Sunday Service 21st December

His name is John

21/12/25

Call to Worship

Hymn 296: While humble shepherds 

Time for all

Hymn 301: ‘Hark’ the herald angels sing 

Reading: Luke 1:57-66 Amanda

Prayer

Hymn 310: See him lying on a bed of straw 

Sermon

Hymn 315: Once in royal David’s city

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 21^st of December.

We celebrate the forth week in Advent, the last Sunday before Christmas Day.

All our preparations for the big day should be in motion, if not then we start getting into panic mode.

Even if we are all prepared, we might still be getting into panic mode.

So how do we allow God to speak to us at this time?

We will find out after the readings and prayers from Amanda.

Sermon

Christmas is a time of traditions.

Each family has its own and each church has its own.

They remind us that life is under control.

The world may be falling apart, but we still have some control over things.

It may be where we have Christmas.

The manse has always been the focal point of the Christmas meal. After the family started to expand they might all leave the nest, but they would return to the manse on Christmas day.

And when traditions come to an end it is most often because it is forced on us, and so we feel uneasy.

We are having a relatively quiet Christmas at the manse this year.

All the children are spending it with at the homes of their significant other.

The reason being that they know next year will be our last year at the manse, I will be retiring the year after and so we have to leave the manse, and they want that to be marked, so next year will be horrendous.

A tradition is finishing and although that is important, it leaves something of uncertainty in its wake, no one is quite sure what will happen the year after.

How do we deal with that?

How do we handle that?

Now believe it or not, that is exactly what is happening in our passage today.

Eight days after the birth of a child, when it was then more probable that the child would survive, came the naming ceremony of the child.

Great care was taken about this because a name was important.

A name gave the person their character.

A name told the world what that person was like.

Possibly the most extreme example of this is Jacob in the Old Testament.

Jacob is a twin, in itself a bad sign because the chances of mother and babies surviving was even less than normal, so they were looked at as cursed from the day they were born. And when these babies were born it was noticed that Jacob was grabbing the heal of his brother Esau.

His brother Esau had bright red hair so he was called red (Esau), probably also a name implying he was hot headed. And he grew up to be like that, especially when he was younger.

Jacob was given his name because he was always trying to grab onto what was not his. The name literally means, ‘To take over, especially by devious means.’

And that was who Jacob was;

he cons his brother twice out of his inheritance,

he lies to his father,

he then spends decades in the company of his uncle Laban where the two of them are as bad as each other,

spending all their lives trying to trick and steal from each other.

And when Jacob returns home and is facing his brother he spends the night before trying to manipulate his brother by sending bribes before him.

Then he sends his family over the river with the idea that if his brother starts to kill them then their screams may give him a warning and allow him to escape.

He then has a dream where he is fighting an angel, or God, and Jacob wants a blessing from God, but before that happens God demands to know the name of Jacob.

God wants Jacob to admit to who he is, tell him his name,

expose the reality of how others see him,

the way he sees himself,

as the lying, manipulative, selfish person that he is.

And once Jacob gives his name, God gives him a new name.

Instead of being seen one way, he has a new beginning, a new start...a new name.

This was so important that often when people stated a new part of their life, they began it with a new name. In the early church when adults were baptised they were given a new name.

Even today when a new pope is ordained they are given a new name, a name that is meant to signify to the world what type of pope they will be.

So instead of being Pope Bob, or Pope Robert, he decied that he shpuld be ca;l;ed Pope Leo 14^th.

Such a tradition at a naming ceremony would have been so important to any Jewish family at that time, but even more important to a priestly family,

and even more important to this priestly family that thought their chances of having a child had gone, and now they have this gift of a son.

Everyone knows he will be their only child.

Everyone knows they will only get this one bite at the cherry to get it right.

Everyone in the village is so happy for them, because this is such an unexpected gift.

The old couple that were so good together,

that would have made such great parents,

but it was just never going to be...and now it was.

This was truly a blessing from God.

It is obvious that this child will be dedicated to God like his father, be a priest like his father.

