Lent Bible Practice | Day 4
Saturday, February 28
Luke 1:57-80

This scene of Zechariah regaining his speech at the birth of the promised (and unexpected) son John seems trite, like rehashed all too often scene from a Hollywood Sci-Fi flick. Yet it's not. When you listen to the text, letting it speak to us on its terms it's quite radical. The song is one of revolution, world-reversal, new creation - peace on earth. And yet what does it mean - that light will shine in darkness to lead us in the way of peace (v.79) and then John grows and disappears into the desert: what the Israelites called the wilderness - the wild places on the fringe of society, the place on the margins of the way we try to organize life into systems and routines...where God is running rampant and wild. Maybe we struggle to hear God's voice so often today because like Zechariah in the temple...we don't recognize it when God does actually speak in our daily organized routines and expectations. What would it mean for me - for you - to head into the wilderness, the margins, to listen for Gods' voice?