Homily for Saturday, 24 June 2017– Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Readings of the day: Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15; Acts 13:22-26; Luke 1:57-66, 80

Saturday of the 11th week in Ordinary Time

Does anybody here share my fascination with meanings of names? Those of us who are parents: How many of you searched books, or now websites, to find the perfect and maybe most creative names for your children when they were born?

Our readings today, on this Solemnity of the Nativity of John the Baptist, are full of names. If anybody here is expecting a child or knows somebody who is, perhaps you may want to consider a name from our Scriptures, especially our readings today.

Today we hear the strange way in which John the Baptist is named. His family’s “neighbors and relatives” expect that he will be named “after his father,” Zechariah, from Hebrew, meaning “God has remembered.” We know from earlier in Luke’s Gospel the story of Zechariah. He was taking his turn that year to enter “the Lord’s sanctuary,” the Holy of Holies at the center of the temple of Jerusalem, “to burn incense.” There, an angel announces to him that his wife Elizabeth (from Greek, meaning “God is satisfaction”), thought to be unable to conceive a child, is pregnant. For failing to believe this news, Zechariah is silenced until his son is born.

Elizabeth then names him John (Hebrew for “God is gracious”; “God has shown favor”), a name none of John’s relatives had been given before. Although he still cannot speak, Zechariah wisely seconds Elizabeth’s choice of name for John (husbands, I understand that it is usually a good idea to support your wives in decisions like these) by writing on a tablet: “His name is John.”

Our Gospel reading goes on to say that John lives up to his name: He becomes the herald of God’s graciousness; of God’s favor; of our Savior Jesus Christ to the world. Luke says of John, “Surely the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit.”

Today we hear from the Acts of the Apostles a summary of important figures from Abraham (“father of a multitude”) through King David (“beloved”), son of Jesse (“gift”), to John the Baptist, herald of Jesus (“God saves”).

Our first reading, from Isaiah, includes only two names: Israel (“he struggles” or “wrestles with God”) and Jacob (“holder of the heel,” because he was born holding onto the heel of his twin, Esau, a symbol for Jacob’s having taken Esau’s rightful inheritance as the— barely— elder son). But Isaiah includes several more hidden names. They are phrases, more than single-word names, that describe the role or mission of the prophet himself or other people: “Sharp-edged sword,” “polished arrow,” “servant” of the LORD, “a light to the nations,” and so forth.

Might these name-phrases also be good descriptions of our continued mission as Christians? Might a “sharp-edged sword” or “polished arrow” be a call to us to speak and live by the truth? We have heard perhaps the phrases “straight as an arrow” or “straight shooter.” We, too, are sent out to be “a light to the nations” and servants of the Lord. We, too, regardless of whether our name is John, are heralds of God’s favor, Jesus Christ; of our God who saves.