Monday, December 23, 2019

Baruch 4: 21 – 29  

Psalm 93, 96

Galatians 3:15 – 22  

Luke 1: 67 – 80 

In Jan Richardson’s, In Wisdom’s Path (2000), she likens Advent to a cave season – a time of hibernation during which “we turn inward, … we open ourselves to God [and] we are met by One who will be a companion in the mystery and the darkness.”  As we recall the larger context of Luke 1:67-80, Zechariah was banished to the cave of his heart when the Angel Gabriel struck Zechariah deaf and mute (Luke 1:20) in response to his astonishment and disbelief at the Angel’s announcement that Zechariah’s wife Elizabeth would bear a son to be named John (Luke 1:11-13).  Poor Zachariah, all he could do was watch Elizabeth go through her nine months of pregnancy, and how did this couple communicate?  In writing, through visuals, via hand signs??  As Zachariah silently watched the growth of their child, he was likely also pondering the signs of God emerging quietly from the cave of his heart.  Luke 1:67-80 is called the Canticle of Zachariah or the Benedictus because it proclaims the spirit-filled song of gratitude and praise to God that poured out from Zachariah’s lips when the child was finally born and named John.  As we prepare to move out of our own Advent hibernation and into the Birth of Divine Light that Christmas represents, what signs of God are emerging from the cave of our hearts?  And what words of gratitude and praise will pour from our lips?

Cate McBurney