Enter the Songs ~ Zechariah’s John Song: What will this child become?

As was true for Sarah and Abraham before them, Zechariah and Elizabeth are old – well past the age of childbearing – nevertheless, God has given them a son – John – whose life is caught up in the designs of God. John will be great in the sight of the Lord... and he will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. On the eighth day after John’s birth, his parents bring him to the Temple for naming and circumcision. The question on everyone’s heart and mind – the question Zechariah’s John Song answers is: What then will this child become?

It is the question every parent ponders at some point. It is a question often on hearts and minds when we prepare to baptize an infant within a community of faith. What – who – will this child become?

On this day in our scripture – when John is barely a week old – his father is filled with the hope that accompanies new life. It is the hope of salvation for all people: Jews and Gentiles – insiders, outsiders – rich, poor and differently abled – tax collectors and sinners – women, men – old and young, fishermen and farmers – Samaritans and soldiers – lepers and lawyers – salvation for all. As Zechariah waits – as we wait – for the unfolding of God’s purposes in John, we look ahead to the one who is more powerful than he – the one who is to come – whose own name portends that all flesh shall see God’s salvation.

Before long, the day will come when Zechariah’s son will prepare the way for Jesus – participating in God’s mission of salvation by calling people to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The child born to Zechariah and Elizabeth plays a crucial role in the delivering the promise of salvation that God made long ago. Zechariah’s John Song invites us to join in preparing the way of the Lord – to prepare for Jesus, the light to all who live in darkness. John’s prophetic preaching ministry in the wilderness prepares the way for the coming of Jesus – the Word of God made flesh.

God wants this to happen and God has promised that it will happen. But who is prepared? Have we been preparing the way of the Lord? Have we been open to God preparing us?

God is gracious and wants to shine abundant life on and through us, but we need to be ready. God’s reminds us by way of Zechariah’s John Song that a messenger will come to announce the good news – to prepare the way. John the Baptist will come from the wilderness – from what some might call a sinful place. He will serve as a messenger who comes crying out for preparation using an image familiar to the people of Israel – reminding them of Isaiah’s words from so long ago and the picture of ancient kings traveling in the Babylonian Empire. In those days when a king would travel to a less-inhabited region, a core group of royal engineers would prepare the road for the king to pass. They would smooth out the road so that the king’s chariot would not get stuck in a rut. They would level out hills and valleys so the journey would not be so treacherous, and the king would have safe passage. The road had to be prepared for the king to come.

The messenger tells us to prepare the way for the king. Into the humdrum routine of people’s lives, John will come to stir things up – to create a state of emergency. Zechariah’s song not only announces Jesus, but declares John as the bell-ringer. He will take the words of Isaiah and apply them in a personal sense – to the things of the human spirit – calling upon his hearers to let God straighten out their lives – to repent and return home to God. In this way they can be prepared for the coming of the Messiah – prepared for living in Christ and having Christ live in them.

Do we have a sense of readiness? Is the way within and around us prepared? Do we have anything left to do? I mean, life is going along just fine, right? We are managing the affairs of the earth and God is in the heavens – everything is just as it should be. Crisis – what crisis? According to Zechariah’s John Song, his son will seek to create a sense of urgency in us – to wake us up to the predicament we are in. We keep God tucked neatly into Sunday morning – yet God continues to break into the world – God yearns to be present in the center of our lives.

Like the songs of the gospel texts we have been wrestling with these past weeks, the words of the prophets keep us on our toes – listening for God – waiting in anticipation for God – preparing to respond to God who is always coming to us.

Today we are called to prepare – to face the future that God promises and into which God calls us. The future that beckons is the promised day of the Lord when God’s divine rule of justice and righteousness will be established. Our readiness for the coming of God is witnessed in the love and commitment we have for one another. Our love and care for others is a sign of readiness to face the future with hope.

During Advent, if we mention fathers we usually talk about Joseph – not Zechariah. But like Zechariah, Joseph knows from the beginning that God is taking an interest in his role as parent. The Rev. Dr. Emily Bisset once wrote in the Presbyterian Record about Joseph’s love for Jesus as the powerful love of adoption – when a child that is not of your own flesh and blood becomes truly “your” child. Joseph is able to experience Jesus as God with us – Emmanuel – and also to know and love him as his own son. Zechariah’s son is his own flesh, but God has plans for him beyond his father’s imagination – plans he announces in this prophetic song.

The community gathers at John’s naming ceremony – neighbours and family and friends – and they wonder: What – who – will this child become?

This is what church does whenever we baptize infants and children – we gather as a community – with parents and their child to wonder with them – to pray with them – to hope with them. In Bisset’s article she reminds us that we are asked to love the child we baptize and be part of caring for them – raising them – nurturing them in Christian faith. And Bisset tells us to look to the love of Joseph as our guide – to adopt those baptized into our family as our own – to adopt one another as each one of us is adopted into God’s family through baptism.

Baptism means many things: cleansing, repentance, adoption, affirmation, but perhaps most significantly it is embracing our identity as a child of God. We are God’s children – we are beloved. Baptism is a declaration of our dependence on divine grace – on God breaking into our lives. Baptism is not about our goodness – it’s not about being safe or just going through an empty ritual – it’s about God’s grace.

We celebrate baptism as an outward symbol of God’s grace that is already at work in our lives – from the time we are born – before we even know what to call it. Baptism is our response to God’s initiative – our reply to God’s gift. The heavens are opened – the Spirit of peace and wholeness descends – the divine voice names us – adopts us – and blesses us. Remember your baptism and give thanks!

Through the sacrament of baptism, we recognize that God claims us and calls each one of us by name as a gift that we cannot earn or deserve. God has done it all – everything that is necessary to redeem us is in God’s hands – we belong to God. This comes so clear to us as we read – as we sing – Zechariah’s praise and prophecy about Jesus and John. They are held in God’s grace from before their birth and God knows what – who – they will become: prophet and preparer – voice in the wilderness / light of salvation – guide and saviour.

In this Advent season, brilliant sights and sounds rush us too quickly toward Christmas. The world promises bright lights and tinsel, which, like the flowers and grass of summer, all too quickly fade and wither. We need to take time to listen to these gospel songs and the wilderness messengers they foretell – those who direct us again to the powerful word of God, which endures. These voices point us to One far greater and more important than anything else the world has to offer.

The voice of John will cry in the wilderness. Listen! Prepare the way of the Lord. Make the paths straight. Blessed are those who prepare – they shall see God and rest in the divine embrace. We are encouraged to prepare the way of the Lord and make the path straight – right here where we live. As we become ready, we can live abundantly in the presence of our Lord – released into the undiminished joy of being. Thanks be to God.