Trinity Episcopal Church
Towson, MD
RCL Year A - Epiphany 2 - January 15, 2017
Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9
John 1:29-42
More than
any other time in the Church year, Epiphany is a season of light. It starts out
with the Magi (or Wise Men) following that bright star that illuminated the night
sky. It is a time designed by the church for us to reflect on coming out of the
dark… Out of the dark and desolate places of our lives and coming to live out
in the open… into the light of Christ. It is an invitation to be baptized as a
believer in Christ and to participate and share in his ministry.
Last week
was the First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord, and in place
of the Nicene creed in the service we stood up and renewed our baptismal vows… As
it is fitting and proper to do on that day, as it is during the great vigil of
Easter, on the day of Pentecost, and on All saints day. These are the major
feasts that are especially appropriate for baptism but even though we didn’t baptize anyone, we
took a moment to remember our own baptism… to remember WHO we are and WHOSE we
are, by virtue of our own baptism – our baptism by water and the holy spirit into
the life, death, and resurrection, of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ own baptism
illuminates our understanding of who Jesus really is… The savior that takes
away our sins and offers the whole world restoration and redemption… He is the Holy
and anointed One, He is the Christ! And today, we follow that awesome reminder with
the lessons that we just heard.
Last week we
heard the story of Jesus’ baptism from the Gospel according to Matthew. But
today, we hear a portion of the story a little differently from the Gospel
according to John. In John’s story, the baptizer John (not the Gospel writer) proclaims
several times who Jesus is. John the
Baptist said, “look… there he is the lamb of God that takes away the sins of
the world… He is the one that I have been talking about… He is the Christ, He
is the one that came into the world. Believe me, when I baptized him, I saw the
Holy Spirit descend on him, and I heard the voice of God say that he was the
one, God’s only son, with whom He is well pleased!”
Baptism is the
first step… Our first step of our living into the light of Christ and embarking
on the journey that we are all on together!
The theme
that unites all the readings today is “Call.”
Who are we
called to be and what are we called to do as baptized persons??
It is the
famous writer Parker Palmer who says that our “call” by God, referred to by
Palmer as our true vocation, is something we can’t not do!” I realize
that his phrase is a double negative (and it’s driving the English teachers in
the congregation crazy), but I think Parker uses this language it to make a
point.
Our true
vocation is this deep yearning, a yearning and seeking that is deep inside us. It
is something that is knit into the very fabric of our lives. – It’s in our DNA.
This is expressed by Isaiah who says, "the Lord called me before I was
born" – before I was knit in my mother’s womb, you knew me!”
The Psalmist
adds, that after waiting patiently for the Lord, "he lifted me out of the pit...
and he set my feet on a high cliff...";
The epistle
from "Paul, called to be an apostle," to Church in Corinth
"called to be saints" and equipped with all the necessary
spiritual gifts; even though they weren’t very good at it in practice.
John story,
after he explains who Jesus is, is the call of the first disciples. I find that
the most engaging part of this passage is Jesus' first conversation with the
two disciples. He sees them following him and asks them a question, "What is
it that you are looking for?" They answer the question with a question: "Teacher,
where are you staying?" Jesus answers, simply, "Come and see."
The question
he asks them first, "What are you looking for?" is strangely enough the
question that begins the service of admission to the catechumenate. Since the
ancient church, the catechumanate (from where we get the words catechuman and catechism
– the learners and the teaching) has been the period of preparation for baptism.
It has most
recently been resurrected in the church as a preparation for confirmation and
spiritual enrichment: and I’m thinking very seriously about offering it during
the Christian Education hour during Lent.
The question
is "What do you seek?" in the Catechumanate service, the answer is
"Life in Christ!" This is
essentially what the Christian faith believes that all of us are seeking.
Andrew and the other disciple don't know that – or at least the text doesn’t
say it – But they do ask a question "Where are you staying?” Where are you
coming from? Where are you going? And Jesus' answer to them was simple, open, and
inviting: "Come and see."
We need to
realize that the Gospel is not something that we read in a book or learn from a
statement. It is a life, that must be lived and experienced to be understood. Jesus
is inviting these two disciples, these two seekers, to “come and see” and share
in His life. He doesn't set conditions, or insist on a permanent commitment, or
make them “sign on” or “punch in.”
He simply
invites them to experience what it means to live "in Christ," to live
into the "kingdom life." That is at the very heart of that word that
we are often afraid of as Episcopalians: “evangelism.” Evangelism - The way we
tell the story of salvation and invite seekers to come and share in the life we
have in Jesus the Christ. I invite seekers to “come and see.”
In Epiphany
season, we are exploring and spreading the light of Christ through the world – beginning
with us. On some level, each of us is continually being invited by Christ to
share more deeply in his life. We are all called by our baptism to extend the
invitation to the seekers that we meet to "come and see."
The completion of the story, of course, is the irony that Andrew goes back and invites his brother, Simon – who Jesus calls by a nickname, Cephas (in Aramaic) which translated to Greek is “Petros” or “Rock” (Petros in greek means rock). Peter, as we well know will be that steadfast rock of the continuing church - the keeper of the keys to the kingdom.
We need to
stop and think for a minute: What if Andrew had not been invited by Jesus? And
what if Andrew had not followed? What if Andrew had not invited Peter? How
would Peter have ever found the way?
We never
know what plan God has that may be set in motion by what we do as followers, as
we invite people into the light of Christ, into the gospel life, and into the
community of the church! And people who
we invite come and see how we acknowledge and accept who Jesus is to us by the
way we live.
To follow Jesus
as Lord and Savior means that we are called to live into that gospel life that
illuminates the lives of others. As Christians, It is our calling… our true
vocation… It’s something that we can’t not do!
For a
baptized Christian, Jesus is our source of light and life. He is our reason for
being!
We all have
many questions that we don’t have all the answers to, you have even heard me refer
to life many times as one big mystery that we are all living into. But, we need
to tune our ear this morning and hear what our Lord Jesus Christ is calling us to
do.
Today –
Jesus is calling us out of the darkness into the light. He is calling us to participation
in the life of His Holy church… He is calling us to live out the gospel in our
lives… And the question is: What is it that YOU seek? Follow Jesus… and come and see! You may actually find what
you’re looking for…
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