Sunday 14th December, 3rd Sunday of Advent

It must be hard being a warm-up act. Whether it’s stand up comedy or a rock concert, being the person who comes on first to get the crowd ready for the headline act must be a very mixed feeling. You’re doing your thing in front of an audience, but it’s not your audience: very few of the people in front of you came to see you. But a good warm-up act can make the difference between an OK experience and a lifelong memory.

John the Baptist was a major figure in the Judaism of Jesus’ day. A generation after his death the first Christian missionaries met disciples of John throughout the eastern Mediterranean. But John knew that he was not the one through whom God’s salvation would come. His job was to point the attention away from himself and towards Jesus, and having done his job, to leave the stage. And John did his job really well – so well, that Jesus called him the greatest human being that ever lived.

But, says Jesus, the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John. Because John’s job continues in us. We are the ones who warm people up for Jesus – not to make ourselves the centre of attention, but to prepare a way for Jesus to walk into people’s lives. That’s not nothing. Indeed, for someone it might mean everything.

Every blessing,

Roger.