And the Angel said ...

“When EF Hutton talks, people listen.”

Remember that old commercial?  If you want to express what it means for a person to have authority, the most direct and effective way is to say “People listen.”

And so, if an Angel showed up at your house today, and said he was sent from God to tell you something, you would listen.  Right?

And yet, even in the presence of an Angel of God, people have a choice – to believe or not to believe.

The Christmas back story about Zechariah and Mary and their separate encounters with the angel Gabriel is very revealing.  Same angel.  Same power. Same fearsome presence.  One believed what he said; one did not.

Both of these people were told about a baby that was going to be born.  Both of them were standing in humanly impossible situations for that to happen.  Both of them were told that God had favored and listened to them; both were told the name of the baby and his future destiny.  Two parents.  Two incredibly powerful destinies predicted for their children.  Two very different responses.

Now, if you don’t believe that angels exist, you will have discounted this story, but to do so you will have to call a lot of people liars.  Mary is a liar.  Zechariah is a liar. All the worshipers in the temple courtyard at the time Zechariah came out and could no longer speak – are liars.  Elizabeth is a liar.  All their neighbors who knew her to be old and childless are liars.  And Luke the doctor, who researched and interviewed witnesses and wrote it all down, he’s a liar, too.

But NEVERTHELESS, everything that the Angel Gabriel said came true!

Today, Christmas Eve, I just read again the powerful words of this Archangel who stands in the presence of God, and I am gripped with awe just as both Mary and Zechariah were so long ago.  Will you listen with me?

An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.  When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear.  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.  He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 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 from his mother's womb.  He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  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." Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this?  I am an old man and my wife is well along in years. 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.  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.”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.  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.”