Giving Light; Guiding Feet

         Luke 1: 68-79

My name is Zechariah. I’m a priest. A Jewish priest. My wife is Elizabeth. We’ve been happily married for a long time. We were never able to have children. Until now. This has been by far the craziest year of my life. I’ve always tried to live by the Scripture. So has Elizabeth. We have prayed for many years for the coming of the Messiah, but that’s not news. My people have been offering up that prayer since the days of Isaiah. But a few months ago, everything changed. Boy, did it change!

I was on duty at the temple. It was my division’s turn. On that day, it was my lot to enter the inner temple to burn incense. I came inside to do my job and there stood an angel! You heard me. An angel! He scared me half to death. He said don’t be afraid. He said my prayer for a child had been answered, that Elizabeth was going to bear a son and that we should name him John. Right! I’m sorry. I mean I know this happened to Abraham and he was even older than me, but that was Abraham, the father of my people! I’m just an old priest. So I said to him: How shall I know this?

He didn’t like my answer. He said he was Gabriel and that he gets to stand in the presence of God. I guess he thought I was being impudent or didn’t believe him. Really, I was just dumbstruck. How many times do you get a chance to talk to an angel? I wasn’t prepared. And then I really was dumbstruck, because Gabriel struck me dumb for over nine months. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t say a word, until today.

Well, it happened just the way he said. Elizabeth conceived. Six months later her cousin Mary also got a visit from Gabriel. Her news was even bigger, if what she tells Elizabeth is true. She’s pregnant now too, just like Gabriel told her. Gabriel let her in on what is going on with my Elizabeth and soon after, Mary came to visit us. She and Elizabeth had this incredible experience. Elizabeth’s baby, our baby, leapt in the womb at the sight of Mary. It was quite a scene, watching them together. And that’s all I could do… just watch. Mary ended up staying with us for about three months, very close to the time that Elizabeth delivered our son. All the neighbors came by to congratulate us. I guess we’re quite a curiosity item because we’re so old.  They rejoiced with us for our good fortune.

Today, we went to the temple. It’s the eighth day after our son was born. Our tradition requires us to go there to have him circumcised. This is our way of visibly showing that we are people of the covenant. They started to name him after me, but Elizabeth spoke up and said to name him John. Everybody thought sure that was wrong because no one in my family has that name. Someone got a writing tablet and handed it to me. I scribbled on it to name him John. Right then, my speech was restored. The first thing I did was to bless God.

I guess between the strange name that had nothing to do with my family, the restoration of my speech and us having a child at such an old age, it was just too much for everyone to take in. We were the talk of all the hill country of Judea.  People thought the hand of God was on this child. They have no idea how right they were. The question on everyone’s lips was “What then will this child be?”

I know the answer. I was full of God’s Spirit and he gave me voice. I prophesied. It sounded like a poem or a hymn. Some people call it the Benedictus. I was so full of God’s Spirit that it just came pouring out.

First, I blessed God, and not just for me and Elizabeth, but for all God’s people. We have prayed for this for so long and now it’s happening. God promised to visit and redeem us. The prophets told us that our redeemer would come from the house of David and he will. That time is very near. Our salvation is near. We use the word horn to indicate power, because it reminds us of the power of the mighty rams and other horned animals that inhabit our land. He who my son will announce is the horn, the power, of salvation, and I know that he is on his way to us.

I sang about that mighty covenant given to Abraham by God himself; that he would deliver us from the hand of our enemies. He has done that many times for us over the centuries. No matter what we did, he always forgave us. But it’s been a long time that we have prayed for the promised king to come. This time, it is different. I don’t know the details, but I do know that our god keeps covenant with his people. The time is near when we will be able to serve him without fear, for we will be delivered. That’s what all those old scriptures and prophecies are all about, you know. There are a lot of stories and there is a lot of history. But the common thread that runs from the beginning to right this minute is that God keeps covenant with his people. God’s kingdom is about to be introduced. I can feel it.

I sang about my son, my blessed son John. I told them what I know in my heart, that he will be called the prophet of the Most High. He will go before the Lord. He will prepare his ways. He will set the table for who is to come. He will bring the knowledge of salvation to those of our people who will listen. Many of us have long thought that when Messiah came, he would be ushered in by the great prophet Elijah, the one whom God called up to heaven in a whirlwind surrounded by horses and chariots of fire. But now I know; it is not to be Elijah, but John. Can you imagine? My son, this little baby boy, will grow up to pave the way for our Savior. That means that after all this time, after all these centuries, Messiah is on the way! I haven’t said it aloud, but I’m thinking that my son will be a baptizer, getting people to turn from their selfishness to see the light that is coming.

While I was praising God and singing this song of prophecy, I began to see a new truth. The salvation that is coming lies in forgiveness… forgiveness of our sins by God, forgiveness of our neighbor by us, forgiveness from our neighbor to us. I began to see that it all comes from God’s tender mercy toward us. I never realized until now how glorious and powerful is that ability to forgive and be merciful. He truly is God if he can bring that to us.

As I sang my praise, I realized something else. I know that God has spoken to his people through covenant and I know that covenant was with Abraham. I always thought it was for us, the Jews. I’m sure that is still true, but it’s not the whole truth. Like the new truth of God’s forgiveness, I see a new truth about God’s people. God is like the sunrise, but so much more powerful. I see now that God gives light to all who sit in darkness. I see now that God brings deliverance to all who sit in the shadow of death. God’s light is the light of the world. He will guide us and he will guide us to the way of peace. I don’t mean peace that is just the absence of war. I mean peace that is the presence of faith and hope and understanding and righteousness. And now, I think I understand what God meant when he said that his salvation is for all his people. If we believe in him who is coming, if we believe the message of the Most High whom my son and others will be privileged to introduce…then…we are God’s people! We will be known to him not by the mark of circumcision, but by the mark of our faith.

What then will this child be, ask the people? He will be a messenger. His name will be John. He is my son, but he will belong to the ages.  He will never be forgotten, but even so, he is not the story. The great prophet Isaiah said this so many years ago:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you

For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness, the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will be seen upon you.

And nations shall come to the light,

and kings to the brightness of your rising.

Isaiah 60: 1-4

The story is about to be told and it will change the world

forever. For John will introduce us to him for whom the world has waited. He will introduce us to our Lord.

Who then will this child be? He will be as we can be. He will be a messenger of the coming of the Lord. Think about it. In no time, he will pass the torch to others. Our Lord will come, and with it the beginning of the end of the age. My son cannot tell everyone. We will need other messengers. Our Savior is coming and he has a message. Will you hear? Will you help?  

Let us pray.

12/8/13