In the church to which I belonged as a young Christian, there was a fellow who worked as a flim-flam-man. I’m not sure if it’s a thing now, but his job was to deliver birthday greetings and other messages of congratulations, in sing-song voice, at full volume, at a person’s front door or workplace, much to their embarrassment, and much to the amusement of their friends.

The Book records an incident in the life of King Herod, when on his birthday, a special greeting was delivered. But not from a flim-flam-man. More from a wham-bam woman! At the height of the party, Herod’s step-daughter, Salome, minced into the room and danced her way into Herod’s lust-filled heart. Whether she sang a birthday song or simply gyrated, I don’t know, but in response, Herod made the outrageous offer to give the girl up to half his kingdom.

What the girl asked for was beyond belief. “I want the head of John the Baptist on a platter!” The request was a tragic channelling of her mother’s bile, because John had declared her mother’s marriage to Herod illegal, which it was; and she was resolved to silence him. Which was a pity for her, for that was not the only sermon that John the Baptist preached. He spoke about the paschal-lamb who takes away the sin of the world. And how incredibly sad for all parties to have missed hearing that blessed song that gives new birth.