Come along - you will see.

Below is the sermon I preached yesterday, Sunday, January 16, at Emmanuel Lutheran.  Pastor Strause from Emmanuel Lutheran supervises the vicar program here at Christ and is helpful to our ministry in many ways.  To strengthen that connection and get to know him better as he is techincally the interim pastor, he preached, presided, and taught Sunday School, and I at Emmanuel.  Below is my sermon that I preached there.

Peace+

Vicar Brett
(click below to read the sermon!)

What are you looking for?


Come and see.

We are all asked daily, and ask ourselves in the mirror “what you are looking for?” It is a question asked over and over, by employers interviewing you, by first dates, by college applications, by options that daily lay in front of us. What are you looking for?

Wherever you are, whatever you see in the mirror or in the world, the answer to what you are looking for is Jesus' “come and see.”

Come and see. David Lose writes that while “I love you” may be the three most important words in our lives, when it comes to our lives of faith, and the future of the church, the second-most important three words are “come and see.”1

And perhaps, like “I love you,” this short phrase needs some context – it matters who said it, and why, to apply it to our lives.

Jesus says come. Sometimes, “come and see” can be used in evangelism efforts, to attract others. And an important part of this is the act of inviting. We were all invited here or brought here, and God calls invitingly to us each day. Come. My first week at college, getting to know new friends, I was trying to figure out who I would be and what I was looking for. I hadn't really thought about whether this would include going to church. I asked myself, “what am I looking for?” I received a letter in my campus mailbox. It was from a member of the Lutheran Student Association, telling her faith story and a little about the LSA group. It was an invitation to come and see. It's what I was looking for.

Jesus says “come.” Not that you are not somewhere now. Come along. Come along because God has always been with you and Jesus invites you to come, to abide, to stay with him. To come closer. God doesn't call to us just at certain times, if you're special, or invited, but calls us to abide in him from when God knit us together in our mothers' wombs. As Isaiah testified, “The LORD called me before I was born, while I was in my mother's womb he named me.” Jesus says come, come along, come abide. Come into this. Come closer. Anis Mojgani's poem echoes the sense of Jesus' command to come - “God made you and was happy. You make that Lord happy. Come into this. Come closer.”

We come and follow the God we already know. We come to the water of baptism and to the word and the table to the one who made us, to the one who forms our faith from our first days. Jesus, calls us to come abide with him, and we follow not out of sheer obedience, but out of a relationship that has always been and always will be. In our story today, the relationship existed before this call to “come” - this is the one sent from the one who made them, this is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. For those two disciples, the call to “come” is somewhat redundant – they are already coming along, already in relationship to Jesus by following. So it is Christ's call to come closer, to abide in him, to come along and see with Jesus how faith moves the world. Faith moves from inside of us, moved the feet of the disciples to follow without a word, moves our hands to help a friend, to lend an ear, to invite a friend to come into this.

Jesus says “come and see.” It's actually a pretty elegant phrase. Whereas “come” is a command, in the Greek “see” is not – Jesus is not commanding us to “see.” Which I am thankful for – because sometimes I feel like my own eyes fail me, I don't see the good around me, and just ordering me to “see” doesn't exactly do the trick. But in the Greek the verb to see is not a command, but a future fact – better translated “you will see.” Come and you will see. A promise. You will see this world a different way. Coming and abiding with Christ, you will see life differently. Jesus' promise to see doesn't mean donning rose-colored glasses, but viewing things in hope and trust that God is in control. The God who made each person, who is in relationship with each person, and calls out to them, moves us by faith to follow, and gives us a glimpse, a foretaste of the feast to come.

When someone promises that something will happen – your perspective changes – and things that were nothing before are now clues and glimpses of what is promised. Jesus says – you will see. And with that promise, we are changed – the landscape of this world blooms with hints of God's kingdom. The world and its sin still hurts, but we look with eagerness and see how God gathers people in love even in the midst of greatest tragedy. As tomorrow we commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., we remember his dream and how parallel it is to Jesus' promise – you will see it – God's kingdom – here and yet still awaited. You see God moving in how far this country has come to tear down walls of racism and hatred, and you also now see Christ calling in those who see and work for all there is yet to be done. Here in Lancaster there are so many needs – and yet –through you, through people who invite, who see the world differently, God gives me so much hope. Because Christ has said, “you will see,” and feeds and sustains us with his presence at this table, I do see – I see you, making a difference, feeding, providing relief, health kits, prayers, and sharing that vision with others.

Jesus calls to you to come along, a call from the relationship that was begun even before your first words or steps. When in faith we invite others, or share the news with them, “Come and see!” we do so in the assurance that God made them and has been calling to them their whole lives. I see you issue this call and share the good news – come and you will see – with your words, but also your hands, your time, you wallets, your prayers, your hearts. Jesus promises – you will see – and it changes us. Changes how we perceive everything around us – because we know – we will see. Jesus says, come along, abide with God who has been on the journey with you your whole life, and Jesus promises, you will see. Taste and see the grace eternal. Taste and see that God is good.