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00:22Let us pray.
00:41Let us pray.
00:56May all arrogance be ever cast down.
00:59May all longing for the praise of men be extinguished.
01:02May all wantonness of self-conceit be quenched within me.
01:07Give me grace, O Lord, to flee any honour, to hate distinction,
01:12and to submit myself with readiness to all men for your sake.
01:17Praise, honour, and glory be to you, O Christ,
01:20who, as a little child, did with your tender mother suffer persecution,
01:25and did not refuse to be carried as an exile fleeing into Egypt.
01:31Give me grace amidst the storms of adversity and the blasts of persecution and misfortune,
01:37to fly for refuge to you alone, to seek you, to call upon you.
01:44Grant that I may receive all things with gladness at your hands,
01:48may endure all things in meekness of heart,
01:51and may cleave with thanksgiving without wavering to you.
01:56Praise, honour, and glory be to you, O Christ,
01:59who, when you remained behind in the temple,
02:02your mother sought for sorrowing,
02:05and at length with joy found you sitting in the midst of the doctors,
02:09hearing and asking them questions.
02:12May you so give and communicate yourself to me,
02:15that I may never be separated from you,
02:18and never be without the comfort of your blessed friendship.
02:22Drive sloth from my heart,
02:25dispel any dullness that is displeasing in your sight.
02:29Grant me perfect devotion,
02:31and such an ardent thirst after piety,
02:34that my soul may be so affected and possessed by it,
02:38as never to feel satisfied with worshipping you.
02:43Praise, honour, and glory be to you,
02:45who gave yourself up to live in concealment for thirty years,
02:50to be reputed by the Jews the son of Joseph the carpenter,
02:54and be subject to the commands of your mother and the same Joseph.
02:59May your grace, I beg you,
03:02root out and thoroughly pluck up
03:04from the innermost recesses of my heart
03:06any ambition and seeking of glory,
03:10that I may become belittled in my own eyes,
03:13and may love to be unknown and considered of no account,
03:17submitting myself to all,
03:19and obeying them for your honour.
03:22Praise, honour, and glory be to you, O Christ,
03:25who did not refuse to come to the River Jordan,
03:28and be baptised there by your servant John.
03:33May you thoroughly cleanse me by your merits in this life,
03:38that freed from all vices and sins,
03:41I may be filled with the love of you,
03:44and long for my heavenly country.
03:47Make me, I beg you,
03:49before my soul quits this body,
03:52pleasing to you in all things,
03:54that, departing from this life,
03:56I may be for ever in heaven with you,
03:59to see you,
04:01to enjoy you,
04:02and to praise your holy name for ever and ever.
04:06Praise, honour, and glory be to you, O Christ,
04:09who for our sake dwelt in the wilderness,
04:12amongst the wild beasts,
04:14and fasted and watched in prayer for forty days and forty nights,
04:19permitting yourself to be tempted by the devil,
04:21whom you overcame when angels came and ministered to you.
04:26Grant me grace to discipline, overcome,
04:30and bring into subjection my sinful flesh
04:32with its evil affections.
04:37Give me grace to be instant in prayer
04:39and all other spiritual exercises,
04:41and grant that with your continual help
04:45I may completely overcome sins of gluttony
04:48and may escape the snares and schemes of the devil.
04:54Let no temptations, I beg you,
04:56defile me,
04:57nor separate me from you,
04:59but may they rather purify me
05:02and unite and join me with you.
05:06Praise, honour, and glory be to you, O Christ,
05:09who gave himself up to preach repentance,
05:13to call to you disciples,
05:15and from them choose the twelve apostles
05:16to be the special heralds of the faith,
05:20gathering together the children of God
05:22that were scattered abroad.
05:24Draw me after you,
05:26and powerfully excite my heart to love you.
05:30Do not permit me to neglect the grace
05:33with which you called me,
05:34but make me ready to despise the world
05:37and all perishable things,
05:39following you,
05:40taking your humility and charity as my example.
05:44Give me grace to look for you alone,
05:47and with earnest longing
05:48to sigh continually after you.
05:52Amen.
05:56O Lord, open our lips,
05:59and our mouths shall sing your praise.
06:08O be joyful in the Lord,
06:13O be glad,
06:15serve the Lord with gladness,
06:19and come before his prayers
06:22and to hear the song.
06:26He is sure that the Lord needs God,
06:31his deceiters and prayers
06:34and not be ourselves.
06:37We are his people
06:40and the sheep of his master.
