Talks, Sermons and Reflections

Matthew 3:1-12 John was a wild man. The Assembly of the Holy Prophet St John the Baptist , Old Believer Icon, C19th Nevyansk school, Urals. All the people of Jerusalem go out to John to be baptised. Notice the lion, camel, unicorn and deer in the wilderness (on the left). He lived wild He dressed wild. He preached wild. He was part of a tradition that went back many years. He was a prophet - and the prophets were God's shock troops, God’s disrupters. There was a man in the Old Testament called Saul. He was searching for lost donkeys. But he meets the prophet of Israel, a man called Samuel. Samuel tells him that he is going to become king of Israel. And the Spirit comes on him and ‘he fell into a prophetic frenzy’ (1 Samuel 10:10). Or there was Elijah. There are strong echoes of Elijah in John the Baptist. He wore hairy clothes and had a leather belt and spent much time in wilderness. He was the one who challenged the 700 or so prophets of Baal to a contest, when fire came down on h...