Staying with Jesus

STAYING WITH JESUS Isaiah 49:1-7; John 1:29-42 Second Sunday after Epiphany January 15, 2017

I always looked forward to staying with my cousins in LeRaysville. There were 4 boys, Gene, Marty, Bob, and Alan, who was closest in age to me. What a change! I lived in a family with 3 sisters. No comparison!

My earliest memories are of family times shared. AS we got older, Bob, Alan, and I played together. They even had a three speed “English” bike, and that thing rolled down the road! Then, as we aged, Bob got his driver’s license and the times we had riding in his convertible! One time, even later, Aunt Norma allowed Alan and me to go to Towanda to the drive in. On the way home, Alan asked, “Do you want to drive?” Want to drive! I was only 14 and the greatest thing I had driven was the farm tractor! I slide behind the wheel and across those back country roads we went. And wonder of wonder, we arrived back in LeRaysville without 2 incidence. What memories; what experiences; what relationships.

John the Baptist and some of his disciples were traveling together. They met Jesus along the road and John exclaims: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Again a second day, they meet, and John introduces them: “The Lamb of God!”

We don’t know what transpired those intervening 24 hours, but I imagine there was some interesting conversations regarding that title John used. It would be great to have been there. Be that as is may, that second day saw John’s disciples leave him and follow Jesus. We are told, ‘they went and saw…and stayed with him” (John 1:39).

STAYING WITH JESUS, wow! What that must have been like! These disciples were with the one even greater than John, the one about whom John had testified. John had baptized Jesus, saw the Spirit in the form of a dove descending upon Jesus; he heard God’s voice! 3

And here they were, in his presence. This is a meeting and a conversation not to be missed, and yet we have little in way of a record. What we know is that Andrew, one of those with Jesus, was so moved by what took place in that meeting, that he went out, found his brother, none other than Peter, telling him of his experience, and brought him back to meet Jesus.

What is it to ‘stay’ with Jesus? What does our pausing to ‘stay’ compel in us: what thought, what word, what action, what invitation? And yes, it makes sense, it seems to me, that it is entirely necessary for us to stay — for us to be Jesus’ ‘guest’ before we can even consider inviting someone to ‘stay’ with him.

Do we listen? Question? Push against those things with which we do not agree? Do we stand apart, afraid that we cannot be who or what Jesus might want of us? Shrink back because we do not see ourselves as worthy?

Or do we have fun at weddings with him? Or at table fellowship with him? Or joke as we walk the road with him? 4

Isn’t all of this what the experience of ‘staying’ is? Isn’t it— whether it be with a friend or a neighbor or a relative — or with Jesus to build a relationship?

Relationship building makes us vulnerable, and we don’t like to be vulnerable. But that is normally when learning happens. That is when meaningful change is most possible.

I wonder how is it and where and when that we ‘stay’ with Jesus?

•Is it when we dwell in Scripture?

•Or when we sit in prayer?

•Or as we stand to sing in worship?

•Do we ‘stay’ with Jesus when our hands are put to work in service of others?

•Or when we stand with the oppressed, the fearful, the hungry, the poor?

•Do we ‘stay with Jesus’ when we advocate for the voiceless or the powerless? 5

It is more than all these: it is to stay with Jesus in a way where I allow myself to become vulnerable and become open and available to that love that encompasses us.

And so for you and for me, I wonder now:

•Will such ‘staying’ with Jesus find us in a place of challenge or peace or both?

•Will it be like going home or will it be like entering territory the likes of which we have never known before?

•Like Andrew, who might we then be compelled to invite to ‘stay’ as well?

•Indeed, how might we be changed by ‘staying’ with Jesus?

Will we ‘stay’ with Jesus?