Come and See: A Sermon for the Second Week After Epiphany

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In our gospel story today, we have a bunch of people gathered at the Jordan River. These are people who have decided to follow the teachings of John, which likely made them cast outs from their faith communities, or maybe they were already cast outs. Jewish Christians kicked out of the temple and other Christians feeling like aliens in their communities.

So, now they gather as their own community on the banks of the Jordan because that’s where John is hanging out. This area has now become their home, the trees their shelter, and the river their source of life.

And these people don’t just hang out with John because he’s a cool guy. They all think he is the Messiah. They come to him to be baptized, to join his following, and to learn from him. But John keeps trying to tell them – “I’m not the Messiah! I’m only the opening act! Someone else will be coming after!” But I guess no one believes him. Or perhaps these are people who have been searching for someone or something the save them, and here John is, right in front of them. So why would they wait for this mysterious “someone else”?

One day, while everyone is hanging about the river, doing whatever daily things they would be doing, John sees Jesus walks by, points and says, “Look! There he is! There’s the one I’ve been telling you about! There is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” But everyone just ignored him and kept on with their business.

Day after day, John pointed Jesus out to his disciples trying to convince them to go talk to him. Finally, two of John’s disciples – Andrew and an unnamed person – finally caved and went to see Jesus.

The question that the disciples have for him is interesting. You’d think they would say something like “who are you?” or “hey, John tells us you’re the Messiah” or something like that. Instead, they call him teacher, which means to me they are starting to take John’s words to heart. And they follow it up with “where are you staying?” Are they checking up on him? Do they want to see where he lives? Maybe they are making sure he has a place to stay. It also feels to me like they were preparing to invite him into their space, especially if he didn’t have a place to stay. At the same time, it’s often easier to meet someone new on familiar turf, like your own home. In that way, I think “where are you staying” is a welcoming offer to come over to their house and stay a while.

In response, Jesus said some pretty inviting words himself… “come and see”. Jesus is inviting these two disciples of John to spend time with him. As did all these people hanging around the Jordan river, Jesus has created a home for himself, a temple of his own. And now he is inviting these two into his sacred space.

And it wasn’t a short visit. Andrew and the other disciple ended up spending the entire day with Jesus! By the time they were done talking it was 4 o’clock – time to get home! Nothing more is said about the unnamed person, but Andrew must have found what he was looking for during that visit. As soon as he got home, Andrew ran to find his brother, Simon Peter, and declared excitedly, “we found him! We found the Messiah!”

Andrew dragged his brother to see Jesus the next day at which time both of them become disciples of Jesus.

It’s quite the of story of transformation – for Andrew, Simon Peter, and the unnamed disciple. And I would imagine for John as well. He would have been excited that some of his disciples finally had the courage to believe what he had been saying and to accept Jesus’ invitation to a conversation.

As a priest, I can certainly identify with John. Spending my time calling people to Jesus. Encouraging them to simply have a conversation with him. Pleading them to listen to what he has to say. In this gospel passage, John is trying to make people see what’s in front of them – Jesus, the Messiah. One of my jobs as your pastor is as John’s was in this story – to show you that God is amongst us, whether we see and recognize God or not.

As a person, I identify with Andrew – someone who has “found the Messiah.” In my home church of St George’s in Transcona, there is a wooden chair that is engraved with the words “I AM HERE.” When I first started attending there, I was just finding my way back to the church, working on rediscovering my faith. At the time, there were chairs instead of pews and for the Monday night contemplative service, the chairs were brough into a half circle. The wooden chair, which was typically along the wall, was brought closer to the circle. There were many services where I looked at that chair, reading those words over and over.

One service in particular, I remember reading those words as I had many times prior and feeling a presence in that chair. I knew at that moment I had seen Jesus. I knew at that moment I had felt his presence. I knew at that moment I had found my Messiah and knew that I wanted to dedicate myself to God, dedicate myself as a follower of Jesus. It was then that I decided to turn myself towards doing more service to the church. It was then that I had my “Andrew moment”.  It was then that I knew that God was with me, whether I recognized God or not.

Immanuel: God is with us. And, through Jesus, God is inviting us into conversation. God is using us to bring light into the world. With the same gift given to John, and to Jesus, and to all the other disciples, God has empowered us with the gift of the Holy Spirit through our baptism. Through this gift, we are empowered to believe God’s message, to take God’s message to heart, and then to go out into the world and share the good news that God is among us and loves us persistently and consistently.

Even through our doubts and worries, God is inviting us to “come and see” what the world could be; a world where we are loved – fully and unconditionally.

Amen.