Epiphany II -January 20th, AD 2008

Meadowvale Lutheran Church, Mississauga

Pastor Peter Lisinski

 

“HOMEWARD BOUND"

(Text: St  John 1:29-42)

 

 

If Jesus Christ himself were present among us today -- and he is present among us today, for he has promised to be present when-ever and wherever people gather in his name (see ~Matthew 18:20) and if Jesus Christ were to ask us the same question he asked the two disciples of John the Baptist who followed him in today's Gospel -- and he does ask us, because the question, "What are you looking for?”  is life’s central question -- how would you and I respond?

 

What are you looking for?  What do you want out of life?  What do you expect from your membership in the church?  What do you want to get out of worship today?  What do you expect to gain by following Jesus Christ?  And are the things you want or expect the kinds of things that Jesus, or the church, or worship, or life itself are able to offer you?

 

Are you looking for guarantees of health, wealth and success? Are you looking for God's stamp of approval on your life and character?  Are you looking for an eternal life insurance policy, or divine protection from the kinds of tragedies and disasters we see happening to others on the six o'clock news?  Are you looking for peace of mind or spiritual fulfillment?  Are you looking for love and friendship, or self-esteem in a world that sometimes makes you feel afraid, worthless and alone?  What are you looking for?

 

Well, no matter what you and I may be looking for, or how we put our personal hopes and dreams into words, Andrew and his anony­mous companion speak for all of us in their response to Jesus question:  "Rabbi, Teacher, where are you staying?"  Their ques­tion of where Jesus was staying is the question of where Jesus lives -- where Jesus comes from and where Jesus is going; where Jesus will lead those who follow him, and what we might find when we get there.

 

John tells us that Jesus invited Andrew and his unnamed friend simply, “Come and see".  John doesn't give us a description of where they went, or provide any details about what they found when they got there; but wherever they went, and whatever they found, was enough to convince them that what John the Baptist had said about Jesus is true!  "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"

 

The time the two former disciples of John the Baptist spent in the place where Jesus was staying revealed to them a vision of life with the sin of the world taken away!  For Jesus lives in the new world of God's promised future -- a world of grace and

truth, a world of peace and justice; a world of love and beauty; a world where all human beings are welcome; a world where each and every human being is a precious child of God!  In Jesus' presence Andrew and his unnamed friend -- whom I suspect may be the disciple identified later in John's Gospel simply as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (see John 1.3:23, 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 20) -- found the fulfillment of all their hopes and dreams; they found freedom from all their guilts, fears and failures; they found what they were looking for out of life in the vision of God's promised future and their place within it, revealed to them by the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world'.

 

And Jesus promises to do the same for you, for me, and for all the disciples whom he loves today!  In Jesus Christ, the future of God becomes the home all God's beloved children --- in Israel, in the Church, in all the world -- are eternally destined to share   Today you and I see, and every time we gather together in the name and presence of Jesus Christ, we embody that vision of God's promised future!

 

The altar standing in this earthly sanctuary represents the heavenly table of our home in God's future where all human beings have a place!  The Holy Communion we receive at this altar in the forms of bread and wine -- and the Holy Communion of saints we form as we gather around this altar -  reflects the vision of life as it will be in the future of God -- life with the sin of the whole world taken away; life with all the barriers between human beings and God cast aside; life with all the obstacles to our love for one another removed; life with all the threats to our personal well being overcome.

 

That vision of God's Holy Communion inspired Andrew to seek out his brother Simon Peter and tell him the good news:  "We have found the Messiah."  That same vision sends you and me back into our everyday world to shape it, to transform and reform its political, its social, its economic structures and institutions according to the vision we see in our Holy Communion around God's Word and Sacrament today, and every Lord's Day.  Having found what we are looking for, we are sent to tell others the good news of God's Messiah, and to invite them to "Come and see" in Jesus Christ, everything they are looking for, and all they need for life in all its fullness!