St John the Baptist – morning
Sunday 24th June 2018
Proper 7 – St John the Baptist – morning
Isa 40.1-11 – A voice in the wilderness
Luke 1.57-66 – Birth of the Baptist
Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs
Who remembers the soundtrack of West Side Story?
Could be! Who knows? There’s something due any day; I will know right away
Soon as it shows….
It may come canonballing down through the sky
Gleam in its eye
Bright as a rose!
Who knows?
The story of John the Baptist’s birth is a bit like that. Full of anticipation. Not the main story of course – that is reserved for his cousin Jesus, but certainly a very good warm-up act! And for today at least, it is the warm-up act that steals the show!
Now the song, “Something’s coming” from which I quoted earlier, is sung by the hero of the story – Tony – in anticipation that something momentous is about to happen in his life. For him it is the meeting with Maria that will be both the high point of his existence – but will also inevitably lead to his death and unbearable loss.
There is something similarly both heroic and tragic in the tale of John the Baptist.
And it begins with his birth – or more correctly with his conception. To a couple – very respectable – but thought to be beyond the normal years of childbearing. To a mother who had reconciled herself to a lifetime of being pitied and scorned because she had failed to fulfil what was commonly thought of as being the only thing of worth a woman could achieve in her community and time – that of bearing and raising a child.
We don’t have a lot of information about Elizabeth and Zechariah prior to the conception of their miracle baby. But we do know that Zechariah was from a long line of priests and that he went each year to the Temple in Jerusalem to serve his duty there. And the fact that he and Elizabeth are still together – that she has not been cast off and divorced for failing in her duty as a wife, suggests that he was an honourable man and that he had real affection for his wife and she for him.
But they had given up all thought of having a family of their own. Elizabeth was thought to be barren – the greatest shame a woman could know and I am sure the cause of much heartache and fervent prayers over the years.
But then the impossible – or so they both thought – happens. Zechariah receives a vision in which he is promised a son – one who will be a great prophet and so must be brought up according to strict religious principles. He must not drink alcohol. He is to be filled with the spirit of Elijah (one of the greatest of the OT prophets). He will be entrusted with a very important message for the whole nation of Israel. He is to prepare them for the coming among them of God himself and he is to be called John.
It is all a bit much for Zechariah to take in and he laughs in disbelief – an unwise thing to do when God appears to make you a promise! So the expectant father is punished with muteness until his son is born and the day of his naming ceremony appears. Only then is his tongue loosened so that he can confirm what Elizabeth has already said – the boy’s name is to be John – not a name in the family, which surprises the onlookers, but instead a name signifying “God has shown favour”. The name turned out to be particularly fitting.
John will grow up to fulfil both his name and the task to which he has been appointed. That’s the heroic bit! He will indeed encourage the people to consider how their lives fall short of God’s intention for us. He will draw many to repent and to be baptised as a sign of that repentance. He will live the life of a prophet – not an easy one by anyone’s view. Not for him the comforts of home and family. He will wear the less than comfortable garb, typical of a prophet and make his home in the wilderness, away from polite society. And eventually he will see his own cousin, Jesus, coming to him for baptism. Although he is at first reluctant to perform this ritual, Jesus will persuade him that it is necessary and John will then see his own part in the story of God’s salvation for the world begin to decline. His disciples will drift away to follow Jesus. He will be left with the uncomfortable task of speaking truth to power – condemning King Herod for having married his own brother’s wife – and as a result he will lose his head and his life without knowing that in Jesus, God’s purposes for the world are fully worked out. That’s the tragic bit!
Could it be? Yes it could
Something’s coming, something good
If I can wait!
Something’s coming, I don’t know what it is
But it is, gonna be great!
Patience they say, is a virtue. One that I am not always very good at practising. I would love things to change quickly – in the blink of an eye – at the snap of my fingers….. but life’s not like that. Sometimes we have to be prepared to wait and to trust in God bringing about his purposes in his own time. Just as Elizabeth and Zechariah did; just as the life of their son, John, shows us. Sometimes we will not see the final triumph – but if we listen for God’s word and obey his purposes for us, we can know that we have played our own part in the greater whole. The greater story. Amen.