And So It Begins! – November 30, 2025, the First Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 40:1-11, Luke 1:5-25, (57-80)
November 30, 2025
The First Sunday of Advent

And so it begins!  Today is the First Sunday of Advent.  (I warned you it was coming!)  As I’ve said before, this is the first Sunday of the Liturgical Year.  Which again, is the series of Sundays, throughout the year, that help us remember the various events in the life and ministry of Jesus.  So, Advent is the beginning of the story of Jesus.

Well, actually the story of Jesus begins back in the Old Testament.  We read today from the prophecy of Isaiah, where a voice was crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the Lord!”  And of course, that was the prophecy associated with our old friend, John the Baptist.  He was the one who would come in the spirit of Elijah, and herald the coming of the Messiah.

So, the prophecies about the Messiah are found throughout the Old Testament.  And that’s one of the major themes of Advent.  During Advent, we think about all of the prophecies, the anticipation, and the Old Testament traditions.

And then today we look at the first of the angelic visitations that “started the ball rolling.”  And as we do, I ask what I often ask.  Can we imagine what this was like for these people when it first happened?  Again, it’s hard for us – the readers – to “un-know” what we already know.  We’ve known and loved these stories our whole lives, and it’s hard to have an understanding of what it was like for these people to hear all this for the first time.  And I don’t just mean Mary and Joseph and the shepherds.  I think it’s also hard for us to imagine what the common people were thinking, when they heard these stories and witnessed these events.

The world was trying to figure out the significance of this young rabbi named Jesus.  He was amazing!  He spoke well.  He drew huge crowds.  He reached out to the outcast and the marginalized.  He had miraculous healing power.  But who was he, and what did it all mean?

Today we start at the beginning of Luke’s Gospel.  This is where it all begins for Luke!  The other Gospels start a little differently.  Matthew begins with a similar angelic visitation – the visitation with Joseph.  Mark starts right in with the ministry of John the Baptist.  And John begins with his wonderful prologue, where he put Jesus at the beginning of all things!  “In the beginning was the word,” he said.  But then he, too, starts the narrative with the ministry of John.  And of course, the ministry of John is also one of the main themes of the season of Advent.

But Luke starts with the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  They were the soon-to-be parents of John the Baptist.  And as he introduces his Gospel, Luke is writing this to this man named “Theophilus.”  That’s the same name we find at the beginning of the book of Acts.  So most scholars agree that it’s the same guy, and that both books were written by the same guy, Luke.

And so it begins!  Luke tells us that it was in the days of Herod the king, and there was a priest in the Temple named Zechariah, who had a wife named Elizabeth.  And after giving us a little of their backgrounds, Luke tells us that it was time for Zechariah to burn the incense in the Temple.  That was one of his duties.  And Luke says, “the whole multitude was praying outside.”  That’s the scene when an angel appeared to Zechariah.  We find out later it’s the angel Gabriel.

Well, Zechariah was afraid!  Anyone would be afraid, and everyone usually was!  Angels were powerful and fearsome beings!  And the first thing they usually said to anyone was what this angel said to Zechariah.  “Be not afraid!”

But it didn’t end there.  Without any leadup, he drops a bomb on Zechariah!  No beating around the bush here!  He gets right to it!  “Your prayers have been heard, and your wife is going to have a baby!”  And before Zechariah can even react to that, the angel launches into this wonderful prophetic message!  “You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.  And he will be great before the Lord!”

Well, Zechariah does react.  Very quickly, this ceases to be a matter of fear for him, and it turns to one of disbelief.  When he’s able to talk, he says, “Your kidding, right?”  “How can this be?”  “I am an old man, and my wife is ‘advanced in years!’”  And isn’t that a nice way to describe it?  He is “old,” but she is “advanced in years.”  Don’t you love the way the Bible says things sometimes?  Wouldn’t you ladies like to be described in that way?  Your husband is “old,” but you are “advanced in years.”  I think it’s also safe to say – also in the “biblical way” – that “It had ceased to be with her after the manner of women!”  That’s a great one, too!  Isn’t it?

Ok, so back to this prophecy.  Gabriel says a couple more very important things about this child-to-be.  He says, “He will go forth in the spirit of Elijah!  He will turn many of the Sons of Israel to their God.  He will make them ready for the Lord – a people prepared!”  And there’s the reference to the Isaiah prophecy, the voice crying in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord.”

Now think about that.  And again, think about it from their perspective.  The people had been hearing about Elijah and a Messiah for years upon years.  They had set a place at their Passover table for Elijah all their lives.  And as part of the Passover meal, they had ceremoniously opened the door to see if Elijah had come.

