IV.
Let’s expand our reading today to include all the words attributed to Zechariah on this occasion.

V.
Luke 1:57-79 (NRSVue)

Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.

On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.

Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
     for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
     in the house of his child David,
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
     that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
     and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
     in his presence all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
     for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
     by the forgiveness of their sins.
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
     the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
     to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

VI.
After an extended period without his voice, and now having found his voice once again, and with a jump-start from the Holy Spirit he answers the question of those present, “What then will this child become?”

He has moved past the question he put to Gabriel, “How can I know that this will happen?”

What brings him past his questioning of Gabriel to his recounting of God’s presence with the people of the covenant, the work and words of the “holy prophets of old,” and his faith that his child will be one in the line of those “holy prophets of old”?

What part does his time of silence contribute to his words? What part does a time of waiting contribute? What part does a time to reflect contribute? And what part does the Spirit of the Lord contribute to his vision for whom John will become?

Is it any one of those or the coming together of all of them?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}