A sermon shared with youth
and adults at First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN January 11, 2018.
Note: In our worship we seek to present to our youth the message of how
valuable they are to the future of the Church. I make an effort to share with
our youth the introductory concept of the sermon since they are an essential
part of worship.
Young
Peoples Lesson (read both scriptures)
What is
in a name? Do you have a nickname? In the Bible, for sure, nicknames or new
names usually mean something important has, or is about to happen to a person.
In our reading
in Isaiah, Isaiah even gives God a name, : the Redeemer of Israel and his
Holy One.”
Do you
remember Abraham? His original name was Abram that we think meant “high father.”
When God gave him a blessing, God
changed Abram to Abraham because he is the “father of all
nations.”
When a
man called Jacob who feared that he was being chased down to be killed by his
brother that he cheated out of his inheritance argued with God for a blessing,
God finally relented and gave Jacob a blessing but changed his name to Israel
which means “he argued/struggled with God,” a name surely befitting the nations
of Israel and Judah.
Isaiah
means something like “the Lord has saved all people.”
A man
called John the Baptist calls “Jesus, the Lamb of God” because the lamb was a
sign of God saving the Israelites in Egypt and Jesus is going to save us all,
just as Isaiah said.
He
called Jesus, the Son of God because …why??
He also
called him the Messiah which means the anointed one or King. That is because
Jesus is going to be Lord of All.
One of
the disciples called him Rabbi which means teacher….why??
Today in
our bible lesson we hear Jesus giving people new names.
When God
gives people new names, it means something special has happened.
Jesus
called Simon Peter, Cephas, that means rock because Jesus was going to make
Peter the rock upon which he built his church. When you think about it, these
“new names” fit with what I’ve been talking about the last few Sundays, our
calling.
It is
almost like Harry Potter being told he is not a kid who lives under the stairs
but is a wizard and being invited to learn the skills that will make him a
great wizard.
I want
to challenge you to think what kind of name would Jesus give you because you
have a special gift for the world.
It might be “Faithful” because you are here almost every Sunday.
Maybe for it might be pensive, because you are always thinking about something
deep and important.
Main sermon
Do you ever envy those folks who always seem to know
exactly what they are doing and why? I’m thinking about the people who seem to
be on a mission and things always seem to work out for them. And those other people who always seem to know
what and how to say something. They are
never embarrassed, shy or nervous talking to someone, they always say the right
thing. It can leave you wondering if you
are thinking or working hard enough.
Most of us at one time or another wonder what are we
supposed to do with our life. We may fret
over where we are going, whether we are going to leave a positive mark on the
world.
We have watched friends or young family members approaching
graduation from high school or college struggling to figure out the answer to that
question. Because we love them and worry
about them We might even try to help them along to a solution by asking them
the question, “What are you looking for?”
Who among us has ever been a little restless, uncertain or
indecisive at some point in our life with the same question, “What am I looking
for?” We call it the quest for self-actualization, it seems to be the mark of
our age. People pay a lot of money for help with the answer when often it is
already under the nose.
The revelation of Jesus by John the
Baptist
Two questions preoccupy the listener to the gospel of John,
“What am I looking for?” and “How do I talk or testify about my faith?”
The first 18 verses, John’s epilogue, describe the shape of
the whole Christian landscape. The
evangelist says the essence of Jesus is the Word that is the sound and signs
of speaking. We meet John the
Baptist who is looking for and proclaiming the coming of the Light of the
Messiah. We know he was effective
because the religious leaders of the Temple sent emissaries to him with the
question, “Who are you?” They wondered is he a prophet, perhaps Elijah himself,
or even the Messiah? John the Baptist
could have said, “Yes, I’m Elijah,” to bring more attention to him like some
broadcast evangelists do today.
