Come and See

John 1:29-51  “Come and See” – 7 names for Jesus

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today we dig into the Gospel of John.  We began this adventure on Christmas Eve morning, when we discovered that John is a story about the Word of God coming into the world in flesh, as Light for all people, and that we, as the ones who are created in the image of God are the mirrors of God’s light walking about our world.  Each one of us, holding the spark, as Michael said, the shining light of Christ that wants to push through our hardest encasements to burst through us into the world with love.

Today we begin to hear about how that Word of God that takes flesh.  How that Word is going to Shine.  What does this shining look like?  It’s not the shining that glints off a crown, though King of Israel and Messiah are royal names for him.  It’s more like the shining that comes from the sun in the sky as the Son of God tells us as much about his parent, as you or I would by the path we tread.  It’s like the shining that happens when new things are revealed, when an epiphany happens and we suddenly understand a new concept, as Jesus is our Rabbi, our teacher.  All of these titles for the Word, 7 in total, are represented in just this first chapter of John.  Together, all these names for the Word make the claim that Jesus of Nazareth, the fully human person is the Messianic King and Teacher of Israel AND the Son of God who will die like the Passover Lamb for the sins of the world. This is how Jesus will shine.  Through teaching about God’s reign and giving of his own life. 

But let’s not jump too far ahead of where we are in the Sacred Story. 

Here, at this moment, the brand-new disciples are just discovering that Jesus is the one who will deliver on God’s promises.  They don’t yet know how differently that will look than their expectations, but they believe that they have found him – the Messiah, the Son of God. John the Baptist bears witness to it – he saw it when he performed Jesus’ baptism.  And he points the way for Nathaniel, and all the other men named here, to see Jesus for who he really is.

It is understandable that they are excited.  And Jesus knows that he has hooked them, it appears. But rather than confirming everything they know, like a good teacher, Jesus invites them deeper into the practice of following him.  As they follow, they will learn, they will be introduced to the formation they need to share the good news about him with the whole world. 

John’s Gospel is particularly unique in its focus on the Christian community.  This may be because it was a much later gospel when the church was more developed and needed teaching about how to be community together.  For whatever reason, it can be a helpful gospel to us in discovering more and more what it means to be a community of Christ. 

In this intial story, Jesus is just forming community.  The disciples, some of whom already knew each other, and at least a couple were brothers, are beginning to spend time together.  The first key to building commumity: time.  Second, they are spending time listening to Jesus, talking with each other about his teachings.  Key to building Christ-centered community is certainly knowing what Christ said and stands for.  Something we only know from listening to the sacred story. 

The disciples are encountered by God/Jesus… how did that change them?  How do we encounter God?  How does that change us?

What does it mean to “Come and See”?  [to join the community?  How do we follow up after joining?]

How does Christ create community?  How is a Christian community different than other kinds of communities we are in?
How do we see Christ’s inspiration in community in other places, such as families… but here in the body of Christ we are drawn together in some unique way?

Unique way: Being transformed by Jesus
Being encountered by God (Jesus) and in our vulnerability being loved by God, being seen, being known
This is just a community of people who have all experienced that, or who are seeking to experience that if they haven’t yet.

Cxn community is about gathering with other people who have experienced that love of God, that encounter in order to create a group of people who have the power to change the world.  In order to be a part of a group of people who are like- minded in the knowledge that God loves us and loves the world and is calling us into a way of life that includes justice and peace for all.

And so we gather around the Word, Table, Font, we do rituals that mark our way of life.  Central symbols where we continue to encounter God.  Where all of that is not a means to an end in itself; it’s not ritual for rituals sake, creating familiarity so we can be comfortable, it’s not tradition just to keep things comprehensible and organize our lives.  All those things are good in moderation.  We need them, we are made to do them.   BUT it is the central purpose of those encounters with God that we might share the good news, we might tell this story, we might tell people that THEY are included in this story and that they are loved. 

God came to earth in this baby (now 30 years later, Man). And gathers us into community as the people around the manger, around the river, around the baptism, around the transformation of life.

If that is what it means to be church…
When you are going back to your college campuses or your homes in other states or your everyday lives away from this place, and you are seeking out a fraternity, sorority, squadron, Italian club, political organization, a moms’ club, country club, knitting group, book club… you are doing something that the Holy Spirit has seeded in you.  This desire to build community.   (This is Christ working!  And yet often we do not allow God show up in our words and give God credit where credit is due.)

And that community, as wonderful as it is, cannot compare to the community that Christ makes when we are gathered in his name.  Truly here for Christ’s sake, and not our own.  When we are embraced and transformed by the love that rules the universe.  That shows up in the darkest places with the most lonely hearts with those who are suffering and broken.  Love that comes with healing, love that comes to fill a hunger, love that comes to connect us to each other and the God who made us.  To name and to claim, to own you as God’s beloved child.  

And the only way we know that that’s what God is doing.  Is that God showed us, by coming into the world in a child, that was named and claimed as God’s, so that we too might understand how near God is…

to us. 

That’s what it means to be CHURCH.

Amen.