Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:25 ‘’The Lord has done this for me,” Elizabeth said.  “In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

I’m struck by Luke’s description of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Both were descendants of Aaron, both were upright in the sight of God, both observed all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly, they (the couple) had no children, and both were well on in years.  I cannot recall anywhere else in the bible where a husband and wife get such equal billing!  But Luke notes specifically that Elizabeth was barren – a harsh term and in the culture of the day a matter of social stigma.  There must be a reason, and, in the absence of any other understanding, the blame and fault are put on her!  So, in Elizabeth’s response to becoming pregnant, we find unqualified thankfulness to God but also the pain of decades of suffering social disgrace captured in that short phrase that God has “taken away my disgrace among the people”. I notice it was not disgrace before God, only “among the people”.  Our hearts go out to her, and we want to rail against the injustice of her day.

I wonder, though, how far from our own doorstep are there individuals who suffer “disgrace among the people” because of the social stigmas of our society, or our church, or our upbringing, or our acquired prejudices or simply our capacity to jump to unkind conclusions?  Arguably the last 70 years have witnessed an unprecedented exposure of such societal attitudes – against race, gender, sexuality, creed, divorce, mental ill health, physical disability.  Yet undoubtedly Mr and Mrs and Miss and Master average-1950s (myself included) didn’t imagine themselves so prejudiced or socially conditioned.  And undoubtedly these and other prejudices are still with us, along with some new ones – just speak to anyone who has been on the receiving end!  I conclude that we are easily blinded to prejudice in ourselves and, if anything, even more so to ungodly attitudes ingrained in our culture.  And, when we do see such things, we are prone to try and justify them.  So, why don’t we take a while today to ask God to shine his light into this murky area of our hearts, to apply his yardstick to our ingrained attitudes, to show us where perhaps we still need to change?