The Speechless One Speaks

The Third Sunday of Advent

Read:  Luke 1:5-25, 76-80

The Angel Appearing to Zacharias.  William Blake, 1800.

Questions by Pastor Jerry Tankersley 

(Preaching Pastor on Sunday, December 11, 2011)

A.  Discovering your voice is a life task.  We may be filled with words without connection or meaning.  Our pop culture feeds all kinds of bits of information into us. 

1. Have you ever had a life experience that left you speechless, without adequate words to interpret or to integrate?  
2. Can you think of a book, a novel, a poem, a song that has helped interpret you to yourself?

B.  Maya Angelou told her story in, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  

1. What caused her to stop speaking when she was 7 ½? 
2. Trauma in a child’s life may shape the rest of a lifetime.  What helped her speak again?  Listen to Maya reading her poem at President Clinton’s 1993 inauguration.  Maya Angelou, 1993 Bill Clinton's Inauguration

C.  Zachariah was encountered by the Angel Gabriel.

Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit 

and spoke this prophecy: 

“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 servant 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

before him 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 knowledge of salvation to his people

by the forgiveness of their sins.

By the tender mercy of our God,

the dawn from on high will break upon us,

to give light to those who sit in darkness

and in the shadow of death,

to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

The child grew and became strong in spirit,

and he was in the wilderness

until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

1. What did Zachariah make of the angel’s message to him?  Did he believe?
2. What was the difference in his response to the angel and Mary’s response to Gabriel?
3. He was mute for nine months, but then his voice was restored. What did he say? The poem he proclaimed is called the Benedictus, "The Blessing." Who was blessed? Why God? Why John?
4. Do you need to be blessed?  
5. Who do you need to bless today?

THE LORD BLESS YOU!  BENEDICTUS!