December 6, 2009
Grace Church
Rev. Robert E. Hensley

Malachi 3:1-4; Canticle 16; Philippians 1:3-11; Luke 3:1-6

      Let us pray.  God of glory, we eagerly await the coming of our Savior. Help us live as people of grace – people who are changed because we have encountered the living God. In a time when the world wants to segregate and divide people by political party, gender, race or religion, help us see beyond those labels to see all people as your children. Help us find common ground where we are able, following Jesus’ teaching and example. Let us realize our own ability to bring about change.

      While our culture expects this to be a season of good cheer, but for some of us, the fears can be overwhelming. Many of us sit in fear of the unknown – worrying about what will happen tomorrow. We celebrate in the hope of the One who was born in a lowly stable and who will come again. We remember that he is Emmanuel, God with us. Always. That is what gives us confidence to unburden all of our fears, concerns and joys with the One who created and sustains us. Amen.

      Zechariah never made it all the way to the manger, but after John was born, after he wrote the name down and made it official, after his experience of the here-and-now promise of God, from where he stood, he started to sing. It wasn’t “Silent Night” or “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” But Zechariah sang of the love of God, and the breaking in of God’s light, the coming of God’s peace and a mighty Savior born to the house of David. “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” He sang of the promise of a God who makes a difference.  (David A. Davis, “Tender mercies and the rising son,” Nassau Church Worship, December 24, 2008,nassauchurch.org.)

      In an interview published in The Rotarian magazine (April 2009, 47), Archbishop Desmond Tutu was asked to comment on the Obama campaign’s “Joshua Generation Project” to attract younger Christians to its cause. The name refers to the biblical account of how Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, but it was Joshua who led them into the Promised Land.

      Archbishop Tutu replied, “Do you remember the thing they said: Rosa [Parks] sat so that Martin [Luther King Jr.] could walk. Martin walked so that Obama could stand, and Obama stood so that our children could fly. Isn’t that lovely?”

      Looking back 20 years ago, who among us would have pictured a world without the USSR and with the Internet? We talk about “what we hope for” in terms of what we hope will come to pass, but we could think of it another way, as why we hope. We hope on principle, we hope tactically and strategically, we hope because the future is dark, we hope because it’s a more powerful and more joyful way to live. Despair presumes it knows what will happen next. But who, two decades ago, would have imagined that the Canadian government would give a huge swath of the north back to its indigenous people, or that the imprisoned Nelson Mandela would become president of a free South Africa?  (Rebecca Solnit, “Acts of hope — challenging empire on the world stage,” Orion Online, January-February 2004, orionmagazine.org.)

      A lot of change that happens in the world has its origins in the charisma of an individual.  Jesus had the gift of charisma, but he also possessed true humanity. Both are essential for walking in the way of peace.

      These is nothing is more essential to effective and inspirational leadership, and most all of us know it when you see it. I am looking forward to the opening of a movie later this month called The Human Factor, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president.

      In a review of the movie in The Globe last weekend, Eastwood was reported as saying that Mandela “has a great charisma.” Mandela “had the charisma to bring the country together,” said Eastwood, explaining why he chose to direct the film. “The unique way he does it is what this story is all about.”

      I’ll get back to the movie review in a minute, but first I want to take a look at the prophecy of a priest named Zechariah from the first chapter of Luke. A baby named John has just been born to Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth – a child who will grow up to be John the Baptist. Luke tells us that “his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy” (Luke 1:67).

      Zechariah was filled with the Spirit. That’s charisma. Literally. The word means “divine gift,” and Zechariah uses this gift of God to deliver a prophecy about John the Baptist and Jesus.

      “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” announces Zechariah in his charismatic moment, “for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them” (v. 68). The priest rejoices because he senses that God is making a bold and decisive move to enter human life and rescue his chosen people.

      “He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David,” says Zechariah. A mighty savior – that’s Jesus (v. 69).

      “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,” Zechariah explains to his son. The prophet of the Most High – that’s John the Baptist. “You will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins” (vv. 76-77).

      Mighty Savior, prophet of the Most High. The births of these two little boys remind us that God rarely works alone, but usually through a human factor. They are signs to Zechariah that God is alive and well and working to save his people from their enemies and from the hand of all who hate them (v. 71). And the result of this divine intervention will be that “the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (vv. 78-79).

      The coming of these two children is designed “to guide our feet into the way of peace.”  It is a gift of God. A divine gift. Charisma.

      But peace doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It also requires the Human Factor.

      Eastwood’s movie tells the story of how Mandela worked to unite his racially and economically divided country in the mid-1990s. Mandela had been elected the country’s first black president in 1994, after spending decades as a leading opponent of apartheid, the white government’s official policy of racial segregation. His opposition to apartheid had resulted in 27 years in prison, but in 1990 he was released – and then elected president.

