The headlines: 'Thousands flock to hear hill preacher'. 'Thousands of people have left their homes and jobs in the cities and suburbs to listen to John the Baptiser, commonly known as "The Prophet of the Hill Country". Roads eastwards from the coast are so jammed with cars that many actually walked ten, twenty, and even one hundred miles to be at his meetings.

John is usually casually dressed in torn jeans, he lives in caves, and he can be found anywhere in the hills... He not only attacks the hypocrisy of our national and state politicians but has a word of judgment for just about everybody. His recent message to our Prime Minister was particularly heavy-handed: Woe to you, Prime Minister, for sounding off against the fundamentalist Moslems overseas and being a hypocrite at home. You were right to condemn their recent atrocities - but why the double standards? Why do you store excess grain while millions starve in the African Sahel? Some peoples kill others directly, others indirectly. Either way, people are killed...'

John the Baptist went a lot further than that of course - he denounced the private immoralities of his nation's leader! In the next few days we will learn from this great man and his teaching.

Lord, the idea that John the Baptist would have been part of the radical 'rat-bag fringe' of our culture is a bit disconcerting. Help me today to listen to others, even if they aren't 'proper' or conform to my dress or speech standards. Amen.

JOHN - A MAN OF COURAGE

Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan... Matthew 3:1-5.

John was a man of conviction and credibility. He'd had such a decisive experience of God that his 'Thus says the Lord!' reminded people of prophets the nation hadn't heard for 300 years. He was a man of enthusiasm - 'possessed by God'.

And he was a man sent from God, calling for commitment.

Jesus held him in very high esteem: 'I assure you that John the Baptist is greater than any man who has ever lived' (Matthew 11:11). That being so, what great qualities about this man, and truths in his teaching can help us to be the people God wants us to be today?

John the Baptist was a man of courage. Like John Knox, 'he feared man so little because he feared God so much!' Confronting the religious leaders - the Scribes and Pharisees, the 'establishment' of the land - he called them a 'generation of snakes'. Facing Herod the king, an evil man, he fearlessly rebuked his sordid morals. We're afraid of people because we want them to like us and not harm us, and so we live a double life.

Lord, like John, may my one concern be only the approval of God. Amen.

HELL-FIRE AND DAMNATION

When he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance.' Matthew 3:7,8.

John was not being simply negative. He encouraged all kinds of people to face up to the truth about themselves. Rather than blaming others for their problems they were prepared to say 'It's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!'

Certainly he preached the wrath and judgment of God against sin. And so should we! Many today feel that 'hell-fire and damnation' preaching has no place in our pulpits. This notion is based, I believe, on two erroneous assumptions.

First, because some fundamentalists preach about hell and judgment 'without tears in their voice', we shouldn't dismiss Jesus' and John's warnings out of hand.

The second error is to believe that wrath and hostility are the polar opposites of love. They aren't. The opposite of love is indifference. God's hostility is against all that separates us from our highest good. His righteous anger is an indication of his great concern for us. His 'anger labours to make us lovable' as C S Lewis put it. He does care about your sinning. He's angry about it! His anger isn't mindless rage or cruelty or some kind of temper tantrum. He is so serious about our 'knowing joy' that he is intolerant of the ways we take life apart and put it back together again so stupidly.

May I truly fear you, Lord, and in fearing you have the courage and faith to fear nothing else. Amen.

JOHN'S GOOD NEWS

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God... Mark 1:1.

Preachers who only preach judgment and condemnation won't keep an intelligent following for long. Mark tells us John's message was the beginning of the 'Good News'. If you only warn or denounce, people give up in despair. But John told his audience there was hope.

No sin is unpardonable (the only unforgiveable sin is the refusal to be forgiven!). But the destructive results of our sinning - selfcentredness, guilt, loss of self-respect, fear can all be reversed. We don't have to go on avoiding or evading our true condition; we don't have to go on blaming others or covering-up our true condition. We don't have to be immobile, either. John tells us there can be a victory of growth over fear, progress over inertia.

Do we want to be healed, to grow, to change? John's genius was that despite his fearless thunderings against the evils of people in his day, he showed them a way out. He was both harsh and hopeful.

The most important single ingredient to a successful marriage is the desire to make it work...If we really want to change and are willing to pay the price involved there is no end to what we can become.

Thanks, Lord, for this good news: that my sins, not in part but the whole, can be forgiven. Amen.

WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR SINS

John the baptizer, appeared... proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Mark 1:4.

What was John asking his generation to do? First, they had to repent!

Repentance is a 'change of mind leading to a change of behaviour'. Repentance is the opposite of blaming. Blaming is off-loading responsibility for our behaviour and attitudes somewhere else. One of the most common targets of our blame is our parents: 'if you had my history you'd be a mess like me!'

Repentance, on the other hand, is taking responsibility for our words, actions and thoughts, and obeying the spiritual road-sign which says 'Turn back, you are going the wrong way!'

We then receive forgiveness from the One we've offended. With God, and with others, forgiveness precedes apology. Waiting for someone to apologise to you before you forgive is all wrong! Very little reconciling is ever done on that basis. No, forgiveness starts, as it did with the prodigal's father, before the offender comes. So it is with God. He is waiting for his forgiveness to be accepted: it's already granted!