06:44O do your way
06:47into his peace with high strength,
06:50and into his cross with grace,
06:55be thankful unto him,
06:59and seek the good of his name.
07:04O the Lord is gracious,
07:08his mercy is everlasting,
07:13and his glory is everlasting,
07:17from generation to generation.
07:55Amen.
08:28Amen.
09:00Amen.
09:27Amen.
09:53Amen.
10:29Amen.
11:05Amen.
11:31Amen.
12:00Amen.
12:09Amen.
12:31Amen.
12:33Amen.
12:35Amen.
12:41Amen.
12:42Amen.
12:50Amen.
12:56Amen.
13:00Amen.
13:03Amen.
13:06Amen.
13:07Amen.
13:27A reading from the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 1.
13:34Since many have undertaken to set in order a narrative concerning those matters which
13:40have been fulfilled among us, even as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses
13:46and servants of the Word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having traced
13:52the course of all things accurately from the first, to write to you, in order, most excellent
13:59Theophilus, that you might know the certainty concerning the things in which you were instructed.
14:10During the reign of Herod, king of Judea, there lived a priest named Zechariah, who belonged
14:15to the priestly division of Abijah, and had a wife named Elizabeth, who was a descendant
14:21of Herod.
14:23They were both righteous in the sight of God, following all the commandments and ordinances
14:29of the Lord blamelessly, but they did not have a child, because Elizabeth was barren and they
14:35were both very old.
14:39Now while Zechariah was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, he was
14:45chosen by lot according to the custom of the priesthood, to enter the holy place of the
14:50Lord and burn incense.
14:53Now the whole crowd of people were praying outside at the hour of the incense offering.
14:59An angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense appeared to him.
15:05Zechariah, visibly shaken when he saw the angel, was seized with fear.
15:09But the angel said to him, Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.
15:15Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.
15:18You will name him John.
15:21Joy and gladness will come to you, and many will rejoice at his birth, or he will be great
15:27in the sight of the Lord.
15:29He must never drink strong wine or drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even
15:35before his birth.
15:37He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God.
15:41He will go as forerunner before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the
15:46hearts of the fathers back to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just,
15:52to make ready for the Lord a people prepared for him.
15:59Zechariah said to the angel, How can I be sure of this?
16:02For I am an old man, and my wife is old as well.
16:07The angel answered him, I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was said
16:12to speak to you and bring you this good news.
16:16Now because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time, you
16:21will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things take place.
16:28Now the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they began to wonder why he was delayed
16:32in the holy place.
16:35When he came out he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision
16:39in their holy place, because he was making signs to them and remained unable to speak.
16:46When his time of service was over he went home.
16:50After some time his wife Elizabeth became pregnant, and for five months she kept herself
16:55in seclusion.
16:56She said, This is what the Lord has done for me at the time when he has been gracious to
17:03me, to take away my disgrace among people.
17:10This is the word of the Lord.
17:13Thanks be to God.
17:24Luke starts his Gospel with the account of a childless couple who were faithful to God,
17:30Zechariah and Elizabeth.
17:33There are several accounts of couples in this situation in the Bible.
17:38Abraham and Sarah, Hannah and Elkanah, Manoah and his wife, being those who immediately
17:46spring to mind.
17:50Elizabeth and Sarah have two other factors in common, for they were both beyond the age
17:54of normal parenting, and they both disbelieved the angel when they heard that they were
18:01to become parents.
18:04However, both couples were blessed, and not only blessed with an ordinary child, but an
18:09exceptional one.
18:12For just as Isaac was destined for great things, so would be John the Baptist, even though his
18:17life would be cut short.
18:19He was to be the messenger of the Christ, the one to prepare the way.
18:27Zechariah and Elizabeth had waited a lifetime for a child, and yet, despite their disappointment,
18:32they had kept their faith with God.
18:36Zechariah continued to undertake his priestly duties, and there was no rebuke from the angel
18:40Gabriel other than in respect of his doubt.
18:45Perhaps one of the really hard things for us is to have patience with God.
18:50For his timetable is beyond our comprehension, and yet he has the ultimate patience for us.
18:57We pray and pray, and nothing appears to happen.
19:01Does God not listen?
19:03Does God not care?
19:05Of course he does.
19:06And when the time is right, he will act, with perfection, and in ways well beyond our expectation.
19:16Let us notice some features of this sketch that is given of the priest and of the things that happened
19:22in the altar of incense.
19:28It is a picture of a soul waiting for God.
19:31That waiting, which is emphasized in the Old Testament scriptures as one of the essentials of piety.
