2nd Sunday after Pentecost / Nativity of John the Baptist / Romans 2.10-16; Romans 13.11 – 14.4; Matthew 4.18-23; Luke 1.5-25, 57-68, 76, 80.
F/S/HS. Brothers and sisters, I want to say a few words about forerunners. Because this morning we celebrate the greatest of all of the Forerunners, St. John the Baptist, Forerunner to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Our ancient Christian tradition employed different terms which existed before the advent of Christianity, terms that were very much a part of ancient pagan cultures. For example, the word logos, which best translates as the word. Well before Christianity, in Greek and far eastern Asian cultures, the logos was the creative power that brought so much of the universe into existence, and sustained it.
When God became man in the person of Jesus Christ, St. John the Evangelist and Theologian borrowed the term logos by saying that this universal creative power, this Word, has now become flesh. It was a brilliant evangelistic move on the part of our early Christian fathers.
Same with the term forerunner. When most of us hear forerunner, we think of someone or something that comes before and paves the way for something today. Rotary phones were forerunners to cell phones. Wooden tennis rackets were forerunners to carbon fiber tennis rackets. George Washington was the forerunner of every US president who has served since.
Forerunner is actually a very ancient pre-Christian term. Christianity then borrowed it and applied it to John the Baptist. From that day and forever since, John is referred to as the Forerunner to Jesus Christ—the Word Incarnate. His entire focus in life was to point to Jesus, to humbly decrease so that the One greater than him would increase (John 3.30). His mission was point to the one whose sandal straps he did not even consider himself worthy to untie (Luke 3.16).
But there are two other uses of the term forerunner; each comes from ancient Greek and Hebraic culture. The first of these refers to a quality of relationship between two living persons whereby each person conducts themselves in such a way as to enhance and fulfill and expand the life of the other.
Which is why our ancient church fathers sometimes refer to biblical love stories by using the term forerunner. Abraham and Sarah, Ruth and Boaz, even Joseph and Mary are examples where each man and woman become a forerunner to the other, because they guard the integrity and nobility of the other, thus role-modeling to all future generations a similar integrity and loving nobility.
The same with biblical friendships, for example David and Jonathan, Elijah and Elisha, Ruth and Naomi, even cousins Elizabeth and Mary. And the same with biblical partnerships, such as Paul and Barnabas and John Mark.
In these biblical love stories, friendships, and partnerships, each party, each person sacrificially looks out after the other’s best interests; each protects and seeks the other’s good, even if it means disobeying your own father, as Jonathan did with his father, King Saul, in order to protect David.
Even where conflict existed between persons, as between Paul and Barnabas over the role of John Mark in their missionary efforts, St. John Chrysostom refers to Paul, Barnabas, and John Mark as forerunners, because all three role modeled forgiveness and reconciliation both to one another and to all future generations.
Let me invoke St. Isaac the Syrian on forerunners. St. Isaac, who, for all of you who attended Fr. John Bethancourt’s talks, know how much this great saint of the early church helped formed Fr. John’s own thinking.
St. Isaac refers to the Holy Spirit as our forerunner. Why? Because God’s Holy Spirit lives within us as One who is ever before us, who guides us into all truth (John 16.13).
Guides us into what truth? asks St. Isaac. And He answers in three ways: First, the Holy Spirit points us to the truth that is Jesus Christ. Second, the Holy Spirit points us to the beautiful truth that our deepest identity is in Jesus Christ.
And third—and get a load of this one!—St. Isaac says that the Holy Spirit points us to the painful truth that is the secrets hidden deep within us, often unbeknownst to us, hidden secrets that hinder us from truly living in Jesus Christ. In others words, the Holy Spirit is a forerunner who points us to our sin, that we might acknowledge that sin and then confess it before our Lord.
Which helps us make so much more sense of the Apostle Paul’s teaching in Romans 8, v. 26: Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weakness. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
How many of us dear ones have had the experience where something from our past, sinful nature that we did not confess during our lifetime confession, suddenly from seemingly nowhere arises up within us. Thank God! Thank God that His Holy Spirit as our forerunner has brought this sin to our awareness, so that we can now take it to confession, rather than hearing it named by our guardian angel before the throne of God on the day of our judgment.
But St. Isaac then adds yet another meaning to the term forerunner. He says that God gives us certain people in our lives who serve in a similar capacity as does the Holy Spirit. St. Isaac refers to such persons as our good and honest forerunners, who hold the mirror up to us and help us see the errors of our ways; helps us see our sin.
Instantly I think of the lives of two of my favorite contemporary saints: St. Porphyrios and St. Paisios. For a brief season in his life, Elder Paisios ventured into prophesying about the future state of the world and about the end times. His beloved friend, Elder Porphyrios, grew increasingly concerned, telling Elder Paisios that dwelling on the signs of the times and prophesying about the end times was not profitable to his soul, nor helpful to others.
Several times the two wrote each other letters on the subject. Thank you for being my forerunner, Elder Paisios one day conceded to Elder Porphyrios. You have helped me see the error of my ways, and put me back on the right track.
In this same spirit, and for me personally, I’m deeply grateful to God for the presence of at least two forerunners in my life. I know there are others whom I’m less aware of: Those good and honest mystery forerunners that God sends my way from time to time.
The first forerunner is my wife, Mat. Anastasia. But it is the second forerunner who most intrigues me—my son, Gustavo. By just his presence in my life, more than his words, I have discovered things about myself that I was not consciously aware of, things hidden and secret within me. Things both joyous and things sinful.
Gustavo, I’m convinced, has been that forerunner to help flush these sinful things to the surface, so that I can deal with them more head on, including bringing them to confession. He has helped point the way to Christ, and Christ’s loving forgiveness of my sins. And so glory be to God for my forerunner son, Gustavo John.
Who are the forerunners in your life, dear brothers and sisters? You have the Holy Spirit living within you as a Forerunner, Who guides you into all truth. You probably have favorite saints who act as your forerunners? And do you have flesh and blood persons who are your forerunners?
One of the rather sobering and dire bodies of research to emerge from the Covid pandemic regards the epidemic of loneliness that afflicts so many. How often do I meet with persons struggling with debilitating loneliness, who not only want a friend or spouse in their life with whom they can share deeply and intimately, but who also desire a forerunner in their life: Someone whose good and honest presence helps them to see their sin.
This morning dear ones, thank God; thank God for forerunners! Thank God for the birth of the greatest of Forerunners, St. John the Baptist, Forerunner to our Lord and Savior, whose mission in life was to always humbly point to Jesus Christ. Thank God for the many forerunners in Scripture, who role model to us how to live a life of Christian integrity and nobility, humility and contrition of heart.
And thank God for our personal forerunners, who hold up the mirror so that we might see both the beauty that is our being made in the image of God, as well as the sin that lies deep within us, often in those hidden and secret places. F/S/HS.
