Worship for Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Second Sunday in Epiphanytide
Theme: Come and See
O God,
you spoke your word and revealed your good news in Jesus, the Christ.
Fill all creation with that word again, so that by proclaiming your love to all nations
and singing of your glorious hope to all peoples,
we may become one living body--your presence on the earth.
We thank you for redeeming life through redeeming lives. We especially thank you today for the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. We thank you for his legacy of loving others--even those who would hate us.
We thank you for the life of Mary Delp, who elevated us with music and inspired us with her tenacious fight for life. Now that she can fight no longer, we pray that you will comfort those who grieve her loss--and all who grieve.
We thank you for new life in the tiny person of Piper Reining. Let us never fail to be in awe of life.
Bring healing to all wounds,
make whole all that is broken,
speak truth to all illusion,
and shed light in every darkness, God of every land and nation,
you have created all people
and you dwell among us in Jesus Christ.
Listen to the cries of those who pray to you,
and grant that, as we proclaim the greatness of your name,
all people will know the power of love at work in the world.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
John 1:35-42
35The next day, John was there again, and two of his followers were with him. 36When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, "Here is the Lamb of God!" 37John's two followers heard him, and they went with Jesus.
38When Jesus turned and saw them, he asked, "What do you want?"
They answered, "Rabbi, where do you live?" The Hebrew word "Rabbi" means "Teacher."
39Jesus replied, "Come and see!" It was already about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him and saw where he lived. So they stayed on for the rest of the day.
40One of the two men who had heard John and had gone with Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. 41The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and tell him, "We have found the Messiah!" The Hebrew word "Messiah" means the same as the Greek word "Christ."
42Andrew brought his brother to Jesus. And when Jesus saw him, he said, "Simon son of John, you will be called Cephas." This name can be translated as "Peter."
“Come and See”
This is the story of Andrew.
But, I’m going to tell it backward.
The General Board of the newly constituted Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was seeking a new symbol for the church--something that could serve to easily identify our churches and that would say something about us.
The story is told that Bob Friedly, who later would edit two different Disciples magazines (and who’s also from New Orleans), sat down to lunch in September of 1970 with Ronald Osborn, a Disciples Historian who was a dear friend of mine up until his death in Oregon a dozen or so years back. The legend goes that Ronald began drawing on his placemat with a red felt tip pen. He drew a chalice with a a St, Andrews cross on it. Another version of the story is that it was not lunchtime, and the thing was drawn on a bar napkin.
At any rate, the crude drawing was sent immediately a commercial artist. The logo went around the church like wildfire, becoming adopted as our symbol even before the General Assembly made it official the next year.
Why a St. Andrews cross? The Chalice was an easy choice--we are known throughout the wider church for our weekly-if-not-more-frequent gatherings at the table. But why St. Andrews?
Osborn said the idea came to him in a couple of ways. The early leaders of our movement were all Scots, giving us historic ties to Scotland. And Andrew is often called the “First Evangelist,” which we’ll get to in a moment. At that time, and even earlier in our history, we prided ourselves on evangelism. More on that, later, too.
Around the tenth century, St. Andrew became the patron saint of Scotland. Some centuries before, some relics, that is body parts were taken there and the church in Scotland is deeply rooted in Andrew’s lore.
Speaking of Andrew’s lore, the traditions hold that Andrew left the middle east after Jesus’ ascension to go and preach the Gospel in what is now Eastern Europe--Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Georgia, the Island of Malta, and Greece, where he was martyred for his evangelistic efforts.
So, the legend goes that he deemed himself unworthy to die on a cross similar to Jesus’, and was bound to an X-shaped cross, from which he preached for three days before dying.
In the Gospel of John, Andrew appears three times--and each time he is an evangelist as he is bringing someone to Jesus.
In the last reference to Andrew--in the 12th chapter--some Greeks who were in Jerusalem for Passover, and they wanted to see Jesus. They went to Philip and then Philip went to Andrew, then the two of them went to tell Jesus. Interesting that Philip and Andrew were the only real Greek names among the Disciples. Maybe that made the Greeks comfortable in asking them to help them get to Jesus.
In his second appearance in John’s gospel, the merry band of followers of Jesus had gone out across the Sea of Galilee, and a crowd gathered, because people were hearing about Jesus, and wanting to be around him. John tells it that there were 5,000 folk there--not counting the women and children, because in those days, women and children didn’t count.
Jesus wonders how they are going to feed these people--probably closer to 20,000. Philip figures it would take a year’s pay to buy enough food--that is if you could find a deli open. And Andrew pipes up, “Uh, there’s this kid over here with a lunch box--whaddya got--five fish and two pieces of bread. No, five loaves, two fish.”
He brings the boy to Jesus, and something miraculous happens.
Today’s scripture is the first appearance of Andrew in the Gospel of John. Andrew asks Jesus, “where do you live?”
And Jesus replies, “Come and see.”
Andrew spends a day with Jesus, probably just walking around, because Jesus didn’t own a house--or even an apartment.
Andrew then performs the very first act of evangelism--he runs to his brother Peter and says, “we have found him! Come and see!”
The late great Sri Lankan missionary David Niles once described evangelism as simply, “one beggar telling another where to find bread.”
I’ve told you before that I have a personal goal to invite at least one person to church every week. Friday I was at breakfast with Denny and invited three people--so I can coast for a couple of weeks.
Come and see what we’re doing a First Christian Church. Come and meet some really nice people. Come and hear our amazing organist. Come and listen to fantastic preaching.
No. I invite them so that they can come and see Jesus. So that we as a body, can invite them to experience Christ in our midst. Come and see--come and meet Jesus at 3rd and Bowman.
Andrew encountered Jesus, and nothing could stop him from running and telling his brother that the Messiah was here!
There’s a lot of folks in our community who are hungry--and I don’t just mean the folks that were here in our fellowship hall yesterday. Those folks were hungry! But, they are also hungry for the bread of life. And we, as the spiritual descendants of Andrew, are given the task to run and tell everyone we can--come and see. Come and see what we’ve found--together in this place.
What do you think?
If Jesus could feed twenty thousand with a picnic lunch, imagine what he can do with our tithes and offerings!
Dearest God, you have given us so much. We bring this gifts to you that you might multiply them, use them, and use us to bring your kingdom of love and justice to bear on this world. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen.
