Sermons

2^nd Sunday after the Epiphany A 2008
Isaiah 49:1-7; John 1:29-42

Come and See

We are gathered in the name of Jesus. Amen.
All of us want to live fulfilled lives. We want our lives to mean something. We don’t want our work to be just a job.
We don’t want the years to just zoom by while we’re not paying attention. We want to do something significant with our lives. Henry David Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

We don’t want that to happen to us. That’s why I left my job in publishing. It was because I was afraid I was going to the grave with the song still in me. It was a good job, but I felt called to something else. I wasn’t sure what it was for a while. But after a time it began to take shape. Not everyone wants to leave their jobs - but many people have a sense that there is a calling for them, even though they might not know what they’re being called to.

The prophet Isaiah in our first lesson says, “The Lord called me before I was born … He made my mouth like a sharp sword.” The prophet Isaiah felt called to speak. His mouth was the tool he used to live out God’s call to him.
I believe that the Lord calls all of us - but how do we know what we are called to? It’s not our feelings that tell us.
We can’t always depend upon our feelings. They change. One day we feel one thing, and the next day we feel something else.

But we know, deep in our souls, with our hearts and with our minds, and Scripture backs us up, that God has a purpose for us. The prophet Jeremiah writes, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” It’s this knowledge that God has something in store for us, where our talents can be used, where our love can be expressed, where we can share with others that God is love - it’s this knowledge that we can depend upon.

The prophet Isaiah says that God made him a polished arrow. We too have been made like polished arrows, hidden away in God’s quiver, just waiting for the right time to sail. But the prophet is discouraged - as we so often are. Sometimes we feel that nothing is going right in our lives - we seem not to be headed in the right direction - we don't feel fulfilled. That’s how the prophet felt. He (or maybe she) says, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.”

Haven't we all felt like that? We say to ourselves, I am killing myself, and for what? Maybe I am overworked at my job, keeping me from spending time with my family. Maybe I don't have enough time so that I can mark out some leisure time, some Sabbath time for me just to be alone with my thoughts. It’s hard when this happens to us. It may seem like the situation is unsolvable. But I think we can look to the prophet Isaiah for guidance. Even though the prophet feels pretty crummy, he says to himself, “But surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God.” The prophet knows that he is called by God to live a good life, a meaningful life. We know that we are called by God to live as Christians, to help our neighbors, to pray and spend time with God.

We know these things. And when we follow our calling, we can know, even when things don't quite go the right way, “But surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God.” My reward is knowing that God has a purpose for me. My reward is knowing that I am blessed by the love of this God, by the love of God in Jesus for me. That is my reward - I am blessed by the love of God in Jesus for me, especially for me. I think that finding our calling happens as we follow Jesus.

Now this is the second Sunday we have had as our gospel a story about the baptism of Jesus. Last Sunday’s gospel was from Matthew. Today we have John’s version. The details are a little different, but one thing they have in common is that the Holy Spirit descends like a dove upon Jesus. And John recognizes Jesus, because he hears God telling him that this is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. That’s the first scene in our gospel today. In the second scene, John is standing around with two of his disciples when Jesus walks by. And John can’t help exclaiming, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”
Now these two disciples are curious. They want to know more about this Jesus. Maybe they have a sense that there is something of the Holy Spirit about him. So they follow him.

Jesus notices them and asks them, “What are you looking for?” It’s as if Jesus is saying, “What are you seeking? What do you need? What motivates you? What is it that you really need, not just on the surface, but deep down in the core of your being? What are you looking for?” But the disciples don’t have an answer to this question. I think it’s because they don’t exactly know what they are looking for - all they know is that they are looking for him - for Jesus. So they ask him, “Teacher, where are you staying?” They want to go where he is going. They’d like to tag along and see what’s going to happen next. They seem to be drawn to him. That’s why they ask, “Teacher, where are you staying?” And Jesus says - “Come and see.”
Now these words, “Come and see,” appear in the gospel of John in a few places. Philip wants to bring Nathanael to Jesus. Nathanael says, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” And Philip says to him, “Come and see.”

Again, after Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well, she goes to the town and tells everyone about him. She says, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” That is the invitation we receive from Jesus - come and see. In fact, this is what John’s gospel is all about. “Come and see.” If you want to know the word made flesh, come and see Jesus. Come and see Jesus.

In this seeking, we find our calling. In looking for Jesus, we find a reason to be. When we look to Jesus to be the answer to what we need, we are then able to turn and share our gifts with the world - in finding ourselves in Jesus, we also find our calling. “What are you seeking?” That’s what Jesus is asking you and me. “What are you seeking? What do you need? What motivates you? What is it that you really need, not just on the surface, but deep down in the core of your being? What are you looking for?” Just like those two disciples, we want to follow. But we may be feeling low, like the prophet Isaiah. We may sometimes despair, as the prophet does. We may say, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.”

But Jesus is there to say to you, “Come and see.” If you want to know what love is like, come and see Jesus.
If you want to experience God’s glory…
to be filled with bread that never perishes …
to quench your thirst with living water …
to be born again …
to abide in love …
to behold the light of the world …
to experience the way, the truth, and the life …
to enter into life everlasting … if you want to know God, come and see Jesus.

It’s not like everything is suddenly going to be perfect. But we are on a journey.
In the first century, the people who followed Jesus, those people who were involved in the very beginning of the Christian church, called themselves people of the Way. I think they called themselves that because they knew they were on a journey - they knew they would learn more about themselves and what it meant to be alive in Jesus Christ, that they would grow in Christ as they traveled on their Way.

And that’s true for us too. We hear our calling. We may sense that we were called by God even before we were born. We know that first and foremost we are called to come and see. Like the disciples, we are drawn to Jesus.
And so we travel on our way, following Jesus, learning as we go, loving as we go, and being loved as only Jesus can love us, with his entire being, with his very life.

Gracious Lord Jesus, we want to come and see. We want to follow you. Teach us about our calling and lead us as people of the Way.

Amen.