“Come and See”
John 1:35-46
January 20, 2008
John A. Fleming
I’ve
been a father now going on seven years and as you know Susie and I have two little
girls. These two, as it is turning out,
are as different as they can be even though they look alike. Julie will be two in March and so what that
means is that she is at the point in her life when she is mobile and hard to
keep up with. She’s also at the point
where we are trying to speak each other’s language. Sometimes we understand each other and
sometimes we don’t. She knows the word
mine. When she sees something she wants,
that is the word out of her mouth. When
she wants something from us, but can’t quite explain it, Julie will reach out
her hand, grab one of our fingers, pull us toward her, and will say,
“Moan.” Which translated, means come on
I’ve got something to show you!”
I like the picture Julie is giving us. Really it is a picture of an evangelism
moment. Sometimes the faith just has to
be seen and experienced. Sometimes
finding words to describe it is very difficult.
It might be like trying to describe a sunset to someone who has never
seen one. You might say, “At the bottom
are dark colors. The colors get more
brilliant the higher they go. There are
brilliant shades of reds and oranges and purples. It’s really pretty. You just need to see one for yourself. Wake up early one morning and go
outside! Or it may be like trying to
explain the feeling of being in love to someone who never has been. You might use these words, “Well, there’s a
feeling in my stomach. When I see her,
my heart rate goes way up. I cannot
spend enough time with her.” What has
just happened is that the one in love has described the symptoms of love, but
probably not its essence. Sometimes you
just have to say, “You just need to experience it for yourself!”
Maybe
that is what our scripture lesson from John’s gospel is about this morning. Since I have been preaching to you for six
years, you have heard me say this before.
John’s gospel is very different from the other three. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us the story of
Jesus in what might be compared to a movie.
They show us scene after scene as Jesus makes his way to
One
of these snapshots is how the disciples came to follow him. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus walks
along, sees fishermen, call out to them and they follow him. John’s call of the disciples is different.
Look
at our lesson. Our scriptural scene has
Andrew hanging out with John the Baptizer.
Andrew is one of John’s followers, one of his disciples. One day John and Jesus see each other from a
distance. I hope you will remember the
two are cousins. They are also more than
that. John points out and then he calls
out, “Behold the Lamb of God. He is the
One!” So they left John and followed
Jesus. You can’t blame them for
that. When Jesus notices that they are
with him, he turns and asks, “What are you looking for?” That is a wonderful question and one that we
should all answer. These two don’t
answer it, though. Instead they ask,
“Rabbi, where are you staying?” Jesus
simply says, “Come and see.”
They
went with him and they did see. Andrew
is so transformed by the experience, by his time with Jesus that he goes to
find his brother, Simon Peter. My guess
is that Andrew had a hard time describing what he had experienced. It is as if he reaches for his brother’s
finger and then says, “Moan. You’ve got
to see this!”
It
is the same thing with Phillip and Nathaniel.
Phillip sees Jesus. He has a
firsthand encounter with him. What does
he do with it? He goes and finds
Nathaniel. He tries to tell him what he
has found. He says that he has found
Jesus. He says that the prophets wrote
about this man. He says that Jesus is
Joseph’s son and that he is from
Coming
and seeing and experiencing God and Jesus is everywhere in the Bible. The Psalmist writes in what we know as the
thirty-fourth Psalm, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” The forty-six Psalm reads, “Come and see the
works of the Lord.” You will remember
that Jesus is at a well when a woman comes there to draw water. Jesus tells her to go and get her
husband. She tells him that she has no
husband. Jesus says, “Yes I know. You have had four husbands and the man you
are with now is not your husband.” Look
how she responds. She goes to the
village and shouts out, “Come and see a man who told me everything I ever
did.” Then she asks those in the
village, “He cannot be the Messiah, can he?”
At the tomb, an angel of the Lord says to the women, “He is not here. He is risen. Come and see.”
Sometimes
we have to experience the Christian faith and when we do, it is always something
we want to tell others about. In fact,
it is hard to keep from telling others about it. I am sorry to say this to you, but we don’t
live in a world that is necessarily interested in the church. Some people have trouble with organized
religion. Church attendance all across
our country is declining. It has here,
too, in the last year. That bothers
me. That bothers me a lot. I want people to feel about being here for
worship services the way they do about their favorite television show, one they
would not dare to miss! I hope for that day.
