5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”
19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.”
21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak.
23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the temple and burn incense. We lean later that the Lord used this time when he was alone and in prayer to send Gabrielle to tell him about how God would be working n his life. Now, drawing lots implies that there was a chance that another priest in his cohort could have been the one to go in and light the incense. If that had been the case, would that priest's child have become the foreteller of Christ? Or would God have snuck up on Zechariah in another place and time? Did God put God's thumb on the scale when the lots were drawn? If yes, then can "just by chance" ever be trusted? And if not, then could anyone be part of the holy story and JtB just "lucked out"?
I want to believe both. Many of my "old time religion" friends use expressions like "God-incidence" instead of coincidence, they refer to "God winks" and say "there is no such thing as 'by accident." Well, maybe not, maybe God steps in and changes fate for us. But why some and not others? If it was a "God"-incidence" that I met my husband-to-be again after thirty years apart, then why has my friend Susie never ever met her partner after a lifetime of searching? If it was not an accident that a tree fell on a tent and killed a camper, but left the other tents alone, was it the act of God?
Nope, I can't believe it. I am more comfortable with the idea that whoever had walked into the temple on that day, Zechariah or Herman or Shmuley, they would have been approached by the angel Gabrielle, they would have been given unlikely news, they would have mouthed off and gotten put in talking-timeout. And the story we tell today might not be about an aged couple having an oops-baby, but maybe a young couple who were not ready or a poor couple who could not afford or a single Dad. God places God's hand on all of our hearts. All of us. And we chose whether or not to let that be the guiding circumstance for us.
There is always speculation about whether Mary was he first or the fortieth person invited to be the God-bearer and the others said, "No." This is the same speculation. Could Zechariah have declined? Did others? Could JtB had said, "The old man had a bad dream" and lead a dissolute life?
We look around at other people, clergy, elected leadership, heroes of every kind, and say, "that person has something special" and maybe "God gave them what they needed for such a time as this." But what if God made us all heroes and we just have to agree to it. What if we all have had God's hand on us, we just have to embrace the narrative and live into the truth of our lives.
Imagine the Lord saying about you that you will be a joy and delight and many will rejoice because of your birth. Imagine that that there is a family story about how you will bring people back to God and make way for Jesus in your life.
Now go out and act like that is true. Because it is.
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