Come and See!

Eric Lemonholm

December 11, 2011

Advent 3 B – with alternate Gospel

First Reading Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Psalm Luke 1:46b-55

Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24

Gospel John 1:29-42 The Lamb of God and the First Disciples

 

Jesus walked around in public, talking one on one with the people.

We followers of Jesus today probably need to follow Jesus’ example in this.

 

When he sees Jesus, John the Baptizer shouts to his followers, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

John knows something about who Jesus is, and what he is about.

John saw the Holy Spirit descend and remain on Jesus.  

God’s spiritual presence abides in Jesus.  As God’s Spirit pitches her tent in Jesus, so Jesus pitches his tent among us.

Jesus is the Lamb of God, the Son of God who will sacrifice himself to defeat sin, death, and evil.

He is the One who will baptize, not with water alone, but with the Holy Spirit.

 

Last week, we talked about John the Pointer.  That’s what he’s doing here – pointing to Jesus.

 

Two of John’s disciples, one of whom was named Andrew, see and hear John the Pointer call Jesus the Lamb of God, and they follow Jesus.

When Jesus asks them, “What are you looking for?” they don’t seem to know what to say.  They just ask, “Rabbi, where are you staying?” to which Jesus replies, “Come and see.”

Come and see.

At that moment, Andrew and his friend could have said, “Forget it.  We don’t really want to know.  We’ll just go back to John.”

But they stay with Jesus.  “They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.”

We don’t know exactly what they experienced that day with Jesus.

But Jesus must have made a deep impact on Andrew, because by the end of the day, he goes and finds his brother Simon and says, “We have found the Messiah.”  He is not an ordinary Rabbi; he is God’s Spirit-Anointed One.

Andrew brings Simon to Jesus, who calls him Cephas, or Peter, the Rock.  He becomes Jesus’ number one disciple.

 

Being a disciple is a daily walking with, a daily following, of Jesus: coming to Jesus, seeing Jesus, and remaining with Jesus.

But what does it mean to follow Jesus, to be a disciple?

 

Rob Bell once shared a historical look at what it means to be a disciple of a Rabbi, a Teacher, like Jesus.

First of all, you could not just choose to be a disciple of a Rabbi. It was an honor for a select few students…

• ·         Jewish boys learned how to read the Bible in Hebrew.
• ·         The best had the honor of going on to learn more, and actually memorized the whole Hebrew Bible—the Old Testament.
• ·         The best of the best would come to a Rabbi, who would then question them in detail. If a student both knew the whole Bible by heart, and understood what it meant, then the Rabbi might accept him as a disciple.
• ·         Then, the disciple would follow his Rabbi closely for years.
• ·         Even to this day, you can see disciples of Orthodox Rabbis in New York City or elsewhere following their Rabbi so close that they even follow him into the bathroom, to see how he goes.
• ·         There is an old Jewish blessing that says, “May you wear the dust of your Rabbi.”
• ·         “May you wear the dust of your Rabbi.” That is, may you follow your Rabbi so closely that, as he walks, you get covered in the dust that his sandals kick up as he walks.

 

Jesus was a Rabbi, a Jewish teacher.

He certainly knew his Bible. Do you remember the story of Jesus as a 12-year-old boy, talking with the teachers in the Temple of Jerusalem? The boy Jesus amazed the teachers with his understanding of God’s Word.

For much of the time from then to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, he was probably a disciple of some Rabbi or other.

And then, he was a Rabbi himself.

But Jesus was a Rabbi like no other.

Instead of waiting for the best of the brightest to come to him and prove themselves, Jesus invited them to come and see.

They were not, perhaps, the smartest or most educated young people, but he invited them nonetheless, and they followed Jesus and remained with him.

Jesus even calls Simon by a new name: Peter, the Rock.  Rocky.

 

In our day, it might be hard to imagine the honor it was for these young disciples to be called by the famous young Rabbi, Jesus.

Jesus called disciples from all walks of life—fisherman, tax collectors, even—and this was controversial in his day—women!  Jesus spent time teaching men and women—Andrew and Simon Peter, Mary and Martha—people Jesus had chosen and called to follow him.

And his disciples indeed followed him and learned from him what it means to be a disciple of the Son of God.

Jesus’ radical message to his disciples was about the coming kingdom of God and God’s radical grace and love—“For God so loved the world, the cosmos, the whole universe, that God gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

 

Each of us has been called by God.

When we were created, God called us ‘very good.’

When we were baptized, God called us ‘beloved child.’

And, Jesus, the Son of God, calls us, ‘Come and see, and follow me.’

God calls each of us to be followers of Jesus.

 

As Rob Bell notes, one criticism that Jews have about Christians is that, though we have been called, we do not follow our Rabbi.

If we are followers of Jesus, shouldn’t we wear his dust? Shouldn’t we follow him more closely? Shouldn’t we model our lives after his?

Each of us has been chosen and called by Christ.

Each of us has been given the gift of faith, trust in God.

It’s the day to day following of Christ that’s tricky.

[ii]God calls us to glorify God in our bodies and minds in all that we do with the freedom God gives us.

God calls us to honor Christ’s sacrifice for us, and the presence of God’s Holy Spirit within us, by living out our callings in faithful obedience to God’s Word.

Come and see.

That’s what Jesus says to us today.  Come and see.

Think of our congregation today.  It would be great to know ahead of time, say 5 years down the road, to know exactly where Jesus will be staying.  To see exactly where Jesus will want us to be in our lives as a Christian community far into the future.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, that’s not the way it is.  We don’t know exactly what the world, or our community, will look like in 5 years, so we do not know exactly where God is calling us to go on our faith journey.

That’s part of the adventure of being a disciple of Jesus Christ.  We are not called by God because we know exactly our destination.  Jesus calls us to “Come and see.”

 

You have been chosen and called to follow Jesus.

• Be covered with the dust of your Rabbi.
• Follow Jesus so closely that his sandals kick up dust on your clothes and face.
• And in doing so, experience the richness of life as a disciple, a follower of Christ.
• Experience the joy of God’s grace through faith in Jesus the Messiah.
• Come and see what adventures God has in store for us.
• Come and see how we can live and share Jesus in 2012 and beyond.
• Come and see what challenges God will empower us to face and overcome.
• Come and see how God will bless us, our families, our community as we follow Christ.
• Come and see that following Jesus is not the easy road, but it is the road that leads to full, meaningful, abundant life.
• Come and see Jesus, and remain with him.

 

Let us pray.

God of earthquake, wind, and fire, God of the gentle breeze and the still, small voice,
God of the raging storm, God of the soft snowfall, you change everything you touch, you bring life when there is only death, you bring hope, a way when we think there is no way.  Therefore we ask for your life- changing touch upon our lives, your summons to come forth and follow you, to be courageous enough to change, to become the people you would have us to be.  Amen.[iii]