Just as John the Baptist pointed to Jesus, we are called also to point to Jesus with our words and behaviour.

Jesus came to John to be baptized not because he needed to be forgiven but rather to identify fully with humanity. In our own baptism we are joined to Jesus and so the words of God to Jesus "You are my beloved with you I am well pleased" apply to us as well. This is the source of our identity and self esteem. So reach out to others in the confidence of God's love as Jesus did.

When Jesus was born the religions leaders of the day showed little interest but Gentile astrologers travel thousands of kilometers to see him. It’s equally puzzling in our day that more people don’t follow their yearning and enquire about Jesus. At the beginning of a New Year, let’s all follow the ‘homing instinct’ God has placed in our hearts to seek him and find him.

The problem of suffering and evil are a real challenge to Christianity – we ask “How can a good and loving God allow the ongoing presence of evil in the world?” However God came into the world at its very point of need – as NT Wright said “Before the Prince of Peace had learned to walk and talk, he was a homeless refugee with a price on his head.” On the cross Jesus dealt with the evil in the world finally and decisively.

Tonight at our special Antioch Christmas service, Rev. Jenny talks about the down-to-Earth God.

St Patrick and St Joseph both experienced acute challenges in life but chose to interpret them in terms of God's wider purposes. We are also called to interpret the challenges of life as opportunities to cooperate with God and be his agents of blessing in our various contexts.

John the Baptist could be a firebrand preacher, but what about when he ended up in prison?

When John's disciples asked Jesus if he really was the one to come he told them to look around at the evidence. There were signs of the in-breaking of God's kingdom everywhere. Given that signs of God's Kingdom are ambivalent today, we may be tempted to ask the same question. But we can

How do we respond to ideas about Jesus' second coming 2000 years later? Where do we find advent hope today?

Vicar Mark Chamberlain interviews Bishop Brian Carrell, a member of the Commission that produced this new worship resource to replace the Book of Common Prayer.