Answering the Call Part 2

John 1:35-51

January 19, 2014

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            I was seventeen and living in York, Pennsylvania.  One day my friend John called, and he was very excited. This was in his first year at Gettysburg College and he had seen the night before a production of a new musical neither one of us had ever heard of.  It was called, “Jesus Christ Superstar”.  The students at the Lutheran Seminary which was attached to the college got together and put this show on in the chapel.  John said, “Greg you won’t believe it.  They were singing about Jesus, but they were using electric guitars and drums and they danced…right there in church they danced.”  He said, “You’ve got to come and see.”

            So I did.  That night I drove to Gettysburg and found the chapel packed.  People were standing in the aisles.  They were sitting in the windows.  They were gathered outside of the windows.  This was one of those occasions when being six foot four inches tall was a big advantage.  I stood at the door unable to get in, but still able to see over all of the shorter people in front of me.

            When the band opened with that first hard rock riff I thought to myself, “I didn’t know you could do that.  I didn’t know you could use guitars and drums to sing about Jesus.  I thought all the music ever written about Jesus ended in the nineteenth century because we never sang any songs in church that were written any later than that. 

            But, here they were.  Long haired seminary students wearing tie-dyed t-shirts, jeans and sandals were singing new songs about Jesus, and dancing in a sanctuary that looked a lot like our own.  At the end of the show the audience stood and cheered.  In fact they stood on the pews and cheered.  John was right.  This was the most excitement I’d ever seen in a church.

            So, I went back to York and called all the kids in my youth group at Eastminster and told them about the show and said, “You’ve got to come and see.”  The next night - they did.

            In our scripture today, you see that phrase “Come and see” a couple of times.  It is our natural response whenever we find something exciting or meaningful.  We tell our friends, “I’ve just see a terrific movie; you’ve got to come and see.”  Just back from vacation we tell anyone who will listen about how beautiful we found the Greek islands and then say, “You’ve got to come over and see the pictures we took.”  If we buy a new car or a really big screen T.V. we tell our friends, “You’ve got to come and see the Steelers play on a sixty-inch plasma.” When a baby is born parents will call up grandparents and aunts and uncles and say, “She’s just the cutest thing, you’ve got to come and see.”  They do.

            I believe we are all natural born evangelists.  We talk about those things we find interesting and exciting and meaning. It is natural.  It is spontaneous. We tell our friends, “Come and see”.  The only time we’re really bashful it seems is when it comes to our faith.  Then our tongues get tied and our palms sweat.  We don’t know what to say or if we do we’re afraid to say it.

            This morning we’ll follow a couple of disciples who didn’t seem to have that problem and maybe pick up a couple of lessons for ourselves.  First, let us pray:

Prepare our hearts, O God, to accept your Word.  Silence in us any voice but your own, that hearing we may also obey your will through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

            John the Baptist was out in the wilderness. One day Jesus came to be baptized. John picked up something special about Jesus – sometimes you just know these things.  Anyway, he said “I am not worthy to tie your shoes.”  Jesus gently insisted and asked to be baptized for reasons John would not understand.

The Bible tells us that as John baptized Jesus, the Spirit of God came down on Jesus in a special way. We don’t know what happened exactly but something did happen. And what did John the Baptist do afterward? He went and found his own disciples and said, “Come and see. Come and see the Lamb of God.”

One of those disciples was named Andrew. Scripture is very specific here. It says, “Andrew and his friend came at 4:00 in the afternoon to meet Jesus.” Andrew stayed with Jesus until the next day.  If you were there; if you were Andrew’s unnamed friend what would you have asked Jesus? What would you have talked about?  What would you have told him about your life, your hopes, or your dreams? What do you think Jesus might have said to you?

            What they spoke of we’ll never know.  What we do know is that Andrew's heart was captured that night by Jesus of Nazareth.

So, Andrew did what people do when they encounter something or someone who stirs their souls.  He had to tell somebody, so he went and found his older brother. Andrew said to his older brother who was named Simon, “Simon, you’ve got to come and see. Simon, you are my older brother. We were raised together.  We work the family business together.  You are part of my life so I’m telling you, “You have got to come and meet this Jesus.” So Simon came and met Jesus. Simon spent time with Jesus. There is no record of what was said in that conversation or how long that it lasted. But Simon’s heart was transformed, and Jesus gave him a new name to mark that moment. He became Peter.  

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.  He found Phillip.  The Bible says Jesus said simply, “Follow me”, but I’m thinking there was more to it than that.  There was some kind of history between the two or some time for conversation, or maybe there was just something about Jesus.

 What I’d like you to note is that Phillip went and found Nathaniel. He said, “Nathaniel, you’ve got to come and see this Jesus of Nazareth.”  The Bible doesn’t tell us who Nathaniel was.  Some speculate that he was a brother or friend, but we don’t really know.  What we do know is that Nathaniel was not going to be so quick to bite, because as soon as Philip tells him that Jesus is from Nazareth some old presumptions rise to the surface. 

