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‘How will this be?’  It’s not a bad question to ask, is it?  You’ve just received some of the most extraordinary – and shocking – news anyone could imagine.  Perhaps as you’ve read today’s passage, you found yourself remembering such a time in your own life, when you received news it was hard to take … Read more

Names matter.  They certainly matter in the bible.  A name wasn’t just a parental preference, it was meant to signify something.  We can learn a lot from names.  Take Gabriel, for example.  It means ‘God is my strength’ – a perfect name for an angel.  Mighty as Gabriel was, he knew where his true strength … Read more

Poor old Zechariah.  It’s easy to give him a roasting.  All those years waiting hopefully and serving faithfully, and when his big moment comes… But I wonder if Zechariah is not somewhat more like us than we care to admit.   One of the great pointers to the truthfulness of the bible is that the characters … Read more

Most modern tellings of the nativity story begin with the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary.  But that’s not quite the beginning of the story – not even in Luke’s gospel itself.  Six months before that historic encounter, Gabriel has another divine errand, to an old priest performing his duties at the temple in Jerusalem. Zechariah … Read more

Admit it – you skipped a few lines of today’s reading, didn’t you?  Most people do.  In fact, if I was able to secretly watch your reading time, I might find it was more than a few lines! The bible is full of genealogies.  Long lists of who begat who, to use the old language … Read more