The truth within me swells until it feels
I have to birth it. Womanish perhaps
but that’s the best description of the strength
inside erupting; Herod felt its lash
of condemnation. Evil putrefies
in those who think they are beyond reproach.
I call God’s chosen ones to be baptised
repenting of their sins, to bear good fruit.
We think this man has demons, mixing with
the riff raff by the Jordan, wearing oddball clothes
and eating locusts. Such a blessing was his death -
without us being there. But now they say
he’s back again in Jesus whom the crowds
adore. This time we’ll have to be involved.
Jan Ashton is a team vicar in Kidderminster. She wonders what else she might say this Year A about St John the Baptist.