Sunday Sermon 6/24/12

The readings today are about John. They are interesting because they are both quite specific and dismissive.

At John's circumcision there is a debate about his name. The family expects him to be named for his father but his mother and father both insist upon "John." despite there is no one in the family of that name. The parents do not say "That's the name the angel wants," they just insist on that name. His father then is miraculously cured of his speech problems and the neighbors are appropriately afraid. But none of this seems central; his naming does. John is named out of his family and time. He is not a part of anything; there is no continuity between him and the past.

When Paul is speaking about him in Acts, he says "When John was fulfilling his course" as if he were some agent playing some fatal card. Indeed he was supplanted by Christ and then horribly murdered but there seems to be no emotion here, no anger or regret. John, appearing isolated in the desert for a fixed purpose and time, comes and goes for a more important purpose.

The drama is never allowed to become too human.