The waiting and preparing for the Christ child really is not about us. It is about how we are opening our hearts, opening our beings to the new ways God is working in us and through us. It is about embracing, praticing a “posture of paying attention.” It is about allowing ourselves to be amazed in a cyncial world. It is about us rejoicing even when our hearts are breaking.
December 14, 2025
How does a weary world rejoice?
“We allow ourselves to be amazed”
Luke 1: 57-66
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 1: 57-66
Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, “No; he is to be called John.” They said to her, “None of your relatives has this name.” Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, “What then will this child become?” For indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.
We allow ourselves to be amazed Luke 1: 57-66
“Joy can’t be coerced out of us”. I’ll say that again, “Joy cannot be coerced out of us, or from us.” These wise words were shared as part of the commentary which accompanies our text. When I read these words, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Immediately, my posture changed from tense, arms close to the body to a more open, shoulders dropping from my ears, release. It was almost as if these wise words were giving me permission not to be in the frantic, seemingly forced joy which often accompanies this time of year.
As I took an inventory of what was going on in my life, what was going on in our community, I realized that it was not just one thing causing this frantic feeling or tense posture. It was a combination of things….worry about our world and the diminishing vision of peace, hearing people’s stories about their wondering how they are going to make ends meet, the shroud of grief which is enveloping so many in our community as they experience the loss of a loved one or sickness. As I took inventory of what was going on in my life, what was going on in our community, I realized that it was not just one thing. Rather it was a combination of things causing this frantic and tense posture.
I will also admit that I’m not there yet. Or maybe I don’t want to be there yet. Rather, I’m finding that I need, I want the sanctuary the season of Advent cultivates more than the noise, lights and festivities. I’m finding that I’m not ready for the Christmas carols or parties. I’m not ready for the bright lights or even the feel-good Christmas movies. I’m just not there yet. Now, I’m not planning to close myself off from the rest of the world but I’m finding that I just need to be reminded once more that it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t need to be this way…this constant on the go. This urgency to get things done, to mark them off my list, to have this sense that I’m failing at everything because my Christmas shopping is not done and wrapped under my tree yet.
On this third Sunday of Advent, I am finding that I need, that we need as a community of faith these wise words which remind us that joy cannot be forced, that joy cannot be coerced. We need to be reminded once again that this world is encouraging us to fake it until we make it when in reality, our faith tells us, shows us that when we can find no comfort or hope, when we need sanctuary, we can always draw from the well of our salvation, God’s love, and know that death and destruction will not have the last word. In this sanctuary of Advent, I’m discovering that I need, we need to be reminded that when joy feels out of reach, as people of faith, we are invited to pause, to refocus, to allow ourselves to notice and take in the amazing wonders in each day, wonders we can too easily ignore, that this Advent season, and any time really, our faith story tells us, shows us that the miracle is not really about us but about what happens through us to bring about healing and wholeness for all of God’s people.
Or let me say it this way…this section of our text is one which we usually skip over because well, it is not exciting. There are no angel announcements. There are no stars shining bright. There are no shepherds clamoring to meet the baby. It is just Zechariah and Elizabeth, standing firm in the promises of God. It is just two people not giving into the pressure of the crowd. It is just two people saying “Hey, this is what I know to be true.” It is just two people being open to the new ways in which God is moving in and among them.
I fully admit this is not the most exciting part of the Christmas story. And Luke doesn’t help. He just kind of crams these verses in between the “important” parts. He might as well have said, oh by the way, Elizabeth had their kid. People didn’t agree with her choice of name, but she knew God’s promises. And yeah, Zechariah gets his voice back.
See, it is easy to overlook these verses but this year in my need for sanctuary, in my need to slow down, in my need for an invitation of space and grace, I realized that when we rush past these few verses, what we miss is the quiet invitation to step back, to see the larger picture, to pause and refocus on what God is doing in our midst. Because when we do that, we see, we realize that God is there, God is showing us who God is, that God is faithful, that God is steadfast, that God is with God’s people from generation to generation. When we spend time with these no exciting, easy to miss verses, we learn the same lesson which Zechariah and Elizabeth learned all those years ago, that all this waiting and preparing for the Christ child really is not about us. It is about how we are opening our hearts, opening our beings to the new ways God is working in us and through us. It is about embracing, practicing a “posture of paying attention.” It is about allowing ourselves to be amazed in a cynical world. It is about us rejoicing even when our hearts are breaking.
Because when we pause, when we step back, when we allow ourselves to be amazed at the world around us, what they learned, what we experience is joy. And it is not the joy of noise, bright lights and festive pirates. It is the joy of the heart. It is the joy of our soul. It is the joy which comes from knowing God created the world and decided that it would be incomplete without you and me. When we pause, when we step back, when we allow ourselves to be amazed, we experience a joy which invites us to celebrate God’s grace together, a joy which remembers and reclaims the promises of God, a joy which is grounded in the knowledge that God has acted in the past and God is still acting now to bring about healing and wholeness. When we embrace the sanctuary of Advent, we experience a joy which calls us to open our hearts, open our beings to the new ways God is working in us and through us and invite this weary world to rejoice. May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, December 14, 2025 – We allow ourselves to be amazed Luke 1: 57-66.
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