So they’d heard of a promised Messiah, and they knew many of the prophecies.  And I’m sure Zechariah and Elizabeth were very familiar with all of that.  And yet, when they were told it was happening, there was disbelief.  This whole “advanced-in-age, barren woman having a baby thing” was too much for them.  Again, they didn’t know of our side of this story.  They only knew their side.  And it just didn’t seem possible!

But isn’t it the same with us?  Is their story not also our story?  Are there things in our faith we’ve heard about for years, but if they happened, we too would show the same disbelief?  We know that Jesus is to come again.  And, by the way, his second coming is another of the traditional themes of Advent.  But if we heard he had come, or that he was about to – maybe in another part of the world – what would we think?

We might say, “Come, Lord Jesus!”  Those are the last words of the Bible!  “Come, Lord Jesus!”  But then we might add, “But maybe not yet.”  You know, we smile at Zechariah, but are we not like him?  Do we not pray for God to move in our lives, but when he does, we’re not quite prepared to believe him?

Actually, we haven’t heard from Elizabeth, yet.  I have to wonder what she was thinking!  Because she has a pretty big part to play in all of this!  But we don’t hear from her until the last part of this story – the part we didn’t read.  It starts in verse 57.  Let me just tell you about it.

It was nine months later.  And remember, Zechariah hasn’t spoken in nine months!  When he doubted the angel, he was struck dumb – unable to speak!  (How would that be, ladies?!)  And we don’t have the dialogue between Elizabeth and Zechariah.  We don’t know if she believed him when he told her what the angel had said – however he managed to do that!  Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation?!  We can only imagine how she reacted!  “Wait!  You saw this angel and he said what?”  Can you imagine her disbelief?  But then, when she conceived the child, it was a different story!  She believed then, didn’t she!

Well, now she’s been through the time of being “with child.”  (The Bible says that nicely, too!)  Now the baby is born.  And it’s time for the circumcision.  That’s the ceremony in which the child is named.  And that’s when we hear from Elizabeth.  The crowd seemed to assume that he would be named after his father, Zechariah.  But she said, “No!  His name will be John.”  And the people objected.  They said, “Where’d you come up with that name?”  “There are no ‘John’s in this family!”  So they ask the father, Zechariah.  And ladies, doesn’t that seem a bit patriarchal?

But that’s what they did.  And I love this scene!  Zechariah asks for paper and pencil, (or an iPad or something!) and he writes, “His name is John!”  And “his mouth was open and his tongue was loosed.”  And now he could speak – for the first time in over nine months!  And he speaks this prophecy of his own – maybe remembering the one he heard from Gabriel.

He said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people!  He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old.”

Zechariah gets it now, doesn’t he?!  The fog has lifted!  The disbelief is gone!  He knows something big is happening – something far bigger than he ever imagined!  (And he certainly has had enough time to think about it!)  And yes, there is a bit here about being “saved from our enemies.”  Maybe there’s a little bit of that “Freedom from Rome” thing here.  But then he says to the baby – now named John, “And you, child, shall be called the prophet of the most high.  And you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, and give knowledge of salvation to his people, and the forgiveness of their sins.”

I don’t know for sure if Zechariah knew all of what that meant.  But maybe it doesn’t matter.  Because remember, a prophet’s job was to speak the words of God himself.  The prophets always started out saying, “Thus saith the Lord.”  But now, fully understanding or not, Zechariah was willing to go with it!  And so it began.

And so it begins – for us, too!  And it’s big!  In fact, this whole thing is the turning point in all of history!  People ever since have been trying to downplay the importance of Jesus.  But they can’t.  He’s that important!  He is God incarnate!  And when he came, history began anew!  Ever since that time we have counted the years since it happened!

So, Advent always invites us to step back into that moment – the moment when God’s promises began to take shape.  And Advent reminds us, year after year that we are part of something big!

And Advent invites us to stand with Zechariah and Elizabeth, maybe not yet knowing the full picture, but hearing that God is doing something new, and wrestling with whether or not we truly believe it.

That’s what Advent calls us to do!  And we cannot let that get lost in the trappings of the season, and all the commercial stuff we’ve been seeing since October!  And that’s all great!  Don’t get me wrong!  But this!  This is the story of that one time in history, when God himself stepped into our world, and the world would never be the same again!

And so it begins!

Prayer

Eternal God, your plan for this world is hard to comprehend.  And your love for us is beyond our understanding.  But we rejoice with Zechariah and Elizabeth, and we are anxious in knowing that you are doing something big in our world, and that we are part of it.  So fill us with the joy and gladness spoken of by the angel, that this special season may renew us in our faith in your Son, in whose name we pray, Amen.