Come and see.
Isaiah 49:1-7; John 1:29-42
Grace and peace to you from God: Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit.
To Andrew, Jesus says, “Come and see.”
When was the last time you heard about something, and just had to go and see for yourself? Was it a new baby? A puppy? A sunset? A movie? A play? What are people looking for when they know that they have to go and experience something for themselves? For a new perspective? A new relationship? A new pastime? A new form of healing in their lives? A new way of experiencing the Spirit at work in the world?
I wish you could have all come with me yesterday to see the extraordinary ordination of Jen Nagel, who now serves as Pastor of Salem English Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. I wish you had been there to hear from a female African American preacher who has lost her eyesight, what it means to see the beauty of the day. It was moving in large measure because of her own story and her willingness to be open about it and to share.
I wish we could all be transported to 1963 in Washington DC to experience the multitude who came to see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. To be among those who experienced the rhythm and cadence of his speech. To see and respond to the Spirit’s moving among the people. Dr. King was a modern day prophet. “He spoke the words of God to a white America that was unwilling to give up its privilege and prejudice, its power over others and inability to see Black people as brothers and sisters, as children of God. At the same time, Dr. King spoke to a Black America that needed to hear that God cared about their plight..”
The prophet in Isaiah was given by God, as “a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” All true prophecy has a message for the world, not just a select group. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke primarily to African Americans, but his words were meant for all Americans, and for all the world. Freedom, justice, equality, peace, and an end to poverty are issues that apply to all people, in our day as much as in 1968 or in Isaiah’s 550 BC.
Take just a moment to look again at our Gospel reading for today. If you have a pencil, circle every time in this text where it says they saw, come and see. This reading is very visual. It is John the Baptist proclaiming, “Here is the Lamb of God.” It is Jesus asking, “What are you looking for?”
The people who flocked to see MLK, those who knew him to be a man of faith and a great orator came to him and I can imagine that he wondered of them, “What are you looking for?” And wondered for himself, “What am I called to be and to do?” That is a question for us as well: What are we called to be and to do?
At every opportunity, King invited us all to come and see Jesus. He called all people to come and see a new reality of God’s grace, of love, of humankind caring for itself as a whole. He was willing to invite people to come and see. He was present to them until his assassination. He made a way for the country to come and see the humanity of his people. He wanted us to come and see the violence of the police. When Bull Connor put loosed dogs on children and set the water cannons to wash people away, and it was on the evening news, whether they liked it or not, the people of our country came and we had to see.
King, invites us to see someone beyond him. The multitudes came to see him and he pointed them to Jesus. King managed to get the whole country, in fact the whole world, to come and see the conditions that black people were living under in the so-called land of the free.
He brought us to see that his people who were freed from slavery 80 years before were still oppressed and being mistreated because discrimination, prejudice and hatred remained in force. The Rev. Dr. King did that by gathering the people to walk over the Pettis Bridge. He helped them maintain their strength in Jesus Christ so they could stand above the kind of hatred that was coming at them, and to continue to stand in a place of love
John the Baptist was able to draw the crowds to the river, and he testified to one that they should come and see, one greater than himself. Like John the Baptist, Dr. King had the humility, the depth, the capacity to bring the people together. And both of them pointed beyond themselves to the Lamb of God. They helped people see that the body of Christ is expansive and inclusive. Inclusive enough even to hold our enemies as our brothers and sisters. And King, like the prophets of old before and the ones yet to come, spoke the truth. The truth about God’s grace, and he eloquently exposed the hypocrisy in our land, and called for the best, not only from his own people, but from those that had declared themselves his enemies as well.
The movie “Amazing Grace” shows the way that William Wilberforce worked for 20 years time to get the leadership of England to come to see the slave ships literally and figuratively. He brought them to see the slave trade for the godless, inhumane practice that degraded both slaves and all who benefited from them. Wilberforce interrupted a yacht party –by stopping the yacht beside a slave ship. Soon the music stops, and the tiny hors d’oevres are dropped to the plates as people reach for their handkerchiefs to cover their noses at the awful stench of the slave ship.
The DVD version of “Amazing Grace” includes an educational piece about the calling of young Zach Hunter. Zach may only be fifteen years old, but he’s taking on issues that affect the world—and he’s making a change. Zach is working with other youth and adults across the globe to stop the slavery that still oppresses and stops the fulfilling lives of thousands today. Children chained to rug looms, people locked into clothing sweat-shops, girls and women sold away into a booming sex slave trade. There is so much yet to be done. Zach Hunter is working in the light of what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began to stop slavery today.
Today, the people of the Lutheran Church of El Salvador, and specifically the people of Nahualapa, of Christ the Liberator congregation are calling us to come and see. The thirsty people of Nigeria in need of clean water, beckon to us – saying come and see.
Come and see. It’s probably the most succinct invitation to church we can offer.
SPR has a half dozen to a dozen visitors every Sunday of the church year. People who make a special journey to come and see what this place is like. To come and see and to experience a community that lives in anticipation and in advance of the kingdom still yet to come; a community aware of the ways the kin-dom of God breaks through again and again in our lived.
I want to wonder with you what might happen if each of us committed to invite somebody to come and see, to experience the openness of a community that can laugh and sing, clap and cry, to hold onto the tradition of the Lutheran faith, while exploring various styles of worship, liturgies, prayers, and music.
Even more so, we invite people to come and see the presence of the Holy Spirit. When we invite people to come and see what Jesus is doing in our lives today, do they see the glory of God breaking forth? Do they see God at work through us? It’s not us they need to see. It is Jesus, the Messiah. It is Jesus the Lamb of God.
Jesus said to Andrew, “Come and see.” And they were able to see Jesus as the very source of life and salvation for all peoples. We can come to see something without using our physical eyes as did the guest preacher at Pastor Jen Nagel’s ordination service. I invite you to open your eyes, your ears, your senses to be better able to describe what you want people to come and see about St. Paul-Reformation. What will we be able to come to see in 2008 that we’ve not seen before? Who will you invite to come and see?
God be with you as you go. Amen.
References: The Michael Eric Dyson Reader, and The Politics of Jesus by The Rev. Obery Hendricks