SPEAKER_04: A reading from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_04: Listen to me, O coastlands.
SPEAKER_04: Pay attention, you peoples from far away.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord called me before I was born.
SPEAKER_04: While I was in my mother's womb, he named me.
SPEAKER_04: He made my mouth like a sharp sword.
SPEAKER_04: In the shadow of his hand, he hid me.
SPEAKER_04: He made me a polished arrow.
SPEAKER_04: In his quiver, he hid me away.
SPEAKER_04: And he said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified.
SPEAKER_04: But I said, I have labored in vain.
SPEAKER_04: I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity.
SPEAKER_04: Yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.
SPEAKER_04: And now the Lord says, Who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God has become my strength.
SPEAKER_04: He says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel.
SPEAKER_04: I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.
SPEAKER_04: Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his holy one, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the slave of rulers.
SPEAKER_04: Kings shall see and stand up.
SPEAKER_04: Princes and they shall prostrate themselves.
SPEAKER_04: Because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you, the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: A reading from Corinthians.
SPEAKER_03: Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and our brother Sosthenus to the Church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.
SPEAKER_03: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: For in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind.
SPEAKER_03: Just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, he will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: By him you were called into a fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to John.
SPEAKER_02: John the Baptist saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: This is the one of whom I said, After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me, because he was before me.
SPEAKER_02: I myself did not know him, but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.
SPEAKER_02: And John testified, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.
SPEAKER_02: I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, The one on whom you see the spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: The next day John again was standing with two of his own disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, Look, here is the Lamb of God.
SPEAKER_02: The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, What are you looking for?
SPEAKER_02: They said to him, Rabbi, which translated means teacher, where are you staying?
SPEAKER_02: He said to them, Come and see.
SPEAKER_02: They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day.
SPEAKER_02: It was about four o'clock in the afternoon.
SPEAKER_02: One of the two who had heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
SPEAKER_02: He first found his brother Simon and said to him, We have found the Messiah, which is translated anointed.
SPEAKER_02: He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of John.
SPEAKER_02: You are to be called Cethas, which is translated Peter.
SPEAKER_02: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: This is our third opportunity to think about Epiphany.
SPEAKER_02: Remember, these are moments not just where we discover a new flavor or a delightful new restaurant, but they change the way we see the world.
SPEAKER_02: So we started with the magi, and last week we got to consider what the baptism of the Lord might have meant for the Lord Himself and thereby for us.
SPEAKER_02: And this week it seems like we've gone back to baptism.
SPEAKER_02: John is telling us something really interesting.
SPEAKER_02: John differs quite a bit from Matthew, Mark, and Luke often, and in this story it's John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_02: And there's two phrases in particular that I think are really worth our focus this week.
SPEAKER_02: The first is behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: So let's linger there for a second.
SPEAKER_02: Because usually we hear Lamb of God, and our brain immediately goes to, well, let me ask you, where does your mind go when you hear Lamb of God?
SPEAKER_02: I can kind of hear whispering, but I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_02: Someone be bold.
SPEAKER_02: I know this is unepiscopalian.
SPEAKER_02: But what is the lamb of God?
SPEAKER_02: A sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: Aha, a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: That takes away sin, right?
SPEAKER_02: So this I think is really worth our spending a little bit of time on because there's actually a lot of options.
SPEAKER_02: When you think lamb of God, you might think the Paschal Lamb, like the Passover sacrifice, right?
SPEAKER_02: Except the Paschal Lamb wasn't a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to spend a little moment on that, if you don't mind.
SPEAKER_02: Passover, this is the night.
SPEAKER_02: This is one of those holy festivals in which the people of Israel who have been enslaved in Egypt are supposed to leave because in the middle of the night, Pharaoh's going to say, get out.
SPEAKER_02: And the words that God tells Moses is, every family will kill its own lamb.
SPEAKER_02: This is really unique because in the nation of Israel, the Hebrew people, all meat was slaughtered by priests and by Levites.
SPEAKER_02: They were butchers in the ancient world.
SPEAKER_02: Bakers did not slaughter sheep.
SPEAKER_02: That was the work of Levites and priests.
SPEAKER_02: Passover night is different.
SPEAKER_02: Every family kills its own lamb, and they have to do something with the blood.
