The Tender Compassion of God
The Rev. Canon Frank Logue preached this sermon for St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
in Rincon, Georgia on December 9, 2018
The Tender Compassion of God
Luke 1:68-79
We are, here in this sanctuary on this Sunday morning, in the place of enough. Enough. In this sacred time and in this sacred space, you don’t need more. What you have is enough. Who you are is enough.
I say this because a central tenant of our faith is that the amazing grace of God makes up for what you and I lack. So we may arrive in all sorts and all conditions, and God may even want better for us, but where we are now is enough for now to receive all the grace, mercy, love, forgiveness, hope, and joy God has to offer.
This is countercultural all year long, but more so as we near Christmas. Every advertisement is telling us what we need and every need means more money to buy or more time to spend working out or more of whatever. More, more, more, and never enough.
Into this world of not enough breaks our Canticle for today, a response in place of the Psalm where we hear from John the Baptists father, Zechariah. He brings pure Good News and I want to share the refreshing joy of the grace he shares, but first let me catch you up on who this man is and what has been happening to him in the months leading up to this hymn of praise.
Zechariah was a priest in the Temple in Jerusalem, one of an estimated 18,000 priests living in Israel when Jesus was born. He would have served just two weeks a year in the Temple. And one year, during his group’s shift, they cast lots for who would go serve at the altar of incense and the lot fell to Zechariah. All of the worshipers are outside the Temple praying and Zechariah enters alone. An angel appeared to Zechariah and as with every other angel appearance in scripture, he was gripped with fear. So as in every other angel appearance, Gabriel’s first words are “Do not be afraid.”
Gabriel goes on to tell the aged Zechariah that God is answering his prayers and those of his wife Elizabeth and she will bear a son that they are to name John. Gabriel goes on to explain how their boy 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.”
Zechariah asks how he is to know this will happen and an honest reading of scripture would say that the Angel Gabriel is thrown off his game. After all, this is a priest in the Temple offering incense at the altar. He responds a but testily, “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.”
The way I know Gabriel was not happy is that he adds, “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.”
So John leaves the Temple unable to speak. He goes home and soon he and Elizabeth learn she is pregnant. She stays in seclusion for five months, and then the Virgin Mary comes for a visit. John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb on hearing Mary.
When we get to our reading for today, Elizabeth has given birth to their miracle son. Eight days pass and on the day of his circumcision when a boy is given his name, his mother wants to name the boy John as Gabriel told them to do. Those gathered are confused as this is not a family name. Zechariah asks for a writing tablet and scrawls, “His name is John.” Immediately, the old priest regains his voice and prophesies with the words of the canticle.
Doctor Federici also assists the child in managing levitra generika amerikabulteni.com impulsive behaviors. Female libido enhancer supplements have scientific mode of action for treating female low tadalafil no rx libido. The advantages are many generic cialis viagra http://amerikabulteni.com/2011/12/30/new-york-metro-kartlarinda-kalan-kusurat-centlerinizi-ne-yapiyorsunuz/ for Kamagra and hard long time for a good period of 4 to 5 hours. Jelly Medicines are Rubbery This is the most common symptom of buying tadalafil online low libido. “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;” Zechariah says, continuing, “he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David.”
Then he “In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Zechariah sees clearly that God is taking action. It is not that we humans suddenly got our act together and started acting holy. Instead the tender compassion of God breaks in like the dawn guiding our feet in paths of peace.
The words here for tender compassion are quite tender. Our word “compassion” means to “suffer with” but the Greek word Luke uses is commonly used for the love of God. The word is a plural form of the word for womb, so that God is showing the care for us that a mother feels for a child in her womb.
The Prophet Isaiah had written it like this (Isaiah 49:15-16a): Can a woman forget her baby, or show no compassion for the child within her womb? No, but even if these may forget, I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. This is the love God has for you and for me.
That is exceedingly Good News this Advent. For as the world is cranking up Christmas carols as it cranks up the anxiety about getting the perfect presents, God is saying you are enough right now, just rest in me.
That is the oasis of worship, which we enter week after week. We are surrounded by a spiritual desert in which there is never enough. We need more time or more money or more house or more car or more, more, more. But we move from that desert to the springs of salvation where God does want better for us. There are ways we need to change, repenting where we have gone wrong, turning back to God as we need to. Its not that we are perfect. Heavens no. But we are enough, right here and now. Enough for God to be with us, to nourish and refresh us.
The priest Zechariah encountered the Angel Gabriel as he worshiped in the Temple in Jerusalem. We won’t likely ever have an angel appear, but God is just as near to us right now in this place.
Every time we gather for worship, we arrive from very different places. Some of us are wondering how we will get through the week ahead, while others wonder about the day. We face health issues in ourselves and others, job problems, difficulties in our marriage or with our children, problems with finances. While some of us are doing okay at the moment and gratefully looking for meaning and purpose in our lives. We arrive from all these different places, to the sacred space in which we are fully known and fully loved, as we are now, in the tender compassion of a creator who wants better for us, but for whom we are enough.
I served one summer as an intern in the Anglican Church in Tanzania. While there, I was always the guest, relying on the hospitality of others. Many times I would sit down to a meal to be told that the family did not always eat like this but it was a special meal as they had a guest. I found out soon enough that the guest had to have seconds. This was not an option. In time I did learn to get little on the first pass, so that I could get seconds or even thirds. I could come away having eaten less food, but my hosts would feel better about it. I also learned the secret word to get me out of being begged to take more food. After having seconds, and when being pressed to take more, I would say in Swahili, “inatosha” which means, “it is sufficient.” The hosts would beam. They had given me enough. All was right in the world.
In time I have learned that “it is sufficient” us theological as well for God tells us in scripture, “My grace is sufficient for you” (2 Corinthians 12:9). We try our best, but we still fall short of the glory of God, which is a fancy way of saying, we sin. We hurt others. We hurt ourselves. We mess up, sometimes quite badly, tragically. And yet, God offers the opportunity to turn around, step back to God and ask for forgiveness. And that prayer uttered out of a real desire to change, that prayer is enough, because God’s grace is sufficient.
And when we come forward a little later in this liturgy to receive the body and blood of Jesus in the bread and the wine of the Eucharist, it will be just a bit of each, and yet it is the real presence of Jesus and it is enough. In this sacred space for this sacred time, God is with us more fully and we have everything we need. Then so nourished, we go back out into the world with the sure and certain knowledge that the God who made the heavens and the earth holds you in tender compassion, and even if a woman were to forget her baby, God will never forget you, he will not leave you orphaned, he has carved you in the palm of his hands. And where you fall short, his love is more than enough.
Amen.
