Eric Lemonholm

Epiphany 2 A

January 16, 2011

Isaiah 49:1–7; 1 Corinthians 1:1–9; John 1: 29-42

“Come and See”

Like a modern day congressman, Jesus walked around in public, talking one on one with the people.

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.

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 with the Holy Spirit.

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

Andrew and his friend were following Jesus.  When Jesus asks them, “What are you looking for?”, they don’t seem to know what to say.  They just ask, “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.”

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

Come and see.

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

Think of our congregation’s situation 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.”

• Come and see what adventures God has in store for us.
• Come and see how you can share the love of Christ in 2011 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.

A geologist studying the strata of rock under St. Paul’s Cathedral in London reported that the church building is moving down Fleet Street at the rate of one inch every 1,000 years. A reader of the report commented, “The church ought to move faster than that.”[2]

Yesterday was the fifth anniversary of my arrival here at Grace.

During those 5 years, Grace Lutheran Church was moving faster than 1 inch every 1000 years.  We have moved forward in ministry and in service to our neighbors.

As you move forward in 2011, it is time for all of you to come together and discern your path.

Discernment is a community practice of coming together in prayer and open and honest conversation, seeking God’s will for your life together.

It’s not about getting your way.

It’s about seeking God’s way for this family of faith.

And everyone needs to be invited into that process.

No secrets.

No surprises.

No games.  No one wants to be played.

No end runs around the whole congregation, the church council, and the called pastor.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Everyone must decide whether you will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”[3]

You can’t see very clearly in the darkness.

When you’re stuck in “the darkness of destructive selfishness,” you can’t come and see Jesus until you walk together out into “the light of creative altruism.”

Come into the light.

Come and see Jesus at work in this community.

Come and see Christ in your sisters and brothers in Christ.

Come and see the way forward into God’s future for Grace.

Each of us can make a big difference in the world.  Small acts of courage, of kindness, of generosity, of love, can make a world of difference.

Following Christ is an adventure, a quest.  Yes, there are dangers, risks involved.

You might get shot down.

But there are also risks involved in not undertaking the journey.

In fact, in the long run there are greater risks to staying in the darkness of destructive selfishness, remaining curved in on oneself and one’s family and friends in the posture of sin.

Nelson Mandela once said, “You are a child of God; your playing small doesn’t serve the world.”

Children of God, Jesus says to each of us, “Come and see.”

Let us come and see the Lord.

Let us live large and boldly as children of God.

Amen!

---

[2] Gnanaraj Kore, “How can the church grow?” Ministry, February 2001, 23.  From Homiletics Online

[3] Original quote: “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”