This is a copy of my talk given at Ayia Kyriaki and Saint Stephen’s in the Anglican Church of Paphos on Sunday 7 December 2025. The Lectionary Bible Reading was Matthew 3:1-11.

Prayer

Heavenly Father,
I thank You for Your word.
By the power of Your Holy Spirit,
May You speak to my heart,
And change my life.
In the precious name of Jesus I pray.
Amen

Introduction

Have ever been present when a VIP (King or Queen) has visited your town? A lot of preparation takes place beforehand. Perhaps the most spectacular visits nowadays would be the visit of POTUS – the President of the United States. His visits are planned with military precision. Three months before the visit a 12-man team photographs all the venues, checks out hotels and hospitals. About six weeks before the visit around 30 officials examine airports, helicopter landing sites, road routes and media coverage. Ten days ahead, huge cargo planes deliver limousines, helicopters, communications vehicles and the POTUS Cadillac known as ‘the Beast’ or ‘First Car.’ In the final week the secret service plans the ‘spontaneous events’ – like walk-abouts – and up to nine hundred staff are brought in, including a crack armed response unit.

This morning we’re looking at the arrival of another VIP. But this visitor’s arrival is something that has been planned for all eternity. This is the coming of the King of Kings, the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord – including kings and presidents!

One of the Gospel readings during Advent always features John the Baptist. A prophet, whose sole task in life was to ‘plan ahead’ and prepare the way of the Lord. And he does it with style, doesn’t he? Living in the wilderness, dressed strangely, living off the land, baptizing in the river Jordan, and proclaiming a powerful message. John knew a very simple, but world changing, truth – that the Messiah was coming; and it was time to get ready. The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, is on his way; the long-promised Saviour who would rescue Israel from its sin.

The Forerunner 

John believed what the world only hoped for – that the promised Messiah was about to come, and with him would come the kingdom of heaven. And he dedicated his life to preparing the way. Fearlessly. Passionately. Without counting the cost. But he didn’t care. Because he was doing what God wanted him to do. John the Baptist is sometimes called the ‘forerunner’ because he came before Jesus to announce his coming, to call those around him to repentance, to prepare the way of the Lord.

When I was thinking about this I wondered, who or what, in our busy secular world, does that for us? Our forerunner may not be a person at all. There’s a lot of illness around at the moment and I was thinking, for example, of how suffering can serve that role. An illness can sometimes prepare the way for God to come into our life in a new way.

I once visited someone who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He told me that if he ever got out of hospital, he was going to get baptized and commit his life to Jesus. He did, and then he did. And then it was my honour to remind his loved ones of God’s gift of salvation on the day of his funeral.

I could tell several stories of crises in people’s lives that led them to faith or perhaps called them back to a lapsed faith. They show us that God is still at work in this world. That the Holy Spirit continues to call people in all sorts of mysterious ways. It often happens when parents welcome a baby into the world or when people attend a funeral. Call these ways ‘forerunners’ and notice the ways in which they prepare for the coming of Jesus.

Suffering, as I said, can serve that role. It’s not that God causes all suffering, but that God can use suffering to lead us back to him. C.S. Lewis:

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

But not always. Whilst suffering can break our hearts open to the mystery and mercy of God, it can also make us bitter. It can harden our hearts to receiving God’s love and mercy. And the question that I will probably spend the rest of my life pondering is, why? Why does suffering lead some to draw closer to Jesus, and why does it make others bitter? Why does it strengthen the faith of some and weaken the faith of others? Why?

John the Baptist

We might wonder why some accepted John the Baptist and others rejected him. Many people were confessing their sins and being baptized by him, but others were going out to him for other reasons. But John saw into their hearts and didn’t like what he saw. Because he saw a sin that they were hiding away: the sin of presumption. This was they had Abraham as their ancestor. They are God’s chosen. They don’t need what John is offering. They don’t need to repent. But they were wrong. And John knows it. He famously calls them a ‘brood of vipers’ and challenges them to bear fruit worthy of repentance.

I think we misread this story if we don’t see a little of ourselves in that ‘brood of vipers!’ If we don’t acknowledge a little of that same sin locked away: the sin of presumption. We are not children of Abraham in that same way, but we are baptized Christians. We are active churchgoers. We might be tempted to think, what do I need to repent of? What do I need to change? What do I need to do to prepare my heart for the coming of the Lord? If we can’t think of anything, then we might have fallen into that same trap, of presuming that we don’t have to make any changes before we come face-to-face with Jesus.

We should be asking ourselves if we are bearing good fruit in our lives? And we should know what that fruit is: love and joy and peace; it is patience and kindness and generosity; it is faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Are we bearing those things? What do we need to work on? What are the things that we can do better at? To honestly ask those questions is to do the hard work of Advent, of repenting and preparing for the coming of the Lord.

Repentance as an “I Can’t” Experience

But once we have come up with things to work on, how do we work on them? How do we work on having more joy, more patience, or more gentleness? It’s not like getting fit or cleaning our house. We can’t sign up for a class and learn this new skill. It comes from somewhere else. To be called to repent tells us what not to do, but it doesn’t tell us what to do in its place. That’s because to repent is to acknowledge that we can’t do it. Not on our own. I like the way theologian Richard Jensen puts it:

In repenting … we ask the God who has turned towards us, buried us in baptism and raised us to new life, to continue his work of putting us to death. Repentance is an ‘I can’t’ experience … The repentant person comes before God saying, ‘I can’t do it myself … Raise me to a new life.’

That is the language of repentance, and it takes real humility to say, “I can’t”. If we are confident of our standing before God, we are presuming, we are not repenting! That’s what the Pharisees and Sadducees were accused of doing. And we can fall into that trap, too. Presume that because we are Christians, we have everything all wrapped up.

Advent is a season when we are invited to say, humbly and faithfully, “I can’t.” I can’t do it myself. I can’t get ready for Jesus’ coming by my own effort. I need help. But it can also be something of a relief. Because it means that we don’t have to figure it all out by ourselves. We don’t have to work our way to heaven. We don’t have to make the world perfect. We just have to surrender to Jesus. To let him do his work in us, and through us. We simply repent, die to our ways of sin, and let him raise us to new life.

And that is the basic life-changing message of John the Baptist. That in Jesus, the kingdom of heaven comes to us; and the best way to prepare for it is to confess our need for him. The best way to prepare for Christmas is to acknowledge our need for Jesus.

A Christmas Carol

Maybe that is why one of the most loved Christmas stories of all is so popular. What is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, if it’s not about repentance? Here was a man who was made bitter by suffering, and who then repented. The visit from the ghost of Christmas past reminded him of the suffering that had led him to his bitterness. The ghosts of Christmas present and future showed him how his bitterness had hurt others.

And Scrooge famously repents. Not to please the ghosts, but simply because he is reminded of the amazing love of God, the overwhelming beauty of this world, and the priceless gift of life. And through his repentance, his heart is flooded with love and joy and peace in such a way that he blesses those around him. As the story concludes, Scrooge:

… became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world … And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Everyone!

It’s a wonderful illustration of today’s gospel reading, and of what can happen when we recognise our mistakes, repent of them and turn to Jesus.

Conclusion

The forerunners to Jesus are many in our world. All helping us to prepare the way of the Lord. All leading us to Bethlehem, and to the true gift of Christmas. So let us bring our weariness and our frustration to the manger again this season. And as Romans 15:13 reminded us: May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Maranatha. Amen. Come Lord Jesus. 

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER The text contained in this sermon (except where stated) is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.