Getting Ready: Advent Reflections, 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.”’

Luke 1:67-79



At this moment, just before I email today’s reflection, it is dawn: the sun has not yet risen, but the sky will soon hold the beginnings of light while everything prepares for the coming day.

At last, Zechariah’s lips have opened and he sings a song about the coming dawn. He looks forward to the birth of Jesus, the ‘horn of salvation for us’ from the house of David. He praises the coming king, who will begin the new day when God’s people are free from their enemies and they can serve God 'without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.’

What bold lyrics! They are sung when Israel is occupied by one of the mightiest empires the world has known. By the time Luke records the song, Rome is persecuting disciples of Jesus. If anything, Jesus has intensified Rome’s hatred for God’s people. Where is this new day?

In the two millennia since Zechariah sang this song, the church has had various enemies and fears. Like Zechariah and Luke, we live in perilous times today. In the news we hear a crescendo of threats to dismantle our societies and destabilise our world. Even within our own families and communities we know first-hand the effects of sin and evil. How is Zechariah’s song true?

It is true because it is a song about the dawn. Jesus has come and the night has ended. Jesus has won the crucial victory over sin and evil. And because the dawn has come, we know that morning is coming. We see glimpses of God’s kingdom, signs of mercy, justice and peace, and we keep on singing Zechariah’s song, this time not for the dawn, but for the sunrise, for the day of full salvation for the whole world. 

I encourage us to pray Zechariah’s song as a promise of God’s blessing through Jesus, the dawn who came to save us from our sins, and the new day who is coming soon to guide our feet into the path of peace.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.