Today is Monday 24 June, the Birthday of St John the Baptist, in the 12th week of Ordinary Time. Eliza King sings, ‘All Things New’. Where is God acting with newness and restoration in your life and the world around you at the moment? You break like the light of the sun Bringing colour to shadows Christ, it was you all along You’re the words of an ancient song, we’ve been singing Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new You rise, as the bright morning star We were blind but we see you now The light of the world here with us You’re a fire making holy ground, by your spirit Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new You’re the treasure of the ages Sought for generations How the prophets longed to see what we have seen You’re the final word incarnate Leaping from the pages You’re the burning heart behind the mystery Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Behold, He makes all things new Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke. Luke 1:57-66,80 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son. Her neighbours and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name. ’Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed. Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue freed, and he began to speak, praising God. Fear came over all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about throughout the entire hill country of Judea. All who heard them pondered them and said, ‘What then will this child become?’ For, indeed, the hand of the Lord was with him. The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel. Elizabeth, we are told, had been hoping for a child for years, perhaps decades, before her son was born. It would have been easier, surely, to give up hope and to settle for what she had. What unrealised hopes do you have, for yourself, or your family, or your work, or your church? What helps you to keep those hopes alive? What supports you in not giving up on them? And what’s it like, in your own experience, when a long-held hope is at last realised, as Elizabeth’s is here? Listen, as you hear the passage again, for all the different reactions to John’s birth. How do Elizabeth, Zechariah, the bystanders, and their neighbours react? Speak to God for a moment or two of your own hopes. And listen for anything he might want to say to you about them. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

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