Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 0-154

From ‘Sunrise Sunset’ (HarperCollins/Harper San Francisco), Rowland Croucher’s book of daily meditations. Feel free to use or adapt it.

The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. Mark 1:7.

John was ‘a burning and shining lamp’. That is, he was like a small Eastern pottery lamp, a simple hollow-shaped vessel into which oil was poured. A wick floated at the top of the oil, and as the lamp did its work, it gradually burnt itself out. ‘He must increase, I must decrease!’ ‘I’m not worthy to untie his sandals!’ ‘He’s mightier than I.’ ‘I baptise with water, he with the Holy Spirit’. Disciples did certain tasks for their teachers, but removing sandals and washing dusty or muddy feet was slaves’ work. John said he was not even worthy to be the lowest slave for Christ.

James Stewart in a sermon called ‘The Heroism of Self-Effacement’ says ‘If John the Baptist had never spoken [anything] but this – I must decrease, he must increase – it would have marked him down as a saint.’ How did John manage such humble heroism? James Stewart suggests three reasons: his life was rooted in God. Without a strong faith in God, life’s disappointments can be crushing indeed.

Without him, others getting prizes on which you’d set your heart can be a most painful process. Further, John saw in Jesus something he himself did not possess. And third, John had the grace to see that it did not matter who did the work, as long as it was done to the glory of God.

Lord Jesus, may I grow from ‘all of self and none of thee’ until I can honestly say ‘none of self and all of thee!’ Amen.