      In 1995, South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup Tournament. Rugby was a white man’s game, and the South African team was entirely white, representing a country that was 80 percent black. It also had a team symbol – a leaping gazelle called a “springbok” – that reminded most black South Africans of the country’s racist history.

      Black president. White team. After 27 years in prison, you might think Mandela wouldn’t look favorably on these players.  But you would be wrong.

      Mandela showed up at a press conference wearing a rugby jersey and cap with a springbok on it. He said, “These are our boys now. They may all be white, but they’re our boys, and we must get behind them and support them in this tournament.”

      The next day, the Springbok coach took his team to the prison where Mandela had spent nearly three decades of his life behind bars. The coach said, “This is the cell where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. He was kept here for 27 years by the racist policies of our government. We tolerated his imprisonment for all those years, and yet he has backed us publicly. We cannot let him down.”

      The tournament opened, and the Springboks played beyond everyone’s expectations. In fact, they made it into the final game. President Mandela was in the stands, wearing a Springbok jersey. During a timeout, he brought a South African children’s choir out of the stands, and they led 65,000 people in the singing of a black African miner’s song.

      When the Springboks took the field, they were unstoppable, and they won the World Championship. And for the next 24 hours, whites danced with blacks in the streets of South Africa. For the first time, they saw each other as fellow citizens of a multiracial country.

      “By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (vv. 78-79). This line from Zechariah’s prophecy came true in the 1995 Rugby World Cup Tournament. The way of peace appeared, in an inspiring and instructive way.

      It required a gift of God – charisma. But it also required the Human Factor.

      We can all take this Scripture and story to heart as we prepare for Christ’s coming during this Advent season. This is the time of year to reflect on the rich mixture of divinity and humanity that came to earth in Jesus. It is also the time to discover what his life can teach us about the way that God can work through each of us.

      Jesus shows charisma, the gift of God – but he also shows us humanity. After all, he was fully God and fully human. Both are essential for walking in the way of peace. And both can be present in us, as well.  As a side bar, it is also the humanity represented in the story of St. Nicholas that the young people heard during the 9:15 service this morning.

      Notice, first of all, that Jesus honors the Human Factor in everyone he meets. “Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,” says the letter to the Hebrews. “He had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God” (2:11, 17). Jesus does not despise the humanity of the people he meets but honors everyone as a fellow child of God.

      So did Nelson Mandela, when he said of the Springboks, “They may be all white, but they’re our boys, and we must get behind them.” So did the coach of the South African rugby team, who said that because President Mandela backed them publicly, “We can’t let him down.”

      Jesus also knows that divine gifts such as charisma require community. Jesus himself needed John the Baptist to be “the prophet of the Most High” and to “go before the Lord to prepare his ways” (Luke 1:76). Zechariah needed a community to hear his Spirit-filled prophecy and respond in faith. President Mandela needed the Springbok coach, the Springbok coach needed Mandela, and both needed a nation of blacks and whites willing to support the team together.

      Finally, the combination of charisma and the Human Factor leads us to a new way of living together in the world – what Zechariah calls “the way of peace” (v. 79). Peace isn’t simply escape from the hands of those who hate us, or rescue from our enemies or a period of time in which we’re free from violence. No, peace is a way of life in which we serve God without fear, “in holiness and righteousness before him all our days” (v. 73).

      The way of peace isn’t simply the absence of conflict.  Instead, it is the presence of holiness and righteousness and justice. This means being devoted to God and in a right relationship with God and with each other. Holiness and righteousness and justice – these are the qualities of a life of peace, one marked by harmonious relationships, both human and divine.

      Clearly, the way of peace isn’t easy to achieve, and life in South Africa has had its share of violence and turmoil since the day of celebration that followed the Springbok victory. But we Christians continue to pursue this way of life. We do it best by following Jesus, who is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).

      In his honoring of the Human Factor in everyone, we discover how to love and respect each other. In his commitment to community, we learn that our gifts from God are most powerful when they are shared. That is at the heart of our stewardship.  And in Jesus’ life of holiness and righteousness and justice, we see an example of what it means to live in right relationship with God and with each other.

      Jesus is our mighty Savior, the one and only Son of God. But as unique as he is, he reaches out to us and makes a connection through the Human Factor, which he shares with each and every person on earth — young and old, male and female, black and white, American and South African.

      Jesus is the one that is behind us supporting us and guiding us into the way of peace.  Let us all do our best not to let him down.  Amen. 

Jesus is behind us and supporting us, as we walk the way of peace. Let’s not let him down. 


Sources: 

Alhberg, Ralph. “The dark pieces and the blessing of communion.” November 4, 2004. First Congregational Church of Greenwich, Conn., fccog.org. 

“Clint Eastwood: The Human Factor,” video clip on The Fan. November 4, 2008. comcast.net.