SUMMER REBOOT – this podcast was originally published in Advent, on 20 December 2018.

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Hello and welcome to Thursday’s Podcast. It’s been great to dig into these famous scriptures – to reflect on the Christmas narrative – with you this week. If you’ve found these podcasts helpful, why not share them with a friend, share them on social media. Let’s pass the blessing on this festive season.

Today’s reading is Luke 1: 57-80 which you can hear read out in full at the end of this short thought. It focuses on the birth of John the Baptist. The key message for us from today’s reading is this – God keeps his promises.

REFLECTION:

We’re in the season of Advent. It’s a season of waiting, of preparation to celebrate the coming of our saviour Jesus –as a baby, God with us, and also as we look forward to Him coming again –to put all things right, to rule over the new heaven and new Earth.

We have two small children, Naomi and Isaac. Naomi is nearly three and she’s at the age now where she is just starting to get the concept of waiting. That these days in Advent are preparing her for something special that is coming. For Naomi colouring in her advent calendar (thank you Nursery), reading her First Christmas story (thank you Jo) and eating a chocolate (thank you me!) have been for her very simple ways of building towards the big day and with each passing moment the excitement seems to grow.

God’s people, Israel, had been waiting. They were waiting for the promised Messiah, God’s anointed one who would rule on David’s throne and free them from oppression. They were waiting to be the people who become a blessing to all nations – who would be known as great for God had chosen them. They were a people who had heard and knew the promises made by God to the generations before them but he had gone silent. 400 years passed since he had spoken through the prophets. Were these promises ever going to be fulfilled? Would the waiting ever end? To all intents and purposes it looked like God had forgotten his people. That no one was coming. But with the birth of John the Baptist, and then in an even greater way through the birth of Jesus – God’s own son – they did.

Here’s a truth for us to reflect on today: God keeps his promises. God may take his time but he keeps his word.

Zechariah, whose story we read about in today’s passage, in many way mirrors that of God and his people. Zechariah was old. He had spent his life faithfully serving God, praying for a child, a son to carry on his family line. He had grown tired in the waiting. Doubt had crept in. We read about this in Monday’s reading. Like God with his people, Zechariah now experiences silence – he is made deaf and mute by the angel Gabriel as punishment for doubting God’s message. But as Zechariah’s own eyes look upon his baby boy, something happens inside him. He is filled with the Holy Spirit. Suddenly God’s promises are being fulfilled in front of his very eyes. His mouth and ears are unblocked and a song is released.

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them.”

Reading further on from verse 72: “He has remembered his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham”.

Luke’s Gospel account is carefully crafted together. In effect, we have two stories – God’s bigger story of him fulfilling the covenant, the promise he made to his people through Abraham, through David – in the birth of his son Jesus. And then also we have the smaller personal stories of ordinary people like Zechariah and Elizabeth. What’s expressed by Zechariah through his personal story is true also of God’s bigger story – that God keeps his promises to his people. He may take his time but he keeps them.

This Advent we wait. We personally may be waiting for something – for a breakthrough in a particular situation, for guidance, for something to change. We,