His name will be Zechariah, like his father, “God has remembered" or "The Lord has remembered", which is fitting because God has remembered this couple.

It is a family name, a good family name, a name fitting for a priest.

The tradition will be maintained and we will all feel more secure because of it.

And then his mother says, ‘His name is John.’

Oh it means, ‘God has been gracious,’ it’s not a bad name, but it isn’t a family name, and why is the mother saying anything, it isn’t her place to name the child.

Even if Zechariah can’t speak he has a tablet and someone can say the words he writes.

Something is wrong, something is amiss, it doesn’t bode well for the future.

I think something very significant is being said here, something we need to hear.

We try so hard to create stability.

We create all our wee traditions;

we create all our wee habits, trying to control our future trying to protect ourselves from what may be ahead;

giving us the illusion that everything is going to be fine.

It doesn’t matter what is happening around the world, as long as we meet up on Christmas day then everything will be all right.

It doesn’t happen about job losses or illness or even deaths, as long as we meet up with our mates in the pub for a drink before going to the Christmas Eve service then all is well.

Because through those traditions, habits, we feel we are in control of our own destiny.

The patterns aren’t changed; the future is set because we have set it.

We have created the tradition and the tradition stands, and as long as it stands then all is well in the world.

Only it is not, it is an illusion.

And there is no security in an illusion.

And that is not to say that traditions are bad or evil.

We have a tradition that I make the soup, and that is a good tradition, because if Roseanna made the soup then we would all have food poisoning before the main meal.

Some folk have the tradition of sitting down as a family to watch the King’s speech. And there is nothing wrong in that, it probably gives everyone a breathing space in the day.

There was a retired minister called Jean Blackley who shared Christmas with us for many years, and my children would have a tradition of trying to guess how long after the meal it would be before she fell asleep watching the tele.

Traditions are not bad things, or evil things. But the world is too changeable for us to base our future peace on them.

What we need to base our future peace on is God, who is there in our future.

In my own family I have in-laws in Poland and Sri Lanka and they have their own pulls on where they want their children (and by default our children) to be at Christmas.

No matter how happy we have been in the manse over the last decades, the church isn’t going to donate the building to Roseanna and I when I retire, so we have to move.

And the house we move to will be a lot smaller

so that causes restrictions

which means changes in how we do things.

I think this simple message is so important at this time of year, maybe because of all its traditions.

Traditions don’t give real security...or real hope...or real peace of mind.

Because at some point something will happen that forces the tradition to be broken.

If we want real hope, real security, real peace for the future, then it has to be based on knowing and having God in our future.

It is knowing that he is with us, no matter what we face,

that gives us that hope,

that peace,

that we are looking for.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Not long to wait.

The destination of our planning, our journey to Christmas, is reaching its latter stages.

Again, we find ourselves in that familiar place of exhaustion mingled with anticipation and excitement.

Our journey in faith through this season leads us to encounter familiar characters from the Nativity

each contributing to the narrative, each helping us to understand our story through their story.

We meet:

Angels and their song of trying to assure us in an uncertain world that there is Good News that we can believe in,

shepherds with their curious nature trying to find out if the story is true and needing to see it for themselves

Magi, willing to take a risk and travel far and to unknown places to find meaning.

And we meet:

Mary and Joseph, ordinary folk like us, called to extraordinary tasks of service in the name of a loving God.

And we meet:

Elizabeth and Zechariah, and their son John,

not bit-part players in this story,

but witnesses to how the story of God’s love draws everyone in, especially those that feel they are in the sidelines, those that fear that they might be forgotten.

 John is his name.

The one called Prophet of the Most High.

Tasked with going ahead to “prepare the way,”

to provide knowledge of God’s purposes,

to reveal the depth of divine mercy,

to be a beacon of light to those who sit in darkness,

and to be a guide to lead the world toward the ways of peace.

As each character contributes to the story of Advent,

by your Spirit, make clear to us the role we are called to play,

in the current revealing of your unfolding love for our time and world.

Amen.