A Gospel For Those in Recovey
In this past Sunday’s Gospel (St. Luke 1:5-25) we heard the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke tell us how Zechariah was told by the angel Gabriel that Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth was to give birth to the forerunner.
We are told that Zechariah and Elizabeth both lived good lives in God’s sight and obeyed fully all the Lords laws and commandments. They prayed for a child but Elizabeth was barren. Neither blamed the other or God for this. There was mutual support and care between them. And they continued to love and worship God.
But what happen when the angel of the Lord visited Zechariah in the Temple? Zechariah was serving in the Temple in Jerusalem. When he entered the sanctuary for the offering of the incense, the angel Gabriel visited him. Zechariah was afraid. The angel told him not to be afraid. The angles also told him that he and his wife would have a child, a son. Gabriel also said that the son shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and that many children of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. The son is to be called John and he will be the forerunner before the Lord the Savior.
But there was disbelieve in Zechariah. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years.” Gabriel did not like this response, and said, “I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee…” Zechariah was struck dumb, unable to see until John was born, because as the angel said “thou believes not my words.”
The unbelief of the believer is not acceptable in the eyes of God. Today, it would be fair to say that there are many religious atheists, Christian atheists. Zechariah for the moment forgot his history. He forgot the great miracles of his God; He forgot how the elderly Abraham and Sarah had a son. He forgot that water flowed from a rock.
For those of us in recovery from addiction the lesson of Zechariah may also be our story as well. Yes we have taken the first step toward recovery. We have acknowledged that we are powerless and that our lives are unmanageable. We have been in the shoes of the Prodigal Son who came to realize that he was far better off in his father house, and walked home.
What many of us are these Christian atheists? We find it hard, and some times impossible to take that second step. We may mouth the words saying that we have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. But do we believe? That may the reason why some many keep doing and doing and doing the first three steps over and over again.
God works miracles. That is the truth and there is evidence of it not only in the Bible but also in all the lives around us. We need only to look around. We need only to have faith. We need only to walk the path Christ has prepared for us. He walked ahead of us and he also walks at our side.
Until we more than acknowledge, until we come to believe with our whole hearts that Christ will, and has already, worked a miracle in our hearts, we can not completely take this second step, and are not ready for that third step of turning our lives over to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As long as we are just another of Christian atheists, we will be dumb, speechless as Zechariah. And for those of us in recovery, there are more than Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and all the saints of the New Testament. We also have all of our brothers and sisters who took this path before us, some who started only with a small amount of faith, but as they walked the path, their faith grew.
Zechariah’s logical thinking took hold of him as the Angel talk to him and told him what was going to happen. Our logical thinking will do us no better. We must be firm in our faith which history proves in a path will worn. It is a path, which takes us home to sobriety. It is a path, which takes us home to Christ. It is paths, which takes us before the mirror and lets us see the person who God created us to be, and become that person.
We are told that Zechariah and Elizabeth both lived good lives in God’s sight and obeyed fully all the Lords laws and commandments. They prayed for a child but Elizabeth was barren. Neither blamed the other or God for this. There was mutual support and care between them. And they continued to love and worship God.
But what happen when the angel of the Lord visited Zechariah in the Temple? Zechariah was serving in the Temple in Jerusalem. When he entered the sanctuary for the offering of the incense, the angel Gabriel visited him. Zechariah was afraid. The angel told him not to be afraid. The angles also told him that he and his wife would have a child, a son. Gabriel also said that the son shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit and that many children of Israel will turn to the Lord their God. The son is to be called John and he will be the forerunner before the Lord the Savior.
But there was disbelieve in Zechariah. “How shall I know this? For I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years.” Gabriel did not like this response, and said, “I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee…” Zechariah was struck dumb, unable to see until John was born, because as the angel said “thou believes not my words.”
The unbelief of the believer is not acceptable in the eyes of God. Today, it would be fair to say that there are many religious atheists, Christian atheists. Zechariah for the moment forgot his history. He forgot the great miracles of his God; He forgot how the elderly Abraham and Sarah had a son. He forgot that water flowed from a rock.
For those of us in recovery from addiction the lesson of Zechariah may also be our story as well. Yes we have taken the first step toward recovery. We have acknowledged that we are powerless and that our lives are unmanageable. We have been in the shoes of the Prodigal Son who came to realize that he was far better off in his father house, and walked home.
What many of us are these Christian atheists? We find it hard, and some times impossible to take that second step. We may mouth the words saying that we have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. But do we believe? That may the reason why some many keep doing and doing and doing the first three steps over and over again.
God works miracles. That is the truth and there is evidence of it not only in the Bible but also in all the lives around us. We need only to look around. We need only to have faith. We need only to walk the path Christ has prepared for us. He walked ahead of us and he also walks at our side.
Until we more than acknowledge, until we come to believe with our whole hearts that Christ will, and has already, worked a miracle in our hearts, we can not completely take this second step, and are not ready for that third step of turning our lives over to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As long as we are just another of Christian atheists, we will be dumb, speechless as Zechariah. And for those of us in recovery, there are more than Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and all the saints of the New Testament. We also have all of our brothers and sisters who took this path before us, some who started only with a small amount of faith, but as they walked the path, their faith grew.
Zechariah’s logical thinking took hold of him as the Angel talk to him and told him what was going to happen. Our logical thinking will do us no better. We must be firm in our faith which history proves in a path will worn. It is a path, which takes us home to sobriety. It is a path, which takes us home to Christ. It is paths, which takes us before the mirror and lets us see the person who God created us to be, and become that person.
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