Christmas Eve Day

2 Samuel 7:1-16; Psalm 89:1-4, 19-29; Luke 1:67-79

In this last moment before Jesus is born, we are minded to spend some time on the promise that comes to us in Christ.  John’s birth story is completed with Zechariah’s prophecy.  Some say John is the last of the OT prophets, but I think his parents are the real bridge.  They announce the coming Messiah to their son.  John will announce him once he is here, but Elizabeth and Zechariah are the first to tell him about Jesus, and about his own role.  

Those of us who pray the traditional monastic offices recite this canticle every day, and it can get overly familiar.  It helps to read another translation, or several, to get fresh with it.  Today I notice that this is a commissioning.  Just as Gabriel’s announcements were not just statements, not even requests, but commissions to Mary and to Zechariah and Elizabeth, now Zechariah commissions his son.  ‘You will go before the Lord to prepare the way, to let people know about salvation through forgiveness (not the salvation they thought they needed, but the one God gives us), and God’s in-breaking reign of peace.’  As his mouth is opened after nine months, Zechariah is ready to be part of God’s purpose.  He’s ready to let go of his own dreams for his son and let him take his part in God’s purpose.  That’s what it means for these parents to give him the name spoken by the angel; they are acknowledging that God has a plan beyond their own comforts and patterns.

This is a huge gift.  We’ve all known, or been part of, the struggle of parents to let go of their hopes and dreams for their children.  Some force their children into the mold, with disastrous results: frustrated desires and creativity, bitterness, and often failure as the only way out.  Others are more subtle, steering their children in certain directions in such a way that they emerging adult never really knows what is their own desire and what is their parents’.  And some just wish and hope, while letting go bit by bit.  Their struggle to let go is part of their own growth, and their children gain from it.

Zechariah and Elizabeth cut right to the chase.  John is God’s child.  He has his own destiny, and they affirm it from the beginning.  In time, Mary and Joseph will do the same thing.  Both their sons will lead lives full of trouble and scandal, and both will die at the hands of tyrants.  But both will have known what it is to be fully alive, fully used, fully united to God.  They will have known joy and peace.

Gabriel called it back at the beginning: “With the spirit and power of Elijah [John] will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children” (Luke 1:17).  Give thanks today for those who have parented you along the way, releasing you to be who God intends.  And pray for parents, that they might know their children to be unique vessels of the Divine and care for them accordingly.  May you, and all, find our feet led into the way of peace.