We also don’t live in a world that is all that interested in doctrine
and theology. I do believe we live in a
world that is interested and meeting and knowing this man, Jesus, the one who
is at the very center of our faith.
Let’s
look back at our lesson. Look at Andrew,
who first followed Jesus. He’s only
mentioned in John’s gospel three times.
The first time he is mentioned is in our lesson. The second time is when Jesus feeds five
thousand. John tells that a little boy
saved the day with loaves and fish. He
also tells us that it was Andrew who brought that boy to Jesus. Then later in the gospel, Greek men want to
meet Jesus. They say, “We want to see
Jesus.” It is Andrew who takes them to
him. It is Andrew who is the one who is
always bringing people to see Jesus. I
think he does that because he has experienced Jesus for himself. I believe he cannot help but to lead others
to him.
Here
is also what I believe. I believe that
God sent Jesus into our lives to save us in every way we can be saved. I think we have to turn our attention back to
this man who we have decided to follow, to be a disciple of, to know, and to
love. I think we need to commit again to
following him. I also think we are living
in a world where people are desperately looking and searching for meaning for
their lives. They may not even realize
they are. Now when I say they, I mean
us. Sometimes we realize that something
is missing in our lives, but we cannot seem to grasp what that something
is. We cannot help but to ask “Isn’t
there more to this life than what I’ve been doing?” Some of us try to fill ourselves with things
that do not satisfy. I know that the
Bible says that. We all know realize
that.
There
is more and his name is Jesus and we need to discover him again. There is a great passage in the second
chapter of Revelation. The passage
describes a vision. In the vision, God
speaks to the church at
I, too, have seen
your good work here and how hard you are trying. I too have seen you persevere and I am proud
of you, too. Here are some of the things
I am the most proud of. I am proud of
our membership that now boasts some 441 persons. In 2007 twenty new persons became a part of
our church. We baptized eight persons,
seven infants and an adult. Four persons
professed Jesus as their savior. Twelve
joined us from other United Methodist congregations. Four saw the light and came over from other
denominations. Eight new babies joined
this life in 2007.
I
have seen how hard you are trying. In
2007 we lost thirty-five persons from our membership. There is a reason for that. Every once and a while we
take people off of our membership books.
We do this because we haven’t seen them in years. We removed twenty-two persons that way in
2007. So the real picture is that we
gained twenty new members, lost seven to death, four to other United Methodist
congregations, and one withdrew her membership.
That means we showed a net gain
in membership of seven people. That is
not bad, but we must do much better.
We
had a great financial year in 2007, meeting all of our financial obligations including
the paying of our apportionments and funding new ministries. When it came time for our pledge drive this
year, the pledges came in slowly. That
worried me. Some who always pledge still
have not. I am not so much concerned
about it this year as I am for future years.
If we want to keep doing the same things the same way, then our pledges
will be fine. If we want to do new
things, it will take your commitment to paying for them. The price of gasoline will not go down in
2008 and neither will the cost of utilities.
Let
me speak to you about attendance averages.
Our worship attendance dropped in 2007 from an average of 243 to
233. I’ve said it already that concerns
me. After several years of gaining in
averages, the past two years have shown drops.
I cannot tell you, words are not strong enough for me to tell you how
important your attendance in worship services is. Sunday School
attendance is up from 135 to 146. Small
group studies continue to be important to us and for us.
While
we are celebrating, let me tell you that on Wednesday evening, it is hard to
find a parking spot. Between our new
children’s choir, hand bell, chancel choir practices and Kids’ Club and VISION,
there is a lot of coming and going. On
the average, there are twenty-one K-2nd graders and twenty-five 3rd-5th
graders here each week.
I
think our church is strong. It is free
of conflict and debt. Our church takes
its responsibility seriously to help each other along life’s journey. We
are strong. We could be stronger.
Let me go back to that passage from Revelation. After God speaks of his being proud of the
church at