Home

Weekly Devotional

December 21, 2009

God’s Peace be with you all.

Luke 1:5-25  ⁵ In the days of King Herod of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly order of Abijah. His wife was a descendant of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.  ⁶ Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.  ⁷ But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.  ⁸ Once when he was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty,  ⁹ he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.  ¹⁰ Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.  ¹¹ Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.  ¹² When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him.  ¹³ But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.  ¹⁴ You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,  ¹⁵ for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁶ He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  ¹⁷ With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."  ¹⁸ Zechariah said to the angel, "How will I know that this is so? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years."  ¹⁹ The angel replied, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.  ²⁰ But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur."  ²¹ Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah, and wondered at his delay in the sanctuary.  ²² When he did come out, he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He kept motioning to them and remained unable to speak.  ²³ When his time of service was ended, he went to his home.  ²⁴ After those days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she remained in seclusion. She said,  ²⁵ "This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favorably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people."

For those of you that missed yesterday’s service, our Gospel lesson was about Mary and her song of praise to God (see Luke 1:39-55).  The above pericope is the story of Zechariah, as I mentioned in yesterday’s Sermon.  It is an important part of the Nativity narrative that is often left out of our storytelling.  But it is not the only part though.  For this week, I encourage each of you to pull out your Bible’s and look up the birth narratives in Matthew’s Gospel and in Luke’s.  What you will see is that Matthew’s includes a very brief part (end of Matthew 1 and then into 2), and then moves to the visit by the Magi.  Luke’s birth narrative is intertwined with the birth narrative of John the Baptist.  As you read through those stories, I encourage you to find parts of them that are not a part of the usual Christmas story that we hear (through books, TV, Christmas pageants, etc.) and reflect on how those fit into the story.  For example, look for the part where Joseph planned to dismiss Mary before they were even pregnant.  What is the name of the angel that God sends?  Was there really three Wise Men?  Were there more?   I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and will look to the story of the birth of God’s Son for inspiration this holiday season.

In our prayers this week: 

Doris, Mary Netta, Ann, Joseph, Lisa, Kim, Robert, Sharon, and Catherine

God’s Peace,

Pastor Judson