Seeing the Sky Through Our Window

Readings: Luke 1:5-23, Divine Providence #316 (see below)
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Photo by Niloofar Kanani on Unsplash

Today we visit with two figures early in the narrative of the gospel of Luke: Zechariah and Elizabeth. We are told they were righteous and blameless; good people doing their best to serve the Lord. They were both of the priestly line, diligently discharging their familial expectations, and all within the context of being an oppressed religious minority under Roman rule, and specifically under the empire’s proxy ruler, Herod, known for his scheming cruelty.

One day, as Zechariah is performing his duties at the temple, he is visited by an angel who declares that his wife Elizabeth will find herself with child. Zechariah and Elizabeth were quite old by this time, and had long given up hope of having children, and in this they echo many stories from the Hebrew Scriptures: including Abraham and Sarah, the father and mother of the people of Israel, and Elkanah and Hannah, the parents of the great prophet Samuel. Gabriel the angel tells them that their son will be a prophet in the spirit of Elijah and will be filled with the Holy Spirit before he is even born.

This son, who would eventually be known as John the Baptist, would famously preach in the days before Jesus began his own ministry these words: “Prepare a way for the Lord.” But it is interesting to note that, even after lifetime of service, Zechariah wasn’t prepared for the way that God was going to act into his life. 

In the Swedenborgian perspective, Zechariah represents the parts of us that are diligently trying to understand higher truths, trying to acknowledge that God is a power that is higher than the self. By contrast, Herod - the ruling power in Zechariah’s time - represents our lower nature, always working to make itself king. Herod would willingly destroy those around him in order to maintain power, just as our lower nature does not have time for anything that does not serve the self.

In this context, and crucially in contrast to Herod, Zechariah *was* actively submitting to a higher power, actively showing up for a life oriented towards service and devotion. And yet, Zechariah still had doubts. They were completely reasonable ones, the very same ones that his ancestor Abraham had in similar circumstances. Yet even as he went about his work, even as a literal angel shows up, he was unprepared to accept the gift of life that God was trying to give.

I can certainly resonate with that, and I wonder if you can too. A big part of my personality is trying to be prepared for things that might happen. I have lists upon lists. I game various scenarios out in my mind ahead of time. I try to have ready and available all the things that I think I might need for a task or project or trip, plus options for a Plan B if needed. And this can be a gift. It is a gift to my family when Thanksgiving, or a family vacation, or life in general goes off without a hitch and everyone can enjoy themselves. It is a gift to this church in the ways that it makes sure I have a sermon to preach each week, or in thinking through how we can accomplish our building restoration. So, on one level, it is a gift to others. But on another, I recognize that is a gift given to myself in response to my own fear. Fear of what? The fear of not knowing what might happen. The fear of having to rely on God.

News alert! Your pastor struggles with trusting God. I believe in God, and I love God, but I struggle with trusting God, because it means letting go of control, and that is hard for me. I *know* that I can rely on my own power, because that is (mostly) within my own control. Part of me remains doubtful that trust in God will actually be as effective as my own efforts. My mind certainly believes that God should be my higher power, yet my also mind demands: “tell me exactly how that is going to work? In detail, please, and in advance.” Then, and only then, will I be capable of trust.

And this rhymes thematically with the picture of Zechariah doubting what the angel Gabriel came to tell him. He needs assurance, wondering how he can be certain of what will come to pass. He protests that he and his wife are too old, signaling an inability to see new possibilities. And so, he becomes mute. He is unable give voice to the reality of God’s sovereignty, to the reality of what God is capable of, to the reality that trust is actually the *real* way of being prepared for anything that God is going to do. He cannot speak that reality, and so it is not able to be believed and lived.

But there is a part of us that can accept it, and this is represented by Elizabeth. As our minds demand explanation and assurance, our hearts know the truth. The truth that there is joy in letting God surprise us, the truth that there is peace in trusting that there is more to God than what we imagine we can control. Elizabeth receives the prophecy and allows for new life to be created within her. As this new life grows, Elizabeth is able to teach Zechariah what trust looks like. And as we will hear about in the coming weeks, Elizabeth will be the one who will birth John, the one who will pave the way for Jesus, and all the ways that Jesus will embody God’s love for humanity, and for each of us personally. 

However, speaking of Zechariah and Elizabeth separately like this belies the fact that we are of course always both of them. We are not supposed to choose between them; they are married, they are partners, working side by side. Our understanding is *supposed* to try to figure things out, supposed to try to be effective and wise. We all are able to effect so much good when we do. The problem is simply when our understanding starts clinging to its own power. The problem is when it becomes mute on the topic of trust because it has become so focused on effectiveness. We balance this with our heart-centered efforts to remain open and curious about how God is also acting beside us, being ready and willing to bring forth the new life God has in store.

In practice, a balance between our Zechariah and Elizabeth natures can often only come when Zechariah (our mind, our fears) stops speaking. When we can experience inner quiet. When the chatter of the outer world and all its expectation, all the ways that it is oriented towards Herod and his selfish ways, can cease for a moment. When Zechariah stopped speaking, that is when he found the clarity he needed. His muteness was not a punishment, it was an opportunity. It was a gift.

Swedenborg uses a different image to demonstrate what it looks like to mistake our own prudence as coming from ourselves rather than God. He says that it is like living in someone else’s house, with someone else’s possessions, and convincing ourselves that they are our own. Or, he says that being devoted to our own prudence is like living in a basement and seeing nothing through our windows except what is underground, while those who attribute their own prudence to God are like “people who live in a house and see the sky through their windows.” (1)

I love this image of seeing the sky through our windows. Of course we are supposed to inhabit the metaphorical houses of our lives, our vocations, our responsibilities, our relationships, our bodies, our minds. We are supposed to take care of them, show up for and to them, and use them to be effective and kind in the world to the best of our ability. We just shouldn’t mistake them for our own, and we shouldn’t go down to the basement and pretend that is the whole house. Yes, be in the house, but remember to look out the windows and see the vastness of God. Elizabeth had clearly been looking out through the windows the whole time, and was open to seeing what might arrive. Zechariah had wandered down to the basement for a moment and got a bit stuck there, forgetting that he believed in a God of the deep blue sky. But, as we will see in the coming weeks, he will find his way back to the window eventually.

So this Advent, amidst the Christmas lists, the entertaining, the decorating, and even the celebrating, let us remember to sit by the window to see the sky. Let us remember that God is dedicated to showing up for us and that we are about to celebrate how God did that, once upon a time. And let us remember that even if the Christmas story was a long time ago, that it reveals to us God’s ongoing nature, one that went to great lengths to reach us and still does even now. Let us sit by the window this Advent and trust in God’s life-giving nature.

Amen.

(1) Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine Providence #309, #311


Readings:
Luke 1:5-23

5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.
6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.
7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God,
9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.
13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.
14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth,
15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.
16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.
20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple.
22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home.

Divine Providence #316

The reason our own prudence convinces and assures us that everything good and true comes from us and is within us is that our own prudence is simply our cognitive sense of identity, flowing from our self-love, which is our emotional sense of identity. Our sense of autonomy inevitably lays claim to everything. It cannot rise above this. Whenever we are being led by the Lord's divine providence, though, we are lifted out of our sense of autonomy and see that everything good and true comes from the Lord. We even see as well that whatever is in us from the Lord always belongs to the Lord and is never ours.