04 December 20223 is the Second Sunday of Advent.

The main Bible reading today features John the Baptist – the wild figure who proclaimed that Jesus’ arrival on Earth was imminent.

John called people to ‘repent’ – literally, to think again. But he was not interested in only changing minds. He wanted to change lives. And so he called people to baptism; a baptism which would anticipate the baptism of Christ (by John himself), in which we all are invited to participate.

Christian faith is not about listing a few ‘essential’ decisions that individuals must take to find themselves ‘in’. The Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament) present us with a person (Jesus Christ) who we encounter and respond to, rather than a set of propositions.

Today’s main Bible reading is taken from Matthew’s Gospel.

Main Scripture for this week

Matthew 3:1-12 (from The Message translation of the Bible)
Thunder in the Desert!

3 1-2 While Jesus was living in the Galilean hills, John, called “the Baptiser,” was preaching in the desert country of Judea. His message was simple and austere, like his desert surroundings: “Change your life. God’s kingdom is here.”

3 John and his message were authorised by Isaiah’s prophecy:

Thunder in the desert!
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road smooth and straight!

4-6 John dressed in a camel-hair habit tied at the waist by a leather strap. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild field honey. People poured out of Jerusalem, Judea, and the Jordanian countryside to hear and see him in action. There at the Jordan River those who came to confess their sins were baptised into a changed life.

7-10 When John realised that a lot of Pharisees and Sadducees were showing up for a baptismal experience because it was becoming the popular thing to do, he exploded: “Brood of snakes! What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river? Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to make any difference? It’s your life that must change, not your skin! And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as father. Being a descendant of Abraham is neither here nor there. Descendants of Abraham are a dime a dozen. What counts is your life. Is it green and flourishing? Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.

11-12 “I’m baptising you here in the river, turning your old life in for a kingdom life. The real action comes next: The main character in this drama—compared to him I’m a mere stagehand—will ignite the kingdom life within you, a fire within you, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

Video of today’s service from St. James’ Church

Find a previous version of today’s sermon – in text – on this website here: How we are called by Christ to be the people he has formed us to be.