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Today we are beginning a series of sermons that will take us through the gospel of Luke. I want to encourage us as a church to read through the gospel together over the next 6 weeks. Just a chapter a day, Monday - Friday, will get us through the gospel before Holy Week. The reason it’s important for us to read the gospels, and I would say for us to read them over and over again, is that if we want our lives to reflect the life of Jesus, we need to know how he lived and how he loved. Our relationships with others need to look like the relationships Jesus had with people, and the gospels are where we find this information.
What we see in the gospel of Luke specifically is that Jesus often chooses and uses the people that others would pass over. It’s the outcasts, the outsiders, and even a few outlaws that Jesus not only reached out to and loved but included them and used them in His ministry. That all persons were going to have a place in the work of Jesus was made clear from the very beginning of Luke’s gospel.
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. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. Luke 1:5-7
There has been a lot of conversation these days about what it means to be old - or past our prime. Just a note to all the men listening, it is NEVER a good idea to tell a woman she is past her prime. If you don’t believe me, just ask CNN’s Don Lemon. But we do have certain biases about older people. Maybe we think they are too out of touch or don’t understand all that is going on in the world to be useful. Leaders often think older people aren’t capable of doing a job or helping an organization or business move forward, and too often we feel like their ideas are outdated and that a new generation of ideas (and people) is needed.
But the very beginning of the Jesus movement, the very beginning of this new thing God was going to do in the world, stated when God chose and used two people who are described as very old. While we don’t know the ages of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the same word for very old used here was also used in 2 Samuel to describe a man who was 80. But I also heard this week that in Jewish tradition you were considered old when you hit 60. As you might imagine, I wasn’t too happy to hear that. I’m not ready to be considered old on Tuesday - although there are days I feel it.
But Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and I think we can say that they were past their prime, at least when it came to having children. That’s the other thing we learn about them, they had never had children, and that in itself made them a bit of an outcast. In Jesus’ day, if couples were unable to have children, people believed they had done something wrong. They weren’t being blessed by God so there must be some unresolved sin in their lives. Elizabeth even says later that she had been living with disgrace among her own people. But Luke makes sure we know that this wasn’t the case with Zechariah and Elizabeth. They weren’t being punished for sin, they were righteous and blameless before God, which is why God chose them in their old age to begin the movement that would bring Jesus into the world.
Zechariah and Elizabeth were old and childless. They were outcasts in the community, and yet God chose them to bring in the prophet who would prepare people for a spiritual awakening and point people to the Messiah. Over and over in the Bible we see that God chooses and uses those that many would have considered too old and past their prime.
Abraham was 80 and Sarah was 70 when God chose them to leave their home and establish a new family in a new land. It would be another 10 years before Sarah would have the promised child. She was 80 and Abraham was 90 when Isaac was first born. God chose an old and infertile couple to start a new movement.
It was in his old age that Jacob had a child with his barren wife, Rachel, the one he loved most of all. That child was Joseph. Joseph was the one who was sold into slavery by his brothers but in time saved all of God’s people by becoming a leader in Egypt.
A few generations later, Moses was 80 when God called him to lead the people of God out of Egypt. The Apostle Paul would have been seen as an old man when he was writing to all the churches he had established during his life. That means most of the New Testament was written by an old man. Just when society might be ready to put someone out to pasture, God chooses and uses them for His purpose.
There is a reason that God chooses and uses older people and it’s not just that they have more experience and wisdom to draw from, it’s because as we get older, our thinking often shifts from thinking about success in life to significance. In his book, Half Time, Bob Buford talks about how many people in the first half of their life are searching for and chasing after success. We go to college or tech school and then try to land that first job that will give us what we need to get bigger and better jobs in the future. Maybe we get married and start a family and then want to move on to bigger houses and better opportunities for our children. This doesn’t mean success is all we are focused on, but that is where we spend our time and energy.
As many people get older, however, there is a shift from thinking about success to significance. We find out that bigger isn’t always better. Some people get burned out by the pace of life needed to sustain the pursuit of success. We start asking ourselves, is there more to life than this? Is there more I should be doing, or need to do? Is there more God is asking from me? It is often this shift in thinking that causes people to leave their jobs and pursue a different career. The average age of people in seminary is 40 because suddenly people start looking to be part of something significant.
Maybe it’s that shift in thinking that God is looking for, maybe it is the wealth of wisdom and experience that God needs to draw from, but what can’t be ignored is that God chooses and uses older people. It was an older couple that God used to make some major changes in my first church.
I was the pastor at Second Avenue UMC in Altoona and Flo and Bill Dickey were members at Trinity UMC. Second Ave and Trinity had a combined youth group and many of the families were making the shift to our church which meant that Trinity was struggling with their future. I had gotten to know Flo and Bill a little bit and they were well into their 80’s when they showed up at a meeting at Trinity where they were going to discuss their future. After a lot of conversations, it was Flo who said, we have talked enough. I make the motion that we sell our church and merge with Second Ave. Her husband seconded the motion. The vote passed overwhelmingly, in large part because Flo and Bill suggested it.
Here at Faith Church, we just celebrated the life of Al Nestor. Al was in his 80’s when he embraced being a greeter at the door and he said he did it because he saw young families with kids needing help and he could do something to make a difference. Al helped set a tone of hospitality and service that has helped shape who we are.
When we first started setting up some small groups here at the church, Louise Mundy offered to host a group and opened up her home. I’m not going to tell you how old she was then, but I will tell you that Louise is still opening her home to groups and her Sunday School class eats there a few times a year and she is 97.
If you are old or being told you are past your prime, what might God want to do in your life? What is God calling you to embrace? What ministry does God want you to start? Now isn’t the time to think about giving up, now is the time to start gearing up for what God has for you.
