Encountering God

Gospel: Luke 1: 57-66

Zechariah had been born to the priestly class and became a priest himself.  The role of a priest is to perform the customary rituals in the Temple - the prayers, sacrifices, offerings, and other such things that were prescribed according to tradition and custom.  These ways were set and established, unchanging pillars of religion for him and his people.

But now Zechariah encounters God in a most unconventional way.  He is visited by an angel and given a message he does not believe.  For this unbelief Zechariah is made mute, so he now has time to reflect on his life.  When it comes time to name his child, Zechariah speaks up for the unconventional name of John, and his speaking is restored to him.  

Zechariah learned that God cannot be found in conventional things, for this would mean that we could place God in a box, that there is some formula for connecting with God, that God is all figured out.  This season reminds us that God is found in the unconventional, that it is the marginalized and outcast who find God, and that the established ones of convention will simultaneously not recognize God among them, and also seek to destroy God among us.