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When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: \u201cDo not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous\u2014to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.\u201d (Luke 1:12-17)

An ordinary day at the temple worship service. \xa0Folks are going through the motions of talking to God, like they usually do. \xa0Usually: nothing much happens. \xa0No one really expects anything to happen. \xa0Or if they do, they expect it to come slowly through small and subtle shifts. \xa0

Over long years of ordinary faithfulness: how many prayers had been prayed here at this Temple? \xa0Over those same long, ordinary years of faithfulness, how many prayers had Zechariah prayed? \xa0Even without many high expectations or mountaintop experiences of answered prayer: they all kept praying anyway. \xa0Kept talking with God. \xa0Kept asking, seeking, and knocking. \xa0Prayers, like incense, continued to rise to heaven.

They asked for small, ordinary personal things like daily bread, a good day at work, the words to say the next time they met their neighbour. \xa0They asked for hard, intimate things like healing, reconciliation within their divided families, for children who had walked away from the faith, or for new life to come out of barrenness and death. \xa0Sometimes they asked for the really big things too: for God to save their people, their country, their land. \xa0Their prayers, like incense, continued to rise to heaven. \xa0

Usually: nothing much happens aside from the slow, small, and patient work of God. \xa0But on this rare day, something big really did. \xa0The angel appeared next to the alter of incense, that embodiment of the prayers of God\u2019s people, assured this frightened old man who suddenly stood in the presence of glory that he was ok, and then spoke incredible words. \xa0\u201cYour prayer has been heard,\u201d the angel said. \xa0

The small personal prayers had been heard for joy and delight to enter into their small and ordinary days. \xa0The hard prayers had been heard for life being birthed out of barrenness, and for reconciliation in families, and for wayward children to come home to God. \xa0Even the really big prayers of turning the nation back to it\u2019s Lord and God had been heard.

God would answer all these prayers in the gift of John, whose name means \u201cgift\u201d or \u201cgrace of God\u201d. \xa0A small baby to be born into Zechariah and Elizabeth\u2019s small and homely family. \xa0A small dose of healing and redemption to be injected into the hardened and hopeless hearts of Israel. \xa0It would not be complete healing or redemption. \xa0But, the many prayers of God\u2019s people and even particularly of old Zechariah, had been heard. \xa0The grace of God was coming, and with it, rejoicing. \xa0

It doesn\u2019t always seem like our prayers are heard, but every now and then the thin veneer separating earth and heaven is pealed back and we remember that in big ways or small, through slow means or sudden: the grace of God is still at work. \xa0

So, as Pastor Michael encouraged yesterday, so I encourage you again today: as you go about the ordinary events of the day\u2014accompany them with prayer. \xa0Let those prayers rise like incense. \xa0And keep your eyes expectantly peeled, because God\u2019s gifts of grace still pop up in unexpected places bringing joy and delight today.

Though you walk in darkness, may you see the great light. Though you live in a land of deep shadows\u2014may you see light! sunbursts of light! May God increase your life, expand your joy. May you be glad in his presence! May God give you the joy of a great celebration, sharing rich gifts and warm greetings (cf. Isaiah 9:2-3 MSG).

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