And the message for everyone under 60 is that we need to remember there are times when God specifically chooses those who are older to lead us into the future. God chose Zechariah and Elizabeth to begin a new thing and usher the work of Jesus into the world. But let’s be clear, God doesn’t just use those who are older, God also chooses the young, sometimes those very young. We find this when we keep reading in Luke 1.
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:26-33
The word virgin can also be translated as young girl and many believe Mary to have been a teenager, maybe as young as 14. Mary was also from Nazareth, a town that was not well thought of. She was a nobody from a hick town that most people thought would not amount to much in life and yet she was the one chosen by God to bring the Messiah into the world. After choosing an older couple to begin a movement, God chooses a young girl to literally make it happen. She will be the one to bring Jesus into the world.
Just as God chooses and uses those seen as too old to be of use, God also chooses and uses those seen as too young to be of any value. We see this in other places in the Bible. David’s brothers thought he was too young to be a soldier so they told him to go home and tend the sheep, and yet it was David who took down the giant Goliath.
One of the reasons that God chooses and uses young people is because they possess a courage and trust that oftentimes no one else has. David was not only courageous, he trusted that God could do in him something that other people thought was impossible. None of the other soldiers thought God would fight with them if they went up against Goliath. None of the other soldiers were even willing to try - but David did.
There is something special about young people. Many of them have a faith and vision that sees anything and everything as possible. It’s like they don’t know you can’t do things so they just go ahead and do it. I was 20 years old when I hopped on a bus and took a long trip to Montana to work in Yellowstone National Park. I’ll be honest, I don’t know that I could or would even want to do that today.
I hope you have heard about or read about the Asbury Univ. Revival. On February 8, a group of college students felt called by God to keep their chapel service going, so they submitted to the Holy Spirit and kept worship going. For 11 days those students led worship, shared testimonies, read scripture, prayed together and in silence, and allowed the Holy Spirit to fill them and use them. We sang a hymn a few weeks ago that said, Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me. Melt me, mold me, fill me, use me. And that is exactly what the spirit of God did in a group of young people. The Holy Spirit filled them and used them.
For 11 days, 24 hours a day, people’s lives have been transformed by the power of God’s Spirit working through college students. People from around the globe have visited the campus and while some might have come to just be part of the crowd, others were there to repent of their sins, ask for healing and wholeness, and to work at being reconciled to God and others.
You may not be aware of it, but 53 years ago a similar revival took place at Asbury. It was 1970 and a group of students felt called by God to keep their chapel service going. They were also obedient to the Holy Spirit and a revival lasted for a week. People from around the nation came to experience this awakening and their lives were changed. What started at Asbury in 1970 spread to other colleges and churches and countries. People’s lives were changed.
We need to pray for revival and awakening among our young people. We need to pray for a passion and courage and faith that will help them do all that the Holy Spirit calls them to do, and then we need to support them in doing it. Sometimes supporting youth in their call from God might seem to us as foolishness. Too many times our experience causes us to hold them back from doing what God might want done. Ours might have been the voices that would have said to students at Asbury, “it’s time to go home now, it’s time to end the worship and praise and prayer and return to normal.”
It can be easy for us to look down on those who are young as being too inexperienced, not fully developed, and they really don’t know what they are talking about - but God uses the young. God used a young woman who was willing to say yes to bring the Messiah into the world. God used young students who said yes to bring revival to their campus and the world.
So to those of you who are young: youth, young adults, young families, what is God calling you to do? How is God calling you to step out with faith and give birth to a movement that will change people’s lives? How is God calling you to step out with courage and slay the giants of our time?
I believe God is choosing and using our youth here at Faith Church because we see it every week. Every week our broadcast room is filled with youth willing to serve to make sure our worship is online. Sometimes it is ONLY youth back there serving to keep worship going. Our youth go on mission trips, they seek God out at retreats and festivals and camps. They are already seeking God. God is already calling them.
To the youth today, I would say what Paul said to his young friend Timothy, a young man he put in charge of a church,
Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.
Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. 1 Timothy 4:12-16
At the beginning of Luke’s gospel we see God choosing and using two groups of people that we often want to ignore and overlook, the young and the old. Those that society still thinks are either not ready for prime time, or past their prime are the very people God used to bring Jesus into the world. The message for all of us is that God wants to use all of us. The young and the old and the middle aged. If you are 13, or 53 or 83, what is God calling you to do? How does God want to use you in the world. Will you you let God move in you? Will you let God use you?
In a moment, Pastor David is going to come and encourage us to think about how we grow as a community. As we do, I want to encourage us to think specifically about how we can help those who we might consider too old or too young to embrace the calling of God. Think about how you can be an encouragement or source of inspiration to someone. How can we form a community that will value the gifts and contributions of the young and the old - and all of us in between.
Next Steps
Luke: Outcasts, Outsiders and Outlaws
Read Luke 1-5. Note the times God welcomes, calls, chooses and uses those who might be considered outcasts.
Luke 1:5-25. Why might Zecahariah and Elizabeth have been seen as outsiders and outcasts? What does it say to you that God chose them to begin the story of Jesus?
What biases does our society have against older people? What biases do you have against older people? In what ways might we see them as “past their prime”?
What examples of older people being called by God can you find in the Bible? In history? In the world today? In your life?
Encourage an older person in their life and ministry this week.
Luke 1:26-38. Why might Mary have been seen as an outsider or outcast? What does it say to you that God chose her to bring Jesus into the world?
What biases does our society have against young people?
What biases do you have against young people? In what ways might you see them as “not ready for prime time”?
What examples or young people being called by God can you find in the Bible? In history? In the world today? In your life?
Encourage a young person in their life and ministry this week.
For further study: Read Luke 1:39-56.
What aspects of Christian community are seen here? How can you help create and nurture this kind of community during the season of Lent?
