On the second and third Sundays in Advent, we typically focus our thoughts on John the Baptist, the fore-runner to Jesus. He stood up in the desert and he had a very simple message: God is going to come and visit his people, and you've got to get in there and clean your life up if you're ever going to meet him.

The trouble was that most people didn't clean up their lives, and many people chose to ignore John the Baptist, and carry on as they were.

But, as we saw in Jesus, God came anyway, not with a sort of ‘sin-o-meter’ to test how sinful people were - but he came and loved & accepted people as they were, he came as a complete person, to stand alongside them… as a fellow human being….and people were changed by his presence.

Sometimes we are tempted to throw our hands in the air and think how terrible the world is, how far removed from God's Kingdom, how remote from how God would have it be. But that Kingdom is here already, it is in our midst. Jesus comes today and everyday into a torn and broken and unloving and distrustful world. His presence is not dependent upon us: he comes anyway and that is what we will be remembering at the great feast of Christmas.

And we have these four weeks of Advent to prepare. It's not a 4 weeks to do your spring cleaning and get your soul squeaky clean. It's not to make us all so righteous, that we can in some way welcome him with a clear conscience. It is 4 weeks to remove barriers, to identify those things in each of us which stop us hearing what he has to say, those things which stop us recognising him in our world today.

So that when he does come, we are ready to respond to the call of his Kingdom.

Click 'More Info' below to see a recitation of Rowan Williams 'Advent Calendar'

The picture of John the Baptist above is part of a painting by artist Jen Norton. For more information, see https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jen-norton