(A sermon on Luke 1:67-80 by Samuel Lalmuanpuia Pachuau, Secretary KTP, Chaltlang Branch)
Introduction:
In the midst of racism Martin Luther King had dreamt of a day on the red hills of Georgia, when the children of former slaves and children of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brother/sisterhood. And a day when all of God’s children, black men and women, white men and women, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! God almighty, we are free at last!” Likewise, the world is dreaming of a Church that will bring liberation, justice and peace. The Church is also giving its efforts to accomplish the same mission, in spite of such appreciable attempts to establish an egalitarian community, yet, injustice, wars, violence, oppressions, exploitation, discrimination and even corruption are still very much prevalence in the world. This shows that we still have a long way to go in our mission, we got to do better and that calls for our participation. Therefore, in the analysis of our participation in God’s mission,let us meditate on some issues taken from Zechariah’s prophecy found in Luke 1:67-80
The Prophecy :
Zechariah’s prophecy, which is also known as The Benedictus, in accordance with the first word of the hymn in Latin version, can simply be divided into two parts – verses 68-75 as first and 76-79 as second part. In the first part Zechariah praises God for providing salvation and for the fulfilment of holy covenant. Then, in the second part he summarizes the child, John’s mission as a way-preparer for messiah, who will shine on those who sit in the darkness.
Redemption/Salvation:
As mentioned before, Zechariah opens his prophecy by praising God for saving intervention in the affairs of the people. Is this redemption political, for example deliverance from foreign oppression, which the Israelites had been facing in their history? Who are the enemies and haters mentioned in verse 71, are these political or spiritual? To answer, we may look at :-
Verse 77 “to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins,” and verses 74&75 say we should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness and also verse 79 says ‘to guide our feet into the way of peace’. Thus, in such a context the redemption in the opening verse would seem to be of a spiritual nature, probably redemption from Satan, sin and all the consequences. So, what Zechariah had in mind was salvation through Christ. Therefore, we can draw a calm assurance of salvation, liberation and reconciliation with God from this very verse.
Salvation demands service:
Succeeding the assurance of salvation by the power of God, Zechariah lays an obligation upon those who are saved; that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, out of gratitude, might serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness through all our days. Here the term ‘holiness’ seems to refer to our relationship with God that we should serve in accordance to the divine decree. At the same time, the term ‘righteousness’ may also be marked for it refers to our relation to others, which we means we must serve in the world as God’s agent of liberation and reconciliation, that is to bring peace in the world. To work for the betterment of the whole humanity and to bring the whole creation into its fullness is exactly the way we should serve God.
Our Context:
As found in the chosen passage, the purpose of the visit of Messiah is to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. We are now witnessing various kinds of injustice and turbulences in the land, like bomb-blast, communal riots, discrimination on the basis of class, caste and genders and also oppression over minorities. Particularly in our own context, this is absolutely true. North East India is a sensitive region and is in turmoil, it is un-peaceful. The same also goes with other parts of the country and the world. So, what we need is obviously peace, but what is peace? Mizoram used to get Peace Bonus for the absence of war and internal riots in the state for quiet a long time, from this angle; we may simply say peace is the absence of war. But, the statement of Vancouver Assembly of WCC, 1983 says - peace is not just the absence of war. It cannot be built on the foundations of injustice, so peace demands justice within all the nations and respect for God’s given humanity and dignity of every person. Moreover, the Biblical idea of peace is wholeness, resulted by right relationship with God and other human being and creation. Moreover, the Old Testament word for peace, shalom basically means ‘well-being, primarily a relational, a social concept. It is a harmonious relationship between people. Also in the New Testament peace denotes the same, the central message of Jesus was to love God and neighbours. In other words, there cannot be peace as long as injustice prevails. In this perspective, we can say that there is no place in India and in the World that is absolutely peaceful, which indicates there is still along way to go as we continues the Messianic mission in the world and the centre of Christian ministry is outside the Church, it must not be confined within the four walls of the Church.
More precisely & recently, let us ponder on the issue of Chiahpuam Bank in which hundreds of people invest huge sum of money, desiring for its prompt and doubling interest. We may say it is an act of greediness. But, in reality it is the sign of poverty and weakness of the people, who fight for their survival and at the same time find the Government as unreliable for their well-being. Moreover, it is bad to know that these people are mostly the members in the Church. So our own people had been sitting in the darkness of poverty and oppression, they search for a power that will rescue them and in the context it looks hard to get free without the power of money, so they just invest for their survival.
We had been celebrating the birth of the Messiah for more than a century in our Church, then how can our own people still miss the real Messiah and why? Can it be because of our insufficient commitment and sacrifice to participate in God’s liberation? Furthermore, it can also indicates that our intellectual interpretation of the Word and formulation of theology is not enough to meet the real needs of the people unless they are associate with service from below, that means we need to get into the real life of the people, even at the cost of our life, ignoring which probably will lead to failure in our mission and even to the point of condemnation from God.
Conclusion:
So friends, we have a call to bring a just-peace in the world and being rescued from the bondages, we already attained necessary qualifications and our mission field is also at the neighbourhood, but more commitment and self-sacrifice to serve are still needful. In the process of reformation in Scotland, to John Knox, the Queen quoted Romans 13:1, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities…” and Knox answered, “If Moses did not encounter Pharaoh, then there will never be liberation in the history of Israel.” Like wise, it is we who are to stand in favour of the people of God, against the exploitive and oppressive structures. However, the problems and issues of the world may look too complicated to face, the power of evils may look too strong to oppose, making it scary for us to serve. Yes, of course we will loose if we do in our own strength, but remember we have the right man chosen by God on our side, he is Jesus the Messiah. Therefore, keeping aside our own desires for pleasures (like new garments, luxurious cakes, partner for Christmas, and many more) and also knowing there are thousands of thousands nearby sitting in the darkness, let us spent this Christmas in service to God and humankind. The people need liberation, they need Christ, and so they need us. May God Bless us.
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