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Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church SAINT ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 306 N. Division Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104 • (734) 663-0518 • www.standrewsaa.org Sermon for Sunday, January 19, 2020 The Second Sunday after the Epiphany DONNA WESSEL WALKER Isaiah 49:1-7 | Psalm 40:1-12 | I Corinthians 1:1-9 | John 1:29-42 May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts together Chosen One? Not because of the dove at the baptism: it’s Be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. not clear that anyone other than John and Jesus saw that or recognized it as the sign of the Holy Spirit. Andrew and the “Behold the Lamb of God!” How much is contained in that other disciple believed John because of the quality of their re- phrase, now so familiar to us, once so new. It was new when lationship, and the quality of life they had seen in John. They John the Baptist first said it when he saw Jesus, and so un- trusted that John knew what God was doing, trusted enough precedented that scholars don’t know exactly where he got it to act on what John said. They follow Jesus, and their lives or how he came up with it. It’s possible that John didn’t know are never the same again. Andrew is so impressed with what exactly what he meant; he certainly could not have foreseen he sees and hears in Jesus that he goes to fetch his brother how deeply Christians would explore the meaning and impli- Simon. Simon believes Andrew because of the quality of their cations of that vision of the Lamb of God. But from what John relationship, and the quality of life he has seen in Andrew. had seen, he knew that Jesus was the Chosen One of God, Simon comes to meet Jesus, and his life, and even his name, and when he cried out, “Behold the Lamb of God” those who are never the same again. heard him knew that Jesus was the one to look at, to seek, and to follow. John is acting very much like the servant of the Lord de- scribed in the passage from Isaiah we heard this morning. How did John know that Jesus was the Lamb of God? John This passage is one of the “Servant Songs” of the second half tells how, in telling the story of his calling. John had been giv- of Isaiah, although it is ambiguous who that servant is. There en one job: to prepare the people for the arrival of the Cho- are four such “servant songs” in second Isaiah; the fourth one, sen One of God. John was to get people ready through the describing the suffering servant, we usually ascribe to Jesus. ritual bath of baptism so that the Messiah could be revealed. So we’re inclined to see the other three songs as applying Did John ask God how he would know who the Messiah was? to Jesus also, and they do fit Jesus’ life and ministry. But the Maybe. God did tell John what to look for: like many other second servant song is also applicable to John: he’d also been people the chosen one would come for baptism, but the Holy “formed in the womb to be God’s servant, to bring Jacob Spirit would descend like a dove from heaven and rest upon back to him, that Israel might be gathered to him.” And it was him alone. When John saw the dove descend on Jesus, he rec- true that John was soon to face futility and seeming failure: ognized him as the One he’d been waiting for. John had not his baptismal ministry would peter out, most of his disciples expected his cousin Jesus to be the Chosen One; he may not would follow Jesus, and John himself would end his life in have known Jesus well in childhood, since they grew up fairly prison wondering if Jesus really were the Messiah. Yet even in far away from each other. But John makes the point that he frustration and futility all is not lost: at the very moment of had not realized this about Jesus before: “I didn’t know him seeming failure, God says that the original mission to Israel is as the Messiah before the Holy Spirit came upon him at his not enough; the servant of God will be a light to the nations baptism,” says John. John is at pains to say that he recognized so that God’s saving work would reach all over the world. Jesus as Messiah only because God revealed it to be so: God is at work in Jesus and John is there to see it and announce it. John said “Behold the Lamb of God” and his disciples followed So John says, twice, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Jesus. Andrew said “We have found the Messiah” and Simon followed and became Peter, one of the rocks of the church. The second time John says this he’s with two of his disciples. Paul and Sosthenes went to Corinth with the good news of Their reaction is to take off after Jesus, to ask him about him- God and both Jews and pagans followed Jesus. The salvation self and then to stay with him to hear his teaching and get a of God reaches the far corners of the earth by someone say- sense of what he was about. Why did John’s disciples behave ing “Behold the Lamb of God” to someone else who follows that way? Why did they believe John when he identified Je- Jesus. The gospel is spread relationally, person-to person; the sus as the one who met the criterion God had set up for the good news is shared among us. Some scholars think the Ser- vant Songs apply to the whole people of Israel, who were called to be a light to the nations. That may well be: the pas- sage may be multi-layered, multivalent. The servant of God is preeminently Jesus; but also the servant of God was John. And Andrew. And Simon Peter. And Paul. And Sosthenes. And all those unnamed Christians at Corinth. And so, broth- ers and sisters, are we. We are the servants of God in our time and place. We may not feel like it, and we may not feel that our times are very propitious for the gospel. But we are servants of God no matter what our times or our circumstances. The Jews who first heard Isaiah’s servant song in the 8th century BCE had been traumatized by the conquest and destruction of their country, and their exile far away from it. The Jews who first heard John the Baptist were religious and ethnic minorities in an occupied territory of a ruthless empire. The Christians in Corinth were mired in a city known for its vice. But God promised to the Servant strength and deliverance, and ulti- mate effectiveness. All we, as servants of God, need to do is to keep pointing people to God, to keep on saying “Behold, the Lamb of God.” When we look around at our world, or feel enmeshed in the difficulties of our lives, it is easy to ask, “Where is God in all of this?” Usually that question implies that God is nowhere to be found, or at least that it’s hard to see him. “Behold, the Lamb of God” is the answer to that question: it is to say “Look, there he is!” That is why we need to say it to each other. Without John the Baptist, neither the crowds nor An- drew nor the other disciple would have realized who Jesus was as he walked down the road. Without Andrew, Simon would never have known Jesus. We often need someone else to say, “Look, here’s Christ in your life.” There are many dif- ferent ways of pointing out the presence of Christ to each other. The friend and brother who stay until the surgery is over are saying “behold, Christ is here”. The cards and mes- sages of prayer and love bring Christ home. Christ is pres- ent whenever someone says, “we are with you.” The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is present whenever someone says, “look, that joke’s not funny: it’s demeaning and cruel.” Or whenever someone says, “look, this is how you can unlearn unconscious bias or undermine systemic racism.” Sometimes “behold, the Lamb of God” comes in the voice on the phone that just says, “Hey, girl, how you doing?” These are all ways of saying, “Here is God in your life. Behold the Lamb of God!” Like John the Baptist, we have one job: to see Jesus and to point him out to others. Behold: the Lamb of God! Amen. January 19, 2020 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church .
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