SPEAKER_02: You remember?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you remember your Hebrew Bible, but there's a huge prohibition.
SPEAKER_02: You're allowed to eat most of the animal, but you can't have its fat.
SPEAKER_02: That you burn up a sacrifice, and you cannot have its blood.
SPEAKER_02: Because the Hebrew scriptures are clear, the blood is the life of the animal.
SPEAKER_02: You have to pour it on the ground.
SPEAKER_02: You have to return it to God because it's not yours.
SPEAKER_02: This is a little bit beyond our way of thinking.
SPEAKER_02: Most of us don't eat blood sausage, unless maybe you're Irish.
SPEAKER_02: Most of us here in the United States have this, we kind of rancor at the idea of having blood.
SPEAKER_02: But the understanding is that the qi, the life force, the spirit of the animal was in the blood.
SPEAKER_02: So that people would consume the blood of animals to get their powers.
SPEAKER_02: This may sound strange, but if you're familiar with the Southeast Asian black market, this is why people eat rhino horns.
SPEAKER_02: They eat it to get the qi of the rhino, the strength of the animal.
SPEAKER_02: The prohibition was really clear.
SPEAKER_02: Pour the blood on the ground, return the qi of the animal to God.
SPEAKER_02: Why do you put the blood on the doorpost to prove you didn't eat it?
SPEAKER_02: There is one animal that takes away the sins of the people every year.
SPEAKER_02: It's on the Jewish High Holy Day.
SPEAKER_02: Do you know which one it is?
SPEAKER_02: The Day of Atonement.
SPEAKER_02: In Hebrew, that's called Yom Kippur.
SPEAKER_02: It is not a lamb, it's a goat.
SPEAKER_02: And the high priest, that would have been Aaron at the time of the story of the Exodus, lays his hands on the head of the goat and says, All of the transgressions and ritual impurity of the people I am putting on you.
SPEAKER_02: And then do you know what they do with that animal?
SPEAKER_02: They drive it away.
SPEAKER_02: They don't kill it.
SPEAKER_02: It's called the scapegoat.
SPEAKER_02: It's a goat.
SPEAKER_02: They put the representative missing of the people onto the goat and they drive it away into exile and they say, you can't even die in our community.
SPEAKER_02: All the stuff we've done does not live with us anymore.
SPEAKER_02: It goes away.
SPEAKER_02: We send you out.
SPEAKER_02: If anybody touches the scapegoat, they and their family die.
SPEAKER_02: The point is to get it away, not to kill it in your community.
SPEAKER_02: So why on earth did people eat the Paschal Lamb?
SPEAKER_02: Because people in the ancient world didn't eat meat like we do.
SPEAKER_02: People in the ancient world ate meat on high holy days only.
SPEAKER_02: There were three or four or five of those.
SPEAKER_02: Or if there was a stillborn animal like veal, veal was only eaten because there was something wrong with it.
SPEAKER_02: These people were getting ready to walk a long way.
SPEAKER_02: They had their grandma, they had their parakeet, they had their ferrets, they had their small children, they had their luggage, and they were vegetarian most of the year.
SPEAKER_02: So why did they need the Paschal lamb?
SPEAKER_02: They needed energy for the journey.
SPEAKER_02: Energy for the journey.
SPEAKER_02: Nothing.
SPEAKER_02: It's all about energy.
SPEAKER_02: So when John says, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, this is a clue to us.
SPEAKER_02: This is not Jesus dying for our sins.
SPEAKER_02: That's something we've done later.
SPEAKER_02: At the time of John, this is John saying, look, energy for the journey to take away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Now what's sin?
SPEAKER_02: It means two things in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: So in Hebrew, it's an archery word.
SPEAKER_02: And it means you aim at the bullseye, but you miss.
SPEAKER_02: Sin means missing the mark.
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't mean you should stop trying, it means you should recalibrate your aim and give it another go.
SPEAKER_02: If you quit shooting, that would be worse.
SPEAKER_02: In Greek, the word is hammartia, and it actually comes from Greek drama.
SPEAKER_02: So the word sin in Greek drama is about the tragic flaw.
SPEAKER_02: You probably studied this when you were in the ninth or tenth grade, that in general Greek dramas, people already knew the story.
SPEAKER_02: It was well known to them, but they wanted to see how it was that the protagonists met usually their sad ends.
