So we come to the end of the second week of Advent; the second week of using our Advent prayer booklets; the second week of reading together the Gospel of Mark.

This week our prayers have been that style of praying that some people find liberating and others find extraordinarily difficult and unfulfilling: that spiritual discipline of placing yourself at the heart of the story, of imagining yourself into the characters surrounding Jesus as he journeys through to the Cross; of being with Jesus as a major character or as an onlooker.

So this week, as we have been reading the chapters of Mark’s Gospel, we may have been with Legion: the man with so many demons that, when Jesus cast them out, they went into a herd of pigs that ran down the hillside and were drowned in a lake. Perhaps you were there, perhaps you were Legion, demonised so much and liberated from so much. Perhaps, though, you were the swineherd having to go back to your town, to your master and explain why you’ve lost the whole herd of pigs.

Perhaps you were there when the leader of the synagogue, Jarius, came to Jesus and said ‘My daughter is critically ill’. Perhaps you were the parent of that ill child. Perhaps you were waiting with eager expectation that Jesus would respond, and then found him standing still saying ‘Who touched me?’.

Perhaps you were the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and found herself healed because she touched Jesus’ cloak. Perhaps you were standing by, watching the scene, and when Jesus said ‘Who touched me?’ perhaps you were urging the woman to own up – ‘Say it’s you’ – or to keep quiet – ‘No, hold back, don’t get involved’.

Perhaps you were at the table when King Herod laid on the feast for all his courtiers, where his daughter danced – that perfect dance. Perhaps you were well fed, well feasted, well wined and dined, and perhaps you were there when John the Baptist’s head was brought in on the platter.

Perhaps you were there at the feeding of the five thousand men (not counting the women and children); or the four thousand men (not counting the women and children); or when the disciples were running out of bread and Jesus, yet again, couldn’t get through to them, couldn’t make them understand because of their hardness of heart.

And then today John’s account of John the Baptist. Hear it once more. But this time, place yourself in the story, be there on the edge of the crowd watching what is going on. Observe this confrontation between John, who is on the edge of society, and the Levites and priests from Jerusalem, at the heart of society: the power makers, the power brokers, the messengers of the Pharisees. Feel the tension, hear the words and hear what is left unsaid, because this is the testimony of John the Baptist, when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to him to find out who he was.

John didn’t fail to confess, but he confessed freely: ‘I am not the Christ’.

So they asked him ‘Then who are you? Are you Elijah?’

He replied ‘I am not’

‘Are you the prophet?’

‘No’.

Finally they said ‘Who are you? Give us an answer that we can take back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?’

John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet ‘I am the voice of one calling in the desert make straight the way of the Lord’.

‘Why then do you baptise if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?’

‘I baptise with water. But among you stands one who you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie’.

And all this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptising.

Now, come a little closer. Step forward. Stop being an observer and move to the heart of the story. Be part of it. John is here and the priests and the Levites are here. It’s hot and it’s crowded. The tension is so thick you can cut it with a knife. The priests are shouting. The Levites are shouting. John is shouting.

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m not the Messiah’

‘Are you Elijah?’

‘No’.

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m the one crying in the wilderness’.

‘Who are you?’

‘I’m the one preparing the way of the Lord’.

‘So why are you baptising?’

‘I’m only baptising with water. The one who comes after me – he’s here now – I’m not worthy to untie his shoes.’

Suddenly, one of the Levites turns and faces you and demands of you:

‘Why are you here?’