19:38How beautiful are the words,
19:40More than they that watch for the morning, my soul waits for the Lord.
19:47It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
19:53Illustrated in the life and the attitude of Zechariah and Elizabeth.
19:58Year on year they had waited in their hillside home, asking for the blessing of the sun.
20:03God.
20:06Apparently the hope had set in the heavens that were only for us.
20:10But one thing was ever bright and real.
20:13Their faith in the living God.
20:15And they walked in all his commandments and ordinances blamelessly.
20:20Our wills are ours to make them yours.
20:25It is easier to consent to God's will when the demand is to act,
20:29than to consent when the demand is simply to wait,
20:33to direct our prayer to the eternal and to look up.
20:37One of the lessons which we are always slow to learn is,
20:40walk humbly with your God.
20:45The passage before us reveals the hearer of prayer.
20:52Verse 13.
20:54The angel says,
20:56Your prayer is heard.
20:58Was this the prayer for the sun?
21:00Or was it the priestly prayer offered at the altar,
21:03and through the incense,
21:05for the hope and the salvation of Israel?
21:08Both, it may be, are included and answered.
21:11For it is noteworthy that in the two scriptural instances of incense,
21:17longing for a sun,
21:19that of Hannah and that of Zechariah,
21:21the blessing to the individual,
21:22is associated with the blessing to the whole church of God.
21:27The prayer of faith has interconnections with the purpose of God,
21:30far beyond our power to estimate.
21:34And the doing is exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.
21:42Your prayer is heard,
21:44and the answer often looks a great way back.
21:48As Matthew Henry puts it,
21:51Prayers are filed in heaven and are not forgotten,
21:54though the thing prayed for is not presently given.
21:58The time as well as the thing is in the answer,
22:02and God's gift always transcends the measure of the promise.
22:10The angel answering said unto him,
22:13I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of God,
22:17and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you these good tidings,
22:22this same presence as we meet in the book of Daniel.
22:26Gabriel is the angel for the greatly beloved,
22:29the angel with the glad tidings,
22:31he who afterwards bore the most wonderful of messages
22:34to the Hebrew maiden.
22:37Our ideas are very confused to the holy angels.
22:41There can be no doubt that the tendency of thought in our day
22:44is to narrow the sphere of the supernatural.
22:49Formerly dominated over thought and action,
22:51the influence of spirit and occult spiritual forces
22:55was brought in to account for such,
22:57today that is referable to laws and powers of nature.
23:03Nowadays men are occupied in tracing natural law in the spirit world.
23:08But who can accept the truth of this first chapter of St. Luke's Gospel
23:12and doubt as to the reality of a spiritual universe encompassing material?
23:19And if there be such a universe,
23:22why should it seem incredible that spiritual presences should,
23:26from time to time be declared to men,
23:29that Gabriel's and Michael's should,
23:31that God's bidding speed and boast
23:34o'er land and ocean without rest,
23:37ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them
23:40who should be heirs of salvation?
23:44The spiritual mind can have no difficulty with this.
23:47It will recognize in the vision of Zechariah
23:50the truth for all of us.
23:52Where there is a praying heart,
23:54there is the angel on the right side,
23:57the altar of incense.
24:03Finally, we have the punishment recorded
24:06full of many warnings in scripture against unbelief
24:09which should limit the Holy One of Israel.
24:13How can these things be?
24:16How shall I know this?
24:18Are questions ever arising in the heart?
24:21The good priest had waited many a long year.
24:25When expectation failed, he bared his head to God's will.
24:30No doubt one and another,
24:31he and his wife, now well stricken in years,
24:35had often recalled the word to Abraham
24:37concerning Sarah's laughter.
24:39Is anything too hard for the Lord?
24:43But when the time of trial actually comes
24:45does not the faith falter?
24:47Can we not understand this?
24:50We limp when we should walk and not be weary.
24:52You shall be silent because you did not believe.
24:57It is not the constant result of spiritual unbelief, silence.
25:02And the closed heart is followed by the closed lips,
25:06silent and unable to speak.
25:09O Lord, increase our faith.
25:12Let us pray for patience
25:14and for the strength of faith in him
25:16who has nothing but love, patience and belief in us.
25:26Let us pray.
25:29O Lord, we pray that your grace
25:31may always be present and follow us,
25:35making us continually given to all good works.
25:39Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
25:42Amen.
25:48May the Lord bless us and keep us from all evil.
25:51bringing us to everlasting life.
25:55Amen.