A Sermon for the Birth of St John the Baptist
As preached (with some edits) at St George's Anglican Church, Place du Canada on June 22, 2025
Isaiah 40.1-11, Psalm 85.7-13, Acts 13.14b-26, Luke 1:57-80
Let us pray: in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The gospel of Luke begins in the days of King Herod of Judea, King Herod the Great - who is not to be confused with Herod Antipas - his son - who was king when Jesus died.
When the author of the Gospel of Luke sets out to write down and share their orderly account of what happened: of Jesus life, death, resurrection, and ascension, their account begins with two babies.
Or more accurately, their pregnancy announcement.
Today we celebrate the feast of the birth of one of those babies, St. John the Baptist.
Zechariah and Elizabeth’s son, John will grow up to powerfully preach justice. He will grow up into a man who speaks into the sins of kings and calls out injustice and hypocrisy in the temple elite. He will gather crowds in the wilderness, and baptize them for the forgiveness of sins in the river Jordan.
He will grow up to be famous both for his words and for his strange and compelling lifestyle - wearing camel shirts and living off of locusts and honey - things he could forage for himself in the undeveloped areas, in the desert, in the wilderness. He will gather a following and his ideas will influence people.
His ideas will give an occupied people, hope.
In time, John the Baptist will provide the catalyst, Christ’s own baptism, that starts the public ministry of the Son of God. John the Baptist will witness and name the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry.
He will point out who Jesus was and is and what precisely the Christ himself had come to do.
But, before he does all that, he dances in his mother’s womb when he hears a pregnant Mary’s voice.
Before he does all those magnificent and wonderful things, all those things that are worthy of praise, THE angel Gabriel tells his father that Elizabeth is pregnant with him, and his father - an older man with an older wife - has a few questions. The angel strikes him dumb for his audacity to question or perhaps to give him the gift of time to contemplate, in either case, Zechariah cannot speak until he names his son not after himself - but after what God has done. A name we often take for granted but that means: God has given.1 It is a combination of two Hebrew words, יה (yah) a prefix meaning God and the verb נתן (natan), meaning to give.
When Zechariah bestows that name on that little boy - his tongue is loosened and we get one of the most beautiful songs, one of the most beautiful canticles, in scripture:
68“Praise be to the Lord, [Zechariah says with his tongue dusty from lack of use] the God of Israel…
76 And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
77 to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78 because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79 to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace.”2
This song came before all the grand acts we listed out earlier. Before John had a single item to list on his CV. Before his father knew whether or not he would be a difficult baby or an easy one. A surly teenager or a helpful, thoughtful, young adult. Before he’d learned to talk or walk or eat or hold his head up on his own. His father sang this song in response to the God who sent the angel to tell him who John would be.
To acknowledge what he had come to understand - that his son would be a voice of one calling “in the wilderness [to] prepare the way for the Lord; [and] make straight in the desert a highway for God”3
Where the Gospel of Luke starts is no accident and the gospel of Luke starts with two babies.
John the Baptist and Jesus.
It starts with two tiny humans who grow up to do great things. Their lives started the way we all start, with our parents. Completely dependent on the love, protection, and guidance of the grown ups around us.
Many of you will have heard me say this before but, I love baptisms. And infant baptism have a very special place in my heart because they image, in a profound and particular way, the truth that baptism is a gift from God.
Infant baptisms image, in a profound and particular way, the truth that baptism is a gift from God.
Baptism is not something we do on our own authority and cleverness. Baptism is something God does that we get to acknowledge and to witness - something we get to participate in, wonder about, and be in awe of.
And in this world where the crushing weight of personal responsibility can so often lead to paralysis and despair - this is good news.
In this world at this time, when I do not need to remind you of what is happening around the world - when I do not need to remind you that we are all connected and that there are good and real reasons to be scared. In this world at this time, we need good news.
We are lucky this morning because Leena is being baptized. She is about to have a series of critical promises made on her behalf. They are good promises, just vows, but they are not small, they are not easy, and I think we can all agree that now, at four months old, no matter how good and special and sweet she is, these promises are too big for her small shoulders.
Yet, just like the two babies whose births changed everything in the gospel of Luke, God has plans for Leena. God loves Leena, and because she was born into this world, because her parents are making a commitment today to raise her for a better world we, the church can rejoice with them. Because this world that we live in is the same world that God loved so much that he sent his Son and sent John the Baptist to prepare they way for him.
Because of all that - in the middle of everything going on in the world, in the face of threats of global violence and personal instability, with every weight we carry -
We can remember our own baptismal covenants - the promises we reafffirm every Sunday when we recite the creed.
And we can remember that being a part of this better world, isn’t something we get to through our own cleverness and our own efforts, it is something we are given by God because God wants to give it to us.
It is a gift.
A gift that allows us to be:
A People who know God, father, son, and Holy Spirit.
A people who remember what God has done and trust that God will do it again.
A people who teach the world about our God, about love and justice and hope.
A people who meet together on fellowship and who break bread together as Jesus taught us.
A people who resist evil
A people who repent when we fail to live up to our promises, try again and again… and again.
A people who proclaim the GoodNews as we have received it!
A people who serve each other, who love each other, and who honour ourselves.
A people who strive for justice and peace
A people who do not compromise on the human dignity of each and every one of Gods children
A people who strive to safeguard the integrity of the earth
A people who honour creation.
When we remember, when we live like that: the world changes.
And today, for all of us gathered here: Leena’s baptism is for us, an undeniable sign of this reality.
That being said, are you ready?
It has been a long time for me since Maggie Low’s Hebrew class at Trinity Theological College, so it MIGHT be God gives?
Luke 1:68-79
Isaiah 40:3