May the grace, mercy and love of God be with us all. Amen.
Collect
God for whom we watch and wait, you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son: give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice, and to suffer for the cause of right, with Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Confession
When the Lord comes, he will bring to light things now hidden in darkness, and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Therefore in the light of Christ let us confess our sins.
Lord God, we confess to you the sin which always confronts us. We are sorry and repent: have mercy on us according to your love. Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin. Renew a right spirit within us, and restore us to the joy of your salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins and restore us in his image, to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
God’s Word - Isaiah, chapter 61, verses 1 to 4 and 8 to 11 :-
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me because the LORD has anointed me; he has sent me to announce good news to the humble, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison; to proclaim a year of the LORD’s favour and a day of the vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to give them garlands instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourners’ tears, a garment of splendour for the heavy heart. They will be called trees of righteousness, planted by the LORD for his adornment. Buildings long in ruins will be rebuilt and sites long desolate restored; they will repair the ruined cities which for generations have lain desolate.
For I the LORD love justice and hate robbery and crime; I shall grant them a sure reward and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their posterity will be renowned among the nations and their descendants among the peoples; all who see them will acknowledge that they are a race blessed by the LORD.
Let me rejoice in the LORD with all my heart, let me exult in my God; for he has robed me in deliverance and arrayed me in victory, like a bridegroom with his garland, or a bride decked in her jewels. As the earth puts forth her blossom or plants in the garden burst into flower, so will the Lord GOD make his victory and renown blossom before all the nations.
John, chapter 1, verses 6 to 8 and 19 to 28 :-
There appeared a man named John. He was sent from God, and came as a witness to testify to the light, so that through him all might become believers. He was not himself the light; he came to bear witness to the light.
This is the testimony John gave when the Jews of Jerusalem sent a deputation of priests and Levites to ask him who he was. He readily acknowledged, ‘I am not the Messiah.’ ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ ‘I am not,’ he replied. ‘Are you the Prophet?’ ‘No,’ he said.
‘Then who are you?’ they asked. ‘We must give an answer to those who sent us. What account do you give of yourself?’ He answered in the words of the prophet Isaiah: ‘I am a voice crying in the wilderness, “Make straight the way for the Lord.”’
Some Pharisees who were in the deputation asked him, ‘If you are not the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet, then why are you baptizing?’ ‘I baptize in water,’ John replied, ‘but among you, though you do not know him, stands the one who is to come after me. I am not worthy to unfasten the strap of his sandal.’ This took place at Bethany beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.
Thanks be to God, for this his holy word. Amen.
Reflection on the Readings
Who are you? That was the question posed by the deputation sent by the chief people of Jerusalem to test out this latest phenomenon, this wild man in the desert whose teaching was enthralling so many of the people of the city and the area around. John had clearly told them who he wasn’t. I am not the Messiah, he had said. Nor was he Elijah, who had been taken up into heaven before death, and was expected by many to return in the last days. Nor the prophet - some people were expecting a prophet, greater than all who went before, perhaps a new Isaiah.
So you are not any of these people. Who are you? We have to give an answer. The answer John gave was basically this: “I am just a voice, a voice to prepare the way. You must listen to me, but you must look beyond me.” Like the way in which the rough roads of the day would be smoothed and straightened if the king were planning to visit some part of his domain, so John was there to prepare the way.
But what exactly is going to happen? Who exactly are we to look for? Those who came with questions probably left with questions too. Our first reading, from Isaiah, may give an answer to some of this. For this is a passage Jesus certainly understood as referring to himself. It’s about the turning of the tables, the same sort of thing we read about in the Magnificat, Mary’s song in St Luke’s Gospel, where the poor are lifted up and the mighty tipped from their thrones.
The Lord has anointed me and sent me to proclaim good news to the poor and humble, to tell those held captive they will be set free, and so that those who mourn and grieve will receive garlands instead of ashes. So wrote Isaiah - and these are the marks of the kingdom Jesus will proclaim, and call his disciples into.
Revolution is of course the way of the world. Read through history and you’ll find time after time where those who were oppressed and downtrodden rise up and turn the tables. And at some point you may be sure someone will say - in nearly every case - it’s our turn now; now we are the bosses. And so you get the tumbrels and guillotines of the French revolution, or the reigns of terror ushered in by such as Josef Stalin or Chairman Mao, or maybe that chilling scene at the end of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”, where the pigs who are now in charge are indistinguishable from the human bosses of the neighbouring farms.
And no doubt the whole idea of revolution (and the fear of revolution) was one of the concerns behind that urgent question, “Who are you?”. The image of Jesus as a revolutionary, looking not unlike Che Guevara, could be seen on many a doorway in Latin America at one time, where those who were downtrodden longed for freedom, and found hope of freedom in liberation theology.
And certainly the one for whom the Baptist prepared the way would come as a liberator and indeed as a table turner - but not to become a leader like the despots of old, as in the Who song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” No, this isn’t like that. Here, the new king remains the one who serves - and he wins his kingdom not by force of arms but through sacrifice, and in love.
That’s why John baptizes: he is preparing the way by preparing people, to see and act and belong in a new way. Where the Church gets this wrong, and becomes authoritarian, or hooked on wealth and power and prestige, it has lost the message. To proclaim this king, we must learn to choose the way of service.
Statement of faith -
We believe in God the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. We believe in God the Son, who lives in our hearts through faith, and fills us with his love. We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who strengthens us with power from on high. We believe in one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayers -
We ask God to guide us in our keeping of this season of preparation, so that we might be ready to welcome Christ into our hearts and homes this Christmas. Within the Anglican Communion worldwide we pray today for the church in the Falkland Islands. We also pray for the Church’s ministry to and among the migrant and displaced people of our world. And we pray for our diocese and for Richard our Bishop, and for the churches and communities of the Telford Severn Gorge Deanery.
We pray for all in our world who are living in places of poverty, and for all whose lives have been disrupted by natural disaster or by the degradation of land. We pray for all who long for freedom, and for those unjustly imprisoned or denied fair access to law. We pray for international co-operation in the continuing struggle to combat the Covid virus.
We pray for all who are ill or in any kind of need or pain, and for their relief and healing. We pray for all who staff our hospitals and health centres, and for their safety and protection. And we pray God’s compassion and comfort for all who as Christmas approaches are mourning the loss of a loved one.
We pray for our families and friends, and for the life of our churches and communities. We pray for all who work in the retail trade, and for those who have lost jobs or whose businesses are struggling. And we pray we may continue to look out for each other in these testing times, and keep safe ourselves.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing -
May Christ the Sun of Righteousness shine upon us, and scatter the darkness from before our path; and may the blessing of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be with us all evermore. Amen.
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