shotleyfieldsforever

Who are the Gabriels of our day? Who stands before us and offers the compelling thought that, 'God is with us'? If ever there was a time and a season when we needed the reassurance that 'God is with us' that Time is now. If the newspapers are to be believed, despite the Vaccine 2021 may well yet turn out to be little different than 2020 has been. And what a tumultuous year it has been. Two commentaries have suggested that the most unprecedented thing about it has been the use of the word unprecedented and another comment was that we have experienced not only a pandemic but an infodemic! But here we are on this fourth Sunday of Advent 2020 praying with Mary that we also may receive the word of Gabriel to reassure that God is indeed with us. As Gabriel visits an unsuspecting young girl, Mary, so may the divine visit us. May the weariness and disruption and furloughing, the closure of pubs and schools, the vicissitudes of so many peoples lives in care homes and colleges an...

 In today's Gospel we focus on John the Baptist. John is a romantic figure, arriving out of the desert, eating locusts and wild honey and dressed in camel skin. This is no effete evangelist eating caviar and smoking cigars.  He is not dressed in an elegant camel coat, he is not seeking to impress but he has a distinctive role in the story that is being told, he is as Marvin Gaye sang and the Rolling Stones agreed, a witness. There is in St John's Gospel a judicial dimension which allows us to imagine John Baptist on the witness stand being interrogated, as indeed would happen later after his arrest by Herod. So the leaders of the establishment ask John 'Who are you'? But John clarifies who he is not, he is neither Elijah nor Jesus. He quotes a biblical text, his is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness. He also admits how limited his words and actions are, I baptise with water but the one who comes after me will baptise with the Holy Spirit. Testimony is central...