Hello, I'm Jeff Cavins and today we're looking at the readings for the Feast of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.
Saint John the Baptist is one of those figures in the Bible where we only hear from him for
just a little little bit, and sometimes
that's the case in the kingdom of God, is that people are being prepared for a long period of time for a relatively short
time on the stage;
but what they do on that stage has repercussions on into eternity and affects all of us, John is one of those characters
in the Gospel reading in Luke chapter 1 we hear about the birth of
John in a little town outside of Jerusalem today called Ein Karem,
and it talks about the naming of John , and nobody in his family
had that name but his father said that, basically, that's the name
that's the name he's going to get. But what I want to draw your attention to is the way the Gospel reading
ends; it ends by saying "He was in the desert
until the day of his
manifestation to Israel"
And so, when we find John the Baptist coming on the scene with the baptism of Jesus
we know that for many years prior to that
he was in the desert in the quiet, in the still, out of the spotlights
CNN, Fox, and all the other channels didn't even interview him. But what was he doing?
He was being prepared for something special,
maybe that's your story.
maybe you don't feel like you're on the frontlines all the time, but God wants to use you in a special way.
Preparation is the name of the game in this week's
Readings as you listen to the story of John the Baptist
And being out in the desert for all those years and coming on the main stage for a relatively short period of time
we're reminded of what Isaiah says in the very first reading
Isaiah 49: 1-6 :"hear me o coastlands,
listen, Oh distant peoples, the Lord called me from birth from my mother's womb
He gave me my name" sounds like John the Baptist, doesn't it? "called me from birth gave me a name"
"He made of a sharp edged sword and concealed me in the shadow of his arm
He made me a polished arrow in his quiver. He hid me, you are my servant,
He said to me Israel through whom I show my glory". I want to isolate that one phrase:
"He made me a polished arrow in his quiver. He hid me"
Now, of course a quiver is the place made out of leather where you would store the arrows before you would shoot them and the
idea is that you would make arrows and then they would be stored in the quiver waiting for just
The right time, and that's what we see in John the Baptist, who as the scripture says: "he was in the desert"
quiver
"Until the day of his manifestation to Israel"
The arrow is in the quiver until the master needs that arrow, and I want to challenge you as I'm challenging myself this week:
Are you a polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord? There's a process to becoming a polished arrow,
It starts with a stick. And the first thing you have to do is you have to take off all of the rough edges
you have to have everything on that
stick pointing to a head which is Christ if our lives are focused on Jesus and everything in our life is
sanded down and polished to conform to the head.
We will be that arrow that God is calling us to be but there's more:
Not only is there a fine polishing, but we also know that there are feathers, the cresting, the
feathers at the end, which by the way are taken from only one side of the bird, and what do those feathers do?they ensure
accurate flight.
That's the Holy Spirit who comes alongside of us and leads us, and guides us
we have the notch where the the bow fits into the back of the arrow and
something interesting years ago
I talked to a man who is a master arrow maker, and he said: "the most critical point", even the markings are important
It's a sign of who you belong to, who that arrow belongs to, but said "the most important point"
the two points actually, are number "one: Is that that arrow must be
flexible, if it's too stiff it can go off to one direction, too flexible off to another direction,
there must be a balance to our lives"
But he said: "you'll never know if an arrow is really going to do the job until you take the power
from the string of the bow and it hits that arrow, if it is not made properly it will crumble,
It'll explode,
but if it can withstand the transference of power from the bow
you have a good arrow"
I want to encourage you today to focus on being that polished arrow in the quiver of the Lord
because one day you just might feel his hand on your life and, even if it's for a relatively small period of time,
the repercussions from your faithfulness can be very very great. Right now in your life
It might be the raising of your children. It might be your grandchildren at some point. It might be something at work,
but God wants to use you, and our job today is to prepare as John was prepared in the wilderness
in the wilderness until the manifestation to Israel.