SPEAKER_02: So think about Oedipus the King, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or think about Electra.
SPEAKER_02: If you remember these plays, the tragic flaw was hubris.
SPEAKER_02: That was one type of tragic flaw.
SPEAKER_02: Making more of yourself than you really were.
SPEAKER_02: I would tell you another tragic flaw would be making less of yourself than you really are.
SPEAKER_02: There's lots of tragic flaws.
SPEAKER_02: So what is the tragic flaw of the world?
SPEAKER_02: What tragic flaw do we need the energy from the Lamb of God to take away?
SPEAKER_02: I would put it before you.
SPEAKER_02: I think that is what John is suggesting about Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is there to strengthen us to turn the world a different way.
SPEAKER_02: No, that's too little for God.
SPEAKER_02: It's about a light for the whole world.
SPEAKER_02: I put before you last week some of the tragic flaws of the world as I see them.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, depending on where you are in life or where you are physically, you uh you can experience these yourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Like if you really want to experience some chaos, go try parking at Costco.
SPEAKER_02: You might really discover the tragic flaw of the world when you see drivers who have no patience.
SPEAKER_02: But you might also experience tragic flaws of the world when you experience things like ageism and racism and sexism.
SPEAKER_02: You might just experience the tragic flaw of the world.
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you another one that I think the text beckons us to today.
SPEAKER_02: And listen, this is really helpful to hear that the people who need knew Jesus best said the dumbest things.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, they say, What do you want to Andrew?
SPEAKER_02: And Andrew says, Where are you staying?
SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, if you could ask Jesus one question, would you ask him where he's staying?
SPEAKER_02: That's what they ask.
SPEAKER_02: We want to see where you're staying.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says something really interesting that I don't think any of us would put up with today.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see.
SPEAKER_02: I might be making more of this than I should.
SPEAKER_02: But it seems to me, especially as I've gotten older, that what we actually really like to do, and this is a tragic flow of the world, is to flatten people as soon as we can into some kind of preconceived notion.
SPEAKER_02: You drive a really big truck.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna make a snap judgment about who you are.
SPEAKER_02: You drive one of those plug-in cars.
SPEAKER_02: You must be some kind of granola tree-hugging person.
SPEAKER_02: You voted Republican in the last election, so I've already made up my mind about who you are and what you stand for.
SPEAKER_02: And maybe Jesus is saying we don't have to live into that tragic flaw of the world in which we label people so that we can negate them and make them flat, so that we can take subjects and turn them into objects of our desire and judgment.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe Jesus says, I'm not gonna give you any words to flatten me out.
SPEAKER_02: So if you want to know, come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see for yourself.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to be the best CEO.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to be the one who dies on behalf of your sins only.
SPEAKER_02: You come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Don't listen to what other people say.
SPEAKER_02: You come and see.
SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is when Andrew comes and sees, he has an experience big enough to tell Peter, his brother, he uses the same words, to come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Like I've seen something worth your seeing.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Actually, the Gospel of John uses these words a couple of times, these same words.
SPEAKER_02: When Jesus goes to see his dead friend Lazarus, where have you laid him?
SPEAKER_02: They say come and see.
SPEAKER_02: This is a catchphrase for John.
SPEAKER_02: Come and see.
SPEAKER_02: And I think Eddie I think the invitation for us is very, very real.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think we can spend a lot of time saying, oh, look, sin is when we do something that makes God mad.
SPEAKER_02: And that certainly is the way I grew up.
SPEAKER_02: I just think it's probably bigger than that.
SPEAKER_02: The truth is if God loves us as much as we're told and as much as Scripture seems to believe, then God actually isn't very mad at us very often.
SPEAKER_02: God is probably very disappointed with the decisions that we make.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the same as being mad at us.
SPEAKER_02: And here I suggest to you that Jesus and John the Baptist are saying, look, we don't have to settle for living like this.
SPEAKER_02: Not just as a country, not just in the next state congress election, but you know, even in the workplace and with our families, we can say, hey, not my experience.
SPEAKER_02: I hear you saying that about that other person.
SPEAKER_02: Not my experience.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you should come and see.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you should come and see about that.
SPEAKER_02: There is something, I think, really, really hardwired in us about being tribal, about spreading gossip, because gossip is one of those ways in which we say, I'm different from them.
