Introduction
The shift from Advent-Christmas-and Epiphany to Ordinary Time and the start of Jesus’ ministry is always a bit of a jolt for me.
On Christmas Eve we end the season of Advent and move into Christmastime with Epiphany right on its heels. We stare lovingly at the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes while admiring the joy of the shepherds who were the first to hear the Good News. Next we are taking in the wonder of royalty as the Magi present their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Then *boom!— It’s thirty years later and Jesus is getting baptized by John in the Jordan, traipsing off to the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the Prince of Darkness, surviving, and then calling on the most unlikely folks to be his followers— tax collectors and fishermen.
And while this can feel like a jolting and expedited transition, there is an implicit message to glean… Advent prepares him room; Christmas is a holy and sacred miracle of light and blessing; Epiphany gives us inspiration to the breadth and depth of the truth that far and wide everything is about to change; and now—with the sudden jolt of transition thirty years into the future—we are shown that the work of Christmas begins.
And that is our text for today—the start of Jesus’ ministry; the calling of Disciples; and an invitation to come and see.
Move 1
Here in our text Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, has been living, we assume, with his parents and family for 30 years, but the time has come, and he is beginning his ministry. He visits his cousin John, the charismatic and eccentric prophet living in area of the Dead Sea who baptizes Jesus in the Jordan River. Jesus then heads for the hills in the desiccated Judean wilderness, where he fasts, prays and studies Scripture and has that harrowing encounter with Satan.
Now, after enduring those 40 days, he is back on familiar turf, putting together a crew for what will be an incredible three-year adventure. The first two members of the cohort, according to John’s Gospel, are Andrew and probably Gospel writer John himself, and they start to follow Jesus. Their master/teacher had been John the Baptist, but when he identified Jesus as the “Lamb of God” the two of them started to follow Jesus. When Jesus noticed them hanging around, they engaged him in conversation, asking Jesus where he was staying.
Jesus’ response, “Come and see.”
Then Philip, who was invited to follow Jesus (by Jesus himself), runs into Nathanael (also called Bartholomew) and says in so many words he has found the Messiah. Nathanael, like the future disciple Thomas, is initially skeptical, saying, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”— One of my favorite lines in all of scripture because it is the first of many doubts and doubters of Jesus, and it is done in tone and verbiage that is absolutely timeless.
Check it out… “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Can anything good come out of Michigan?” Same question—same tone. But Tom Brady proved that wrong. I’ll go again…“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” “Can anything good come out of Pittsburgh?” Same question—same tone. But Julie Barkovich-Rumburg proved that wrong.
And the answer by Philip is just as timeless… “Come and see.” These three words—come and see—are so simple and yet they can be so powerful that lives are changed for the better when said. This is power that each of us hold within us. And when we say “come and see” we are unleashing that life changing power upon a world that so desperately needs it.
Move 2
I’ve been accused and lambasted for my overuse of clichés in my sermons—especially in my early years of preaching. But when you are new and naïve, with limited experience and vocabulary (and thought) you cleave to what you know. I hope time has helped me. But today—the past ten days actually—calls for a cliché because by day seven, eight, and nine, of this New Year the emotional “roller coaster” had already become hard, fast, and intense.
The euphoria of the Buckeye trouncing the Tigers. The exhausting exhilaration of the Browns beating the Steelers (even if it was their JV squad) and making the playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
But there was still the specter of Covid-19—kids returning to school amidst talk of a Christmas spike; death totals hitting a staggering number; vaccine rollout—but distribution slowdowns; fewer reported cases—but a new mutated strain.
Add in—even though we all knew it was coming—the trade of Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carassco. But that was just a little bump compared to Tuesday’s senate run-off in Georgia that left many with jubilation and many others with fear and anger.
Still, that wasn’t the whole ride—not by a long shot. Wednesday unearthed sights and emotions no one in our lifetime has even seen or experienced because what we saw happen at the Capital has never happened in our lifetime.
Now I’m not going to jump on the cliché bandwagon of 2021 being the new 2020—because I do believe this year will be better than last because it just will be better. But it’s been a wild first ten days. Which is exactly why today’s text is so…fitting.
2021 will be better… just come and see. God is at work…just come and see. Jesus’ birth really does mean, again, everything changes…just come and see.
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Now to be clear… This is not just a message for the unchurched and nominally churched. It is a message for all of us, maybe most especially the Church because if we are going to live out the mandate of Jesus’ call to share the invitation “Come and see” then we ourselves first have to come and see.
