The New Birth of John the Baptist in Us
Luke 1: 57-80
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. Then his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us. Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors, and has remembered his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham, to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the forgiveness of their sins. By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.
Perhaps you may have seen her on Wood Avenue in Linden.
She lived in the bus shelter in front of City Hall. I ran into her one day when I stopped at a Spanish take out restaurant on Wood Ave.
I think the owners of the store would give her a meal for free. She was no different from the many homeless persons we meet on the street or in the library or in a bus or train station. Many of them beg from us and most of us ignore them. These urban renegades are found in every city in every generation.
Don’t confuse John the Baptist with these urban renegades.
Like them, John the Baptist was uncouth, disruptive, annoying. We might imagine him living in a cave, the ancient equivalent of a homeless encampment. His diet of locusts and wild honey constituted the meal of the destitute. When he wore a camel’s skin and a belt, he was imitating the prophet Elijah. If ever there was a biblical character with questionable mental stability Elijah would rank high on the list.
There are times when a society stands in crisis and unusual characters arise to address the unusual situation. Elijah lived in Israel when the entire nation turned from the worship of the one God to the worship of pagan gods. Along with pagan worship, the king and all the people slipped into a immoral standard of behavior. Elijah seemed to be the only believer in the one God. No wonder he felt a bit paranoid.
John the Baptist also emerges at a critical moment in the history of Israel. The religious leaders of John’s day compromised their justice tradition to get into bed with their Roman overlords. They turned their heads when crosses circled Jerusalem with crucified Jewish bodies twisted in the hot sun. They felt comfortable in their houses of worship.
John scorns their well established patterns of getting their sins forgiven. Generations of Jews would sacrifice animals to blot out their sins. John went at it in a new way. He told the people to head back to the River Jordan and walk through the water just as their ancestors did. Just as their ancestors did when they, a ramshackle bunch of refugees from Egypt crossed that same River Jordan and stepped onto the other shore as a new nation. John dared to reenact this ritual of birthing a nation under the very eyes of those Roman overlords, the same overlords with whom the religious authorities shared the same bed.
John attracted the attention of the political leaders of his day. What did he expect? He was a pain in their neck, or perhaps some had a lower opinion of him. John ended up in prison and was just another victim of a political authority who placed little value on life.
Jesus shuttered when he heard the news of John’s death. Jesus knew that those same Roman overlords were looking at him and Jesus figured out rather quickly the end of his story.
When he was born, John’s father proclaimed that God would bring knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of the people’s sin.
John lived up to that legacy and opened a door for a people to discover themselves as a new nation, a holy nation, a just nation.
If you are not uncomfortable with having John the Baptist as the Patron of our church, perhaps you should open the Gospel and read how disruptive a person John could be. We all love sweet and gentle Jesus but most of us would stay clear of that Wildman of a prophet John the Baptist. On the one hand, he opens up a door which allows us access to a forgiving God who forgets our sins as quickly as we sixty plus folks forget the last thing we ate. We all love that John with the forgiving God. How many of us are comfortable with that renegade of a firebrand disrupting the social order, overturning established religious ways, intruding on our gracious life styles.
Perhaps we need to take on John’s disruptive behaviors and witness to an alternate vision of religious people who boldly stand up for the rights of women, persons of color and LGBTQ people. Perhaps the nation needs prophets who challenge the so called ethics of the religious right who would deprive women of control over their bodies and who knows what others rights will be taken from us? I don’t think many of us will leave our homes for a homeless encampment or trade our clothing for second hand items from a thrift store.
Even so, inside each one of us there is a John the Baptist yearning to be born. Inside each of us the Spirit raises us a holy anger at the injustices of our day. I hope all of us take on that prophetic call to stand up for women, to stand up for our siblings of color, to stand up for our LGBTQ spiritual family members in the face of threats they will face.
Pray that God gives you the strength to be a bold prophet. Pray that God opens a door for you. Then boldly act for God’s reign.
We need John the Baptist in our day.
As we celebrate the birth of that child who would be a pain in the neck for the High Priests and Roman procurators, ask God to give birth to John in your heart. That disruptive John who screams at the injustices of our day. That uncouth John who challenges the religious establishments which would take away justice from the marginalized. That holy John who lead the people to discover a God who forgives, who no longer exacts punishment, who shines like the daystar warming our hearts.