"Come and See" - Epiphany 2A

Saint John 1:29-42

For $44.95 you can purchase a toaster on Amazon that brands the face of Jesus on every piece of bread you toast.  It is humorously and heretically called  “The Grilled Cheesus Sandwich Press.” 

What your bread will look like when it emerges from this is pictured above and if you are having a hard time making the figure of Jesus out in that image you are not alone. 

I have never done well with these theological or historical Rorschach tests.  I can honestly say that I have never seen an image of anybody on anything, eatable or noneatable.  But others have!
  

The Guardian amassed a list.  People have reported seeing the image of Jesus: in a frying pan, on a tortilla, on a potato chip, on sidewalks, and even on a receipt from Wal-Mart.
 

One Irishman, John Keohane, claims to have seen an image appearing on the chipped facade of his pub in 2010.  Considering that Mr.  Keohane is pictured next to the image holding a Guinness in his hand and wearing a wry smile on his face leads me an entirely  different conclusion as to the reason he might be seeing things.1
 

These events are called “apparitions” which in a general sense is defined as the “appearance of anything remarkable or unexpected.”
 

The closest I ever came was when (and I am not making any of this up!)  an image of the Blessed Mother Mary appeared in a large yellow, blue and white stain on the wall of the Fullerton Avenue underpass of the Kennedy expressway. 
 

The thousands of people it attracted along with countless news trucks cause a massive traffic jam which I was stuck in every morning on my way to the health club.
 

Even though I was only moving at two miles-an-hour tops I never really got a good look so I conned my friend Scott into going with me to make a closer inspection with the promise I would buy him lunch afterward.  He agreed because to him, the sight of me picking up a check would be far more miraculous that anything he saw on an underpass wall.
 

We pressed our way through the crowds.  A Lutheran Pastor and a Medical Doctor who describes himself as a “low voltage Presbyterian.”  We looked and while we were impressed with the devotion exhibited by the faithful who gathered we had a hard time discerning in the figure any likeness to anything, let alone the Blessed Mother.
 

What was seen was clearly in the eyes of the seer.
 

One of my favorite preachers, Dr.  James C.  Howells, says this about this scene in today’s gospel: “I love it that Jesus, who really is ‘The One,’ isn’t a royal, mighty stud strutting about.”2  Yet people saw something in him

At this point, the very beginning of his ministry, the average person might not have been able to pick him out in a crowd but John the Baptist and his doing so produced some results more amazing than any apparition could.

John points to Jesus and says: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”3
 

We know what this means but I wonder if it meant anything to John’s original listeners. 
 

The problem, says Dr.  William H.  Willimon, is that “Jesus is notoriously difficult to see.  Not because he is like the busy executive who does not have time for us but because we are hindered in our vision.  We look for him in our own presumptions that blind us.”4
 

John the Baptist introduces Jesus as “a lamb: humble, not fearful, ready to be shorn and slaughtered. God’s way is confronting the battalions of Caesar with a  . . .  lamb.”5
 

Now here is something you might have missed.
 

Those who heard John’s proclamation about Jesus were originally John’s disciples.  Andrew, Simon Peter, the two the turned and followed Jesus, were originally followers of John the Baptist.

Jesus first words to them, indeed his first words in St.  John’s Gospel are: “What are you looking for?”6
 

And there, says Dr.  James Sommerville, is the problem.

Most of us don't even know.  We know we’re looking for something.  We're fairly sure we haven't found it yet. These disciples say, “Rabbi, where are you [staying?]”  And that’s a clue, isn’t it?  I think these two have found what they are looking for, and they don’t want to lose it.  “Where can we find you next time we come looking for you?”  And Jesus said, “Come and see.”  And they did.7

Most people come to a service of Christian Worship not to count the snowflakes, or to hear a book review of the hottest title on the New York Times list, or even for meditation and self-reflection, but for an encounter.  To encounter the living God.8

 That is the only thing the church offers people that they can’t get elsewhere. 
 
If you want entertainment, go to a movie or to the Paramount Theater, you can’t get much better than that.
 
We try for good music, the choir, Andy and Eunice, work very hard on this but really we can’t compete with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.
 
What you get here that you can’t get anywhere else is an encounter with “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
If there is anything that toast, and potato chips, and tacos can tell us is that people are still looking for Jesus.   Sometimes we get all tongue-tied about why we get up on Sunday morning and come to places like this.  If today’s gospel tells us anything it tells us that we don’t have to be. 
 
Inviting people to “come and see” Jesus is as simple as telling them about a great movie, a great restaurant, a great play. 
 
We have no control whether they’ll like the place. We have no control over whether they’ll ever go back.  We don’t even have any control over whether they’ll ever listen to another word we say ever again.  But that doesn’t stop us!  We still tell people about things that we’re excited about.
 
John the Baptist was excited that he found Jesus so he told his disciples.  Andrew finds his brother and tells him.  And so it goes, through the ages until it came to us.
 
Someone told us, someone invited us, someone welcomed us to place called church and here we are with our lives all intertwined with Jesus, the Messiah, the Lamb of God.
 
A friend of mine was “At some church event, [and he]  picked up a refrigerator magnet with two pictures on it -- actually it's the same drawing of two people, but presented twice. The first picture is called "Reality Evangelism Part 1". One person says to the other, "Yeah, I go to church." Reality Evangelism Part 2 shows the same person saying, "Wanna come?" 8
 
What could be more simple than that?
 
Invite people to “come and see” maybe they’ll find what they are looking for and “they’ll come and stay.”
 
Will it work?  Who knows?  But it’s worth a try, don’t you think?

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1.   “Jesus Sightings in Food (and Walls) - in Pictures.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, July 21, 2011. https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2011/jul/21/jesus-food-sightings.

2.   James C. Howell, “Weekly Preaching: January 19, 2020.” Ministry Matters: Preaching. Ministry Matters™ | Christian Resources for Church Leaders, January 13, 2020. https://www.ministrymatters.com/preach/entry/10050/weekly-preaching-january-19-2020.

3.  St.  John 1:29.  (NKJV) [NKJV=The New King James Version]
 
4. Willam H. Willimon,“The Real Jesus We Really Don't Know.” Pulpit Resource, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 13–16.

5.  Howells, loc.cit.

6.  St.  John 1:38.  (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]

7. James Somerville, “Have You Found It?” A Sermon for Every Sunday.  Www.sermonforeverySunday.com. https://asermonforeverysunday.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Jim-Somerville-The-Lamb-of-God.pdf

8.  Willimon, loc.cit.

8.Brian Stoffregen,  “John 1.29-42 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany - Year A.” Crossmarks. Accessed January 17, 2020. http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/john1x29.htm.
 


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