SPEAKER_02: Different, like better.
SPEAKER_02: And we do it really quickly.
SPEAKER_02: And here is Jesus saying no to that.
SPEAKER_02: You will not flatten me.
SPEAKER_02: You come and see, or I have nothing to say to you.
SPEAKER_02: Now, what does this have to do with 1 Corinthians?
SPEAKER_02: My thinking is that Paul does something here that we have kind of grown, uh, well, it's become antiquated.
SPEAKER_02: Paul's writing a letter, which has become very antiquated.
SPEAKER_02: And uh what's really interesting about looking at Paul's writings, whether it is 1 Corinthians today or 1 Thessalonians or books like Galatians, is that there is standard letter writing practice that happens in every one of Paul's letters.
SPEAKER_02: Like when we were in elementary school and we learned you write dear, so and so, right?
SPEAKER_02: We start with dear.
SPEAKER_02: Well, what Paul always starts with is gratitude.
SPEAKER_02: First he says, Grace and peace to you, and then he says, I give thanks to God for who you are.
SPEAKER_02: And I've got to tell you, I had this really, really interesting teacher in seminary.
SPEAKER_02: Um, she made us read a monograph every week.
SPEAKER_02: So that was like a 300-page book we had to read every week.
SPEAKER_02: And this was one class.
SPEAKER_02: And we also had to write a three-page paper about that book.
SPEAKER_02: That was in order to come to class.
SPEAKER_02: Most people didn't read the book.
SPEAKER_02: When we wrote that paper, we had to initially spend a whole page discussing the author's unique contribution to the theological world.
SPEAKER_02: We had to say, what did the author do appreciatively?
SPEAKER_02: Now I can tell you that was difficult for me because I am super good at being analytical.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I think I have the spiritual grift of criticism.
SPEAKER_02: And when we were doing this, I thought, aha, this is just buttering the author up for what's coming next.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, that's the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: That's the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: There was instead this opportunity before criticizing and before evaluating to say, thank you for the gift of your thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: Even if I disagree with them, you put them out there.
SPEAKER_02: I see what perspective it is you're trying to engage.
SPEAKER_02: I make room for that.
SPEAKER_02: Even if I disagree, I'm able to be grateful for you putting it out there.
SPEAKER_02: Because anytime someone writes a book, having just done one, they're sharing part of themselves.
SPEAKER_02: And Paul does this every time he writes a letter.
SPEAKER_02: Before he takes any group of people to task for what they're doing, he says, I give thanks to God for you.
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder if that would be just a little bit of an easy practice for us to do when we think about how it is that we resist the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_02: What if either we wrote a letter writing mails?
SPEAKER_02: In general, the emails I tend to write look more like text messages nowadays, right?
SPEAKER_02: Get to the point.
SPEAKER_02: The point is, I need these copies by Friday.
SPEAKER_02: Or where's my book?
SPEAKER_02: What if we said, hey, I really appreciate blank and I need these copies by Friday.
SPEAKER_02: What if this one would be even harder?
SPEAKER_02: What if somebody said, doesn't that drive you crazy when whoever Nancy Pelosi says this or your co-worker does that?
SPEAKER_02: What if you before you said yes?
SPEAKER_02: What if you say, you know?
SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate that she puts herself out there.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I really appreciate he shows up on time every day for work.
SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate Blank.
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, I do share your concern about that.
SPEAKER_02: What if what if we did something really difficult and appreciated somebody that drives us crazy before we took him to task?
SPEAKER_02: What if we did that?
SPEAKER_02: I think if we can do that, it would turn something in ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, they are three-dimensional beings that do both things.
SPEAKER_02: And if we don't have room for other people to please us or to appreciate them in any way, that says something more about us than it says about them.
SPEAKER_02: This is the kind of journey I want to tell you.
SPEAKER_02: That I am not good at, and that it's very, very hard.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it's sort of like starting a new exercise routine.
SPEAKER_02: I can try it and I will get hurt very quickly because I just don't have energy.
SPEAKER_02: I need to consult my doctor before doing it.
SPEAKER_02: But um, uh it's a good thing you're here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm pretty sure the whole reason we come to God's table every week is so that we can have spiritual energy from the Lamb of God to journey forth in new ways that would light up our lives and would light up the world.
