Come and See

Bible Text: John 1:29-42

The gospel of John is always a little weird to me. It’s very abstract. Our reading today comes from the first chapter, which starts out, if you can believe it, with poetry. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” It’s beautiful, yes, but it doesn’t lend itself to stories told around a campfire. And Jesus in the book of John tends to go off on these long monologues, to the point where the scene usually ends because he stops talking, not because there’s a resolution to the encounter.

In this reading, Jesus is fairly quiet and John is the one giving us a long speech. So maybe what will help with this is a little background on who John is and what he has to do with Jesus.

Earlier in the chapter, John quotes Isaiah to describe his role. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness, making the way straight for the coming of the Lord. In other gospels, we get a little more detail about John. As the baptizer, John has gone out into the wilderness and started living a bare bones existence (all he eats are locusts and wild honey, and his clothes are equally rustic). He preaches to the crowds about the coming end of the world, and curses out the people he sees as hypocrites.

John is what you might call an extreme personality.

But he’s managed to get peoples’ attention, and he has some followers who are interested in what he has to say, including the two disciples we hear about today who go on to discover Jesus.

Now, why is Jesus out in the middle of the desert in the dry scorched land with John? And more to the point, why is he there several days in a row so that John can see him, point him out and then later the two soon-to-be disciples can follow him home? Because Jesus, when he was starting to get into his ministry, came to John for baptism and wanted to hear what John had to say. He was one of John’s disciples.

Of course, if you’re writing the gospel of John and trying to show that Jesus was divine, this is kind of an inconvenient fact. After all, if Jesus is divine, could he really have been someone else’s student? I like to think that Jesus was able to learn from other people. But the writer glosses over Jesus as a disciple just a little bit and has John become the one destined to reveal Jesus’ identity: “I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” And it does seem likely that someone familiar with him, like John was, would have recognized Jesus’ unique abilities, and maybe something of his calling.

But in this story, we’re both seeing the end of Jesus’ time as a disciple and the beginning of his time as a teacher. And here’s where I’d like to focus today: on how the disciples begin their journey with Jesus. First John tells them about Jesus, they respond, and then Jesus invites them to simply, Come and See.

In other gospels, Jesus tells some of the disciples to follow him and he will teach them to fish for people. Does that ring a bell for any of you? Okay, good.

When I was little my dad, my sister and I would go fishing for bluegills. We would put a worm on the hook, and a bobber on the fishing line, and cast the line out. Then we’d watch patiently to see if the bobber dipped down into the water, which meant that a fish had taken the bait. Well sometimes. Sometimes it meant the hook had caught on a rock.

In this story, though, the fishing method used is a little more like something I remember from my days of watching Sesame Street. (I know what some of you are thinking, and it really was a while ago folks, okay?) Anyway, Bert and Ernie are out in the boat, and Bert asks Ernie where the fishing poles and the tackle are, and Ernie says, “Oh we don’t need that,” and he puts his hand to the side of his face and calls out, “HERE Fishy Fishy Fishy, HERE Fishy Fishy Fishy.” And then the fish jump in the boat. No need for bait or a bobber, or a special reeling technique—just call to them and they jump in the boat.

In this case it’s John putting out the call—the “Here fishy fishy fishy” of the story, if you will. And then the two disciples jump in the boat. They come up to Jesus and say, “Teacher, where are you staying?”

If any of you have every met a celebrity or have had a teacher you really like but are afraid to approach, or maybe have ever had a crush on someone, I think you’ll have an idea of what the disciples are going through here. John has told them that Jesus is the one he’s been talking about, the one they have all been waiting for—the one chosen by God to free Israel—and they’re just a little nervous.

I had a professor in seminary who was really a very nice person, and very approachable and committed to teaching, but also relatively well-known. In fact, I saw her in a CNN special a few weeks ago talking about Mary Magdalene. Her name is Karen King. And I would be shocked if any of you knew who she was, because she’s kind of in a specialized field, but she’s, like, a big celebrity in the field of New Testament studies. I promise. My first year, I was taking a class from her and I made an appointment and went to her office hours, and really just wanted to ask her smart questions and have a conversation and make friends and have her like me, but with all that pressure, I don’t think I asked very good questions, even though I wanted to. I think I asked her what she liked about her job. She was very nice about it, and told me some interesting things about what it’s like to be a seminary professor, but still, by the time I left my hands were all sweaty and I was feeling a little shaky. I know, it might be a little bit of an extreme reaction, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

So the two disciples of John (soon to be former disciples) walk up to Jesus. And if I was nervous about my professor, how do you think they felt about meeting the Messiah? I mean really, what do you say to the Messiah? So, they came up with a question, and it might not have been the best one for showing off their smarts, but it seemed to do the trick: “Teacher, where are you staying?”

