"Come and See" - Sermon for the 2nd Sunday of Epiphany, Jan 18, 2015

Sermon

Text: John 1:43-51

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who asks us come and see.

Some friends of mine still in seminary are out in Holden Village in the mountains of Washington State this week for a January term class. And the professor who leads the trip, well, he doesn’t like flying at all, so instead of everyone getting plane tickets out there, they take the Amtrak Train all the way from the Wisconsin/Minnesota border all the way through Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Eastern Washington. It does take a few days vs. a couple hours it would take by plane, but, the pictures they have been posting make it all worth it, it seems. I did the same trip my senior year at Wartburg, but there was a big snow storm that blocked the rails in north Dakota and we ended up having to drive out there, not as fun, and not as easy to look around when you are concentrating on driving.

I would like to take a train trip like that sometime, maybe wait until summer though. But, I think it would be nice to be able to just sit and watch the world pass by.

            We don't do that as much anymore, there is always stuff to do, places to get to fast, stuff on Facebook, twitter, TV etc. We are so busy we don’t just look any more. My parent’s decided this year that it would be fun to take a big family vacation together, so the weekend before Lent starts we are all heading down to Cancun for 5 days. I was talking to my dad this week as I start to make sure I have all the stuff I want to bring with, books and the like, and I asked, are you bringing your Ipad along? I was initially planning to bring mine, but he said no, and wasn’t even quite sure what wireless internet connections would be like there. And he didn’t want to have the risk of losing it. So, I told him that I changed my mind and decided I'm not bring it, but then wondered aloud to him, well, what am I going to do?! He jokingly asked, going into Facebook withdrawal already?

            A couple days later now though, and well, I think I’m a little excited about not having it, I found a couple books that look fun and I’m looking forward to reading and just looking while there.

            It’s rather refreshing feeling to just take the invitation to just look.

            It’s a rather different situation in our gospel reading for today, no vacations to look towards, no ipads or computers or smart phones. Just two guys on the outside of town. Philip, who has already agreed in the first line of our lesson to follow Jesus, and Nathaniel, who apparently likes to sit under fig trees.

            Philip tells Nathaniel, hey, we found the messiah! The one talked about by Moses and the prophets! He’s Jesus of Nazareth.

            Nathaniel pretty much pushes it off, Nazareth, That heap of a town? How can someone great come from there?

Come and see.

I love that response. There’s no, no this guy’s really good! Or Jesus is different, he’s a great teacher, there’s lots of stuff he does, healings, miracles. It’s simply come and see. I can’t describe what he’s like, you can only see for yourself.

            I can describe a grand open prairie, the blueness of the sky and the vastness of the plains stretching forth, we can even look at this picture, but to really understand it, we need to go see ourselves. I can think about the waters off cancun, but I won't know them until I experience them myself.

            I can tell you all that I know about Jesus, his love, his mercy, his forgiveness, but to really understand it, you need to see yourself.

            Maybe if we started doing it this way we would move beyond the once a decade norm for how many times a Lutheran invites someone to church. You don’t have to describe the Christmas program, or the Sunday School, or what kind of music we do, or what the coffee’s like even. Just come and see, I can’t describe what you need, but if you come, maybe you’ll find it.

            Come and see.

            That’s not the end of this passage though. Philip and Nathaniel meet Jesus. And before Nathaniel can say anything, Jesus declares that he knows who Nathaniel is, and that he has already seen him, before Philip even showed up. You’re Nathaniel, who sits under fig trees.

            It’s a beautifully simple greeting and welcome. I see you, I know you, and I welcome you.

            I think it’s a beautiful way to be welcomed to church. Whether we’re brand new, or we’ve been here our whole lives.

Jesus already sees you. And Jesus already accepts you.

We begin our service with the brief order of confession and forgiveness and last week we went through a longer order of directed confession and corporate forgiveness. Part of that time is spent in silence looking at where we failed this last week, where we looked away from God and tried to find life elsewhere, where it is that we sinned by turning from God.

We don't really need to do that though, or maybe better said, that’s only for our own benefit. God already knows our faults. Just as Jesus saw Nathaniel under the fig tree, God sees us where we are. You’re Erik, who spends too much time on his Ipad. You’re so and so, who does this. And even with that Christ offers forgiveness, before we even got here. This morning as you drove here, that’s when the forgiveness was offered. It was before Philip got to Nathaniel, while he was still sitting under the fig tree, that Christ welcomed him.

That’s how Christ welcomes us, by just asking us to come, and see what he offers.

Christ does not say change who you are in order to be the church. It’s not prepare yourself and make sure you are ready. It’s come and see.

That’s devoid of qualifications, it’s free of requirements, it’s just you, who God has already seen.

It means that come and see does not have us look inwardly, to work and change ourselves, Christ has already seen that, has already changed that in us. Come and see allows us to look out. To stop being adults who see the fault in everything, the concern and worry in everything, the fear in everything and allowing us to be the Children of God that we are through our baptism. To see instead the wonder of the world around us and all that God has done for us, and all that God will do through us. To not have to drive through life fearful at every point, but to sit on the train and see the grandness of what is God is up to.

Amen.