Sermon from 26th November 2006

Our Youth Worker, Phil Brooks, preached at an all-age service. The talk was based on the reading from Luke 1 verses 5-25

Phil began with a prayer

Lord, thank you for the bible, thank you that it is true and good. Thank you that you have a message for all of us this morning, and I pray that we will take that message on board and let it change us.

Amen

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to feel a little bit pre-Christmassy. If you go to St Saviour’s school you’ll have already had your Christmas fair… and if you like Starbucks then you’ll have noticed the red cups have made their appearance..

And in the church year, today is when we can officially feel a little bit Christmassy. It’s a little bit like the advent of advent. The story that was read to us a moment ago is the story of somebody hearing the news about how we are going to hear the news about Jesus’ entrance into our lives. It reminds me a bit of taking a trip to the cinema. My favourite bit of going to the cinema isn’t usually the film itself, but the trailers at the beginning; they save me watching a whole load of bad films! This is because the film-makers will cram as much of a two hour long plot into a 2 minute trailer as the possibly can, to entice us to watch the film. There is enough information in the trailer to let me know if the film is going to be worth watching.

What I find even more exciting than the trailers is what is called the teaser trailer. The teaser trailer will give you only the tiniest bit of information about the film, just enough to know that it is coming. It might be just a few seconds long. If you aren’t already excited about the film, then the teaser trailer might not mean much.

I’d like to ask if anyone would like to volunteer to come up to the front and help me with a card trick…. (volunteer gets up) Thank you Joe.

I’d like you to cut the deck, anywhere you like. Like that. Ok so here is the card you have chosen. Now I’d like you to do two things for me. I’m going to close my eyes and I’d like you to take this card on a walk down the church and make sure a lot of people can see it. Just a quick walk up and down. Then I’d like you to put the card back in the deck, anywhere you like. And then put the cards back in the box. And we can put the box over here. Now you can take a seat!

The great thing about a teaser trailer is that if you are already looking forward to the film, then you know that although the wait isn’t over yet, it is time to start getting excited- because there are going to be surprises in store. We know something worth paying attention to is on the way.

So the story we’ve read this morning is like the teaser trailer for the coming of Jesus Christ. If we pay attention we can see some of the basic elements of the Christmas story that are so familiar with; an angelic visit, a seemingly impossible pregnancy and a husband who finds the whole thing a little harder to believe than his wife does. The thing I love about our passage this morning is that it is the prelude to a story that has a better ending than anybody could possibly have hoped for.

Isn’t it great when this happens? We are blown away by something that turns out more fantastic and more wonderful than we thought possible. I’d like to share with you a true story. – which by the way I can’t possibly verify…. You’ll have to Google it when you get home…

There’s a chap called Ron driving his car across the Golden Gate Bridge in California, and he notices a broken-down limousine, and a very flustered-looking limo driver who doesn’t know what he’s doing. He notices that the tyre needs changing. Being a trained mechanic, and a nice guy our hero Ron stops his car next to the broken-down limo and helps the driver (who by this point is rather flustered) to jack the car up, take off the broken tyre and put on the new one. Phew.

Just as Ron is heading back to his car, the limo driver tells him that his boss, the passenger, would like to thank him. ‘Thank you’ says the stranger. ‘I really appreciate that. Can I offer you anything in return?’ ‘No thanks’ says Ron. I’ve got everything I need. But if you really want to do something to pay me back, you could get some flowers for my wife, she’s been working very hard lately’. So Ron gives the man his wifes name, and their address and gets on his way to work.

The next morning, there is a knock at the door. A beautiful, large bouquet of flowers, obviously very expensive. Very nice flowers. With a note attached.

‘Dear Ron and Sally. Thank you very much for helping me out on the road yesterday. It really was very helpful of you. Kindest Regards, Donald Trump. Ps- I paid off your mortgage.’

What I love about this story is how unexpected the ending is. How it turns a nice story into something amazing; just like Zechariahs story that we read this morning.

We read about a really proud day for Zechariah. Getting to light the incense in the temple would be the same kind of honour for a temple priest as it would be for a pop star to turn on the Christmas lights at Oxford street. It’d be a really special occasion, a career highlight. Zechariah had been chosen to go into the temple, to prepare the sacred space for worship.

I wonder what Zechariah was expecting when he walked into the temple? Was he expecting to meet with God? Or was he expecting to stay in his comfort zone? Whatever he was thinking, he certainly didn’t stay in his comfort zone for very long…

We read in verse 11 ‘Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him’. I’m going to assume that angels don’t look much like the angels that we come across in our nativity plays; because every time people come into contact with them the first thing the angel says is ‘Don’t be afraid’. You get the impression they are used to saying that to people. There is always terror. Every time. And if that wasn’t enough, Zechariah then hears from the angel that his elderly wife is going to have a baby. Who is going to announce the arrival of the most important message ever.

So what is Zechariah’s response? To ask how it’s going to work. To ask for proof. To ask the angel if he would be ever so polite as to just how God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the Cosmos, would be able to make his elderly wife pregnant. To let God know that his surprise was too surprising; that he’d gone too far this time. Zechariah lacked the imagination to benefit fully from what God wanted to share with him.

And I wonder if I’m like that with God. I wonder if I’d rather be in control than be amazed. I wonder if, when God tries to show me show me something, I’d rather say ‘How?’ than ‘Wow’. I’d like to ask for another volunteer to come and help me illustrate a point.

So Joe, I’m glad that you put your hand up because I took a bit of a liberty before the service and gave Santa Claus and your parents a telephone call to find out a few bits of information. In this envelope I have a list of what presents you are getting for Christmas -And your birthday- For the next 5 years. So if you take this, every time you open a present, you’ll know exactly what it is. I’ve put all the dates, times and places of your surprise parties in as well- so try and look surprised!

Supposing we were to open this envelope up… I wonder how long it would be before we regretted knowing? Because what would really be lost is the gift of giving itself. We still end up with the same stuff. But something would be lost. If we opened this, the person we’d be stealing from is ourselves. We’d have gained the knowledge of what was going to happen, and how. But we’d have lost the ability to be surprised and amazed at the good things.

As it happens, I would like you to open this. It’s not a list of your presents, but with a bit of luck it’ll be a nice surprise. (takes out A4 print of the chosen card)

Zechariah’s story is a teaser trailer for us for to get ready for getting ready for Christmas. It is also a warning that we should take God’s amazing gifts seriously, that the surprise at Christmas is one that isn’t worth ignoring- because it is more of a surprise than we could hope for. Let’s pray…