Homily for John the Baptist Patronal Evensong: The Right Place.

Isaiah 40

Comfort, comfort my people,

says your God.

2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,

and proclaim to her

that her hard service has been completed,

that her sin has been paid for,

that she has received from the Lord’s hand

double for all her sins.

3 A voice of one calling:

“In the wilderness prepare

the way for the Lord;

make straight in the desert

a highway for our God.

4 Every valley shall be raised up,

every mountain and hill made low;

the rough ground shall become level,

the rugged places a plain.

5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed,

and all people will see it together.

For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

6 A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?”

“All people are like grass,

and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field.

7 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

because the breath of the Lord blows on them.

Surely the people are grass.

8 The grass withers and the flowers fall,

but the word of our God endures forever.”

9 You who bring good news to Zion,

go up on a high mountain.

You who bring good news to Jerusalem,

lift up your voice with a shout,

lift it up, do not be afraid;

say to the towns of Judah,

“Here is your God!”

10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power,

and he rules with a mighty arm.

See, his reward is with him,

and his recompense accompanies him.

11 He tends his flock like a shepherd:

He gathers the lambs in his arms

and carries them close to his heart;

he gently leads those that have young.

Luke 3:1-18

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— 2 during the high-priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.

5 Every valley shall be filled in,

every mountain and hill made low.

The crooked roads shall become straight,

the rough ways smooth.

6 And all people will see God’s salvation.’”

7 John said to the crowds coming out to be baptised by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

10 “What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”

15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptise you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.

A tale from the Leicestershire countryside…

Whilst training as a Curate in Loughborough Parish Church, I spent some time on placement in a set of rural Leicestershire parishes. I was due to meet the Vicar at the vicarage in South Croxton. The vicarage was at 19 Main Street. I knew South Croxton quite well, so I was not concerned about finding the address. I arrived in the village in good time, drove slowly down Main Street, spotted number 18 and so pulled up to get out and look for number 19.

As I walked up and down I was finding number 19 hard to find. I put this down to the habit that villagers have of putting house names prominently on their gateposts instead of house numbers, and so I happily commenced to bemoan the insularity of village folk when suddenly it dawned on me that I was in the village of Twyford.

I was in Twyford not South Croxton.

How this happened I am not sure, it could be that as I had already taken a service on placement in Twyford I had associated the Vicar with that village, and driven there on autopilot. I looked in my diary, sure enough I had written 19, Main Street, South Croxton. How frustrating, and how embarrassing! Luckily, I could make a speedy exist, and drive up to South Croxton, without anyone being the wiser, and I could think up some excuse for being late on the way.

Just then a voice said, ‘are you all right, love?’

I turned to see an old lady I vaguely recognised, ‘hello’ she said, ‘you took the service here on Sunday evening, didn’t you? You look a bit lost, can I help?’

Unfortunately I couldn't think quickly enough, and so said, ‘I’m looking for the vicarage, I have come to see the Vicar’.

“Well, you're looking in the wrong place; the vicarage is in South Croxton,” she explained helpfully.

“I know that,” I replied, trying to suppress a tone of irritation, “Anyway, I'd better get off now, thank you.”

I knew as I drove along that I had no option but to be honest with the Vicar, I had been found looking in the wrong place. Pride is a terrible thing, it often afflicts young men of ambition, particularly if they are not paying attention.

I can take some comfort from the fact that I am not the first person in history to be found in the wrong place. In both our readings we heard about 'a voice calling in the wilderness,' John the Baptist decided not to proclaim his message of repentance in villages, towns, and cities, were people might hear what he had to say, instead he went to a place were there was nobody to hear, except perhaps the occasional passing camel train of traders.

What was he thinking?

Preach it and they will come?

Did he not discuss his plans with a Marketing Consultant, or with a Communications Officer?

There was a tradition of Holy Men going to the desert to think and pray, that makes sense, escaping from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to reflect on spiritual matters, and perhaps to quietly teach others who are seeking wisdom. However, John the Baptist was seeking to change his world, to make people see they needed to amend their wicked ways before the Messiah arrived to reward the just and punish the wayward. Even more surprising, when the crowds find him , what does he do? He insults them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

Who warned them? Not initially John the Baptist, he busy was proclaiming in the wilderness. However, he does warn them now they have arrived, saying of the coming Messiah, “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

John may have been in the wrong place, but he was found there, and his unlikely plan worked.

God seems to specialise in unlikely plans, a virgin that gives birth, a dead man that rises from the grave, entrusting to the disciples the task of forming the Church; and yet here we are two thousand years later, gathered in a church by a hamlet, out in rural Northamptonshire. The message got to us, and got us here.

Perhaps John the Baptist knew people had to be in the right place to find God, but that might not be the place one would expect?

God may be present everywhere, but there are also distractions everywhere, I suppose the virtue of John's plan was that the wilderness is largely free from distractions. Perhaps the journey out also concentrated people's minds, like a pilgrimage.

The idea that there is a right place to find God is challenging to modern sensibilities. In our postmodern age truth is not to be found in any particular place, but wherever people care to look as there is no particular truth, only truths, and they can be found where people perceive they are.

It’s all about ‘where you’re at.’

So if you wanted to find the Vicar at Twyford, rather than where the Vicar lives, then you can. After all, geography is just a social construct. Perhaps, I should have had a little more postmodern faith.

Maybe even John the Baptist, if he were around today, would take a more enlightened view of people’s search for meaning, allowing that truth may be found in the ‘cut and paste’ theology of internet theories about God and aliens, or in the life affirming act of shopping, or in the relentless pursuit of career goals, he may even have concede that truth can be found in reality TV shows, or posted on X.

No doubt he would drop the divisive claim, as so many seem to have done, that God’s truth can be found in a particular place in a particular time, in the person of a first century carpenter’s son from Judah.

If you can imagine John the Baptist doing any of that, then you too may well be in the wrong place. John the Baptist taught repentance, that means he thought people were on the wrong path, and needed to turn to the way of God. How do we preach repentance in an age when every path is considered valid? Or has, perhaps, our age lost it's way? Are we a generation looking for truth amongst the distractions of the metropolis, when what we need is to go out into the wilderness, and be offended by the unreasonable call to repent?

As it turned out John the Baptist was wrong, or at least wrong in part. The Messiah did not come bearing a winnowing fork to clear his threshing floor, he did not come to burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. We read in Luke 4 that he came 'to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.' In fact at the crucifixion it was Jesus who was winnowed and burnt, and yet through his suffering offers to the world forgiveness. The good news is that we are called by Jesus to repent not for fear of punishment, but because we are forgiven.

Amen.