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New Beginnings is our theme at Chain of Lakes during Advent this year. We just literally saw a New Beginning when Mfor and Erika were baptized. God is doing something new in their lives. They responded. Mfor and Erika responded by saying they want their identity to be in this God who is always doing something new. This will be a day that the two of them will always remember. Its not often that adults are baptized. I went to Hallmark yesterday to buy a card for each of them. There was only one adult baptism card in the entire store. Hallmark doesnt expect churches to have adult baptisms. To be honest a significant reason that we dont celebrate adult baptisms is most people are baptized as children. We encourage infant baptism. Once people are baptized as an infant we dont baptize them as adults. Our culture is changing. Fewer people follow God; fewer children are baptized. Just as we expect to baptize children we should expect to baptize adults. Baptizing adults means that were connecting people who havent identified or belonged to God. If any of you havent been baptized, tell us. Wed love to celebrate this new beginning. \ SLIDE SLIDE Theres one point in todays sermon. Im going to share it with you right away. God is always willing to surprise us. At the start of 2012 I dont think any of us could have imagined that we would

baptize Mfor and Erika. The primary reason is we didnt know them at the start of 2012. Now they belong. Theyve celebrated a new beginning. The three of us met this past Monday to talk about what it means to be baptized. It was wonderful to hear their New Beginning SLIDE I talked about Erikas new beginning in the sermon last week. When she first

came to our congregation as an intern she was very shy. She hardly talked during our staff

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meetings. Shes not quiet anymore. Weve discovered that she has gifts for ministry. It wouldnt surprise me if she did ministry for a living some day. SLIDE Mfor has blossomed too. He recently came to the United States from England.

He was born in the Cameroon. He lives with his cousin Bakia and Bakias wife, Karen. Bakia and Karen, will always have a special place in our hearts because they were the first family who came to Chain of Lakes because of a Welcome Bag. Last year we developed a ministry where we shared Welcome bags to people who recently moved into the area. In 2011 Im guessing that we shared over 100 Welcome bags. But no one came to worship. This spring I told our group that someone was going to come to worship because of a welcome bag. One Saturday this past spring Val Owens and I delivered a welcome bag to Bakia and Karen. They live just east of Aberdeen in Blaine. When Karen came to worship a few weeks later our group was overjoyed. I still remember us saying we got someone because of a Welcome Bag! Mfor came to Chain of Lakes through Karen. He has become one of our most consistent worship participants. As his pastor Ive had the privilege of learning his faith story. Mfors father died when he was young. God can provide to you what your father couldnt. God will always be a part of his life. No matter where you go in your life you can always rely on God. Thats a tremendous source of strength. Yea God! Today is the second part of a three week sermon series Im sharing on new beginnings. For the next two Sundays Im looking at a story in Luke that precedes the story of Jesus birth. The question Im going to ask is what do these stories teach us about a New Beginning. Today Im going to look at the story of Zechariah. Next Sunday Im going to look at the story of ElizabethZechariahs wife.

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I want to encourage you to get out this brochure that is in the bulletin. In this brochure youll find a Devotion. This week I again shared a devotion about New Beginnings. I shared some stories that we dont often hear. The stories are similar to the story of Zechariah. I encourage you to use it. Recently I added a daily prayer to the devotion. If you dont know how to pray to God, you could use the daily prayer in the devotion as your own prayer. You have a place to take notes. I believe that God will say something through my words in this sermon. You also have a place for prayer requests. I believe that our prayers can make an impact in peoples lives. Each one of these prayer requests is plea that we help make a difference in this persons life. I want to tell you a story today. Its the story of Zechariah. His story is the first story in Lukes gospel. Luke wanted to write an orderly account of Jesus life. He started off this orderly account by telling us about Zechariah. Let me give you some background on this story. At Chain of Lakes we dont pick passages out of the Bible. We look at these stories within their context. Let me tell you a little bit about Zechariah. The name Zechariah was frequently used in the Scriptures. The name meant Yahweh remembers. There was an Old Testament prophet named Zechariah who had a book named after him. Its the 38th or second-to-last book in the Old Testament. SLIDE This is a picture of the prophet Zechariah that Michelangelo painted on the

ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Lets fast forward to Zechariah of Lukes story. He was a Jewish priest. Zechariahs task and the task of Jewish priests was to be a mediator between God and humanity. A priest bridged this gap.

