January 19, 2020

Second Sunday After Epiphany
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-11
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you
from the one who builds community
 with an invitation to come and see. Amen
 
We are now in the season after Epiphany
 and so our bible stories
 are all about how Jesus is revealed as God to us.
 
 With very few exceptions,
 this revelation occurs in community,
 God uses people to reveal Jesus to others
 and so today we get the story
of how the first core community of those people is formed.
 
With a search for something more,
and an invitation.
 
It all starts with John the baptist,
remember God works in the world through people.
 God calls John the baptist to prepare the way for Jesus,
and that’s what John has been doing,
he’s been telling people to repent of their sins
 and baptizing them when they do,
 
 and some of them have started to follow him,
they are searching for something more out of life
and they think they’ve found it in John. 
 
 but John knows his role is one of preparation
 for the one that is coming after him,
he doesn’t know exactly who this is,
just that the spirit will let him know,
 
 and when he baptizes Jesus
 the spirit descends
revealing Jesus as the one he has been waiting for
 
 and John’s preaching changes
to a very simple message
“Look here is the lamb of God”
 
John is standing with two of his followers
 when Jesus walks past
 and John points to him and says “Look, here is the Lamb of God”
and just like that
they start following Jesus,
 
 not in the metaphorical sense
but literally walking behind him
 and Jesus turns around and asks them
 “What are you looking for?”
which is a loaded question,
what are they looking for?
They probably don’t know exactly themselves
but it’s certainly more than the answer they quickly give
when they ask Jesus where he’s staying,
 
and Jesus responds “Come and see”
a loaded answer
 because what they will see by going with Jesus
 is certainly more than the place where he is staying,
 they will see God revealed.
 
And they go with Jesus
and spend the rest of the day with him
 and that’s all it takes to start off a chain reaction of invitations,
 
 Andrew goes and finds his brother Simon
and tells him “we have found the messiah”
Andrew brings Simon to Jesus,
 and when Jesus looks at him
he gives him a new name, Peter,
 the rock, the foundation of the community. 
 
People are searching for something more
 and all it takes is an invitation from someone they trust
 to experience what they’ve found
 as well as an invitation to remain and explore for themselves
 to see if they find what they’ve been searching for.
 
 Most of us are here
because at some point,
someone we trust invited us to come and see,
invited might be a strong word for those of us brought as children
 but still the people we trust wanted to share what they’d found with us.
 
We remain because we found Jesus,
and a place that lets us explore
what it means to have found Jesus as our lives play out
 
 because even when we find Jesus,
we still continue to search
because humans are constantly searching throughout life
 
 sometimes this is because of the sin that tells us we can be God
and control our own destinies
and so we search for a way to achieve that,
 
 sometimes we search because we want to know who we are,
what our purpose is,
 
sometimes we search for God
because it seems as if God is hidden,
 
and Jesus knows,
 even if we don’t realize it,
 is that what we’re searching for is a community,
 an identity and a purpose,
all things that God has already given us 
 
 first and foremost
 we are beloved children of God
we always have been and always will be
 this identity will never change
 
and because we are beloved children of God
 our purpose is to love God and love our neighbor,
 and we discover this identity and purpose in community
 
 and all it takes to find
 is for a person we trust to point and say
“Look here is the Lamb of God”
 followed by an invitation to “come and see”
 
 Of course we humans try to make it more complex than that,
 we ask questions like how?
 And why?
 
 And then we try to make the community in our own image instead of God’s
and we make rules and get into disagreements
 but at the heart of it all, it’s really simple,
people searching for something more
gathered together because someone pointed to Jesus
and extended an invitation to come and see, remain and discover
 
 and as we do
it becomes our turn to reach out to others we see searching,
to point to Jesus and invite them to come and see, remain and discover.
 
And Jesus knows that this isn’t always easy,
we get discouraged,
or our search changes,
 so Jesus comes to us again,
in word and water, bread and wine,
 and once again invites us to come and see,
 
and we are present at the table
 because someone we trust has once again come to us saying
 ‘we have found the messiah, come and see’
because just as we keep searching
we keep needing to be invited,
reminded of our identities as beloved children of God.
 
This year my hope is that we as a community
 learn to better do this for one another
both those already here
 and those who have yet to encounter Jesus,
 
to see when someone is searching,
 to point them to Jesus
and to invite them to come and see,
 because we have found the messiah. Amen