This was originally a part of Wednesday’s Sermon, but it was too long and not quite aligned with the theme. Instead of throwing out the work, I share it for those who might find it interesting:
In Greek tragedy, the oracle prophesied to King Laios. His son would kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified the king resolved no son of his would live. When a strong health boy was born. The king left him exposed in the wilderness, but a shepherd took pity on him and rescued him. Years later, Oedipus met his father on the road. The headstrong young man refused to get out of the way of the king’s men. He didn’t know it was his father. They fought. In the skirmish the king was killed. Oedipus then approached Thebes and found the city in mourning. Some warrior, maybe a robber had slain him and all his men. This was while the city was already in crisis. A sphynx was interrupting travel and devouring all who took her path without answering her riddles. Oedipus solved both problems at once; he defeated the sphynx and won the queen’s heart, not knowing she was his own mother. As a common theme in Greek myths, by trying to change his fate, King Laios brought it about. If Oedipus had only known his father and mother, such a horror would never needed to happen.
This is how the Greeks wrestled with this question, how much control do any of us have over our own destinies? Have the Fates’ already spun their thread? Are our decisions just cogs in a machine no one can control? Even the gods, powerful yet fickle, couldn’t escape the decrees of fate. How could any man?
Christians have asked and continued to ask similar questions, but in answer, instead of the warning don’t test the Fates, we receive the comfort to trust the will of our God, to pray to him earnestly, and know that he not only hears you, he listens to you and takes your prayers into consideration. In a mystery beyond our comprehension, our prayers even change God’s mind. He doesn’t answer always in the time we would like or in the way we imagine, but the angel’s words to Zechariah still carry God’s message to us today, Fear not, God has listened to your prayer.
God had a plan. From the creation of the world, he had promised the seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head. He promised Abraham, all nations will be blessed by you. And David, I will establish your throne forever. He promised his people Israel that he would establish for them a perfect kingdom that would never end. They waited. They prayed. They longed. They hoped for these promises to come true. God told them to look for a messenger, a prophet, who would go before the Lord like Elijah to prepare the way for the Lord. And now, not as unthinking and unwilling and unsuspecting victims of fate, but as a righteous man and his wife, who lived in faith according to the word of the Lord, now the Lord told Zechariah and Elizabeth their prayers had been answered. Prayers they had long forgotten and given up hope on were part of God’s eternal plans to bring about salvation. In their old age, they would have a son. He was not only the answer to the prayers of a couple longing for a child, but for a whole nation, longing for salvation.
This isn’t fate. This wasn’t their destiny. Instead this is God’s plan. In a mystery we cannot understand, his hands are in our history. His ears take our prayers into account. At times, the God who never changes, even relents, he changes his mind when people respond in faith. Hezekiah receive 15 more years. Nineveh was not destroyed like Jonah had said. God does not control our actions. We do not have a fate written in the stars or on the thread of life. God in his infinite wisdom uses our free actions, our heartfelt prayers, to accomplish his will in everything. (This is a mystery we cannot unravel what God knows and wills and what human beings decide and do and pray, but this is a mystery we leave to God. How can we expect to understand or even know fully him who holds all things together. This is one place where our reason fails, and we will accept God at what he says, because we preach Christ crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men.)
St. Paul told the Corinthians that all his plans, as many as the promises God has made they are yes in [Christ Jesus, the Son of God]. For that reason we say amen through him to the glory of God. God’s answer to Zechariah’s prayer was a yes, but a yes for the salvation of his people. When we pray, for whatever we pray, God answers yes, yes according to all he has promised you. He weaves your prayers into the tapestry of his history. His word, his promise, his answer are always and only yes in Jesus and his work.
Do not forget your prayers, dear children of God. Speak to your God. Pour out your heart to him. Ask him anything, and know that he listens to you. Do not doubt, do not despair, do not give up hope when it seems that God is silent. For hundreds of years God’s people wondered when they would hear from God. When would God listen and answer their prayers? Then out of that silence, God spoke, John, the forerunner to the Messiah would be born. Out of the silence, the silence of the world, the silence of our doubts and fears, the silence of our minds, God speaks, fear not your prayer has been answered. Fear not, in Christ, God answers your prayers. He answers them in his own time. He answers in his own way. He answers with his grace and love. HIs answer may not come today. His answer may not be in the way we desire. His answer may not even come in this life. His answer, his yes, will always be seen, felt, experienced, when he comes again. Then we will see all he has done. Then we will marvel at his power to answer our prayers. Then God himself will visit us and he himself will speak to us. Then we will know: he answers for the salvation of all his people.