Week 1:  A Stop Before the Creche

Introduction:

Whether we call it a nativity scene, manger scene, or creche, many of us have a whole cast of people and some critters who visually tell the Christmas story in our homes.  We set up these beloved scenes year after year, but how often do we stop to reflect on the stories that each of these people bring to the larger story of the birth of Jesus?  Our Advent reflections will help us come to know each of these people a little more.  However, before we make our way to the creche, we need to take a detour to visit an elderly, childless couple.


You might remember John the Baptist, that rather odd character who wore camel’s hair and ate locusts for dinner.  Odd as he was, John was vital to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  His preaching and baptizing ministry was a prelude to Jesus’ own ministry, and John baptized Jesus.  John’s parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, are the focus of our first reflection.


Elizabeth and Zechariah are childless and old.  Zechariah is a temple priest.  They are good people and must have been praying for a child for decades.  One day that prayer is answered when an angel visits Zechariah as he is performing his temple duties.  And what a birth announcement:  their child will be the one who readies the world for the Messiah!


Elizabeth and Zechariah play another special role in the Christmas story as well.  Mary, the mother-to-be of Jesus (who we will reflect on next week), comes to visit them shortly after she has received her own angelic birth announcement.  Through the angel, teenaged Mary has learned that her elderly relative Elizabeth is also expecting.  Elizabeth and Mary become confirming sources of comfort and faith for each other as these moms-to-be and their unborn sons come together.

Scripture:  Luke 1:8-17, 39-44 

8 Once when [Zechariah] was serving as priest before God and his section was on duty, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and offer incense. 10 Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. 11 Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified; and fear overwhelmed him. 13 But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. 14 You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. 16 He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”  


39 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, 40 where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit 42 and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? 44 For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. 45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”


Invitations: 

  • Reflect on this week’s scripture. What words, phrases, or ideas are meaningful to you?  Why? 

  • This week’s prayer is Zechariah’s song to God that he sang after the birth of John.  Let this be your daily prayer this week. 


Prayer: 


“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,  for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. 
 He has raised up a mighty savior for us  in the house of his servant David, 
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, 
    that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. 
 Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, 
    and has remembered his holy covenant, 
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, 
    to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, 
might serve him without fear,  in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. 
 And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; 
    for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, 
 to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. 
By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, 
 to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”         — Luke 1:67-79