And Jesus smiles at them and says, “Come and see.” So they go over to where he’s staying and hang out for the rest of the afternoon. We don’t get to know what they talked about—I’d be interested to hear what the conversation was like—but the point is from that day onward they began to follow Jesus around and learn about his life. It was the start of their careers as disciples of Jesus.

I think we can learn a few things from this story today. There are some important tips here on how people can meet and start to follow Jesus. First, someone has to tell them about Jesus and second someone needs to invite them and allow them to Come and See what it’s like to live life as a Christian. The introductions are a two-part process.

While I’m up here, I might as well point out that some churches and some Christians are better at one or the other of these two things. Some people are very good at telling you all about Jesus, but maybe aren’t so good at living out the particular lifestyle they believe Jesus calls them to. Others of us, and I think this is more my area of weakness, are pretty good when it comes to organizing our lives around God, helping others, and trying to make a difference in the world, but when it comes to talking about Jesus, well, uh, that’s not so easy.

But it’s important to do, because part of our job in following Jesus is sharing with others that possibility of living it out. And I think it’s also important to notice that in our story, John doesn’t try to mount an argument or overpower the disciples. He just tells them what he’s seen God do in Jesus.

What have you seen God do in Jesus? I have seen God in Jesus working through the church on many occasions. I’ve seen sick people prayed for, mourning people comforted, food and laughter shared, and hearts healed. I’ve seen Jesus in the church in people working for justice, hammering away year after year at the seemingly intractable—homelessness and poverty, or like Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the evils of racism. I’ve seen roofs re-shingled, walls painted, and hope restored. And I’ve seen God in Jesus in the tremendous response to the horrific devastation of the tsunamis in Asian. Jesus, son of God, is working in the world and I am a witness to it.

The first piece of the disciples’ call, then, was John being a witness to who Jesus is. Once they responded, the second piece was Jesus’ simple invitation: Come and see for yourself. Come and see what I’m like as a person. Come see how I live out my beliefs. Come and see what God is doing in my life. Come and see for yourself.

And this is really the best way for the disciples to learn about Jesus. Because following Jesus isn’t just an intellectual pursuit. You can’t read his complete works and comprehend them, and be done with it. Jesus is teaching us a way of life. And to learn a way of life you have to watch as well as to listen. Come and see whether it can be done. Come and see what it means to live it out. Come and learn how to do it. Growing in faith means being exposed to both the telling and the doing of following Jesus.

What does this mean for us today?

Well, for those of us who are ready to welcome others into the church, it is a reminder of two things. First, people are eager to meet someone like Jesus who can really make a difference in their lives. I know that I want to be in touch with something larger than myself, and to have a life with meaning and purpose. That’s true for people outside the church, too. Second, it’s a reminder that our role is not to coerce or convince or badger people. Our role is simply to tell them what we’ve seen and invite them to come and see for ourselves.

For those of us who are growing and searching, which I hope is everyone here, it is also an ongoing invitation to come and see. Jesus is still at work in the world so watch out! Keep your eyes peeled for the workings of the Holy Spirit. Pay attention to what God has been dreaming up. There is so much beauty and love to be witnessed to in the world. Don’t let it pass by unnoticed. Come and see for yourself what Jesus is about to do!

Jesus' Wisdom

Scripture: Matthew 5:1-12, 1 Corinthians 1:18-24

Our gospel passage today is one that you may be familiar with. It is famous enough that it has its own name—the Beatitudes. If you were wondering what they all are, now you know--you’ve heard them here today. They are the opening to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. But before we get into the text too much, I want to point out that calling the beatitudes and the body of teachings that follow it “The Sermon on the Mount” could be a little misleading. This is not something that Jesus preached once, with Matthew the scribe jotting everything down. This is a compilation of what Jesus was teaching throughout his three years of public ministry. The Sermon on the Mount is what he was teaching on an ongoing basis. It is the heart, the meat of his teachings. And the Beatitudes are the opening flourishes, the beginning master strokes, the all important lead paragraph to this.

