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| The Holstee Manifesto |
Naming a child is a very significant moment. We take it for granted, so much so that we rarely spend a bit of time wondering about why we have a name, and why we bother to name other people.
Maybe it's only when we reflect on situations in history where people have had their name taken from them that we realise the significance of being named. Prisoners in the concentration camps in Nazi Germany were assigned numbers, which were tattooed on to their arms. Their name was removed from the forceably. They were known in the camps by the number assigned to them. We can feel revulsion about this, especially if we put ourselves in the prisoner's shoes. What is it that makes it so horrendous? Perhaps it's the last straw in terms of our dignity as persons. If we aren't recognised by a name, then we lose our standing as human beings. We become sub-human.
Naming a child bestows the dignity of humanity on that child; it affirms them as created in the image and likeness of the creator God.
Our gospel story today is built around a controversy about what to name this newborn baby. The controversy is not among the parents, but between the community and parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah. Zechariah is deaf, struck down in the temple when he didn't fully believe the angel of God. So, he cannot hear his wife's insistence on the name John. The miracle occurs when Zechariah writes the name John on the writing tablet. The creator God, the Lord, has acted in an amazing fashion:
Elizabeth, in her old age, has conceived and borne a son – which was clearly seen as God's blessing upon her, upon her husband, and upon their family.
And then God acts in the naming of the child. A prophetic act occurs – Elizabeth insists on the name of John, and the deaf Zechariah also insists.
The Lord's role in naming John indicates for the community the prophetic person that John will be. Even before John himself discovers what his calling will be, the community are already primed to find out.
As named human beings, and as baptised Christians, each and every person has a vocation and a calling in life. We have a contribution to make, something that no other person can do. Our own relationship with God is dependent on us listening carefully for what our call is – and it is only in the answering of that call, the writing of God on our hearts, that we can become the best version of ourselves that we were meant to be.
Each one of us ignores the deepest call of God in our hearts. And this is perhaps the most significant sin of our lives; that we do not listen to what God is telling us about ourselves, and so we become deaf like Zechariah. It takes courage to continue listening for God's call when we find ourselves numbed and deafened by life.
If all of life is about a preparation for our inevitable departure from this life when we die, and if we allow this to shape our whole existence, then answering God's call becomes much easier. And no doubt, John was aware that his prophetic words and actions would bring him close to the fickle sword of this world's authority. Being rooted in the authority that is beyond this world allowed John to answer fully the call of God.
