Luke 1:1-38

Lent begins today – Ash Wednesday – and in approximately 40 days we will gather in a variety of settings to celebrate Easter, with the triumphant shout ‘ALLELUIA, CHRIST IS RISEN … THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA.

Later in the Gospel, John and Jesus will come together again as they proclaim the message of God’s Messiah. But the opening sets the scene of the ‘announcement’ of their births through their respective parents.

In each case, God works through ordinary people to perform God’s acts of wonder. A priest carrying out his ordinary tasks in the temple in Jerusalem and a teenager doing her daily chore of carrying water from the village well in Nazareth are selected by God to be the father and mother of John and Jesus.

It is interesting that God ‘worked’ through the husband, Zechariah (his wife Elizabeth would bear John in her old age), to convince him that God’s plan was legitimate and doable. In Mary’s case, the teenager had to give her personal consent to bear God’s child, Jesus. God does move in mysterious ways to perform God’s greatness.

So we start at the very beginning, as the song relates, which is a very good place to start.

Question for you – ‘can this first day of Lent be a new beginning for you?’

Tomorrow's reading: Luke 1:39-80

(Today's post submitted by guest writer, Rev. Hollis Hiscock.)