SERMON:
BIRTH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST YEAR A 2005
In the name of God who calls us as disciples.
Amen.
Today we celebrate the miraculous birth of John the
Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, the one whose ministry prepared the way for
Jesus’ ministry.
When it comes down to it, we really know very little about
him. We have the story of his birth, the story we heard today, we have a
description of his ministry including the account of Jesus’ baptism, and some
information about his death.
But what we do have is intriguing. We are told that he
preached repentance, and that although he was based in the desert, people came
from many places to hear him and to receive baptism (Mt 3:2ff). He presented
bizarrely – with clothes made from camels’ hair and a diet of locusts and
wild honey. He saw his ministry as insignificant beside that of Jesus and
clearly understood his role as one of preparation. In today’s entertainment
industry, he would definitely be the warm-up act.
John the Baptist’s death is also recorded. He was
beheaded at the behest of Salome, the daughter of Herod’s wife, Herodias.
Beguiled by Salome’s dancing, Herod promised her anything she wanted.
Cautiously, he stipulated that she could have anything up to half the value of
his kingdom. On her mother’s advice, she asked for the head of John the
Baptist. Herod was then caught in a dilemma. The tale is an object lesson in
being careful about what you promise!
Herod did not want to kill John – he was interested in
what John had to say and, I suspect, had some respect for him. We are told that
when he heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him (Mark
6:20). But he felt obliged to follow through on his promise to Salome and John
was executed. That wonderful little throw away line ‘When Herod heard John, he
was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him’ could suggest that Herod
liked to listen to John just to laugh at him, or to be entertained, as by a pet
monkey. But his distress at being asked to execute John suggests that something
more profound was going on – that John was making connections with Herod and
leading him towards some sort of understanding about the things that mattered to
John. Who knows what would have happened if
John had not been executed?
John holds a special and honoured place within Christian
tradition as the forerunner of Jesus
We tend not to see ourselves in the same light, but I would
like to argue today that there are many respects in which we too can be seen as
forerunners of Jesus.
As our society is rapidly becoming less dominantly
Christian, we regularly meet people who are completely un-churched – people
who have never been inside a church, who have never received religious
instruction in school and who do not know that they know any Christians. Almost
everyone in our society will have heard about Christianity, but there is a world
of difference between hearing about something and actually experiencing it,
actually coming to know people who live by its precepts. As Christians in the
world, we are often the first real contact non-Christians have with the faith.
We are, as the apostle Paul put it 2000 years ago, ambassadors of Christ.
It is an awesome responsibility. Inasmuch as we are able to
live godly lives, we will be the bearers of Christ’s light of love in the
world. Each time we celebrate the eucharist we define ourselves as the body of
Christ. Of course, we will fail but with all our little idiosyncrasies, our
sinfulness, we are the body of Christ. There is a sense in which our community
of faith is a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven.
It seems an extravagant claim. Indeed, a worrying claim –
do you really want heaven to be a place where you freeze in winter and listen to
endless sermons about the nature of God? Or a place where human relationships
can get tense and fraught, as they do from time to time in churches?
Of course, we are not perfect – indeed, there is no
grouping of human beings that is perfect. We are a work in progress, so to
speak. But a serious question for every Christian and for every Christian group,
indeed, perhaps the most
serious question, is this: as individuals and as community, do we show people
what God is like? From what we do, the way we relate to each other and what we
say, do people get a sense of God’s grace, God’s love and God’s mercy?
Each one of is, in a very real sense, God’s gift to the
world. We may feel extremely uncomfortable seeing ourselves in that light, but
it is true. If we take seriously the image of the body of Christ and its model
of interrelated, interdependent parts, each one of us, in our uniqueness, brings
something which is for the benefit of the whole community. It is reassuring to
know that we do not each have to be everything – rather we are a part of the
whole. Where we have a strength, someone lese will have a weakness, where we
have a weakness, someone else will have a strength. But over all, our life
together, as a church, a group of worshipping Christians, is an example to
others of what it means to be Christian.
Just as John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus’
ministry, so too we pave the way for people seeking meaning and the knowledge of
the love of God in their lives.
May we be faithful and loving in our life together. Amen.