The temple leaders’ question, “Who are you?” (similar to
the question Jesus asked, “What are you looking for?”) shows how easily people confuse
the proclaimer with the one proclaimed. John was in a difficult spot. The evangelist
who wrote John’s Gospel goes out of the way to discourage thinking of John the
Baptist in any role other than messenger of the coming Good News. That might be why he omits any account of the
baptism of Jesus. The evangelist makes
sure everyone hears this message from John the Baptist, “Someone greater than I
is coming and I am not worthy even to untie his sandals.”
But, when Jesus does appear at the Jordan River (v29), John
recognizes him. When we dig into the actual
Greek we realize John the Baptist speaks to the crowd in prophetic language of
revelation, “Look! Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. I saw the Spirit of God descend
upon him like a dove. And the one who sent me to baptize (we know he means the
Lord) told me the one on whom that dove rests brings the baptism of the Holy
Spirit, this is the Son of God.”
The call for action
The next day, Jesus returns again, walking toward John by
the Jordan River. John repeats his prophetic cry to two of his own disciples
that are standing with him (v36), “Look!” Here is the lamb of God.” Does Jesus
stop and embrace John, or acknowledge him?
No, he walks on, ignoring John. But John’s two disciples, Andrew and the
unnamed (beloved?) disciple, follow Jesus who turns around and asks them, “What or who are you looking for?”
Let’s use our imagination here. John the Baptist is standing with two of his more
trusted or reliable disciples (they are the only ones mentioned). Jesus walks
by and recruits them! The Baptist might naturally be a little miffed at Jesus for
recruiting his disciples but we find out in 3:29-30, that John the Baptizer understands
the situation with humility, “My joy has been
fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
The Ministry Begins
This exchange with John’s disciples describes the actual
beginning of the ministry of Jesus in John’s gospel. Let’s take it apart to see how it unfolds
because it is a model for effective ministry. First, we hear John the Baptist
proclaim the identity of Jesus to his disciples. Next, the listeners respond to
Jesus by following him and he asked them the question, “What are you looking
for?” How do they reply? “Where are you staying?” What is the response of Jesus
but the same question? “Come and see.”
Right here is a short and sweet lesson on effective
ministry. It consists of
(1) a proclamation, or testimony (it can be an act or
words) that
(2) compels a response to follow and learn more.
We hear the question of Jesus, “What are you looking for?” and
a response, “Where are you staying (or tell us more)?” Finally, we hear an
invitation to “Come and see!”
This is the example of Christian vocation and attitude. There
is no fire and brimstone preaching, no loud sermons, just the testimony of John
the Baptist to his disciples about the Word. We can substitute “us” for John
the Baptist and “our friends” for “disciples.”
We testify about the Word to our friends and invite the interested ones to
“come and see.”
What would you say are the most important things that
happened in this ministry narrative? The first is a proclamation of the
identity of Jesus, and the second is the invitation of hospitality to the
people who responded to the proclamation. We cannot overlook a third thing of
importance, the reaction by John the Baptist over the loss of his disciples. He
did not object that Jesus was “stealing his disciples, nor did he try to
“out-preach” Jesus to win them back, rather he adopted a humble attitude that
acknowledged that he must diminish as Jesus increases in stature and his
ministry increases.
This narrative is the prototype of effective ministry. But I’ve left out the last step of ministry. After
Andrew spent time and discovered who Jesus is, immediately he goes to his
brother, Simon Peter, tells him, “We have found the Messiah,” and brings him to
meet Jesus. Now, two thousand years after starting with Andrew and Simon, here
we are with 3 billion or so Christians…
All started by a simple question, …“What are you looking
for?” and someone running back to say, “We have found the Messiah.”
That ought to be the words on the tip of every Christians’
tongue if we believe our Christian vocation is to follow this model of ministry
proclaiming the Good News and teaching those who hear to do the same. Our vocation
is to proclaim the Good News, in word and
deed.
Of course, the challenge we all face is not “What are
you looking for?” but “How do I do it?” We face barriers. Some say,
“I’m not comfortable ‘preaching’ or publically proclaiming my faith. I don’t
know what to say.”
