John the Baptist Nativity

Today in the Church Calendar, we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist. I once read a little article about John the Baptist which was entitled ‘How hard did the baby cry ?’

The point of the article was to ask how much noise this little baby made, and whether at that time he was already signalling his intention to move into an outspoken and often unpopular ministry.

John was born into a good home – his father Zechariah was a Priest, and would have been well thought of and influential. John would have certainly had the chance, and whether he took it or not we don’t know, of a good education, yet what we do know about him was that as he grew up he left the security of the family, and went out into the wilderness telling people to prepare for a Saviour who was coming soon.

And he did this in a very powerful and dangerous way. He did it by attacking the authorities, by attacking the religious leaders, and by very bluntly telling the people that they needed to repent of the things they were doing wrong. His message was very much, ‘prepare, confess, repent now !’

And so we move back to that connection; how hard did the baby John cry ? This feast we celebrate today is important. It’s one of only three birthdays commemorated in the Church calendar. We celebrate the birth of Jesus. We celebrate the birth of Mary, and we celebrate the birth of John the Baptist.

We put our trust and confidence in the strength of Christ. We rejoice in the love and faith of Mary. But the words of John, while proclaiming the approach of the world’s salvation in Jesus, also draw our attention to the need for repentance, the need for a change in lifestyle. They also draw our attention to the sound of children crying in the night, the noise of Herod’s soldiers in the alleys of Bethlehem, and all kinds of pain that would follow.

That is what John came to do. To alert people everywhere that the world is broken and only God can fix it. The voice of prophecy, so common in the Old Testament, had been silent for years, but this new prophet had all of the radical and revolutionary fervour of any of the previous prophets, and as I was thinking through this sermon and that question of how hard the baby cried, it struck me that very often the behaviour and attitude of the child has very little relation to that of the grown up.

And once again I asked myself how different is the model of the grown up Church from that of the one founded by Jesus himself ? It’s far too long a question to try and answer this evening, but John the Baptist himself perhaps gives a few pointers towards some of the most important principles of the Church.

Firstly the Church must be radical and revolutionary. So much of what John did, and a little later what Jesus himself did, fought against the standards and principles of the day. Neither were afraid to speak out against injustice, against poverty, against discrimination…

John wasn’t polite; he didn’t wear the best clothes and get recognised in the important circles in society. He just went about doing what was important – telling people to prepare for a Saviour, by confessing their sins and repenting of them.

Today perhaps the Church is a little too polite at times. The world contains so much pain, hurt, injustice and intolerance, and the Church must be the body that is fighting to stop these things – to create a better world for everyone. I enjoy picking on Tony Blair at times and even yesterday before his meeting with the Pope and his alleged discussion about his conversion to Roman Catholicism, he still couldn’t speak out and say that the Christian faith was important to him.

It’s not politically correct you see, to say that we are Christians, and believe that Jesus, and he alone, offers the answers to so many of the problems around us in the world – and yet that is surely what we do believe ! John the Baptist never kept quiet and never stopped speaking what was right for people, and neither should the Church today.

Secondly, and following on from that, we recognise the determination and courage of John. A determination that would eventually cost him his life. Throughout the centuries the Church has often been at its strongest when fighting against persecution. There have been so many people who have been prepared to lay down their lives for the sake of Jesus over the years, and a willingness to sacrifice everything is a quality that the Church must surely reveal.

Even today it has to be said that in the areas where the Church faces real crises either through persecution or poverty, that is where you will find the greatest growth. In places such as Africa and parts of Latin America, and others as well, Christian people are still persecuted, and are still speaking out with determination and courage to share a message that is far too important not to be heard.

And thirdly and finally, John the Baptist pointed people to Jesus. He told them the Saviour was coming and he even reluctantly baptised him as Jesus began his public ministry. Today the most important part of the mission of the Church, and we who make up that Church, is to point people to Jesus, and we do that through our words, through our willingness to battle against the wrongs in the world, through our courage to speak up for those who are hurting, and through our compassion and love for each other and for all of humanity. AMEN