355 -- Do Not Be Afraid -- Yeah, Right!
January 13 (1/13) -- Monday in Godsfield -- Luke 1:13
(For Better or Verse: Each day in 2025 I will begin this Godsfield e-mail with a Bible verse that corresponds with the month (chapter 1-12) and day (verse 1-31) it is sent. Where it then goes, Holy Spirit knows!)
13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John."
This picture shows the first joyful angel I have seen in awhile. The Christmas angels all should be happy -- they have good news to tell; that would be different than the messages of the sword wielding, block the road or smite the demons angels that work behind the scenes in God's creation.
This one is happy about the news of a baby for the old couple, the one who will be called John, who will be Baptist (Independent Baptist, I am sure!) and glad to tell old Zechariah.
Certainly, beginning with "Do not be afraid," which is the official angel greeting protocol, fits this, because Zechariah is in the Holy of Holies, and it is supposed to be a solo act!
Still, the conversation in Luke 1 (the whole chapter is a preamble God's Declaration of Independence from Sin, which is the Christmas Story) easily captures the attention of anyone who wants the present joy side of God and the disciplining Father, who needs Zechariah and Elizabeth completely on board for their part in the salvation story.
Elizabeth will have a son, against all possibilities, and he will prepare the way of the Lord, and consider this, he will be the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ of God, because he will leap for joy when Elizabeth meets Mary a little later in this first chapter of Luke.
The funny part in the story is that Zechariah becomes speechless because he questions the angel about the possibility of them have a baby. He was not able to speak for, oh, about nine months!
Once the baby is born and he explains to his meddling relatives that the baby would not be Zechariah Jr., but John, he breaks out with a song that is still used in Matins (Morning Prayer) services in liturgical churches and monasteries across the Kingdom:
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people and set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us from our enemies, from the hands of all who hate us.
He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant. This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham; to set us free from the hands of our enemies, to worship him without fear, holy and righteous in his sight all the days of our life.
Then he sings to John:
You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way, to give his people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
And I suspect, ol' Zechariah never stopped talking after that!
I pray for each of us to have an angel visit one day, and may it be because of a prayer that is impossible for everyone, but God.
Love ya,
Paul