When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who has that name.”

Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s astonishment he wrote, “His name is John.” Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, “What then is this child going to be?” For the Lord’s hand was with him.

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come and has redeemed his people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us — to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham: to rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 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, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

And the child grew and became strong in spirit; and he lived in the desert until he appeared publicly to Israel.

Luke 1:57-80

 

Reggie Jackson was a big power hitter for the Oakland A’s and NY Yankees in the 1970’s.  Jackson batted fourth in the lineup, known as the cleanup spot, since it was his job to clean the first three batters from the bases to score at home plate.   Reggie used to say that if the first three batters did not get on base, then he could not do his job of hitting them home.

Imagine that Jesus is the cleanup hitter, the one who brings home the message of salvation to those who are willing to receive Him.
If Jesus is the cleanup hitter, then who hits in front of him?  Who prepared the people of Israel to open their ears and hearts to receive Jesus?

John was his name – John the Baptist.   John came before Jesus to say that people must prepare themselves for the coming of the Lord.   John came to say that people should listen to Jesus, because he would speak the truth   John came to say that people should follow Jesus, because he would lead them to know God the Father

When John was born, Luke tells us that “Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives shared her joy.”  In middle Eastern cultures when a child is about to be born, family members, friends and often times a band of local musicians gather outside the home.    A child’s birth was an occasion to strike up the band!  Hey maybe we ought to send our church choir out to the hospital whenever a child is born to our congregation!

Every male among you shall be circumcised.  You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you.  Genesis 17:10

Eight days after John was born, he still didn’t have a name. A father would normally name, or at least agree to a name, for his son. Normally the family would not wait eight days to name their child.  But remember that John’s father Zechariah had lost his ability to speak, and probably his hearing also, when he did not believe the angel’s word to him.
All Israelite boys had to be circumcised.  This was Jewish law, to make the mark of the covenant on each boy.  It would happen on the 8th day after the son was born.  The father would perform the deed on his own son, who would then be marked for life as one of God’s people.
Circumcision of baby boys is very common today, but back when God first told Abraham that Israelite boys should be circumcised, it was something new to them, something that marked God’s people as being different from all the other uncircumcised tribes who were their neighbors.

Circumcision was both public and private; the whole family gathered for the event, and the whole community knew that Jewish boys had the covenant mark.

But at the same time the mark was in a private area, and so if he wanted to, a Jewish man could pretend not to be a Jew, and no one would know.
The same thing goes for baptism – it happens publicly, but there is no giant B or cross on our heads, and so it is up to us whether to live like Christians or not, since when we are out there in the world, and sometimes out there it is only God and us – and it is up to us in those moments whether to follow Christ or not.
This is the kind of relationship God wants with us; public in the sense that we are ready to let people know about our faith, yet also private in that we try to do what is right even when we think that no one else is looking.

Picture this –whole extended family – Elizabeth and Zechariah’s grandmothers, aunties – everyone – crowds into the family home for the circumcision and they can’t believe that he doesn’t have a name yet.

When you were a young adult, did your parents or other relatives ever try and make or influence  those kinds of decision for you:  “you really should name that baby boy after your grandfather, he will be so thrilled!!!”

Well in this case that is exactly what happened.  Luke tells us that the relatives coming into the house said “he doesn’t have a name yet?  Let’s name him after his father – Zechariah!”
Elizabeth knew her husband could not speak, and so she spoke up – “No, we will call him John” – the name given to them by the angel
But the word of a woman in that culture wasn’t enough – those busybody relatives persisted:
“John” they said  “why John’s not a family name.. how could you name him John?”

At that moment Zechariah regained his faith.  It is amazing how bossy relatives can push a man as far as he can go
– here is Zechariah who has not spoken for three months, grabbing a pen and writing emphatically:  “His name is John.”

God had mercifully intervened in the life of John’s family.  Luke says as the story begins that one reason for the extraordinary joy at John’s birth was because of God’s mercy.

God does not just wind us up and let us alone; he is a personal God who cares about each of us, helping us to know him better as by receiving his blessings.

Remember that Elizabeth was an old woman, past childbearing age.  The only way she could have conceived a baby was for God to do something special for her – and God did.  Not only did God help her to get pregnant, but he gave her and Zechariah a son whose name would be known throughout history – John the Baptist.

And so as God was busy fulfilling his plan of salvation, he did some wonderfully kind things for people like Zechariah and Elizabeth along the way.

This is the God we serve.  A kind God; a merciful God.  You and I may not think we are right at the center of God’s plan, we may not think of ourselves as key players in salvation history, yet isn’t our God awfully kind to us along the way.  How wonderful it is to receive God’s mercy!

What Luke shows us next is that Zechariah after naming his son blesses God with a song, and then to bless his son with a song as well.

In today’s story Zech sings of God visiting to show mercy both at the beginning and at the end of his song.  Mentioning something at both the beginning and the end was a common feature in ancient composition

When I as the listener hear something mentioned at the end that I also heard at the start, I know both that the idea is important and that the story or song is about to end.

In this song – the theme is clear – that God was about to visit his people, and as any good visitor would do, God was bringing a gift – the gift of mercy.

God was about to come in the person of Jesus to bring redemption; through Jesus God would redeem, or buy his people back, from slavery to sin and other enemies

Another way of putting it is to say that God in Christ would bring salvation – God would save his people – us – so that together with God, we could change the world.

What salvation, what God’s mercy does for us is that it puts us in a position to serve God, and as we serve God, we show God’s mercy, God’s forgiveness, to others
If we have been forgiven, then we can forgive others, and as each person shares God’s mercy and God’s forgiveness, the world gets changed.

Zechariah sang praise to God, became God was about to visit us to show us mercy, so that we could serve God by visiting others to show them mercy

The first part of Zecharaih’s song was sung to his God

This next part of his song is sung to Zechariah’s son, John

It is a bit like what I do at a baptism, I praise God for making salvation available to this person, then I say a word of blessing over the one who’s been baptized.

Zechariah’s song for his son echoes what the angle Gabriel had told him.
Noctice how Zecharaiah has changed since the angel first came to him
Back then he was fearful, doubting.  But now, singing to his son, he is full of faith and confidence.
Back to teh main theme,  that this whole song, and indeed the Christmas event, is about God visiting us to to show us mercy

Here Zechariah sing:

because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come
to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

Zechariah is singing of God’s mercy, and he likens God’s coming in Christ to the dawning of a new day.

Jesus here is depicted as a rising sun, who will come and shine, bringing light to those in darkness, and through forgiveness, guiding our feet to walk in the way of peace.

The message of Christmas is clear, and it was clear in Zechariah’s praise song even before Jesus was born.

God has a great big plan of salvation
At the heart of God’s plan is one simple truth
That God lives to spend time with us
and so he has visited us in the person of Jesus
and in God’s visit with us, he has brought us forgiveness.
so that we could know God through Christ
and know his peace in our hearts

Someone’s coming this Christmas
and I don’t mean Santa Claus

Jesus came to visit more than 2000 years ago, and by his Spirit he wants to come to each home, to each family, to each person this Christmas as well.

Welcome Jesus into your home, into your family, into your heart.
Receive Jesus this Christmas
receive his mercy
know that he has come to save us.

As God has visited us in Christ with mercy

go and visit someone and show them God’s mercy

receive Jesus, the king of peace

and then go and share Jesus and his peace with others

run to Sunday!