From the Rector

At yesterday's weekday service, we observed the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (transferred from June 24). St. John is a critical part of the story of salvation for us Christians. Even from the womb, he praises God. We know this from the story of the Annunciation, when Mary goes to visit her cousin, Elizabeth who says, "As soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy." (Luke 1:44) 

When he was grown, John went into the wilderness, filled with the grace of God. People came from all over to hear his message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. Many were also baptized by him, most notably Jesus himself. Throughout his ministry, people asked whether John was the messiah, a question he always flatly denied.

John was the prophet foretold by Isaiah who was the voice crying out in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord; lift every valley, bring the hills low and make straight a highway for our God. Like St. Mary, St. John the Baptist is important in his own right, but at the same time always points us toward Jesus. In John's case, his witness points us to Jesus' ministry of renewal of life, repentance, and reconciliation, whether willing or forced, that formed the bedrock of a faith and of a nation. And I thought about the final triumph of freedom, however imperfect, that we in our time are called to enhance, expand, and defend, remembering at what cost it came.

Blessings,
Father Rick

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