One of my favourite spots in the Yorkshire Dales is the village of Middleham in Wensleydale.  At the centre of the village is a ruined castle. To wander around the Castle today on a romantically misty morning is a tranquil experience but it was not ever thus.  There was a period in English History when Middleham Castle was rather more centre stage than it is today. Owned then by Richard Neville, the Earl of Warwick, it became the boyhood home of the future Richard III.

Neville played a major role in English politics and he was arguably, for a time, one of the most powerful men in England with influence over at least two Kings (apart from Richard III) whom he ‘assisted’ to the throne. Edward the Fourth and Henry Sixth were on opposite sides of the War of the Roses, a Yorkist and a Lancastrian but it mattered not to the Earl of Warwick. He always seemed to know on which side his bread was buttered. He knew especially the importance of being No. 2 – of holding power without having total responsibility.  So influential was he with regard to the English Throne that he has become known as the ‘Kingmaker’.  It was a position he relished not because he was a humble man but because it gave him real power – and power was his greatest lust.  He cared not who he assisted to the throne because he never really believed that they were greater men than himself. It was to be his downfall and perhaps he should have modelled himself on one who really did know his place and whose life was devoted to being a True Kingmaker.

I speak, of course, about our own Patron Saint, John the Baptist.  Today’s Gospel speaks of him as a ‘man sent by God’ and his role was to prepare the Way for God’s Son to whom he was totally devoted and whom he loyally served.  This devotion began whilst John was still in the womb of his mother and in this period before Christmas, we might have expected to meet him not by the River Jordan but in that quiet place where his mother, Elizabeth, met with her cousin Mary. Both pregnant they greeted each other and Luke’s Gospel tells us that the babe in Elizabeth’s womb ‘leapt for joy’. Was this perhaps an early indication of John’s acceptance of his destiny?

Certainly the role of ‘Kingmaker’ was one that he was happy to fulfil and he did so with a genuine humility.  This humility comes over very clearly in the testimony John gave to those who came to enquire who he was and by what authority he ministered.  We have his response in our Gospel passage today and students of music will recognise it as the words of this morning's anthem by Orlando Gibbons – This is the record of John.

John’s response to those who asked who he was includes a confession of personal unworthiness which is common to all four Gospel accounts but St. John’s Gospel goes a bit further than the others in giving us the purpose of the Baptist’s ministry.   By prefacing John the Baptist’s testimony with a few words from the famous Prologue to St. John’s Gospel we are reminded what that purpose was. 

There was a man sent by God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

This was his purpose – the reason why he combined a water baptism with a call to repentance. His mission was to turn people away from the darkness of sin towards the light of God’s forgiving and healing love – a love which Jesus came to bring.

For John, then, the role of Kingmaker was a role not of power-seeking but of true preparation for the ministry of the King of Heaven, Jesus himself.  Later in John’s Gospel we find our Patron Saint letting go of his disciples who slip away from him to join with Jesus and, as far as the gospel is concerned this is the beginning of John the Baptist’s own fading into the background. He fulfilled his own prophecy that there would be one coming after him of whom he was not worthy to untie his sandals or, as he put it later, when he was imprisoned by King Herod, I must decrease, he must increase.

Jesus, when he heard of John’s death, mourned his cousin. Matthew tells us that, on hearing the news, he withdrew to a deserted place to be by himself. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus provides John’s epitaph – amongst those born of women no one is greater than John. Jesus was to go further than this accolade when, in St. John’s Gospel he referred back to the testimony John had given. Speaking to the Jewish authorities that, as with John, were demanding to know on what authority Jesus was acting, he reminded them that they had sent similar messengers to John who testified on his behalf and that his testimony was true.  Of John Jesus then said:

He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.

Certainly that was true because during his public ministry John was a popular figure with the crowds. And he could draw the crowds.

