Week 6 of the Church year
യോഹന്നാൻ സ്നാപകന്റെ ജനനത്തിന്റെ ഞായർ
Elizabeth’s son is born and the neighbours come to celebrate. When everyone wants to name him after his father, a silent old priest asks for a writing tablet.
Elizabeth gives birth to a son. At his circumcision the relatives want to call him Zechariah, but Elizabeth says John. Zechariah writes “His name is John”, his voice returns, and he praises God in the Benedictus.
The promise made to Zechariah three weeks ago comes true. The Church also keeps this Sunday as Children’s Day.
Zechariah’s first words after nine months of silence were praise. Waiting had changed him.
ഈ ഞായറാഴ്ചയുടെ വായനകൾ
Let the children come to me; Jesus takes them in his arms and blesses them.
No one born of women is greater than John the Baptist.
Isaac is born to Sarah in her old age; God hears the boy Ishmael crying.
Moses’ mother hides him in a basket, and Pharaoh’s daughter draws him out.
Hannah gives Samuel back to the Lord; the boy grows in favour with God and people.
Unless the Lord builds the house…; children are a gift from the Lord.
You will be called by a new name, which the Lord will give.
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.
Children, obey your parents; parents, do not provoke your children.
Children obey; fathers, do not discourage your children.
John is born and named; Zechariah’s voice returns and he sings the Benedictus. This is the Gospel of the day.
Open in five scenesIsaac is born to Sarah in old age, the baby Moses is saved from the river, and Hannah gives Samuel back to God. The psalm calls children a gift from the Lord, and Ephesians and Colossians speak to children and parents.
References follow the official lectionary of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. Your parish may read them in a different order.
Pick a scene to see what happens in it and what is easy to miss.
Elizabeth gives birth to a son. Her neighbours and relatives hear how the Lord has shown her great mercy, and they rejoice with her.
Gabriel promised that many would rejoice at his birth (Luke 1:14). The first to do so are the neighbours.
On the eighth day they come to circumcise the child and want to name him Zechariah after his father. Elizabeth says no: he will be called John. But no one in the family has that name.
Nobody told Elizabeth the name in the text. Zechariah must have written it down for her in the months of silence.
They make signs to Zechariah. He asks for a writing tablet and writes: “His name is John.” At once his mouth is opened and he begins to praise God.
They make signs to him as though he were deaf too. His silence had been longer and lonelier than we might think.
Fear comes over the whole hill country and everyone talks about it. People ask: what then will this child be? The Lord’s hand is with him.
Every child is born with this question hanging over them. Here the whole region asks it out loud.
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Zechariah blesses God for visiting his people, and tells his son he will be the prophet who prepares the Lord’s way. The child grows strong in spirit and lives in the wilderness.
Zechariah sings mostly about someone else’s son. Only near the end does he turn to John, and then to say he will go ahead of another.
The verse to keep
“നീയോ പൈതലേ, അത്യുന്നതന്റെ പ്രവാചകൻ എന്നു വിളിക്കപ്പെടും. കർത്താവിന്റെ വഴി ഒരുക്കുവാനും…”“And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,”
ഈ പൈതൽ എന്താകും?
Everyone in the hill country asks the same question about John: what will this child be? It is a question parents ask over every cradle, usually with hope and some fear. Zechariah and Elizabeth already know part of the answer, because Gabriel told them. Their son will go ahead of the Lord.
The family wants to call him Zechariah, after his father. It is a kind thing to want, and it is also a way of saying he will be like us. Elizabeth and Zechariah refuse. His name is John, a name from God, because his life belongs to God’s plan before it belongs to the family’s.
On Children’s Day this is worth holding on to. Our children are given to us, but they are not ours to shape into copies of ourselves. The best thing a home can do is what Zechariah and Elizabeth did: love the child, give him to God, and let him grow strong in spirit, even if that leads somewhere unexpected.
കുടുംബമായി സംസാരിക്കാം
Do you know why you were given your name? Ask someone at the table to tell the story.
Two minutes after the audio. Everyone gets a turn, and nobody is interrupted.Parents: tell each child one thing you have seen God doing in their life this year. Children: thank a parent for one specific thing.
Blessed are you, Lord God, for you have visited your people. Bless the children of our home and our Church. Let your hand be with them, and let them grow strong in spirit and prepare your way. Amen.
The whole year
Every Sunday of the Church year, season by season: readings, the Gospel and a question for the family.
Sunday 4 of 6 in Suboro