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One of the ways that a priest bridged the gap was by sharing offerings with God in the Temple. The Temple was the most holy place. It was in Jerusalem. When a priest shared an offering inside the Temple it was as if the priest was sharing something with God on behalf of humanity. He was fortunate to be able to go the Temple. There were so many priests that the ones who went to the Temple were chosen by lot. Zechariah won the lottery. He got to serve. This was a great privilege. Zechariah traveled from his small village to the Temple in Jerusalem to perform the priestly duties. He would perform a morning sacrifice and then an evening sacrifice. After the evening sacrifice the priest would offer incense. As Zechariah performed his duties a group of people gathered outside the Temple to pray for him. This was like spiritual encouragement for the priest. This is the background of the story. Zechariah is all alone in the Templethis sacred space. Most likely its night Question: What does it feel like. I had a few occasions when I was a boy when I was in the sanctuary of my home church at night all by myself. When I was a senior in high school I did a piano and violin recital that was held in the sanctuary. The week before the recital I would practice at night in the sanctuary. I remember that being there was a combination of spooky and spiritual and moving. I remember wondering if God was going to show up. Im imagining that this is what Zechariah felt as he was inside the Temple by himself. The room was probably dark. Its the most sacred space in the land. Zechariah was sharing an offering with God. Have any of you ever been all alone in at night in a sanctuary?

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Imagine that you are Zechariah and an angel all of a sudden appears to you in the sanctuary. It was the angel, Gabriel What would you feel? Scared. SLIDE SLIDE SLIDE We can understand the first words out of Gabriels mouth. Do not be afraid. Zechariah was probably scared for his life. Almost every time an angel appeared to a human the first words out of the angels mouth were do not be afraid. Gabriel went on to share a message with Zechariah. Gabriel said that Zechariahs wife, Elizabeth would have a son. Gabriel said that they were to name the boy, John. This boy would not just be any boy. The boy would grow up to be a man who we know as John the Baptist. John would possess the spirit and power of Elijah the great prophet from Israel. Because of John people would come to know God. Gabriel said that because of John the hearts of parents would be turned to their children and the hearts of the disobedient would be turned to the wisdom of the righteous. This was an ultimate New Beginning. God was doing something that the people didnt expect. In this sermon series Im teaching you the pattern of New Beginnings. A New Beginning is what God is doing in the lives of someone or a group of people. You and I dont have to invent a New Beginningits already happening. A New Beginning is not like a New Years resolution where we decide were doing to do something new in our life. You and I invent New Here are some pictures of Gabriel appearing to Zechariah

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Years resolutions. A New Years resolution can be very helpful for us. But they are not New Beginnings. God is already doing them. Our task is to perceive what God is already doing. We can see this pattern of New Beginnings in this story. Zechariah didnt choose to have a New Beginning. Zechariah was just doing his duty as a priest. He wasnt expecting to have an encounter with God. God did this. The task for Zechariah was to perceive it. Its not hard to perceive something when an angel appears right in front of you and tells you what is going to happen. Lets be honest. Zechariah did a terrible job of understanding of what God was going to do. After Gabriel told Zechariah what would happen, Zechariah gave one of the funniest statements in all of the Scripture. SLIDE years. Who watches Saturday night live? Who watches the Daily Show or Conan? I have to admit that I dont because I go to bed early. I sometimes see videos the next day of these shows. Imagine if this story was being acted out on the Daily Show. Jon Stewart was acting as the narrator. What do you think Jon Stewart would say to Zechariah after Zechariah said, How will I know that this is so? Dudedont you know how children are made? What do you mean how will you know if your wife is pregnant. All you have to do is look at her growing belly. Its not that difficult to know if your wife is pregnant. Maybe you and Elizabeth havent had relations for a while, but let me give you a primer. You go home, you get out of your priestly garments, you give your wife a glass of wine. You hum your favorite song. You give her a back rub. Duh! How will I know that this is so? I am an old man and my wife is getting along in

