Sermon for AP, Year A, Epiphany + 2, Jan. 16, 2010.

John 1:29-42

                ²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ³¹I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³²And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

³⁵The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

                ³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When 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?”  

³⁹He 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. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

[Silence, about 30 seconds]

            I thought a little quiet might be nice. 

            There’s been a lot of noise this week.  A lot of shouting and supposing and slamming, most of it about the horrible shootings in Arizona last week.  People have responded to the tragedy in a very human way:  trying to make sense out of something that is pretty senseless.

            Some of those people are political pundits, trying to score points in their game of “our party can beat up your party.”  They started shouting before they had the facts in hand, blaming Republicans, Democrats, Sarah Palin.  So they’ve dispensed the sort of knee-jerk rhetoric which contributes next to nothing to a really important conversation our nation needs to have about guns and violence and how the things we say add to a culture in which people are increasingly likely to commit violence with a gun.

            We need to talk about that stuff.  We need to ask whether putting graphic crosshairs over people’s names could lead someone to want to shoot one of those people.  And more importantly, we need to talk about whether it is good and right and God-pleasing to communicate with graphic crosshairs.  (For those taking notes:  No.  No it is not.)  And whether it is good and right to confuse the Founders’ desire for an armed militia with every American’s right to own assault weapons.  We need to talk about those things in a reasoned and effective manner. 

            Our president was reasoned and effective.  I hope you heard his speech.  It was profoundly appropriate that he give it the week we celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, because it turns out that Barack Obama has somehow inherited Dr. King’s ability to speak eloquently and passionately about really important matters, without alienating anyone who is listening and thinking at the same time.  We could have used Dr. King’s voice as well this week, reminding us that we are a nation that dreams something better.

            Didn’t have enough of that this week. 

            We had a lot of frightened people; and a lot of confused people; and a lot of angry people.  And that led to a lot of noise. 

            Some of the noise can be attributed to political point-scoring.  And some of it is merely the sound of people trying to understand what happened.  Asking questions.  Seeking answers.  Seeking truth.

            You know we have it, right?

            You know we have the answers to a lot of those questions.  Right here [show Bible].  Right there [show font].  Here and here [show bread and chalice].

            We have the good news of great joy which is for all people.  That in a stable in Bethlehem was born a savior, Christ the Lord, who came to take away the sins of the world.  He came and he walked among us and he taught the ways of peace.  He taught nonviolence to a world with the same tendencies toward violence which infest our world today.  He lived peace and he died peace and following him is the way to peace.

            He is good news for a hurting, seeking world—a world hungry for a pathway toward truth and wisdom.

            Have any doubt of that?  What was the other great noise this week, the other earth-shattering revelation which caused people to call into question their most basic assumptions about their birth…and how the planets were aligned when they were born…?

            Yeah, an astronomer in Minnesota (obviously bored because it’s winter in Minnesota) declared that changes in the Earth’s alignment had led to changes in the dates of the signs of the zodiac.

            And there was great weeping and gnashing of teeth, because an extraordinary number of people look to the zodiac for enlightenment:  a pathway toward truth.

            And people want a pathway toward truth.  Justice.  Hope.  Peace.

            Badly enough to look for it on the calendar.

            Or in the wilderness.

            There were some seekers out in the wilderness some years ago.  They were looking for the Truth and it came and stood among them.

            And it asked them, “What are you looking for?”

            What are you seeking, people out here in the wilderness?  What is it that you need?

            On seeing the truth before them, in the form of Jesus, the very Christ born in a stable under a star, they were pretty well dumbfounded. 

            So they did what we do.  They made conversation.  “Rabbi,” they said, knowing that it means teacher, wanting to absorb what he had to teach them, wanting what he had, they asked him:  “Rabbi…where are you staying.”

            Within that question was all of their bigger questions…their doubts, their fears, their hopes and soaring dreams, and they wanted to know where he was abiding (the better translation) and if they could perhaps just maybe abide there too.

            And he—the Truth.  The Life.  The Way.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he said to them, “Come and see.”

            So simple.  All week we’ve engaged in noisy speculation about guns and rhetoric and websites and the alignment of the planet and what we are seeking is so simple.  The answer to the question is so simple.

            Come and see.  Walk in my footsteps.  Follow me to Galilee.  To Jerusalem.  To Golgotha.

            Come and see.  “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not doubt but believe.”

            Our neighbors are seeking, and hurting, and asking.  And we have the answer to their questions.  It isn’t an elaborate theological treatise on justification by grace through faith. 

            It is the mere invitation to come and see.

            Come and see the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

            Come and see the Prince of Peace, who will teach us to turn swords into plows and guns into flower pots.

            Come and see love in action, feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.

            Maybe we can make a little noise for Jesus.  Not the hard-edged noise of anger, or coercion.  The soft, committed sound of invitation.  A simple reminder to those who seek truth and justice that it resides with the Lamb of God who takes away our sin, and teaches us to stop hurting each other.  The one who has called us, each of us, by name, into a better way.   And all we need to do…

            …is come and see.

HOD:  #581:  “You Are Mine”