Third Sunday of Advent

“There was a man sent from God whose name was John  ……… He was not the light but came to testify to the light.”

Many years ago when I was a Parish priest in Wolverhampton we used to have a regular visitor to the Vicarage. She was a leading member of Fordhouses Baptist Church and her name was Jean. We used to call her Jean the Baptist.

Well today our Gospel reading focuses our attention upon John the Baptist. Evidently John the Baptist was an important figure in the Gospel story for he is mentioned in all four Gospels. It seems to be embedded deeply in the Christian tradition that you cannot tell the story of Jesus until you have told first the story of John the Baptist. John the evangelist whom we hear from today even interrupts his great hymn about the Incarnation of the Word of God to tell us about a man sent from God whose name was John. Indeed the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus who wrote at around the same time that the Gospels were being written seems to think that John the Baptist was more important than Jesus. And we know from the New Testament and elsewhere that there were followers of John the Baptist alongside the followers of Jesus who claimed that John was indeed the Messiah. And so it’s important for us to understand Johns own distinctive place in the Gods great scheme of things

As a Gospel commentator put it: John the Baptist is a witness who prepares the way for the main star to step onto the stage. His task is to direct people to Jesus. John the Baptist knew that he had a subsidiary role to that of Jesus. He was the warm up act. Jesus was the star. Remember that delegation of the Jewish leaders at Jerusalem:

 ‘Are you the prophet or Elijah?’   "No."

‘Are you the Messiah?’ "I am not."

John the Baptist's "I am not" points to the one who will say ‘I am’. He knew his place – in the best understanding of that phrase. He knew his place in Gods great plan.

The Christian writer Rick Warren begins his bestselling book ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ with these words:

‘It's not about you. The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfilment, peace of mind or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by his purpose and for his purpose’

Clearly John was a man born for Gods purpose. John’s was a purpose-driven life. He was someone whose identity was deeply rooted in God and whose life was under the direction of God – driven by Gods plans and purposes.

There is a tradition that John spent many years in the desert before he began his work preparing for Jesus. In the desert time he found his true identity and a destiny prepared for him by God. The rest of his life was spent in following that vocation. He knew who he was and what he was for and he was content with that. Here john the Baptist has something very important to teach us. Each one of us has our unique identity as a child of God. Each of us has our own unique vocation and calling from God – our own unique way of serving God. John had his identity and vocation and we have ours.

The maxim ’Know thyself’ is inscribed at the ancient temple at Delphi in Greece. Now I think that I’m a bit too old to be going through an identity crisis personally – well you will know better than I! But I do wonder sometimes if there isn’t something of an identity crisis for many around us. There seems to be a discontent. Unease – especially amongst younger people. Restless hearts not knowing where to or how to find their rest in God. Where or how to find their true selves.

How do we define ourselves? By work? By success? By ambitions achieved? By ability? By opinion? By personal attractiveness? By possessions and money? If you think about them all of those as bases for ones identity are actually very vulnerable. They can disappear like the morning mist. And then what are we left with?

All of us will have been shocked and saddened by the tragic case in Melton Mowbray of a successful police officer who has been led to kill his wife and child and injure his children because it would seem he lost his work and his success and his good name. Now that’s an extreme example of a false basis for ones identity. Our Christian faith teaches us that our identity begins and ends in God. The unique identity that God had given to each and every one of us as his own beloved child. And God has done that for us in the one to whom John bore witness. The Word made flesh, the eternal Son of God who took upon himself our humanity that we might share in his status as sons and daughters of God. Don’t miss that – it’s the heart of the Gospel.

God came in Jesus to share in our life that we might share for ever in his life. What greater identity could we wish for or long for or desire. John the Baptist knew who he was. We too can know who we are. And what about vocation?

John had his unique place and his unique vocation and so do we. You have your own particular combination of gifts and experience possessed by no-one else. What particular task has the lord called you to? What is he calling you to?

Remember it begins and ends in God – not you or your ambitions or status. God has a work for each one of us. We all have our own particular and distinctive way of serving him. We are called simply to be content in the place that God has put us to serve him, knowing the God can use us sometimes despite ourselves

I love these famous words of Blessed john Henry Newman:

‘God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me that he has  not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore I will trust him. Whatever, wherever I am.’

Today John the Baptist points us towards the coming of Jesus who gives us our identity as children of God with a unique place and purpose.

Of John the Baptist St Augustine wrote this:

‘John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time. From the beginning Christ is the Word who lives forever.’

Therefore with John the Baptist we may look to him for our identity and our purpose.