St John the Baptist

HIS NAME IS JOHN

Since the Vicar's wife strongly disapproved of my late wife attending church when she was pregnant, we€ decided to have our son baptised at Walton Parish Church, Liverpool, where we had been married and where I had served my first curacy.

So after the Gospel, I found myself walking to the Saxon font,at the back of the church, by the door.

Having blessed the water, I took my son into my arms, poured the water over him, and very proudly proclaimed, "Terence William James, I baptise you, There then followed a pregnant pause, which seemed like minutes, but was probably just a few seconds. The names, 'Terence William James' seemed very familiar, but yet they seemed wrong. I then realised that they were my own names, and so our son can boast of having six Christian names, "Terence, William, James, Jonathan, Terence, William,'

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However, there was no such confusion as regards names when John the Baptist was named, eight days after his birth. Although the friends and neighbours expected him to be named 'Zechariah' after his father, his father insisted: 'His name is John'.

However, that is to jump the gun! The story concerning his name goes back some nine months earlier, and since it is not included in our Gospel readings over our three year cycle of Eucharistic readings, it is therefore worth recalling.

Zechariah was a priest who did duty at the Temple. His wife, Elizabeth, was a priest's daughter. We are told that they were 'living blameless according to the commandments and regulations of the Lord.'

However, this couple was not respected by the local community because they had no children, and were, in fact, now too old to have children, which was a great disappointment to them.

One day when Zechariah was on duty at the Temple, and offering incense in the sanctuary, we are told that an angel appeared to him. The angel told him that he and his wife would have a son, and that his name would be 'John', and that he would be great in the sight of the Lord.

The angel went on to say that his son would never drink wine or strong drink, and that he would turn many of the people of lsrael to the Lord their God, and that he would make a people prepared for the Lord.

Zechariah initially rejected such an idea, in view of their age, to which the angel Gabriel replied he would be struck dumb until the birth of this very special son.

Meanwhile the congregation outside the sanctuary were becoming impatient waiting for Zechariah to come out. When he did come out he was unable to tell them why he had been delayed.

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And so, some nine months later, a son was born to Elizabeth and Zechariah, and on the eighth day they prepared to circumcise and name him.

As l said earlier, the friends and neighbours present, expected him to be named after his father. But Elizabeth said, "No, he is called John.' And when they turned and asked Zechariah, who still could not speak, he wrote on a writing tablet, 'His name is John.'

Having done this, we are told that, 'his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God'. This became the talk of the whole area, and people wondered what was so special about his child.

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It is important to recall that as far as the Jews were concerned, a name was much more than just a€ label; it was closely related to the character and nature of the bearer. Hence, pious parents would choose a name expressive of their own faith, or their hopes for the child.

The name 'John' is the shortened form of 'Jehohanan' which means "God's gift' And "John" was indeed a gracious gift to his ageing parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. But he was also to be a gracious gift to the wider cornmunity, for it was his divine task to prepare the people for the coming of Jesus.

We hear nothing about John the Baptist, as he was later called, until 27 AD, when he appeared very much in the style of the Old Testament prophets. He comes, quoting the words of the prophet lsaiah, saying, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his path straight. Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill laid low.'

He called people to repentance by undergoing a baptism of repentance in the River Jordan where he also baptised Jesus.

John was a person who fearlessly spoke the truth. He told a man with two shirts to give one away, the man with food to share with those who had none, and that soldiers should be content with their pay and not indulge in bullying or blackmail.

But not everyone was able to bear the truth. When he criticised Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, over his incestuous marriage with Herodias, his niece, he was thrown into prison. When the daughter of Herodias, Salome, asked Herod for the head of John the Baptist upon a plate, John's life came to an abrupt end.

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"His name is John', wrote Zechariah upon the writing tablet. And today, we give thanks to God for his life and pray that we may live lives worthy of the example he has left us, so that when Christ shall come again, he may find us ready to greet him.