He is often painted as an austere, wild and lonely figure, yet he not only appealed to the masses but had a devoted following of disciples. There was a time, before Jesus came on the scene when John was the most popular religious teacher in Israel. Yet his message was uncompromising, even harsh. There was nothing for it but to repent if salvation was to be had. Only God could offer what the people needed but to find salvation meant a mending of the ways and a rending of the heart. His was a deeply challenging message and the people lapped it up.

Lesser men – the Warwicks of this world, say – would have turned this popularity to their own advantage and there is no doubt in my mind that John the Baptist could have done the same. Had he been consumed with a lust for power and position, he could have used his popularity with the crowds to become not simply Kingmaker but King.  But that did not happen because John accepted, with a deep humility, God’s plan for him.  His true greatness lay in turning aside from the acclamation of the people and giving it all up for the sake of another.

If you look at our Icon of John the Baptist in the Lady Chapel you will see that his hand is outstretched away from himself and seemingly pointing towards another. The original Icon, by a Russian saint, Theophan the Recluse, was a Triptych with Christ in the middle and the Blessed Virgin Mary on the left hand panel. In that Icon, John the Baptist’s hands are pointing in the opposite direction to what they are in our Icon because they are pointing towards Christ. I asked Sister Irène to turn ours the other way for the same reason.  I wanted our Icon to point us into the Chapel where, in the Eucharist, we meet Christ and so we, too are pointed to Him.  It is an act of symbolism but an important one because John the Baptist chose to point away from himself towards Jesus. Herein lies his greatness.  And it is a greatness we need to discover as part of our Advent preparation for the Christ-Child of Christmas.

The essence of the Advent message is to put Jesus Christ first and to take on the same role that John the Baptist took on – that of Kingmaker rather than King.  We do that when we point ourselves away from self-centredness and seek a life which is God-centred.   Self-centredness, love of status, of power, of possessions, of wealth will not bring us to God. Only a life centred on serving Christ Jesus will do that.  So, like John the Baptist we have to become Kingmakers and the place where we do that, first and foremost, is within our own hearts.  We are called to make Jesus Christ the King of our hearts and reflecting on the life of John the Baptist and, in particular, his testimony, can help us to do that.

John’s life was one of humility in the face of God’s greatness. Beside Christ I am not worthy John says – not a cry of someone who despises himself or who has problems with his own self-worth, but rather a statement that Christ is greater than he. It took a lot of humility to say that and it is humility which moves us away from self towards God.

It was the poet T.S. Eliot who wrote in his poem, ‘East Coker’:

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

John the Baptist, then calls us back to humility but he offers us more. He offers a pattern of self-sacrifice which makes that humility possible.

His ministry was to give himself for the sake of another. All he did and said concerned Jesus for whom he was prepared to sacrifice all. Self-interest played no part in his life. He simply did what all Christians are asked to do – point not only their own lives and hearts towards God but the lives and hearts of others also.  This involves a placing of ourselves at God’s disposal – our Gospel today begins with the words There was a man sent by God ­ and, in the same way, we are sent by God to others and to them, as with John the Baptist, we are sent as witnesses to testify to the Light which is Christ so that all might believe through Him.

We go to others with an invitation to meet Jesus and the first place they will meet him is not here in Church. That, I feel is one of the big mistakes of the kind of mission which is concerned only to fill churches so that we might seem to be successful ‘religious shows’. Others will first of all meet Jesus in us – through us – by seeing that He makes a difference to our lives. In this way we become a bit like our John the Baptist Icon – forever pointing towards Jesus.

When, in John’s Gospel, John the Baptist was preaching one day, he saw Jesus pass by. Look, he said eagerly, there is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The next day he repeated this to two of his disciples and they immediately left him and followed Jesus.  When, through our witness; through our own obvious love of God and through a genuine love of others, people are led to turn towards Christ – we will be like John the Baptist - Kingmakers.

But, first, of course, we must accept Him as King of our own lives. Let the example of John the Baptist help you to do that. It’s a good Advent goal.