This
month's saint...By the Revd David Burgess
I want to begin with a story about the Bletchley Park code-breakers of World War II. I tell it, I admit, slightly cautiously – we’ve had more than one ex-code-breaker in these villages in my time here – but I think it’s a story that will be familiar to anyone ‘in the know’.
Winston Churchill appreciated the value of their intelligence and took a strong personal interest in the workings of Bletchley Park. He took a tour there in September 1941, and after meeting the mixed group of scholars and eccentrics, commented to Sir Stewart Menzies, head of the British Secret Intelligence Service: “When I told you to leave no stone unturned in looking for these people, I didn’t expect you to take me quite so literally”.
I wonder if God himself might have just had the hint of a second thought along these lines when watching John the Baptist in action – something like “My goodness, what have I turned up here?”. Have you ever considered the irony of the genteel, tranquil church of The Lee having as its patron saint the wild baptiser from the river Jordan?
24th June sees the festival of St John the Baptist; so we’ll see, in that week and on that Sunday, family services and assemblies up and down the land breaking out the locusts and the wild honey, the camelhair coats and sandals. There’s nothing wrong with that, but in fact the festival is that of the birth of John the Baptist; technically, we leave the adult part of his life for Advent.
John’s calling and ministry were to be unique – the Biblical successor to the great prophet Elijah, the person pointing the way to Jesus Christ himself.
His birth was surrounded by two things; prayer and expectation. Both related to John himself, but both were also linked, in location and in time, to the birth of his cousin Jesus six months later. Miraculous events happened at both boys’ conceptions; messages through dreams and visiting angels, and John’s father being struck dumb. Partly because of these things, both sets of parents were prepared in advance that their sons were to be special.
In a less spectacular way, it would be good to think that the world’s children would all have their start in life marked by both of the same two things. Sadly though, I suspect that the majority don’t – on the one hand we have the particularly Western phenomenon of ‘trophy’ children, on the other the low value placed on young lives in so many parts of the world.
John’s span on earth, through conception and birth, through ministry, teaching and on to his death, was a beacon of hope to humanity. The plan for his life was God’s, but ordinary human parents, through their prayer, expectations, devotion and love, played their part in developing that life and bringing it to its fulfilment. In a very real way, John’s story is ours, and our children’s.