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January 20, 2001 John 1: 29-42
What are You Looking For?
Prayer: Jesus, one of the reasons why we come to church on a Sunday like this one is that we want to see you. To worship you is to know you and to know you is to love you.
Show us your presence, Lord. Help us to see you at work in the world, then give us the grace to share in your work and to participate in your presence. Amen.
We are still down at the river.. Last week we saw Jesus' baptism through Matthew's eyes. this week it is through John's eyes. John the Baptist has a committed following of his own disciples. He keeps tell them that some day the Messiah will come...that he is preparing the way.
But perhaps they all have lost sight of that original focus.. they have gotten used to being John's disciples ..it is their identity...
Then John sees Jesus ... and he recognizes him and calls him the Lamb of God. Interesting title. Lamb:...not cuddy, cozy...count at night to go to sleep ... not food for special occasions ... An animal filled with symbolism.
Lamb ... the sacrificial animal for the temple ... to be killed as an offering ... a covering for sins.
Lamb ... what Isaiah talked about ..The suffering servant for God's people..
Lamb ... that were killed the night of the Passover, so blood might be put on the doorstops, so the angel of death would pass over them...
Lamb ...Appeared caught in the thorns just as Abraham was about his only son Isaac and God stayed his hand.
And now John the Baptist uses the term to describe Jesus to his disciples. Frankly ... it would be like someone walking in here this morning, and I stopped everything and said.. behold the Episcopalian ... you should go to that church ... that is the true church.
Jesus is talking to committed men .. they have been following John the Baptist .. But now he changes their focus, their allegiances and their direction.
Naturally, they were confused ...cautious ... conflicted...They had been heading in one direction, following one man and his vision .. and now here comes the apex of all belief. To follow Jesus meant leaving all they had come to know and trust.
The question could be turned on us today: What are you looking for?
And in our well ordered worlds.. we believe we have been following God. We try to live each day as best we can, with all the other distractions and priorities in it...
We come to the United Methodist Church because it where we have heard and experienced God.. It is where we have knit into a community... where we believe that we can do some good and do our part in the building of the Kingdom of God. We're not out to rock any boat... just try to row in one direction.
And the whisper of Jesus comes to us even now. What are you looking for?
Can you answer the question? If he were standing here right now asking that question... if everyone else disappeared and it were just you and he, how would you answer that question?
What are you looking for?
It's a dangerous question when you really answer it. Because Jesus has the answer.
When Jesus asked Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to "come and see," King has no idea that the place Jesus wanted to see him was inside the Birmingham jail. The jail was not a particularly charming or comfortable place to lodge when he checked in during April of 1963. King was part of the civil rights protests being staged in that city, and was inciting the wrath of police commissioner "Bull" Connor, who pledged to incarcerate every African American who challenged segregation. On Good Friday afternoon, King was among the 54 marchers who were arrested and thrown in jail for violating an injunction against "parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing." The were forbidden even to engage in "conduct customarily known as 'kneel-ins' in churches."
King was singled out for isolation and denied the chance to make phone calls or to talk to his lawyers. He had no mattress or linen, and was sleeping on metal slats. And yet, over that Easter weekend, deep in solitary confinement, down in what was called "the hole", sealed off from his fellow prisoners and the outside world, Martin Luther King was staying with Jesus.
It was while he was locked up that King wrote the most significant Christian documents of the civil rights movement: his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Surprisingly, this letter was addressed not to abusive police officers or racist politicians, but to a group of liberal, white clergymen who were urging people to withdraw from the demonstrations, which they called "unwise and untimely", and called King an extremist.
But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will not stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, than all men are created equal..." So the question is not whether we be extremist, but what kind of extremists we will be. We be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremist for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
What are you looking for?
Often times what we are looking for and what we are doing re two different things. Just like John's disciples. We believe we're doing what God wants us to do.. And until the challenge comes, we'll keep going the same direction.
What are you looking for Jesus asked John's disciples. Well.. they didn't exactly know. Maybe they weren't even looking anymore... they were putting one foot in front of another... Were they supposed to be looking? They were following. They were listening. They were agreeing. They were doing what they believed was the right thing.
1:36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, "Look, here is the Lamb of God!"
1:37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
So John's disciples leave John and follow Jesus, and that is OK.
1:38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi" (which translated means Teacher), "where are you staying?"
Jesus never gives the short answer.. he gives the inviting answer
1:39 He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
1:40 One of the two who heard john speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
We never find out who the first disciple was?
1:41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed).
We have the Christ.
1:42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said "You are Simon son of John. You are to called Cephas" (which is translated Peter).
Our deepest need is to be known.
Then Jesus gives him identity.
??What does Simon mean??
So...like most of us.. To keep the conversation going, they asked Jesus "Where are you staying?"
It was like asking, "And what do you do for a living?" Help me to define you.
But Jesus was not into definitions.. or generalizations.. or polite conversation. He was into action.. and commitment ... and the journey.
"Come with Me!"