Come and See

 John 9:1-41

In the gospel of John, Jesus’ first words of his ministry are those we hear today. The first words we hear from his mouth in the gospel of John are “What are you looking for?” followed by “Come and see.”  They are the first words in his ministry according to the gospel of John and so we know they are important.  So I ask you today, “What is it that you are looking for?”  When you come to this place, when you come to God in prayer, when you come forward for communion or to be baptized or to join the church or serve as a leader in this church in some capacity or other, what are you looking for?

             Whatever it is that you are looking for, Jesus’ response is “come and see.”  And so we are invited to read the rest of the gospel, we are invited to look at his life, a life of service to God’s people, we are invited to see how God acts in the world through Jesus.  This is more than just an abstract idea and it is more than just looking with our eyes.  We are invited to “come” and to “see.”  The coming means stepping forward, stepping out, following Jesus.  That begins with the action of understanding what Jesus did with his life, but it also involves following Jesus in his ministry, doing what he did, serving God with all of our being.  It is only through that following of him that we will see, that we will be witnesses to God’s presence in this place.  We follow Jesus through healing and offering compassion for the sick, for the oppressed, for the poor; we follow Jesus by feeding the hungry.  We follow Jesus by lifting up and offering the good news to God’s people.  In following Jesus, we will experience God hear and now.  We will see through those around us, and through the act of following, we will find what we are looking for.

             Today we celebrate epiphany where we remember the visit of the magi bringing their gifts to Jesus.  The beauty in this story is that they came: they stepped forward on this long journey to find the Christ child, the promised king.  They did the work of taking the long, arduous journey.  They came.  And then they saw.  We change this story in our heads.  We make them powerful kings, but they weren’t.  They had to “return a different way” and avoid Herod because they were NOT powerful kings.  They saw that the Christ child was not what they expected, and they were convicted by their seeing him to avoid Herod, to not return in the same way, to not betray the child or give away his whereabouts.  They came, they saw, and then they followed the call to protect, to hide, to save this baby.

This month we also celebrate the life of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr..  And we see in him a man who embodied this message of following Jesus, of coming to see where God is in the world and what God offers to us.  In looking at his life, we remember that a life of service to God is not easy.  We also remember that no servant of God is perfect, and that this is okay.  It is the journey of following and looking that will lead us forward into those things that we are looking for.  For each of us this will look a little different as we discern in what ways God is calling us to follow.  But we are invited to respond with a “yes” to Jesus’ call for us to “come and see,” knowing that what we will see will be God and God’s action in our lives.

In the movie, Keeping the Faith, there is a wonderful conversation between a young priest and an older priest.  The young priest doubts his call into the priesthood after falling in love with a woman who is his friend.  Nothing happened between the two, but he found that the very fact of falling in love made him doubt a call that included celibacy.  He said to his older priest mentor, “If she had kissed me back, I would have given it all up.  She didn’t, but I keep thinking about what you said in the seminary that the life of a priest is hard and if you can see yourself doing anything else you should do that.”

The older priest responded, “Well that’s my recruitment speech which is good when you are starting out because it makes you feel like a marine!  But the truth is you can never tell yourself there is only one that you could be.  If you’re a priest or if you marry a woman, it is the same challenge.  You cannot make a real commitment unless you accept that it is a choice that you make again and again and again.  I’ve been a priest over 40 years, and I fall in love at least once every decade.”

             Following Christ is not easy.  And it is a choice we are called to make every day, sometimes every hour.  How will we respond to the call?  How will we choose to serve God today?  How will we be a Godly presence in the world?

Today’s Isaiah passage says, “And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant ….I will also make you a light” 

These are words for and from Isaiah.  They are also words spoken, again, to us.  God has formed you, each of you to be God’s action in the world, to be God’s light in the world, to be God’s child.  You are called.  Choosing to follow Jesus, choosing to “come and see,” that will lead you into whatever it is you are seeking, that will lead you to life.

             And there is more good news.  Because God will make that call clear by what God puts in front of us each day.  I love the words to Amy Grant’s song “All I ever have to be” and I’d like to read those words for you now:

When the weight of all my dreams
Is resting heavy on my head,
And the thoughtful words of health and hope
Have all been nicely said.

But I'm still hurting,
Wondering if I'll ever be
The one I think I am.

I think I am.

Then you gently re-remind me
That you've made me from the first,
And the more I try to be the best
The more I get the worst.

And I realize the good in me,
Is only there because of who you are.

Who you are...

And all I ever have to be
Is what you've made me.
Any more or less would be a step
Out of your plan.

As you daily recreate me,
Help me always keep in mind
That I only have to do
What I can find.

And all I ever have to be
All I have to be
All I ever have to be
Is what you've made me.

 

In one episode of Joan of Arcadia, Joan comes to a point at which she feels she is being asked by God to save another, very lost, person.  Joan realizes that she can’t do it, she can’t save this other person, and she confronts God, saying, “But I’m no hero.  I’m just me.” The response of the God character in the episode is very, very simply, “Yes.  Maybe that is enough.”

             Jesus tells us, “Come and see”, and so we are invited to follow in the way of Jesus, to act with love and compassion to all we meet, to answer the call for our lives to be God’s people.  But as with the Magi, as with MLK, as with all people who truly follow the star that God creates to guide us, it all begins with those first verbs that Jesus utters in the book of John, “Come and see”.  We are called to start by taking the first step forward.  To answer the call as Moses did when he saw the burning bush and chose to step aside to see.  “Come and see”.  Have curiosity about what God puts in front of you.  Have curiosity about the challenges that are there.  Have curiosity and then see.  Come and see, my friends.  For God has amazing plans laid out for you.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.