Homily for
The Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Sunday 15 January 2017
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church
Readings:
This Gospel is the beginning of the setting of John and the
rising of Jesus. The Baptist recognizes
the Messiah, and he identifies Jesus to be the Lamb of God. John’s disciples don’t quite get the intent
in John’s proclamation the first time.
But on the following day, when a second time John proclaims Jesus to be
“the Lamb of God,” Andrew and a second unnamed disciple of John leave John to
follow after Jesus. They at last realize
that this is what their teacher has wanted the whole time; that they might
follow after Jesus.
Jesus notices that these two men are now following
him. He asks them what it is they are
looking for. They respond by asking him
where he is staying. Jesus responds with
an invitation: “Come and see.” The
Evangelist John tells us that these two disciples-in-the-making of Jesus accept
the invite and spend the night with him.
He does not tell us where they stay that night. It is enough simply to know that they were with
Jesus.
Only, my friends, let’s not get too focused simply on this
one night, this first night, that Andrew and his unnamed spiritual brother
spent with Jesus. When Jesus invited
them with the words, “come and see,” he was longing for them to be present with
him for much longer than a single night.
He was calling them not simply into an encounter. No; Jesus longed to draw them into an eternal
relationship. Already he loved them!
Maybe I am giving them too much credit, but I also think
that Andrew and his spiritual brother were also not simply thinking of one
night when they asked Jesus where he was staying. At some level, maybe even to their own
surprise, it seems that, trusting in John the Baptist’s identification of the
Messiah, they were asking Jesus where he could be found today that they might
know where to find him tomorrow and beyond.
In a sense then the whole of the Gospel is the Lord’s response and
invitation.
Now let me share with you that in some sense Andrew and his
unnamed spiritual brother represent us.
It is for this reason that we hear their story. The Evangelist John invites us to seek to
know where Jesus can be found in order that we might be present with the Lord
who is the Lamb of God who takes away our sins and bestows upon us the gift of
eternal life. So where do we find
Jesus? The most obvious answer at this
present moment should be right here in this holy house in which we are
encountered by Christ in the reading of the Word of God and in the celebration
of the Holy Eucharist. Only remember
that in the Gospels Jesus doesn’t linger too long in one place. Anytime that the disciples wish that they
could just sit for a moment and revel in that place where they and their master
are presently found, Jesus draws them to move on elsewhere with him.
So where else do we find Jesus? Where else do we hear Jesus inviting us to
come and see him? Look at the
Gospels. All the Evangelists show us
quite clearly that Jesus is always to be found with the poor and the hungry,
the naked and the lonely, the sick and the dying. Jesus tends to those who so many others turn
a blind eye towards and deny seeing anything.
He loves even these ones, and desires to open our eyes to the reality
that these undesirables are very much alive and in need of mercy. And here is the challenge for us; when Jesus
calls us as well as Andrew to come and see, he is inviting us to open up our
hearts and to love those whom Christ loves as Christ loves them, even if no one
else can do so themselves.
There is another challenge in the invitation to “Come and
See.” This might actually be more of a
challenge for many of us than loving others whom Christ loves. At the end of that first night, Andrew goes
and finds his brother and shares with him the invitation to come and see this
Jesus who has called him to come and see where God’s mercy is to be found. As Andrew went and found his brother and
shared the invitation of Jesus, so we too are called to share the invitation of
Jesus with the world. We are sent to our
brothers and sisters to tell them that there is hope for the world in Jesus who
loved the world so much that he gave himself up in death and rose from the
grave that we might have life eternal with him.
And of course I cannot think of that passage that follows
slightly after where this Sunday’s Gospel leaves off. When Nathanael, also known elsewhere as
Bartholomew, received the sharing of the invite of Jesus by another who had been
invited by Jesus to come and see, and when this Jesus was linked with Nazareth,
a place of undesirability in the mind of the one receiving this invite, Nathanael’s
response was shock that anything good could come from a place like that. Make no mistake about this fact, my
friends. There are people in the world
who will wonder at whether there is anything good or desirable or even relevant in this
Jesus. Philip said to Nathanael as Jesus
had said to Andrew: “Come and see!” Are
we so bold as to share this invitation to the world. And are we even more bold as to go with these
ones and be found in all the places and with all the persons in whose company
Jesus is to be found?
Today, as we sit at the feet of Jesus in this Mass, knowing
that Christ is in our midst, let us ask of him the strength and boldness we
need to invite others and to walk with others into all the places where Jesus is
to be found.
Father
Timothy
Alleman
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