide us all so we can walk in the path of peace. I'm gonna read it one more time. Listen out this time for maybe just a word or a phrase that particularly jumps out for you. Might God be calling people of faith everywhere to see ourselves increasingly as these prophets, speaking for God and preparing the way for those around us to know that we can walk in total forgiveness all the days of our lives, with God taking our hand and walking alongside us through our lives, thanks to Jesus, who is this liberating figure, and you, my child, will be called a prophet of the most high God. For you will go before the liberator to prepare the way for him, to reveal to all people they can be rescued through the forgiveness of all their sins. In the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us all so that we can walk in the path of peace. So may we look on the world around us, the people we come into contact with daily, the ones who know us and trust us. May we look at each other and start to see the tender mercy of God breaking on us like a new dawn. May we see his light shining on everyone who feels as if their life is in this shadow of death or this continual darkness. May God guide us so that we walk the path of peace. And may we see more and more people living released from the guilt and the shame that accompany that feeling of judgment, and know instead that Jesus the liberator has cleared our debt and God holds nothing against us anymore. May we be prophets speaking for God, living in peace and glowing with light.