Jan 19, 2014 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

John 1:29-42
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
   32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

    35 The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. 36 When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
   37 When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. 38 Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
   They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”
   39 “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
   So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.
   40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. 41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.
   Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter.


“We Have Found The Messiah”

Faith in Jesus as the Son of God is not something which happens in isolation -ever.
It is not something we do by ourselves; it is something which happens in the human encounters of life.

It is something we walk into more then create by ourselves.
And we help each other believe what is otherwise too incredible to believe.

John sounds sure today; tomorrow he asks, “Is this the one?”.
Andrew says “We have found the Messiah.”  He didn’t know the half of it, yet!

There will always be doubt in the midst of faith, for it is human to doubt,  In fact, doubt makes faith authentic, as  Martin Luther once said: “There is more faith in honest doubt then all the creeds of Christendom,”

Frederick Buechner puts its this way:
“Whether your faith is that there is a God, or that there is not a God,
if you don’t have any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep.
Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith.  They keep it awake and moving.”

Faith is something which is born in us as God’s spirit is at work in human ways in our lives.

Look for God in the common places and encounters of your life.  And where your doubts are, there too will your faith be!


“Called To Be At Risk”

It is not always clear what God would have us do, and when we set about doing what it is we think God has called us to do, it does not always end up as we expected it to be.

How can we know what is God’s calling for us, God’s will, purpose in the here and now as well as tomorrow?

Martin Marty -”The call of God is always to witness and witness means to be at risk.”

Between our confessing - which always has some bewilderment in it for what we believe is awesome, too wonderful to be true - and our living,  there is a lot of uncertainty and risk.

To be a disciple is to live with a faith which goes beyond our comprehension and it is to risk living as if this is certainly true.  It is to take risks - risks in forgiving others, helping others, even telling others about our Lord, - our hopes and dreams all the way to eternity.

Martin Niemoeller reminds us in succinct words what happens when we don’t take faith risks in our discipleship.
“When the Nazis came to get the Communists, I was silent.
When they came to get the Socialists, I was silent.
When they came to get the Catholics, I was silent.
When they came to get the  Jews, I was silent.”