<div dir="ltr">
<b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">Friends, <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>our
Gospel today </b></span>is from the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, which <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>is
thoroughly drenched in Davidic themes from the Old Testament. </b></span></span><br><span> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"> </span><br><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal">The
first thing we hear about Zechariah is that he serves as priest in the
Jerusalem temple; and David’s dream was to build the temple in which
Zechariah serves. While in the sanctuary, Zechariah is visited by the
angel Gabriel; and the temple locale and the announcement of the birth
of a child against all expectations brings us back to Hannah’s
pregnancy, which resulted in the birth of the forerunner to David.
Indeed, Elizabeth’s words upon conceiving—"So has the Lord done for me
at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before
others"—powerfully evoke Hannah’s frame of mind when she, after many
tears and much prayer, finally became pregnant. </span></b></span><br><br></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b><div><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>What
does <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">this</span> have to do with the life of Jesus? </b><b>From beginning to end of
his preaching career, Jesus’s central theme was the arrival of the
kingdom of God, which <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">was understood to mean the ingathering of the
scattered tribes of Israel</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">.</span> And what becomes eminently clear in all of
the Gospels is that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>this coming together would
happen in and through Jesus himself, much as <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">the knitting together of
ancient Israel happened in the person of David<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">.</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> </span></b><b>Jesus definitively
fulfills what <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">David himself left incomplete and unfinished. <br></span></b></span></span></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></div><div><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><b style="margin:0px;outline:none;padding:0px;font-weight:normal"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:18px;font-weight:400;line-height:inherit;text-decoration:inherit;font-family:georgia,"times new roman";font-style:normal"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Dicsőség az Atyának, a Fiúnak és a Szentléleknek most és mindörökké. Ámen.</span></span><br></span></b></span></span></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></b></div>
</div>