Standing Before God
Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily
Passage Luke 1
We are presented with the opening of the gospel of St Luke. Each character is introduced by St Luke with an underlying tension; a problem personally applicable to each one.
He starts with Zacharias; “There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.”
What an amazing way to be described, and yet, they had no child. Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years. This is a real problem. You would think that living a righteous and blameless life would lead to blessings, especially a priest. This would be a real point of hurt for them.
The gospel begins with this tension. This same tension is lived in many of our lives. We carry very similar questions; “I am doing all that I can do, I’m praying, I’m coming to church- why does this problem exist?”
“I asked God to help, but I heard nothing. I’m praying, I’m trying my best but I feel I’m going nowhere.”
Zacharias and his wife, Elizabeth’s story unfolds with this tension. “So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, 9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. 10 And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.”
And then Zacharias receives news that his wife, Elizabeth will have a son. If we look back upon the context under which this tension was released, we note some key points of resolution to the tension they faced for so long. It was Zacharias’ first time in the altar burning incense. He had the opportunity to present himself before God. The first clue is that tension is released when we stand before God.
Fr Dawood Lamey once said when addressing priests and asked, “Do you know why God chose you to be a priest? For your own salvation, so that you can stand before God at the altar, not because you are not here to save, but so that you may be saved before the altar.”
The first thing that released Zacharias from the tension was standing before God. And who was behind him? The whole multitude of people were praying outside the altar at the time of the raising of incense.
I once asked for Fr Yacoub’s guidance during a matter that someone had come to me about. His response was that we make a canon of prayer. I figured it must for the person to pray, but he meant the seven priests. Perhaps we pray the midnight prayer every night and a certain number of liturgies throughout the week for this purpose. And make sure that the person doesn’t know that we are doing this.
The whole multitude was standing behind in prayer. There is so much power in this. In that context, resolution begins to take place to ease the tension in Zacharias’ life.
“And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he lingered so long in the temple.”
Sometimes we rush prayer, we can’t wait to get out and get to sleep, as quickly as possible. What if we linger? An extra psalm, an extra matania, more time with the Lord. I don’t want to leave just yet. The Agpia helps us to spend more time, and to linger with God.
One time, I was praying with Fr Augustinos and he pulled the most mangled Agpia I had ever seen. Held by three elastics and a missing front cover. Such an overused prayer book. What’s the condition of my Agpia? Let us to learn to mangle our Agpia by lingering more with God.
In Psalm 73, King David says, “I am a beast, presented to the Lord. I was like a beast before You, nevertheless I am continually with You, You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with Your counsel and afterward receive me to glory.”
In the same psalm, after calling himself a beast, it was too painful to understand until I entered into the sanctuary of the Lord. Only then, could I understand. The solution to any tension in our life is found in the sanctuary of the Lord. It is found by presenting ourselves to the Lord as a beast. Insufficient faith, insufficient knowledge, but then I begin to understand. Then my tension is resolved.