I.
Please take some time with this account.

Notice all the characters mentioned.

Notice what each has to say or not say.

Do such interruptions while one is performing a sacred task surprise you?

II.
Luke 1:8-20 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Once when he was serving as priest before God during his section’s turn of duty, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to offer incense. Now at the time of the incense offering, the whole assembly of the people was praying outside. Then there appeared to him an angel of the Lord, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was terrified, and fear overwhelmed him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink; even before his birth he will be filled with the Holy Spirit. He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that this will happen? For I am an old man, and my wife is getting on in years.” The angel replied, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. But now, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you will become mute, unable to speak, until the day these things occur.”

III.
Zechariah is in “the sanctuary of the Lord” putting incense on the altar and I assume praying something appropriate to the offering of incense in that place.

And Gabriel interrupts him.

I wonder – is this the rule or the exception that proves the rule or neither. I wonder, does it somehow stem from the nature of God to be about the business of causing interruptions. Even in the middle of “holy” tasks in “holy” places?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}