SPEAKER_02: Behold today at the Eucharist, the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world and would give you the energy to go forward in that journey.
SPEAKER_01: Today we continue in the season of Epiphany, this time when we celebrate these big ideas that change us, change the way we view the world, and thus changes our responses to the world around us.
SPEAKER_01: For the last two weeks, we looked at the epiphanies of who Jesus is and who we are in relationship to God.
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks ago, we've reflected on the story of the Magi's visit to the young Jesus child.
SPEAKER_01: Mike offered the big idea that God desires our everyday selves.
SPEAKER_01: And God desires what we can offer up right now in the present.
SPEAKER_01: Those proverbial common things like deodorant, loose coins, and vitamin C, those things that we have here and now with us, not just some huge, extravagant gift that maybe someday in the future we will be able to offer.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we reflected on the baptism of Jesus and the epiphany that God loved Jesus even before Jesus' public ministry began.
SPEAKER_01: And in part, this is why we celebrate infant baptism, because God loves us before we do anything.
SPEAKER_01: God loves us first.
SPEAKER_01: Reflecting on today's gospel reading of John's retelling of the baptism and the start of the ministry of Jesus, offer another possible epiphany.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't go it alone, and neither do we.
SPEAKER_01: Even Jesus, God made flesh, isn't some lone wolf making it completely on his own.
SPEAKER_01: While the Western world that most of us are part of is something where we praise independence, we glorify self-reliance, and encourage the personal choice.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus shows us the goodness of going with one another.
SPEAKER_01: I recently went to view the powerful movie Just Mercy, based on the true story of Brian Stevenson, the lawyer who offers his service to the poor and the marginalized, who often get poor representation and are unable to obtain a fair trial.
SPEAKER_01: One of the imprisoned who Stevenson represents is Walter MacMillan, a man who is falsely accused of murder and imprisoned and even put on death row.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout the movie, the viewers experience the closeness that Macmillan has with the two prison inmates who are in the cells on either side of him.
SPEAKER_01: While each of them are in a single cell, concrete walls on three sides and bars on the fourth.
SPEAKER_01: Over and over again, you see them coming up close to the bars to be in relationship with one another, to talk with one another.
SPEAKER_01: It is clear that they have a close friendship.
SPEAKER_01: They share with each other their struggles, and they encourage and uplift one another when they hit their low points.
SPEAKER_01: This image then is in contrast at one point in the movie where Macmillan is placed in solitary confinement for about 60 days.
SPEAKER_01: The realities of isolation on the human psyche are quickly realized by the viewer.
SPEAKER_01: In that cell that has no windows, no bars, four concrete walls.
SPEAKER_01: Macmillan begins to be extremely agitated and even begins to hallucinate, seemingly losing his mind because of this long-term isolation.
SPEAKER_01: The severity of the harsh punishment is extreme, for humans are not meant to be in isolation to this extent.
SPEAKER_01: Reflecting on my own life, in the periods in which I have found darkness, the periods were that were most hard for me, I can reflect on those and know the truth that not only was God with me through those moments, but so were significant people.
SPEAKER_01: In those darkest periods, I was never truly alone.
SPEAKER_01: In today's gospel, we see that Jesus does not go it alone.
SPEAKER_01: First, we see that Jesus remains in relationship with the other two members of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: The image of the dove, the Holy Spirit, descends upon Jesus and not only for a moment, but then remains with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: This is an image that in even in human form, Jesus is not separated from the rest of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_01: The three are in a forever dance, one with another, that cannot be stopped.
SPEAKER_01: At no time is Jesus going it alone, in isolation from the rest of God.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus' ministry on earth is not a solitary journey either, for we see that he has John the Baptist going before him, announcing Jesus' coming and pointing towards Jesus' identity.
SPEAKER_01: John's testimony to his disciples and to those religious leaders is a testimony that directs them towards the importance of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: John's work is to help prepare the way for the work that Jesus is about to do.
SPEAKER_01: John isn't the only person in today's gospel that is involved in the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We have Andrew, arguably the first evangelist in John's gospel, at least after John the Baptist himself.
SPEAKER_01: After Andrew meets Jesus, Andrew goes and brings his brother so that he too can witness the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: It's Andrew's brother, Simon Peter, who becomes the rock, the foundation on which Jesus builds his church.
