“In the Days of Herod…”

Lamentations 3:55-57; Luke 1:5-13

As a child, one of my favorite comics to read every day was “Peanuts” by Charles Schulz. You may remember a recurring theme in that comic strip of Snoopy working on writing a soon-to-be-famous novel. In one comic I found, we see Snoopy struggling mightily with the opening sentence, writing a word at a time, before finally coming up with “It was a dark and stormy night.” Snoopy often had difficulty with the opening line of his novel, and he is right- Good writing is hard work.

The opening line in this morning’s verse can easily be overlooked, even though it is also “Good writing” as it comes from scripture. “In the days of Herod, King of Judea…” We want to get to the good stuff- the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, and contemplate the miraculous birth of the prophet, John the Baptist. Yet how this story begins is significant.

In the days of Herod, King of Judea, we learn that, as the story of Jesus begins in Luke’s Gospel, the world is shaped by violence, oppression, corrupt power, and fear. Herod, the Roman-appointed king and ruler of Judea, wielded power through imperial alliance with Rome and maintained it through coercion, brutality, and surveillance of the people. In the days of Herod, in the days of difficult political times and fear, the story of Jesus begins.

We learn of an aging priestly couple- Zechariah and his wife, Elizabeth. They were righteous before God. They were right in God’s eyes and worshipped regularly in the temple. Yet they had not been able to have a child, which was often interpreted in those days as divine judgment. You can imagine the whispers behind their backs, that somehow God had punished them with childlessness, leading to personal grief.

Yet, despite how others may have viewed them, they continue to be faithful, living their lives by following God’s ways and Zechariah serving in the priesthood.

While taking his turn on duty as part of the priesthood, Zechariah offers incense in the temple. As the smoke from the incense rose, it signified the presence of God and the rising of prayers, which we will experience in just a bit when we offer our prayers later in the service.

In the midst of his priestly duties, Zechariah encounters a heavenly presence, a messenger of God, an Angellos kurion, angel of the Lord in Greek. His response to seeing this Angel of the Lord is not joyful, as perhaps God has heard his prayers as they rose with the incense. Zechariah was troubled by this divine presence. Luke uses the verb tarasso tarasso, which means “to be disturbed, or agitated.”  Zechariah’s troubled state leads to a deep inner shaking, a disruption. It leads him to phobos, phobos ,or fear. The angel’s presence is unexpected, and Zechariah’s fear is a natural human response to divine disruption. But fear can become more than a response to the unexpected. It can take root and become a way of being.

The writer of Lamentations, likely the prophet Jeremiah, indeed writes from a place of fear. His homeland is under the rule of Babylon, a foreign power, while he and most of his people have been captured after a very one-sided war. The name of his writing, “Lamentations,” means “passionate expression of grief and sorrow, weeping.” In this section, Jeremiah is in the pit, as expressed so well by artist Carmelle Beaugelin Caldwell in her painting, “Depths.” From the depths of the pit, filled with fear, Jeremiah calls out to God and has faith that God has heard and reached out to him. God’s message, “Do not fear!”

Caldwell speaks about how life can often feel like a free fall, like riding a roller coaster. Complete panic sets in at the top of the tracks, because a drop is coming. She writes, “Many of us, like Jeremiah, know this kind of freefall in our personal lives, in our ministries, and in our political climate that seems to collapse our sense of security into a bottomless pit. Yet, when the fall ends, when the deepest depths have been reached, as we echo prayers from the depths of each of our lives, we can rest in the assurance that we are heard by a God who meets us at rock bottom.”

How then do we deal with our fears, as we begin this season of Advent, when we recognize that the Messiah is to be born also during a time of great fear, in the time of Herod? How do we keep that fear from settling in and inhibiting our action, diminishing our courage? How do we hold onto the belief, that God meets us at rock bottom?

Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee writes, “Especially in Herodian times-eras marked by empire, oppression, and uncertainty, fear becomes embedded in our bodies, relationships, and public discourse. It becomes background noise so constant we forget it is there.”

Recognizing the fear that is within us is a start. Name the fear. Know it is a part of who you are. Accept it and know there are other parts within you as well. My Spiritual director often asks me, as I am telling her about my life, to pause and name what it is I am feeling as I express myself. Sometimes it is fear. I am familiar with my fear and know it well. My fear even has a name. “Barney Fife.” You all remember his character from the old TV show, The Andy Griffith Show? Well, Barney is often with me in the depths, shaking and stumbling around nervously somewhere in my soul, as I worry about my family, my congregation, and my country. Barney was often the embodiment of fear in that old show, and he is how my fear is personified. In those moments, I acknowledge Barney, let him know it is alright to be afraid, and then consider who else might be down in my soul, often finding hope, peace, joy, love, and the presence of God there as well. The other entities present help Barney calm down.

So in those moments that are troubling and fearful to us, as Zechariah and Jeremiah experienced, recognize your fear, and if it helps, give it a name.😉 Because God chose to take on flesh in the time of Herod, God intimately knows the fears we experience, and is with us in the pits of despair we find ourselves in. God came down to us in the form of a vulnerable newborn baby with no place to rest, daring to proclaim hope in the midst of all that fear. That same proclamation is made here and now.

Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity shares an experience of fear and hope after Hurricane Helene devastated much of her community in September of 2024. “After the hurricane, my 2.5-year-old daughter and I returned to our town’s community garden, one of our favorite places to walk and explore. It was our sanctuary, but Hurricane Helene turned it into an ocean. The park was destroyed, and the wildflower field was turned into a beach, flooded with mud and sand. I found myself heavy with grief and fear. Meanwhile, my daughter pounced around, falling softly onto a bed of dried grass, begging me to do the same. In the wildflower field, she picked dried seed pods from fallow stalks and blew the feathery seeds into the wind. She danced and twirled in a swirl of wildflower seeds. In that moment, I realized this is what it means to insist on hope in a fearful and heart-heavy world. We must toss seeds of hope into the wind and trust that God will plant something new, even amidst destruction.”

As Advent begins, we light candles, sing carols, and pray for the arrival of the Messiah, because we believe God entered a frightened world to bring Good News. We insist on a hope that is not flimsy or fleeting, despite the fear around us and within us. This hope is gritty, resilient, and can endure. I call it a stubborn hope that encourages us, no matter what fears we face. So, as this Advent season begins, let us spread seeds of hope and trust that Good News is greater than fear. Alleluia. Amen

Prayer

Introduction of the hymn after.

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” These lyrics from “O Little Town of Bethlehem” were written by American Episcopal priest Phillips Brooks in 1868. America was still experiencing the painful aftermath of the bloody Civil War, as the birth of civil rights for all people was born, and President Grant tried to reconstruct a broken nation. It was a time of great fear. This hymn echoes the refrain of Biblical wisdom, that God’s hope meets our fears, and that despite the darkness we may see, “yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light.”  So friends, let us join our voices together in hope as we sing together.