Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
I love the idea of paper calendars, and I even have one. But the truth is, I completely rely on my electronic calendar. Because it’s on my phone and because I have my phone with me all the time, I never fail to enter a new appointment or event. And I love it that it rings a delightfully cheerful “bell” ten minutes before I need to be somewhere like a meeting or class.
It’s easy with that calendar always near me to get pretty confident that I know what’s ahead in the day. I have this class and that student appointment and this lunch with a colleague and that time set aside for grading, and so forth. I can think I know what is ahead.
I wonder if that is how Zechariah felt that day when he was doing his duties as a priest—praying, lighting incense, and so forth. He was a man up in years. He had served as a priest for a long time. He probably had a fair amount of confidence that he knew what was on his “calendar” for the day.
And then an angel appeared in front of him. Right in the middle of the day. And even though he was a priest, a man of God, a man who spent his days praying to God—the appearance of an angel right in front of him freaked him out. It was the last thing he expected. Even more, the news he got was probably about the last news he expected (or wanted?). The idea of a newborn entering one’s life when one is up in years—a miracle for sure. But “good” news?
If God wants to show up in our lives, God will. If God wants to blow up our lives, God will. And we will be powerless to resist no matter how cluttered our calendars are. We can all probably think of moments in our lives when God has done just that—shown up in a friend who suddenly needs a place to stay or in some “bad” piece of news that turns out to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to us. God can do that—just show up and throw everything (including the calendar) right out the window. God does that.
But what if, in this season of Advent, we took a different approach? What if instead of motoring on with our calendar in hand, with its little alerts sending us this way and that—what if instead of dutifully meeting the next demand on our calendars we set aside some time to prepare ourselves for God? What if we set aside some time (a half hour?) each of these last six days of Advent and invited God to do what God would do to us, for us, in us?
I’m going to give that a go. And I’ll confess that, at my age, I hope God doesn’t choose to give me the gift he gave Zechariah and Elizabeth! That said, may their story inspire me to embrace whatever God sees fit to surprise me with. And may it also be with you.
Amen.
- Sue Trollinger