Lord, like those who responded to John, I too am a sinner. I confess my sins, repent of them and renounce them, and eagerly accept your forgiveness. Amen.

BAPTISM AND CONFESSION

People from the whole Judean countryside were baptized by [John the Baptist] in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Mark 1:5.

You need to do two more things, said John:

(1) Be baptised! When a Gentile male became a proselyte Jew, he was first circumcised, then a sacrifice was offered, and then he underwent baptism, symbolising a cleansing from the pollution of one's past life. 'The baptism was not a mere sprinkling with water, but a bath in which his whole body was bathed,' writes William Barclay. How humiliating for these Jews to be told by John that they too needed such cleansing!

(2) Confess! Confession must be to oneself. The prodigal had to say to himself 'I'm a rotter!' (A man looked into a mirror and said 'You dirty little rat!' From that day he was a changed man!) Second, confession ought to be made towards the one wronged. A husband and wife had a row. When one of them confessed it to their East African church, the pastor said 'You shouldn't have confessed that here, until you'd made it up between you at home first!' That's a humiliating process, but necessary for interpersonal healing. Then, confession must be made to God. 'The end of pride is the beginning of forgiveness.' Our cry is 'God be merciful to me a sinner!'

Lord I confess my sins against you and my utter loyalty to you, and I pray that in my baptism I may know the experience of new life in Christ. Amen.

NONE OF SELF, AND ALL OF THEE

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. Mark 1:7.

John was 'a burning and shining lamp'. That is, he was like a small Eastern pottery lamp, a simple hollow-shaped vessel into which oil was poured. A wick floated at the top of the oil, and as the lamp did its work, it gradually burnt itself out.

'He must increase, I must decrease!' 'I'm not worthy to untie his sandals!' 'He's mightier than I.' 'I baptise with water, he with the Holy Spirit'. Disciples did certain tasks for their teachers, but removing sandals and washing dusty or muddy feet was slaves' work.

John said he was not even worthy to be the lowest slave for Christ.

James Stewart in a sermon called 'The Heroism of Self-Effacement' says 'If John the Baptist had never spoken [anything] but this - I must decrease, he must increase - it would have marked him down as a saint.' How did John manage such humble heroism? James Stewart suggests three reasons:

His life was rooted in God. Without a strong faith in God, life's disappointments can be crushing indeed. Without him, others getting prizes on which you'd set your heart can be a most painful process.

Further, John saw in Jesus something he himself did not possess.

And third, John had the grace to see that it did not matter who did the work, as long as it was done to the glory of God.

Lord Jesus, may I grow from 'all of self and none of thee' until I can honestly say 'none of self and all of thee!' Amen.

NONE OF SELF, AND ALL OF THEE (2)

I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. Mark 1:7.

If you've done all the work and your leader gets all the glory, praise the Lord! Conversely, if you're 'an enabler' (and the Church desperately needs more of these beautiful people), and, through your encouragement others can be released from their inhibitions or inexperience to do a good job for God and others, and your role is a hidden one, praise the Lord!

In Whittier's words,
What matter, I or they?
Mine or another's day,
So the right word be said,
And life the sweeter made?

Lord, today I pray in the fine watchword of the great Lord Shaftesbury, 'Perish all things, so that Christ be magnified!' Amen.

A DESERT MAY BE GOOD FOR YOU!

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness... Mark 1:4.

John lived in the desert between the centre of Judea and the Dead Sea. It's one of the most terrible deserts in the world, says William Barclay. 'It is a limestone desert; it looks warped and twisted. It shimmers in the haze of the heat; the limestone rock is hot and blistering and sounds hollow to the feet as if there was some vast furnace underneath. It moves out to the Dead Sea and then descends in dreadful and unscalable precipices down to the level of the sea. In the Old Testament it is sometimes called Jeshimmon, which means The Devastation.'

In this dreary, desolate, forsaken, lonely spot, John communed with his God. He wore a garment woven of camel's hair, and a leather belt. And he ate locusts and wild honey (providing a balanced diet of protein and carbohydrate, according to a diet expert!)

Lord, the lesson here for me may be to strip my life sometimes (or for a longer time) of all the clutter of the years, and get down to basics. I need you, Lord, not material things. I need to know you Lord, not a lot of the stuff I am reading or hearing on the media. I need to know myself, Lord, and this cannot happen until I have got rid of whatever is clogging up my spiritual life. Help! Amen.

A DESERT MAY BE GOOD FOR YOU! (2)

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness... Mark 1:4.

God may not call you to live in a desert, or to 'sell all you have and give to the poor'. Jesus' universal call was not to poverty but to discipleship and obedience ('Follow me!').

However, in these days when hundreds of thousands are refugees, millions are starving and homeless, and the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, you and I must caringly and prayerfully distinguish between our wants and our needs. We can't justify, in our kind of world, heaping up luxuries around us while others are living and dying so pitifully.

So John the Baptist comes to the 'deserts of our lives' - to those who are dry, empty, barren, weary, and bored. We who have most of the things we need, but who are still 'thirsting for living water' can receive new life and new hope through humbly repenting and re-examining our lives - and our 'lifestyle'.

Lord Jesus Christ heal me of the cancer of materialism, forgive my sins, baptise me with your Holy Spirit. As I turn my eyes to you, and look full in your wonderful face; may the things of earth grow stangely dim, in the light of your glory and grace. Amen.