Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-december-5-2022
Luke 1:67-79
Zechariah’s Song
67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
68 “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
69 He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
70 (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
71 salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
72 to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
73 the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
74 to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
On Friday, we based our Reflection on the story from Luke in which the birth of John the Baptist was foretold to his father, the priest Zechariah. Today’s reading is the prophesy that Zechariah spoke when John was born. As you might remember, Zechariah was struck dumb by the angel for questioning his message, and his speech was restored when he wrote out a message confirming the child would be named John.
In this prophesy, Zechariah praises God for sending a Messiah from the house of David, “to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.”
To me, it seems particularly interesting that Zechariah goes on to foretell the specific role his newborn son would play in the story of the coming of the Messiah. Under the power of the Holy Spirit, Zechariah says that his son will prepare the way by giving his people “the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins.”
It seems to me that gets to the heart of exactly what it was that John the Baptist did in the great scheme of things – how exactly he prepared the way of the Lord. Scripture tells us that John “came preaching a baptism of repentance.” And apparently that ministry really struck a chord with people, because we’re told that thousands of them came streaming out of the cities and the countryside to take part in this baptism.
When we hear the word “repentance,” we tend to associate it with the personal sins we commit on a daily basis. That’s all good, but as we said Friday (and as we said in worship yesterday), that leaves out a big part of what the term really means – and maybe a big part of why John the Baptist got the response he did.
The Greek word that’s translated ‘repentance’ in the New Testament is the word metanoia. And the literal meaning of that term is ‘get a new mind.’ It has the sense of seeing things differently – of saying, “We’ve been going about this all wrong.” It seems to me that the response to John the Baptist resulted from people recognizing that their whole approach to being God’s people had gone off the rails somehow.
People had become too attached to rituals and festivals and sacrifices as expressions of their religious belief. They had made the mistake of thinking that if you counted your steps on the Sabbath and strictly obeyed all the other rules in the Old Testament, that’s all God wanted from you. They were failing in their care for the needy and the vulnerable. They had lost sight of the role God gave them when he formed the covenant with Abraham – to be “a blessing to all the families of the earth.”
And it seems that people must have known in their hearts that this was the case. Because when John showed up and invited them to come and be baptized as a sign of their ‘new minds’ – a sign of their resolve to change the way they were going about being God’s people – they came streaming out of the towns and villages by the thousands.
Remembering the role of John the Baptist as part of our observance of Advent each year should challenge us to examine our own lives and repent of our personal sins, but also to ask ourselves whether there are ways we might be going about the life of faith all wrong. Are we getting so attached to our religious customs and practices that we’re failing see the new things God is doing around us? Are we so inwardly focused as the church that we fail to reflect the light of Jesus into the darkened lives that surround us?
As we continue through the holy season of Lent, we’re called to ask how we can prepare the way of the Lord into our own hearts and lives, but also into the hearts and lives of those around us.
Let’s pray. Lord, as we prepare to receive you once again at Christmas, move us to a time of preparation that is more than shopping and baking and decoration. Prepare our hearts by nurturing in us a spirit of reflection about our lives, and about our way of being your people. And move us to repent of the sins and errors that can be impediments to your work in our lives. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalms 40 and 67; Isaiah 5:8-17; I Thessalonians 5:1-11; and Luke 21:20-28. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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