Sunday's Scripture Reading

This week the New Testament lesson is from Luke 1:68-79:

 ⁶⁸"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
      because he has come and has redeemed his people.
 ⁶⁹He 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),
 ⁷¹salvation from our enemies
      and from the hand of all who hate us—
 ⁷²to show mercy to our fathers
      and to remember his holy covenant,
 ⁷³the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
 ⁷⁴to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
      and to enable us to serve him without fear
 ⁷⁵in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
 ⁷⁶And 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,
 ⁷⁷to give his people the knowledge of salvation
      through the forgiveness of their sins,
 ⁷⁸because of the tender mercy of our God,
      by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
 ⁷⁹to shine on those living in darkness
      and in the shadow of death,
   to guide our feet into the path of peace."

This story is called the Benedictus. In it, the prophet Zechariah is thanking God for giving him a son.  His son is none other than John the Baptist.  Like Jesus, John's birth is miraculous because his parents were way past their childbearing and rearing years.  It's also miraculous because this is the first time in nine months Zechariah speaks.  You see, the angel Gabriel punished him to silence because he didn't believe him when the angel said he would have a son.  Zechariah's song exudes joy, which is pretty amazing because he was something of an old grump! 

There are lots of things that come to my mind when I read this passage, such as: are there things that happen to us that seem too good to believe?  Are there times when silence is best?  And what would it take for me to have a change of heart?

What about you?  What do you think about when you read Zechariah's song?

Comments

[Kathy Sherrick]

Oops . . .I posted next week's by mistake. Sorry for the confusion. It's corrected.