Rejoice...for now.

AM Psalm [120], 121, 122, 123 • PM Psalm 124, 125, 126, [127]
Judges 18:1-15 • Acts 8:1-13 • John 5:30-47

After Jesus breaks the sabbath to heal people and calls himself the Son of God, and therefore riles up some of the Jewish religious leaders, he delivers the speech in today’s reading about all the testimony on his behalf to be found in the scriptures. But it is his quote about John the Baptist that stuck in my head as I reflected on the entire passage:

“You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.”

I felt in the final line the warmth of hope and expectation, the knowledge that something new and transformative is coming, and yet in “willing … for a while” I felt the finite nature of that hopefulness. Jesus says the scope and stakes of the testimony about him are beyond what John the Baptist preached. My knowledge of John’s execution also cast a shadow over the reading, though the Gospel of John is the only gospel that does not give an account of it. One day you’re saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the next your head is on a plate! When the light goes out and the icy hand of anxiety grips your heart, the greater testimony becomes that much harder to believe.

Written by Kathryn Haydon

Kathryn holds a doctorate in Plant Science from the University of Arkansas and currently lives in St. Louis where she works as a food and plant scientist. If everything went according to plan between submission and publication of this reflection, she just returned safely from the St. Paul’s Choir residency at Exeter Cathedral, where much beautiful and holy music was made followed by the enjoyment of many—but not too many—pints of English beer.