The Second Sunday after Epiphany --- 19 January 2014

John 1:29-42

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, "After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.' 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." 32 And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." 

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!" 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" 39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed ). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter ). 

They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?" He said to them, "Come and see."

• It's a simple formula. Jesus just asked the two disciples of John the Baptizer to follow him when they asked where he was staying. They followed him and then they began to invite others to “Come and see” for themselves.
• Does it make you wonder why this simple formula does not seem to work in our day? Maybe we should unpack this a bit.
• First, the invitation was given by Jesus who said “Come and see” to those men when he met them face to face. Such an invitation would have to be taken seriously, especially since the men invited had asked “Where are you staying?” Once they showed interest, Jesus said, in essence, “follow me.” It isn't clear what they were looking for when they began to follow after Jesus, whom John called “the lamb of God.” For a number of reasons, it really isn't clear what John meant in calling Jesus the lamb of God.
• In any event, it appears that Andrew saw Jesus as the Messiah and convinced his brother Simon Peter to see for himself. Whatever Jesus said or did while Andrew was with him, it caused Andrew to begin to believe and in believing, led Andrew to share this faith with others.
• If we see ourselves in this picture, we might get discouraged by see that only two people came to follow Jesus that one day out of all the people who had gone out to be baptized by John. In this case, numbers don't count for much. The two disciples of John followed Jesus and learned a lot about who Jesus was. Jesus doesn't appear to be concerned about numbers either; his whole attention was on the two who were with him.
• Was it curiosity that led the two disciples to ask about Jesus? It would appear not. These two were already disciples of John. They were not just two people seeking a “drive-through” baptism from John – one that would take place and let them get on with their day. They were already taking their faith seriously.
• We all know what became of Andrew and the brother he brought to Jesus, Simon Peter. There's no need to discuss or point out their place in the history of the church. They came to faith by the simple formula of “come and see.” What they saw and experienced made all the difference.
• We are not able to 'come and see' Jesus as Andrew and Peter did. We have to do it in the way that is available to us in our life right now. We all have come to faith because we have come and have seen someone -a disciple of Jesus- who took their faith seriously, whose faith made a difference in their lives.
• This “taking our faith seriously” is the important thing. If we take our faith seriously, it will influence every area of our lives. It will direct how we work and possibly what we do for a living. It will give direction on how we might raise our children and how we will treat everyone we meet.
• Taking our faith seriously will effect how and even how often we pray. It may change our prayer and way of praying, replacing a “gimme” mentality with one of gratitude, seeking God's life and God's will more than goodies and things.
• Taking faith seriously may not change what words we use, but it certainly will change what we might talk about.
• If every one of us here truly took our faith seriously, the grace of God would be seen by anyone who would look. They could “come and see”, and see Jesus in his followers, in us.
• Note I didn't use the term “religion” although I could had I used the word in it's best sense. There are people who don't trust the word “religion” because they see it as a system of human actions or “works” to earn God's favour or salvation. The earliest understanding of the word “religion”, however, is one of commitment to a certain way of life or to certain values. This definition sounds more like our understanding of faith in action than a way of getting your ticket to heaven punched.
• If we believe Jesus Christ is alive, then we believe that he is still active in the world he came to save. If he is active in the Church, then he is active in us for we are the Church. It is to us that those who are searching will “come and see.” What we can all do is reflect the light of grace that has been given to us.
• The simple formula I mentioned still works today and it might work better than any other way we might try. After all, this is Jesus' way.