Saturday Advent 2

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.

Things must have settled into an acceptable rhythm by the time John the Baptist was born. I would guess that nine months earlier the fact that the aging couple had conceived was something that got the neighbors talking (gossiping). But now the neighbors could see God’s mercy in the child’s birth and they rejoiced with her.
Then, things got all stirred up again, didn’t they? Elizabeth and Zechariah went against the cultural pattern by not naming the baby after his father, Zechariah.
But there was more involved than naming a baby John. In fact, it wasn’t about a name at all. It was about faithful obedience to God’s direction. It was about willingness to trust the unlikely happenings unleashed by God MORE than the seemingly certain dictates of tradition.
Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John all were part of the way that God was preparing the way for Christ. They participated in a process that defied their understanding, even as it confirmed and solidified their faith.
Sometimes going God's way means going against the grain of our culture. Sometimes going God’s way pulls us from the predictable paths (or are they ruts) of community or family customs. As God takes action in our midst, we may need to reassess some things that were always automatically seen as “the way things are supposed to be done”.
Are there ways that you are being called to go against the grain of your immediate surroundings or society? Are there hopes and emerging values planted in you by God that will make you “unpopular” with your circle of friends, family or colleagues?

You are blessed! Take heart! Remember that you are preceded in faith by many who have walked against the flow of the world's expectations.