We get all tangled up in these words, “testimony” and
“preaching.” We think testimony literally must be standing up and telling
people how you came to understand your Christian faith. But that idea of testimony as “oral
preaching” has two pitfalls. The first trap comes when we believe giving the
testimony is more important that having to talk about or live our experience
with the gospel. This is my main complaint with our street preachers. The other
pitfall is to think testimony always means giving a sermon or speech.
Isn’t the most powerful testimony no more than sharing
one’s experiences of simply living one’s life with a Christian focus? This is
why I regularly return to the lesson Jesus taught the temple lawyer who sought
to entrap Jesus. When asked what is the greatest commandment Jesus responded,
“To love the Lord with all your heart, mind soul and strength and the second is
to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Jesus really acknowledged those two commandments define his
and our vocation. When we live in conformity to them we are giving the world
the most powerful testimony about the Good News. No fancy speech is necessary,
just our acts of love.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, in the Sermon on the
Plain in Luke, Jesus has a single message, “My life is a testimony to the glory
of God and I invite you to live the same way that I do.” Christian life really
is the best testimony of faith that we have.
When we walk out the front door of this sanctuary we carry a sign that
says, “Look at me, I’m a Christian. I invite you to live the same way I do.”
It isn’t always easy at first. We are not perfect. We get
mad and say hurtful things. We argue when we should forgive. We are hesitant to
help someone we think might be freeloading. We value our own possessions and
our status. No one likes to be embarrassed or humiliated or taken advantage of.
We all do it. When we stumble we ask for forgiveness knowing that too is part
of the actual act of proclaiming what we believe. Being a Christian is the hard
work of practice, practice, practice remembering that a Christian is always in
the testifying mode.
John the Evangelist tells us there is another part of
ministry after testimony and following the first commandment. It is that second
commandment: hospitality.
Hospitality has always been something special to
Christians. Jesus was criticized for his hospitality. He entertained thieves,
the physical and spiritual unclean, prostitutes, tax collectors and the like. In
the first centuries hospitality practiced the way Jesus understood it set Christians
apart.
In the Roman era, power was a great virtue. It was a virtue
because you used hospitality to gain power through those you know. Such hospitality is a strategy of
discrimination. Only invite to your home those that you can curry favor and help
you get power. You’ve heard the expression, “It is all in who you know.”
Christian hospitality mocked the idea of Roman hospitality.
Christian hospitality is more challenging than testimony, it is the act of
giving expecting no reward. Jesus said it is easiest to love your friends. We
may not be as discriminating as Roman, but how many of us turn down an
opportunity or contact to help us get something done?
Often, we rely on our contacts for the noblest of reasons
and depth of compassion. That is what friendship is about. We find the child’s
indiscriminant hospitality inside that second commandment to love others as we
love our self, Children usually invite a new-found friend over to play at their
house just to play. They usually don’t go through all the scheming and thinking
about is this a good person to know or not, they simply invite someone over
because the like them. We do
need to teach our children to be careful with hospitality so they do not
endanger themselves, but how carefully are we to restrain Christ’s hospitality
as adults?
Many Christian writers say the modern church (though not
First Presbyterian Church, Spring City!) is losing the habit of hospitality because
we are too uncomfortable with the religious invitation, not to our Christian
friends attending church somewhere else but to others. I’m thinking about people
who have stopped attending church because it bored them or had their feelings
hurt, who are alienated against the church because we have excluded them, who
feel an emptiness and hunger and are looking at our smiling faces wondering,
“Where are you going?”
I
challenge us all to let our life be real ministry - the testimony of our
belief. Listen for people asking, “Where are you going?” You may not hear those
words, but only an inquisitive conversation that gives the idea a person is
interested. Keep those three words at the tip of your tongue so you can use
them, “Come and see us at First Presbyterian Church!” That is really what ministry and Christian
vocation is all about.