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Im telling you whats going to happen. Your wife, Elizabeth is going to have a son and you are to name him John. Gabriel was so disgusted with what Zechariah said that Gabriel made Zechariah mute. I guess that Zechariah didnt hum Elizabeth her favorite song. . The people who had been praying outside the Temple realized when Zechariah didnt come out immediately that something had happened. When he came out and couldnt speak the people realized that he had seen a vision. Zechariah went homeElizabeth became pregnantobviously without the song. She went into seclusion for five months. A side note. Remember in the Christmas story when it starts out in the sixth month and angel appeared to Mary. The sixth month was the sixth month of Elizabeths pregnancy This is the story. Its a great story. The question that were asking of these stories during Advent at Chain of lakes is this. What can we learn about New Beginnings. Theres a lot here. I want to share one idea. God is always willing to surprise us. We could almost replace the term New Beginnings with the word surprise. Its as if God is willing to say to us I am about to surprise you, do you not perceive it? You and I are not all that different from Zechariah. Were living our life, going through our routines. We dont even realize that God is doing something new in us. God is surprising us. Often we dont believe it. Even if an angel comes to us and tells us what God is going to do we often dont believe it. Be open to surprises

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In our new congregation we have received so many surprises in 2012. God is surprising us. Imagine if angel had said to us nine months ago. Youre going to celebrate the baptism of a woman who you havent even met yet. On the same day youre going to celebrate the baptism of a man who just came to the United States. You havent met these two yet, but they belong to me and you will baptize them. If I had heard this I would have probably responded like Zechariahhow can this be. Today we celebrated this new beginning. God surprised us. Last week at our New Beginnings worship service a woman came up to me after worship and told me she was the Caribou lady. At first I thought she ran a Caribou shop. Ive shared this story before, but its worth sharing a lot. We were hiring a Music Director. We put a flyer about our hire in the local coffee shops. This woman saw the flyer at Caribou. She saw the flyer and sent an E-mail to Kristel who lived in Bemidji. If someone had come to us and told us, youre going to hire a woman who lives in Bemidji for your job. The way she is going to find out about the job is through a flyer that one of her friends will see at Caribou. Then this woman is going to E-mail Kristel and then Kristel will contact you. If someone had told me before that this was going to happen I would have probably responded like Zechariahhow can this be. Whats so ironic about Zechariahs response to God is he was a deeply religious person. What this tells me is even if we are committed followers of Jesus Christ (the people who come to worship in a snow storm) we still need to be open to being surprised by God. I think Zechariah was so busy being religious that he missed the movement of God.

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You and I can be so busy being and building a church that we fail to connect to the source of all that we do. God is ready to surprise us right now. Do you not perceive it? This is the second Sunday of Advent. Its the season of surprises. There is so much hope for Advent. The question I always bring to this season is simple. Is the world going to be different because weve celebrated Christmas. Whats going to be different on December 26th that happened because of our celebration of Jesus birth? Will our individuals lives be more connected to God; will our churches be stronger; will the vision that God has for the world be closer t happening. Will we have fewer people in poverty; will we be closer to ending war (did you know that there are 60 countries in the world who are at war. Obviously the United States is one of those countries.) Could we have zero on December 26th? Will the children who scavenged for food in garbage dumps have enough food so they dont have to do that. God is willing to surprise us. God is doing a new thing right now in our individual lives and in the world. Are we willing to be surprised?