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Serve in moving God’s purpose forward.

December 20, 2022

Isaiah 11:10-16 | Revelation 20:11-21:8 | Luke 1:5-25

When Zechariah entered the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense, he was at a hinge of history and did not know it. Everything was going normally. The ritual was running the way it always did. He was chosen by lot, the way the duty priest always was. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening. In fact, the congregation was surprised when Zechariah took so long to perform a routine task. 

Then an angel appeared. Understandably, Zechariah was surprised. This was not part of the liturgy. Not only did the angel appear—he also spoke. And he spoke the impossible: Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, both well on in years, were to have a son! Not since Abraham and Sarah had this happened! How should he respond? 

Most of the year we live in Ordinary Time. We follow our routines and go about our business. But Advent is not Ordinary Time: it is a season of anticipation, of remembering how God acted in history to do a new thing and how we look forward to God’s future actions that will bring this new thing to its foreordained conclusion. God called Zechariah to serve in moving God’s purpose forward—and God so calls us. How should we respond? Are we prepared? 

Steve Capps