SPEAKER_01: If Andrew doesn't come and see, then he won't share this discovery that he has with Peter.
SPEAKER_01: And can you imagine the shape of the early church if Peter is not there to be a leader of it?
SPEAKER_01: Surely Jesus, being God in all, can successfully pull off the mission he has in mind all by himself.
SPEAKER_01: But he chooses to be part of humanity and chooses to be with humanity intimately.
SPEAKER_01: He chooses to not go it alone.
SPEAKER_01: Part of not being aloner means that Jesus is not standoffish.
SPEAKER_01: When he notices two of the Baptist's disciples following him, he engages them.
SPEAKER_01: The first words that Jesus says in the Gospel of John are a question.
SPEAKER_01: What is it you seek, or what is it you need?
SPEAKER_01: And then he waits to hear their answer before inviting them to come and see.
SPEAKER_01: From the beginning of the incarnation, there is an invitation for exploration, an invitation for the disciples to honestly answer what it is that they are seeking, what it is that they are in need of.
SPEAKER_01: And then an invitation to experience how Jesus fulfills these needs through being in relationship with him, through abiding with, through dwelling with.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, but he needs something that's all-wheel drive because there's a lot more snow than this Georgia boy knows how to handle.
SPEAKER_01: So he wanted to get something that not only would be good in the snow, but something that in the long run that I too would be comfortable driving.
SPEAKER_01: So he narrowed it down to two car choices and asked if I would go to the local dealership here in Texas to look at those models.
SPEAKER_01: Before I even had my car in park at the dealership, there was someone at my door ready to help me.
SPEAKER_01: I was up front from the beginning, apologetically knowledging that what I was the help I was looking for was not going to lead to a commission for him today.
SPEAKER_01: I tried to be clear that all I wanted to do was sit in two different models, see how they felt, mainly make sure I could see over the dashboard, because that's an issue for short people like me, and ask a few questions.
SPEAKER_01: I wasn't even asking to do a test drive, and yet, at least four times in that 15 minutes, he tried to convince me that I needed to turn in my car and get a new one.
SPEAKER_01: I know my car doesn't look like much, but it's a Honda and it needs to get me through a lot more miles before I'm willing and ready to give up on her.
SPEAKER_01: Now I didn't take any offense at this man's approach.
SPEAKER_01: I recognize that this is his job and his livelihood.
SPEAKER_01: But he never did stop to listen, to hear what it was that I was truly looking for.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, though, first asks questions and then invites the disciples into a space to come and see and experience for themselves what it is, in fact, that they need.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, while always offering eternal life, does it not in some way that is forcible but invitational.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus remains with the other two members of the Trinity and is dwelling with those early disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And in the present today, Jesus doesn't go it alone either, because Jesus goes with us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus abides now in us and works in and through us.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus continues to be the light of the world, inviting people to come and see and experience transformation of the here and now through you and me.
SPEAKER_01: Part of this dwelling means that Jesus is asking us at the present, what is it you seek?
SPEAKER_01: What is it you need?
SPEAKER_01: And then invites us also to ask this question for our neighbors.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus asked this question to many, and the crowd said they wanted more bread.
SPEAKER_01: The religious leaders wanted a trap to trap him and find ways to remove Jesus from the situation.
SPEAKER_01: But these first disciples wanted to simply experience Jesus and dwelling in their reality.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is asking all of us today, what is it you seek as Jesus continues to abide in relationship with each of us?
SPEAKER_01: What is our response?
SPEAKER_01: Whether our need is for love or rest or peace or healing or fulfillment, or the list could go on and on, Jesus' response to us is come and see.
SPEAKER_01: The response to our needs is found in the abiding with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A possible epiphany for today then is Jesus does not go it alone, and neither can we.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus goes with us, and we go with Jesus, and we go with one another.
SPEAKER_01: As we continue to accept this epiphany, how does it then shape us?
SPEAKER_01: How does it shape how we respond to both God and to the world?
SPEAKER_01: Does it help us to balance out our Western cultural leanings of independence with a way of interdependence?
SPEAKER_01: Does it help us to value the other, to stop, ask and listen, and only after listening, inviting others to come and see?
SPEAKER_01: Does it remind us that Jesus dwells within us so that we are never alone?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus doesn't go it alone, and neither do we.