The Feast of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen | Monday 2 January 2023

Today is Monday the 2nd of January, the feast of Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen, in the Season of Christmas.

The community of Taizé sing Wait for the Lord.

‘Wait for the Lord, his day is near. Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart.’

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of John.

John 1:19-28

This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” He said,
“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’” as the prophet Isaiah said.

Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

We know John the Baptist as the one who prepared the way for Christ. But his contemporaries weren’t so clear. Who was this odd preacher, drawing people into the desert, and inviting them to stand in the river as a sign of their sins’ forgiveness? Can you get a sense of how strange that was? Of why those who saw him at work might be puzzled?

If you can get a sense of how strange what John was doing was – think of what it would be like if someone was doing that today! – what is it that you think drew so many people to him?

Listen to this passage again. From the evidence that it presents, what do you think that John thought about the one he was preparing the way for?

As this new year gets underway, how might you “prepare the way of the Lord”? Talk this over now with Jesus, the one foretold by John.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.