What are you looking for?
“Traveled the world and the seven seas, everybody looking for something.”
“Preaching of Saint John the Baptist,” Pieter Bruegel (1564-1638), courtesy the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library
Sermon for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A (January 15, 2023).
View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Second Sunday after the Epiphany
Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany (Jan 15th) is available here.
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The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” John 1:35-39a
Edited Transcript
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.
Jesus loves to ask a question, right? He's not so big on answering direct questions, but he does love to ask them! The question he asks this week is: What are you looking for? Another translation of this text has him ask, a little more colloquially: What are you after?
I'm hearing this question, and inviting you this week to hear this question, as we move through the season after the Epiphany. I'm inviting you to hear in this question an invitation to think about: What is it that I'm after? What do I seek? What am I looking for? What are we as a church looking for? What brings us here from week to week? What brings us to our daily prayer?
What are you looking for?
And in fact, we see the theme of "looking for" all through this text. John the Baptist says: "Look! The Lamb of God." "Behold! The one I was telling you about." There's a lot of seeing. And in this season after the Epiphany, we're gonna have themes of seeing: talking about how Christ is the light of the world, that by which we see. The season after the Epiphany begins with the Epiphany on January 6th, when that star illuminates the sky and brings people from far away to see the child Jesus laid in the manger; brings these wise ones on their journey. Jesus will draw all people to himself, right? So at the beginning of this season, we have this illumination, and that theme continues. We see, we behold what maybe we didn't see, what we didn't know before.An epiphany is kind of an aha moment, right? I get it!
And after the Epiphany, we move into the first Sunday after the Epiphany. That was last week. What is revealed on that Sunday is our own belovedness. What we see and understand as the heavens open and the dove descends on Jesus at his baptism, we have an illumination of the reality that Jesus is the beloved Son of God. And that by participating in his baptism, we as members of Christ's body share in that belovedness.
And now this week is the invitation from Jesus. "What are you looking for? Come with me and see."
And as the season after the Epiphany continues, week by week, we will have the opportunity to follow Jesus, to go where Jesus goes, to learn and to see what he teaches us, what he does, what the practices are of healing, restoration, reconciliation... What he teaches us, what he does, who he is. And as we in this season, follow Jesus through his ministry and his life, we begin to learn what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
This question: What are you looking for? The folks that Jesus calls who have come to him, they have an interesting answer, don't they? They say, Where are you staying? As though what they want to see is, I don't know, his hotel room or something. And Jesus says, "Come and see." What happens from there though is not that they get to go to the place where Jesus is staying and stay there and be all done, right? They don't get to wrap up their journey.
They they're invited to "come and see" but they don't get to find what they're looking for and stay there. Remember how Jesus says, "Birds of the air have their nests, and foxes have their holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." So when Jesus invites them to "come and see" the place where he is staying, it's not a destination. He's inviting them to begin to join him on his journey—as he invites us. And he's going to be on the move all through this season after Epiphany. And those who ask, "Where are you staying?" find out that if they're going to be with Jesus, there isn't really a whole lot of staying to do.
Even so, you'll remember later in the Gospel of John (and these are texts we'll often read in the summertime), Jesus compares himself to the branch, to the vines and the branches, right? And he says, "Stay with me. Abide in me as I abide in you."
So while there is a dynamism to being a disciple with Jesus—Jesus doesn't stay in one place for very long; he's always moving. And so those who follow him are always moving too. We always learning, growing, being transformed, finding new ways that we're called to be of service. Even so, if what we're looking for is a place to stay, we find it's not so much a place (as these disciples were seeking), but it's Jesus that is our home. It's Jesus that is the place where we can stay and where we can abide. It's Jesus in whom we can remain.
And if it is the case that to follow Jesus means to always be on the move, to have maybe nowhere we can lay our head or rest on our laurels... It's Jesus himself who gives us that rest and that place to remain that allows us to keep going, allows us to take the risks we're called to take. It's Jesus who is our home, who nurtures us to be his disciples.
So this week, what is it that you are after? What are you looking for? And how might we find it together in turning toward Jesus, whom we follow? Amen. Amen.