June 23rd

Zechariah

            Once when Zechariah was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense.  Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside.  Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.  When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 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.  You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 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.  He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.  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.”  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.” 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.  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.”

Luke 1:8-20

    

            Zechariah had devoted himself to the service of his God and his people.  He had long ago given up on the dream of having a family of his own as he and his wife Elizabeth were well past child-rearing years.  His life was now about serving his wife and fulfilling his duties as a priest until his lord called him home.

One day as he was offering incense, the angel Gabriel appeared to Zechariah with a message.  The priest was gripped by terror.  There were stories and traditions in ancient Israel that if a priest went into the presence of the Lord to make offerings and he was not completely purified, the priest would be struck dead on the spot.  Some stories even say that the priests would tie a rope around the ankle of the one chosen by lot.  If God struck him down, the body could be pulled out of the holy place without risk of another priest ending up dead.

Zechariah may have thought that his time had come.  Face to face with an angel is no easy place to be, even for a man of faith like Zechariah.  But Gabriel was not there to smite the priest.  He was there to bring a message of hope and joy.  Zechariah and Elizabeth were going to have a son and John would be the greatest prophet that Israel had seen in centuries. 

Zechariah could not believe…he could not wrap his head around this message and questioned the messenger.  Because he refused to hope, the priest was struck mute until his son was born.  What should have been a time of celebration and joy was transformed into awkwardness and struggle because Zechariah would not allow his heart to be surprised by joy.

There is a popular expression in our world: “Hope for the best. Expect the worst.”  If bad things happen the you will be prepared.  If good things happen then your will be pleasantly surprised.  It is a nice theory, but what I have found in practice is that those who expect the worst can not accept the good things that come their way because they are on the lookout for when the next shoe will drop and bad things will sweep away all of the good that just arrived.

We often need to improve in our ability to receive good things from God.  We hold His gifts at arm’s length because we don’t want to face the pain of losing them or we are suspicious that there are conditions and strings attached or because we do not believe that God would give us something good.  We often take good gifts that are given to us for our joy and pleasure and throw them aside because we are afraid of being hurt again.

I had my first game of catch with my son a couple of weeks ago.  For 16 years, I have been trying to get him to throw or kick something with me.  When he was younger he would refuse or lose interest or just sit down and cry.  This time he asked if I wanted to throw a frisbee with him and we stood on the field and tossed for a good twenty minutes.  I was tempted to turn it into an Ultimate Frisbee instructional time or to look closely for what was going to go wrong.  But instead I simply smiled and laughed and played catch with my son, enjoying this beautiful gift that God was giving to me.

A moment to reflect:

Look for what God is giving to you and try to receive it with joy.