Come and See

and then we're going to brainstorm ways in which we think that God may be wanting us to use those gifts in the next year and write it all on poster paper,

followed by sorting and discussing, and praying some more,

and perhaps we will make some decisions and directions, and end the session with prayer yet again.

And we ask that members of the congregation remember the council in your individual prayers today and tomorrow, and indeed, on a regular basis.

We'll have poster paper and colored pens, and eventually things will get sorted out and entered in computerized minutes and lists,...

...and so it goes.

That is a regular and unavoidable part of life in the church in these days, but we need to be careful that the mechanics and the hardware of the planning tasks do not come to overshadow the heart of the whole enterprise.

Jesus and the disciples reduce it to its basic elements.

they have no fancy machines, no software, not even poster paper and colored pens.

They only have the human voice enlivened by God's Holy Spirit, to say to those who need to hear it:

“Come and see.

Come and see Jesus.

Come and see what is truly the center of life for me, and for you, even when you do not recognize it.

Come and see, first-hand.”

It is personal; it is direct.

It is unavoidable; it is a command to us as well as an invitation to others.

We are amazed at how the whole thing gets underway.

There is no cost/benefit analysis, no resource inventory, no action plans.

Some folks are sort of tagging along with Jesus and so he asks them “What do you seek?”

Their response is another question, “Where are you staying?”

It is their first clumsy attempt to figure out who Jesus is.

Yet the question may not be so very strange.

Very early in a conversation with a stranger, one will often ask for the name of one's hometown.

“Oh, Punxsutawney...groundhog day.

And then I get to say, ”Yes, the 40^th and final day of the Christmas season, the Festival of the Presentation.”

But at least the geography gets us talking, even with my obfuscation about the church calendar.

The assumption is of course that if one knows about someone's hometown, one knows something significant about the person.

“Nothing good ever came out of that place!” [Nazareth: John 1:46]

Jesus responds to their question with “Come and see.”

Does he mean that they should come and see where he lives, or come and see who he is?

Since this is the Gospel of John, the answer is likely....”Yes, either... or both.”

Let's consider for a moment if the order of the two commands is important.

The way in which we do things is (1^st) investigate, and then (2^nd) commit.

Jesus turns the process around: he seems to be asking them to come along, and then find out what is happening as things proceed.

Disciples first follow Jesus and only later do the “see” who Jesus really is and the direction he is headed.

Is that true?

It often seems to be the case, especially in the Gospel of John.

The Christian faith is one of those experiences which one can only understand from the inside out, as a committed disciple.

“Come and see”, then, is not only an invitation to discipleship, but also a promise about discipleship;

We will find this Jesus to be Messiah as we follow, and only as we follow!

And, strangely enough, that is Good News.

You and I do not and cannot possibly know all of the answers before we become disciples.

Many of us began our lives as Christians when we were children or infants rather than baptism as adults.

And so, many of us learn Jesus loves me as a nice and fuzzy song a long time before we ever think of it as a chillingly stark song about Jesus' death on the cross!

Jesus loves me so much that he dies for me!

Who would do a thing like that? Paul asks in Romans. [Romans 5:6-8]

A college pastor and his student group developed a series of presentations called Understanding Christianity and offered it especially for folks who were curious and inquiring.

The pastor and students worked out the whole plan of what to say and how, but then one of the students said,

“This is all fine, but I hope that you will use some discretion. Don't tell them everything about Jesus or you will scare them away.”

Oh, you mean that perhaps the first conversation we have with someone should not be a quote from Romans about being buried with Christ in the drowning waters of Baptism? [Romans 6:4]

Or perhaps we could wait a bit before pointing out that in the newspaper a few days ago three of the four stories on a particular page were about the violent persecution and murder of Christians by Muslim extremists in three different nations just recently?

Perhaps we want to tell the stories about Jesus welcoming some very unlikely prospects before we move on to the story of Jesus making a whip of cords and driving the cheats out of the Temple area.

That is a matter of tactics and approach.

The problem of course is that we may not ever move beyond the easy stories with which we began in Sunday School.

We may block out the demands that Jesus places on those who wish to be disciples, and refuse to grow up spiritually.

Our process in The Way is illustrative.

We begin with very gentle “Hello there” kinds of conversations, then the participants will gradually move on to the substantive questions about life and meaning and connections and faith...

“Who am I in connection with Jesus, and what am I to be doing with life?”

And we can only begin this process in the little bit of time that we have together, but we hope that once begun, the process will be continued in groups, classes, conversations with each other and the pastor.

“Come, and see,” Jesus says to us, and both parts are important.

Seeing will not happen at a distance, but only up close and personal.

And possessing information is not the same thing as seeing or understanding in this deep sense.

There are some Bible scholars, even in seminaries, who possess piles of information, who know tons of detailed philological minutiae... but who “see” nothing, who are not believers.

Jesus is inviting us to bet our lives that his promises are true, that they will endure through every trouble, including death.

Lots of folks think that they can hedge their bets, that they can have some other plan alongside or in place of the promises of Jesus.

With all of the empty pews in all of the churches around town, it is obvious that lots of our friends and neighbors are thinking that way.

They don't want to get too close to this Jesus,

because when we come near to him, he will not only give us great and wonderful gifts,

but he will also enlighten us and make demands of us.

He wants entire lives, every bit of who we are. And that is painful.

It is too costly for some.

Jesus calls us ...from each idol that would keep us, saying “Christian, love me more than these.”

That is what we will sing in a moment.

It is costly for every one who comes and truly sees who Jesus is.

It is going to be a thoughtful and costly hour for the Council members who gather tomorrow evening, when I will push the question to the next step:

We have come and have seen;

so now how have we, might we, shall we communicate that to your neighbor and mine?

What should we do?

What should we say in a clear and winsome way?

Whom should we approach first?...

and next?

Come,

Come along with us

Come and see,

Come and see and understand and begin to know Jesus as the center point and reason for life

As we sing at Holy Communion each Sunday: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Come, and see. Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.