From: "David Petersen (by way of Rev. Eric J. Stefanski, )" To: Subject: HP: Nat. of St. John B. Date: Thursday, November 01, 2001 1:03 PM A few thoughts on St. John the Baptist from Fort Wayne. 1. The third Collect listed in TLH (p.91) is the best: "God, who didst honor this day through the birth of St. John the Baptist, grant unto Thy people spiritual gladness and direct the minds of all Thy faithful into the way of everlasting life; through Jesus . . ." It is the best because it best expresses and unites the liturgical thought of the Day. I don't know if it is the most historical or why TLH lists three possibilities. Obviously, you are to use only one. 2. Use the Proper Preface for Advent. (According to Fred Lindemann in "The Sermon and the Propers.") 3. The Nativity of St. John the Baptist, June 24th, is a distinct feast from the Beheading of St. John, August 29th. The liturgical color for the nativity is white. It is a celebration of the joy St. John knew in his mother's womb at the presence of the prenatal Incarnate One. The beheading in August is a martyr's feast. The focus of the beheading is rightly the preaching and life of St. John. The focus of the nativity, however, should be on the preaching of his father in the Benedictus and the Office of Voice-Messenger-Elijah that John fills. The Benedictus can be neatly divided into two parts, history and future. Conveniently, the history comes first. Zacharias begins with what God has done. Part 1: The Lord God (Kurios Theos, Yahweh Elohim) has visited, redeemed, and raised up a horn of salvation - just as the prophets have always said. He did this to deliver us from our enemies and to show mercy. In this way, by this mercy and deliverance, He has remembered His covenant and oath to Abraham. Part 2, Zacharias tells what will happen: St. John, the Child, will be a prophet like those prophets, a prophet of the Most High, of the Lord God. He will go before the Lord God preparing the way for Him. He will prepare the children of Abraham by making them children of Abraham by giving them knowledge of salvation through forgiveness driven by the mercy of the living God of light, life and the way. So we see that St. John is a man on the edge of time. He stands between the Old Covenant and the New. He is a product of the foreshadowing Temple sacrifices, the son of a priest. And he is a prophet in the line of Moses, Elijah, and Malachi. But he is more than a prophet. He is the end of the prophets. Up and through him the Law preached. It was the cutting, bloody, separating, and divisive Law. Now, in Christ, the Kingdom of Heaven is present. The ceremony and exclusions are lifted. The last Blood has been spilt. There are no more Passover Lambs save the One who was slain but who lives and who found Himself in line with John's bony, pointing finger as the Church first voiced her Agnus Dei. Faith, in and by this Lamb, is exalted. He who believes, who is the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the greatest of those born of women. 4. People are continually inquiring why we bless God, such as singing "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel." This is nice and clean from the Greek, but a little fuzzy from Hebrew. My advice (as always): stick with Greek! Anyway, the word "bless" in Greek (and in the Benedictus, Lk 1:68) is Eulogetos, which is a contraction of the words for "good" and "saying." A blessing was saying nice things about and/or upon someone or something. Certainly that is what we are doing when we say, "Blessed be the Lord." In other words, "Bless we the Lord" is synonymous with "Praise we the Lord." In Hebrew the word we translate as "bless" is more like our English nuance. It also, though, is used as an ascription of praise. It is "barak," which might be derived from the Hebrew word for knee, "berek." The idea here is that one knelt to receive the blessing. Typically, the blessing is pronounced in the future tense (and is always good things), by someone able to grant it, and part of the kneeling is submission. The Faith perspective is that all good things, all "blessings," come from God and nowhere else, all blessings are in His Name or are not real blessings. "Blessed be the Lord" then means that God holds the blessings and is the only truly good thing in this fallen universe. Either way, Greek or Hebrew, we bless God for He blesses us. 5. Baptism is key here at several levels. A. First of all we have the fact that the Sacrament begins with John. As to whether or not his Baptism was Christian Baptism or not see Pieper, vol. III p.288-9. Obviously the folks who were baptized only into "John's Baptism" were not familar with the preaching of John, since he preaches about the Holy Spirit. They had not been catechized or baptized. B. Also the Gospel for today is as good of proof that there is for infant faith, even faith that exists, in time, prior to Baptism. How can this be? Faith is born in Baptism. True. Those who believe prior to Baptism have a proleptic, waiting faith even as believers in the Old Testament found their salvation on the cross that had not yet been erected. C. Baptism is the bridge between the Testaments. It is the Sacrament of John the Prophet, a Sacrament of repentance and death, but also a Sacrament of absolution and birth. It stood alongside of Temple Sacrifices and it stands alongside of the Holy Eucharist. It circumcises our hearts, separates us from the pagans, and marks us as a people. At the same time, it dissolves distinctions of race and sex. It does not rightly belong to either the Old Covenant (circumcision) or the New (Eucharist). In heaven there will be neither circumcision or Eucharist, but we will still bear His Name, be the Baptized. Baptism is not Old or New, because Baptism is THE Covenant. 6. Happy preaching! The Rev'd David H. Petersen Redeemer Lutheran Church Fort Wayne, Indiana + Historic Preaching + The Historic Preaching list is devoted to preaching on the Propers of the Historic Lectionary as found in The Lutheran Hymnal (TLH) and Service Book and Hymnal (SBH). Subscribe? Send ANY message to: Unsubscribe? Send ANY message to: Respond? Click 'Reply' or write to For further information about this list, contact the list administrator at: Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski or visit our website: + + + + + +