This invitation is a simple template for sharing the hope, peace, joy, and love of God found in Christ Jesus. It was, after all, Jesus’ invitation to his disciples, and it was the disciple’s invitation to others. Come and see.
You don’t have to do anything else. You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to pay anything. You can stand at a comfortable and safe distance. Just come and see. Come and see what Jesus can do—what Jesus will do—and you will understand that because of him everything changes.
Move 3
It’s worth noting that in this three word invitation there are two action verbs: “come” and “see.” Usually, we work out the “come” part by asking our friends and neighbors to come to church. This is not a bad thing. But we have to ask ourselves, “What is it that they ‘see’ at church?”
They see a lot of other Christians. They may see a worship band up front singing songs they’ve never heard before and that are difficult to sing. Or they have a book in their hands with songs that were written a hundred years ago. It’s all very strange. This is what they “see.” And since March those who have come to church have seen even less—while in some ways they have seen a lot more.
But we need to understand that Jesus’ invitation to Philip and Nathanael was not to visit a house of faith, not a ploy to become a volunteer, and certainly not to be just another warm body in a pew or a number on a view counter. It was an invitation into a house of friends—a living body knit together into a family. It was an invitation to come as they were—warts and all as the saying goes—and be welcomed in spite of the warts.
Haven’t lead a perfect life—that’s ok, come and see anyway how everything can change. Don’t have a lot of money—that’s ok, come and see anyway how everything can change. Can’t walk, can’t see, can’t speak; are you hungry, thirsty, imprisoned—that’s all ok because if you come and see—you’ll see that everything can change for the better.
Our God is an inviting God. God is always inviting us to be in fellowship, to be in relationship, to reach out to the lost and wandering, to share Good News with those who need to get off the emotional roller coaster.
Extending invitations is a God-like thing to do because it’s what God does; therefore, the invitational model of “come and see” is one we are called to emulate. But if we ask someone to come, we’d better make sure there’s something to see, and that something to see cannot be anything other than the ways of Christ.
Conclusion
It’s a New Year, a new season. Christmas, Epiphany are over. Which means the work of Christmas and Epiphany begins. And the work of Christmas and Epiphany is inviting people to come and see that things are going to be different—that hope, peace, joy, and love are possible.
And this is true because when we read again the Christmas story, and the stories of Jesus’ life and ministry, you won’t find conservative or liberal talking points because the one who was both a vulnerable unborn baby and a refugee, who preaches both individual repentance and cosmic renewal, won’t fit nicely into any political party. And that’s because his is a kin[g]dom is not of this world.
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Jesus coming at Christmas, and turning the calendar to a New Year, doesn’t mean everything is perfectly normal again. What it means, and reminds us of again, is that God doesn’t look away from our sadness and despair—our emotional roller coasters—but rather God enters into it all in Jesus.
Today the same Jesus rages at violence and weeps at despair. He reaches out to the lost, the broken, the hurting with hope, peace, joy, and love—and to any who doubt him he simple says… “Come and see.”
So may we hear those words and recommit ourselves to come and see all that Jesus has done and is about to do. And may we share this invitation to Good News with everyone because Jesus holds the power to change lives for the better. Just come and see. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, January 10, 2021
God of new beginnings we had hoped a New Year would make everything better. But these first few days have revealed again that the only thing that can make life better is not turning a calendar, but it is responding to the invitation of your Son, our Savior, Jesus, that makes life better.
So we pray O God…
Open our eyes, to the world around us. Show us what we should see but from which we hide our eyes. Show us how people live in this world and the reality of their days. Give us courage to do what you ask and to ‘Come and see’.
Open our eyes, to the shape of your Kingdom. Show us what life could be like if only we could see in wisdom. Show us what we could do to change things forever with you. Give us courage to have a vision and to ‘Come and see’.
Open our eyes, to the people all around us. Show us what we should see, but what we fail to notice. Help us hear what people are saying to us and what they long for. Give us courage to be where you are with them and to ‘Come and see’.
Open our eyes, to the way you show us through your life, ministry, death, and resurrection for we know it is a way that has the power—the only power—to change life in this world for the better.
And a change is what we need for we are living in divided times where differences of opinion, of beliefs, of party affiliation, of values, of what is perceived as right and wrong are used to weaponized our motivations and actions in destructive ways. We need a better way. And we need to be empowered to show that better way in our words and actions.
So help us to hear your invitation; respond to it in faith; and to share that same invitation with all—an invitation to come and see how you will change everything for the better.
We ask for you to hear now the prayers we have to lift up from our hearts to yours, here in this time of Holy Silence.
All this we pray in the name of the light of the World who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”