Read: Luke 1.5-25
Finally we come to the angels
you may have been waiting for, those involved in the Christmas story!
The first of these is the angel
who appears to Zechariah, the angel who identifies himself as Gabriel.
Zechariah, like Abraham, has been unable to have a child with his wife,
Elizabeth, and they now seem too old. But the angel tells them that God has other
ideas. Elizabeth will bear a son. Not only that, but he will be the forerunner
to the long awaited Messiah, the man that we will come to know as John the
Baptist.
Zechariah is a priest who is on
duty in the Temple when this announcement is made. Everyone is waiting for him
to emerge from the sanctuary where he is supposed to have been simply offering
incense, but he has been struck dumb by the angel, unable to believe what he is
hearing. Although he had gone to the Temple to serve God, it is as if he doesn’t
really expect that he will actually encounter the divine.
·
When you
pray or come to church, do you expect to hear God speak to you in some way?
When was the last time that you felt God was speaking to you and how did this
happen?
·
Gabriel
says that the birth of their son will bring great joy to Zechariah and
Elizabeth, yet we know that Herod will eventually execute him to satisfy the
whim of his daughter and wife. The birth of children brings the possibility of
joy and sorrow – do you think Zechariah and Elizabeth would have felt the same
about this news if they had known how the story would end?
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