Getting in the Christmas Spirit
Luke 1:67-79
“His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:
“Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel,
because he has come to his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David
(as he said through his holy prophets of long ago),
salvation from our enemies
and from the hand of all who hate us—
to show mercy to our ancestors
and to remember his holy covenant,
the oath he swore to our father Abraham:
to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
One of the lectionary readings for today is Zechariah’s Song (Luke 1:67-79). We will intersperse his song among our comments.
If you walk around your neighborhood in town, you may notice that many of the homes that had Halloween decorations now have Christmas decorations. The Halloween decorations were mostly horrible and devilish. The Christmas ones are much nicer: lights, Santas, reindeer, and even a nativity scene or two. You may wonder, as we did, what happened to Thanksgiving? Why no decorations for that? Here’s our opinion:
It’s rather hard to decorate Thankfulness. Some try by displaying a harvest theme with pumpkins, hay sheaves, and orange lights. We have a sign that says “Give Thanks!”
If you love decorating for a holiday, It’s just easier to take down Halloween decorations and put up Christmas decorations all at once.
The devil has been working hard on corrupting Thanksgiving Day, but people tend to tell God “Thank You” on that day, and the devil doesn’t like that. Calling it “turkey day” hasn’t made much difference; people still get together and thank God for their blessings. So the next best thing for him is to get people to just ignore it. Skip it all together. Just jump from Halloween to Christmas, and make that about Santa and reindeer.
But now, Thanksgiving Day is past, and we are ready to rush on to Christmas. But we think Thanksgiving Day is the best way to start the Christmas season – by continuing the Thanksgiving. When Zechariah got his voice back after naming his son John, the Holy Spirit filled him, and he burst into song. It was both a song of Praise and Thanksgiving for what God had done in the lives of his people, and a Prophecy of what was now happening, and what John would do as part of God’s coming to his people.
(Quotations are from the Living Bible.)
Verses 68-71: “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for He has come to visit His
people and has redeemed them. He is sending us a Mighty Savior from the royal
line of His servant David, just as He promised through His holy prophets long
ago—someone to save us from our enemies, from all who hate us.”
(We are taking these verses personally, considering ourselves to be His people as the spiritual children of Abraham.) Thanksgiving! Look what the Lord has done for us! Praise Him!!!! He has come just the way He said He would. Everything He predicted is true. We live time-wise on the other side of Zechariah’s prophecy, and we know it’s true. Jesus, a descendant of David, has come. He has saved us. Enemies? Perhaps not exactly the same ones Zechariah was thinking of, but Satan is still there, hating God, hating those of us who belong to God, and wreaking havoc in our lives and society.
Verses 72-74: “He has been merciful to our ancestors, yes, to Abraham himself,
by remembering His sacred promise to him, and by granting us the privilege of
serving God fearlessly, freed from our enemies, and by making us holy and
acceptable, ready to stand in His presence forever.”
WOW! God’s promise to Abraham included us when He promised “All nations on earth shall be blessed because of you.” And we have the privilege of serving God fearlessly, even though we know there are people in the world who do not share this privilege. And God is making us holy and acceptable to Himself. He has already done so, by dying on the cross for us. We look forward to the day when we will see Him face to face. Thank you, Lord!
Verses 76-79: And you, my little son, shall be called the prophet of the glorious God, for you will prepare the way for the Messiah. You will tell His people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. All this will be because the mercy of our God is very tender, and heaven’s dawn is about to break on us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, and to guide us in the path of peace.
Thank you, Lord, for sending the Messiah that John the Baptist told about. Thank you
for letting us know how to be forgiven of our sins through Jesus, the Messiah, Savior of
the World. Thank you for showing us mercy, for letting us live in this century closer than
ever to Heaven’s dawn. Thank you for this time of year, specifically for celebrating your
coming. Thank you for giving us your light and peace.
Help us to make this time of year a celebration of Thanksgiving.