This week is Thanksgiving, next Sunday begins our series on The Call Of Christmas and our Hanging Of The Green service and soon will be our children’s musical Candy Cane Lane on December 13 – the Christmas season is upon us!
This Sunday is The Call To Preparation. The drama will focus on Zechariah and his call to be father in old age. Yet not just a father, but the father of John the Baptist! As I was reviewing this service again, I was struck with the circumstance of his calling. Remember he had gone into the temple to fulfill his priestly duty. While in the temple he was called by Gabriel. It is easy to imagine him being startled and scared, dumfounded and confused. And then he questioned God. Doubt. Remember the Israelites had not heard a word from God for over 400 years, nearly twice as long as we have been a country, and when God chose to speak he spoke to a rather plain, ordinary man who was a priest at the temple that week. Zechariah was in disbelief. Because of this disbelief he was to remain mute until the child was born, and he was to name the child John.
That is the story, now imagine trying to tell your colleagues, friends and family that God visited you and told you about a son to be born to you who had no children. An amazing tale to be sure, and if it was told to you and I, we would have a hard time believing it. Yet that is the call of God on our lives. He takes ordinary people and has them (us) do unbelievable things using His wisdom to guide us. Whether that wisdom is in the form of rebuke, encouragement or correction. Our response is to believe and trust in Him.
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. Luke 1:16-17
Singing His Praises!