“Nazareth?  Nazareth?  What good has ever come out of Nazareth?

Now, there is no historical evidence to support the theory that Nazareth was worse than other villages in the area. But, people don’t really need a reason to make fun of other people. 

Sometimes people say bad things about Christians as well.  And maybe that’s why we’re so shy about making our faith known.  We don’t want to be identified with the guy who shows up at football games wearing a multi-colored fright wig and holding up a sign that says “John 3:16”.  We don’t have much in common with folks who shout fire and brimstone warnings to people driving by on the street.  We don’t put “Honk if you Love Jesus” bumper stickers on our cars because we’re afraid of what people might think if they see us run a stop sign or speed or lose our temper because another driver cut us off.  Believe me, I’ve honked at people because their bumper sticker asked me to only to receive a hand gesture that doesn’t really reflect the good news of the gospel.

 We’ve all known folks who use the Bible as weapon and not as a “light for our path.”

We wonder if we do summon up the courage to invite someone to church or even a church picnic, will they respond with a story about some Christian they knew who didn’t walk the talk, whose life did not really reflect the faith?  We’re not sure if we can handle any tough questions they might have about our faith.  We’re not even sure what we’d say if they asked, “So, why do you go to church?”  So, we think better to be safe than sorry, we think, better to say nothing at all.  Better to be a secret agent Christian and hope that people see our faith expressed in acts of kindness and generosity.

Note Philip’s response to Nathanael’s resistance to Jesus because he is from Nazareth.  He doesn’t argue with him.  He doesn’t get mad.  He doesn’t criticize.  He gently says, “Why don’t you come and see for yourself.”  Instead of going on what you’ve heard someone else say about Jesus; instead of deciding on rumor and innuendo, why don’t you come and see for yourself and then you can make up your own mind.

Most people think they have an open mind about things.  Hardly anyone will admit to being closed minded, but in fact most people make up their minds about things by just getting in back of the longest line.  They listen to what their friends say and think, they watch what others do and so that’s what they’ll do and say.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone say something bad about Jesus or the Bible and when I ask them how they came to that conclusion they hardly ever respond by saying that’s what I read in the Bible.  Mostly it’s just here say.  They will say “someone told me” and so they pass that along.  They don’t come and see for themselves because that will take some effort.

Nathanael made the effort.  He came and saw Jesus and discovered that Jesus had seen him first. That’s where faith begins.  It begins with the understanding that God knows everything there is to know about you and me – the good and the bad.  It begins with the realization that we don’t run to God and much as God runs to meet us the very moment we turn to face him.  Everything that follows is exploration.  Who am I?  Who is God?  How do we connect? Everything that follows is an expression of faith.

Prayer is an expression of faith.  Worship is an expression of faith. Bible Study is an expression of faith.  Service is an expression of faith.  Stewardship is an expression of faith.  Even the conversations we have with family and friends can be an expression of faith.

I once saw a church slogan that said, “Each One Reach One”.  This is not a program.  There are no classes.  It’s not a project.  There’s nothing to build.  There is no budget.  What it is – is an attitude adjustment.  Recognizing that we are bashful about talking about our faith outside of these walls, we would just like to encourage you to invite folks to events that don’t seem so churchy.  Not everyone comes through the front door and straight into the sanctuary. 

While we see our building as beautiful, some see it as imposing.  While we are excited by the flurry of activity that fills hallways and rooms, some find it bewildering. While we are comfortable visiting with old friends around the coffee pot, others feel out of place as they sit alone in a corner.

So, we need to be intentional about inviting and welcoming people and creating different points of entry into the church.  That’s what “Each One – Reach One” is all about.

We know for some people church is like Nazareth and they wonder can anything good come from there?  All we can say to folks like that is what Philip said to Nathanael – Why don’t you come and see and then you can make up your own mind.  I’ll pick you up.  I’ll go with you.  I’ll stay with you.

Every time a poll is taken the statistic comes back the same.  Eighty five per cent of everyone who comes to Christ comes because they have been invited by a family member or friend. It’s not because they read an advertisement in the newspaper or saw a sign on the road.  It’s not just because of the preacher or the music program. This is how it happens. Someone they knew took the time and found the courage to say, “Come and See.”  Come and see what God has done and is doing through his Spirit and by his son Jesus Christ and with his people in this place.

Let us pray:

Lord, forgive us for being so bashful.  In this place we confess you are a Lord and Savior, but outside we treat this knowledge as if it were some kind of state secret.  Capture our hearts once more so that we may find the courage to simply say, “Come and see the one who has made all the difference in my life” for it is in his name we pray.  Amen.