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Sermon for Epiphany 2A

January 20, 2002

Our Gospel lesson this morning includes John’s version of the story of the call of Jesus’ first disciples. Now John’s telling of the story is a little different from the version we are more familiar with from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In the Matthew-Mark-and-Luke version, Jesus calls his first disciples when they are fishing, when Simon and Andrew are in their boat, and James and John are with their father Zebedee in their boat, and as soon as Jesus calls them they leave everything to follow him. That’s the story most of us are most familiar with.

But John tells the story differently. In John’s version, Andrew and another, unnamed disciple—tradition would later identify him as John the son of Zebedee, but in the story he is unnamed—Andrew and another disciple are followers of John the Baptist. They have received John’s baptism and have been steeped in John’s teaching about the One who is to come. And then one day they’re standing there at the bank of the Jordan with their teacher when he sees Jesus walking by, and he says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” And the disciples, trusting in the judgment of their teacher, go then to follow Jesus.

And then in the story there is this little bit of dialogue, this conversation between Jesus and these new would-be disciples. Jesus turns and sees them following him and asks, “What are you looking for?” They answer a question with a question and ask, “Teacher, where are you staying?” And Jesus invites them to “Come and see.”

Now on one level that is a very simple, straightforward, down-to-earth, absolutely ordinary conversation. Jesus asks the men why they are following him, and they ask Jesus what house he is staying in, and Jesus invites them to come spend the rest of the day with him. It would be hard to imagine anything more mundane or unspiritual as that.

But nothing in John’s Gospel is ever quite the way it seems on the surface; and this seemingly simple conversation has a symbolic dimension that runs very deep. In these ordinary phrases there is an extraordinary richness of meaning that speaks to us of the whole mystery of the spiritual life. And if we look below the surface meaning of this simple dialogue, we can be invited into the spiritual life as well.

Jesus says to those who would be his disciples, “What are you looking for?” “What do you want?” That might be one of the most profound questions anyone can ask of anyone else. What do the disciples want? what is their desire, their hope, their dream, their fear? what motivates them to come following after Jesus, to seek something from him? We know the disciples are looking for something: they’ve left their homes and their normal lives to be with John the Baptist, they’ve been moved and changed by John’s message of repentance, they want to prepare for the nearer presence of God in their lives. But they still want something more: when they hear John speak about the Lamb of God, the one who will bring forgiveness and Spirit, they want to be part of that. They’re going after Jesus because what they’re looking for is a sense of God with them, a sense of God’s Word, God’s grace, God’s love, right there with them in the thick of things, transforming their life as they live it day by day. Jesus brings that desire to a focus, he calls the disciples to name honestly the deepest yearning of their hearts, he says to them “What are you looking for?”

And the disciples reply, “Teacher, where are you staying?” And this is a question about much more than just what house Jesus has found lodging for the night in. In the original Greek of this passage, the verb we translate “stay” can also be translated “dwell” or “abide”—and “abide” is a very important word in John’s Gospel. It means to be really there, fully present in the moment or the situation or the event. It means to be in touch with what is really real, with the sacred dimension of reality and the holy power of God’s love. To “dwell” in John’s language, means in a very basic sense to be with God. John says that the mystery of the Incarnation is that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. John records Jesus promising that those who love him will be loved by his Father, and he and his Father will come and make their dwelling with them. When the disciples say, “Teacher, where are you dwelling?,” they’re doing more than just asking about his room and board—they are asking where they can find God’s presence, where they can know God’s love, where they can become a part of God’s abiding reality for the transformation and renewal of their world.

And Jesus says, “Come and see.” Jesus doesn’t preach them a sermon or quote them a prophecy or engage them in a theological discourse—at least not yet. Jesus will do all those things with his disciples, but at first he just invites them to come and be with him, to spend some time with him, to learn from his presence what it is like to be accepted, to be cared for, to be treated with compassion, to be empowered and called to grow, to be loved. Later on, after he has been with them for three years, Jesus will say to them, “Love one another as I have loved you; that’s how you will know God dwelling with you”—but for now Jesus simply invites them to come and experience for themselves how God’s love is made manifest in the human love that Jesus gives to them. It is a profound invitation, not just to know about God in the abstract, but to know God in the concrete ministry of Jesus. That’s the invitation Jesus gives them when he says, “Come and see.”

And of course that is the Gospel invitation to us as well.

The Word of Christ in the Gospel today asks us what we are looking for, it challenges us to look deep inside our own hearts and souls and ask, What do we want? what do we dream and hope and fear? what motivates our actions and choices and decisions? What do we think will really make us happy, what do we think will really give us joy and abundance of life—and where are we willing to look for that joy?

And that prompts our question to the Gospel: Where can we find the dwelling place, the abiding place, of God’s presence in our lives? Where can we find Christ with us in the thick of things, when we’re going shopping, and cooking breakfast, and packing to go on vacation, and going to the doctor’s office, and keeping company with a friend who is hurting, and going to work day in and day out, and coming to grips with growing older, and living our lives in all the ordinary ways life gives us to live? We speak to Jesus through the Gospel story today and ask him, “Teacher, Savior, Lord: where are you staying; where in the midst of everything do you abide?”

And Jesus speaks to us from the Gospel and gives us the same invitation he gave his first disciples: Come and see. Jesus invites us to experience the reality of God’s love, not just as an abstract theological construct, but as the living energy in the relationships we form, in the friendships we have, in the service we offer, in the love with which we love others and in which we allow others to love us. God is always already dwelling with us—if we did not abide in God we would cease to exist!—what we need to do is open ourselves up to the God who is there, open our eyes and hearts and spirits to experience the love that surrounds us at all times. We can come and see Christ with us in prayer and meditation, in reading the Bible and scripture study, in gathering together for fellowship and communion, in works of mercy and servant love, in going beyond the ordinary surface of things to bear witness to the extraordinary depths of God’s grace. The Gospel today is an invitation to us to experience Christ with us, as he asks us “What do you want?” and we respond “Where do you abide?” and Christ replies “Come and see.”

In a little while we will adjourn to the Parish Hall, where we will have our Annual Meeting. We will talk together about our mission and ministry here at St George’s, about the year that’s gone by and the year that we are beginning. I invite you today, in the midst of the Annual Meeting, to listen for Jesus’ voice, speaking to us as he speaks in today’s Gospel, asking us as a parish “What are you looking for? What do you want?” Listen for how we reply, how we seek Christ, asking, “Teacher, where are you staying? Where do you abide?” And above all, listen for Jesus inviting us to experience for ourselves the power of God’s love energizing and animating the mission and ministry that we do: listen for Jesus inviting us to Come and see.

In the Name of God: Yahweh, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. Amen.