Which is why it’s so surprising to realize how weird they are. Or at least how counter-intuitive. The word translated as “blessed” in the NRSV is the same word often used in Jesus’ day to describe kings, nobility, and other powerful people. I’ve also seen it translated as “You’re blessed” and “Congratulations!” But when I think of someone being blessed or feeling blessed, I don’t think of what Jesus thinks of.
· Blessed are the poor in spirit. John Dominic Crossan, who studies the historical Jesus, suggests that Jesus’ original meaning was “Blessed are the poor, the homeless, the destitute.” I don’t know about you but when I see someone homeless my first thought isn’t: “How blessed that person must be!”
· Congratulations to people who are grieving! Huh?
· You’re blessed if you’re a gentle person
· Blessed are the people who are aching for justice
· Congratulations to people who show mercy
· You’re blessed if your heart is pure
· Blessed are those who work for peace – the peacemakers
· And finally the kicker—A big congratulations to you if you are suffering persecution for the sake of justice.

These are not the usual things our society associates with blessings. The way people normally talk about blessings, they usually consist of having enough to eat and a place to sleep, not of being destitute and homeless. Or they consist of having loving family and friends, not of grieving. They consist of having peace, mercy and justice, not of constantly working for it.

If I were going to come up with a list of modern-day beatitudes based on the values in our society, it might read something more like this:
· Blessed are the celebrities—they get all the attention
· Blessed are the rich—they can buy whatever they want
· Blessed are the powerful—the world is at their mercy

But this isn’t what Jesus is preaching. This isn’t Jesus’ wisdom. Jesus is preaching something radical and unexpected, and in the process telling us something about God—that God is constantly reversing our expectations. And Jesus doesn’t present them as what could be or what should be. These aren’t a set of Ten Commandments or even ten easy steps to a successful life/career/marriage whatever. Jesus is stating facts. Congratulations to the poor, to the grieving, the gentle. You are blessed. Congratulations to those who show mercy, who hunger and thirst for justice, whose hearts are pure, who work for peace. You are blessed. Congratulations to those persecuted for the sake of justice. You are blessed.

In our reading from Corinthians today, Paul is trying to justify the reason for an embarrassing fact about the developing Jesus movement—that the Roman state murdered its founder by crucifying him as a common criminal. How is it possible to consider Jesus specially blessed, when he died such a humiliating death? Paul’s answer applies to both his situation and Jesus’ own declarations of blessing. I’ll read it again:

“Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.”

In the movie I suggested for this week, Saved, Mary is a student at a conservative Christian high school. When she finds out that her boyfriend is gay, she tries to cure him of it, but winds up pregnant instead. Her best friend, Hilary Faye, is very good at using the language and the appearance of piety, but under the surface her real interest is controlling her friends and getting her parents to buy her a Lexus. In the realm of the high school world, Hillary Faye is influential and popular. By contrast another student, Cassandra, looks like a total mess. She smokes, she’s disrespectful, she refuses to commit her life to Jesus. But in this scene with Mary, Cassandra, not Hilary Faye, is the one who brings the blessing of friendship and understanding.

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Here is a reversal of the expected order: the one who is an outcast, who refuses to participate in the hierarchy, becomes an agent of blessing. Did you notice the beatitudes playing over the beginning of the scene? Mary, too, who has departed from the rigid rules of her world is blessed anyway.

Here is the crux of the matter: for both Paul and Jesus, true wisdom at first appears foolish. But this is only to a world that does not recognize God’s active presence. God makes the difference between who appears to be blessed and who is really blessed.

How can we apply this to our lives today? I don’t think the intention of Jesus’ teaching is necessarily to convince us to go out and become the people he declares blessed, although that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing —the world is severely in need of mercy, humility, peace, and justice. I think what Jesus is looking for here, rather, is a conversion to seeing things the way God sees them, and then to act accordingly. A total soul makeover. And this is why I think these beatitudes are so central to Jesus’ core teachings. Because to be a Christian—to live out that life of following Jesus—means exchanging the world’s priorities for God’s priorities. And Jesus’ wisdom is in showing us what those priorities are: the poor, the grieving, the helpless, and for all people mercy, justice, peace.

What would living this out look like? Rather than praying like it all depends on God and then working like it all depends on us, we could work like it all depends on God, too, which is to say, by dreaming big. By expecting more than what at first appears possible. By counting on God when counting our resources. This applies to our personal lives, and to our community life—a good reminder for Annual Meeting. Second, by setting our sights on God’s priorities: justice, peace, mercy, the poor and the suffering. What we do with our time, our mental and physical energy, our financial resources, these can be directed toward God’s priorities or toward our own. Good stewardship is making the choice to live for God’s desires so that they will become our own.

This is, of course, a life-long project. But I heard something this week that I found very encouraging and I’d like to share it with you: Don’t strive for perfection—strive for progress. Make improvement your goal. And we can expect in our journeys unexpected blessings. Because God is present, God is active, and God’s grand project is worth our effort, our strength and our devotion.

May we all be blessed in the journey. Amen