January 8, 2012, First Sunday After Epiphany, All Souls' Episcopal Church

Called to Come and See and Flourish
John 1: 35 – 51

The theme of this Gospel passage today I just read to you is for all disciples mentioned 2000 years ago in the Scripture to “come and see”……to follow Jesus. I bid you one and all to also to “come and see”. We are invited to “come and see” the “Light of Christ” more clearly this Epiphany Season.

When Jesus set about the job of choosing leaders, both to help Him in His public life, and to be His successors in the Christian Community, He went about it in a rather unique way. Our Gospel gives us some indication of his methodology. He invited John and Andrew and Peter and Phillip and Nathaniel …calling them….telling them……that they will see great things to come. He invited them to follow Him and encouraged them to copy His own lifestyle …..using the power of example. Don’t we all know that an ounce of example is worth a pound of advice and that what Jesus was spoke louder than His words? He was their Blessed Example. He opened their eyes to great visions of new life. Jesus often talked of New Life. Reminds me of what the author Thomas Carlyle, once said:

“This life is no idle dream, but a solemn reality
It is thine own and it is all thou hast
To face eternity with”

Jesus taught them that their life is really the “childhood” of their immortality. He encouraged those who were willing at first sight, but then He also invited those who were somewhat reluctant like Nathaniel today and others like Thomas. But in the training process was bluntly honest about the price to be paid. “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Let’s have an understanding of these very important words “to deny himself” These are “no nonsense” harsh words. Many found them so back in Jesus’ time and many find them so now. Frankly, our modern 21^st Century culture would probably call them foolish and tedious!

However. I believe Jesus had another objective in mind. He wanted the very best out of all who he encountered. He wanted all to pursue excellence in this endeavor. Excellence is not a matter of chance, as it is a matter of choice. He wanted his disciples to choose to “come and see”. He wants you and I today to “come and see”. He sees our total commitment as paramount to reaching the ultimate in performance. This all brings to mind a very familiar story. with which you might be familiar:

The Spartans of ancient Greece are remembered in history as the most courageous and effective soldiers of their era, who gave total commitment to every endeavor. Despite a very small population, Sparta put armies in the field which always influenced military outcomes to an extent far beyond mere numbers. They were trained in those days as our high-tech Special Forces are trained today. Sparta was strong and powerful because she demanded, and got, excellence from her fighting men. This excellence emphasized that to be good was to be strong and brave; to die in battle was the highest honor and happiness; to survive defeat was a disgrace that even the soldier’s mother could hardly forgive. “Return with your shield or on it”, was the Spartan mother’s farewell to her soldier son. All of Sparta expected excellence from its fighting men.

Jesus wanted excellence in his disciples….in his small group of committed believers. He wanted them to be yeast in their surrounding culture. He taught them that in denying themselves, they are not to be served but to serve; this was their mission

At Baptism each of us was called to be an Apostle of the Good News. We must feel it in our bones. We really can’t be committed Christians “on the side” as a sort of after- thought. Remember that stark and raw verse from the Book of Revelation?

“Because Thou art lukewarm, and neither cold

or hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth”

Being a Christian is not to protect us from the world, but to change the way we live in the world…to live our lives as if we are painting a picture……..to add beauty and composition to the life around us as best you can….one brush stroke at a time. We do this not only for our own sakes, but also for the sake of those around us…… We are not called to be “lukewarm” Christians!!

Isn’t it interesting in our detailed Gospel story that Jesus Himself used lay people in calling his first Apostles?

It was the author Karl Rahner who once wrote:

“Everything depends on the lay person’s understanding
That he or she is an individual, irreplaceable
With a specifically Christian and moral task to be
performed within groups not directly subject to the
Church’s official control…a task that he or she will have
To give all account before the judgement seat of God”
Strong Words!

Jesus called Phillip, who after having received and answered the Lord’s invitation himself, almost immediately turned to someone else by the name of Nathaniel and repeated the invitation in the very same words.

My friends, there are plenty of similar opportunities for us to be thought-provoking disciples and encourage people to grow and to truly blossom. Many years ago, I was a scuba instructor and the French diver, author and explorer, Jacque Cousteau, was always a man I admired. He wrote once that many of the coins he recovered in the sunken Spanish Galleons he dove on had an engraved inscription in Spanish that simply said, “I will flourish wherever I go.” Is this not a motto this Epiphany Season for each of us as a Christian ? We flourish and manifest the Light of Christ wherever we go!!

Human existence at its deepest levels has to do not so much with ideas in abstraction as with people in mutual relationships. Each of us is born with a human soul, but that soul is merely a potential that may or may not be activated. One needs only to look at the glazed deadened eyes of drug pushers, prostitutes, serial killers or terrorists who were born with the same invitation to excellence in the abundant life but probably no one ever pointed it out to them. No one ever asked them to “come and see”

We know of all the miracles that Jesus did; they were done in the context of His day-to-day life. In all reality, I think that it would be safe to assume that most of the days and months of Jesus’ life and those of the apostles were little different than ours, engaged in routine, showing love and compassion in the commonplace…..trying to live a good life. Even John the Baptist, if you will recall, had difficulty recognizing the Messiah in his day because of the ordinariness of Jesus’ ministry. So also, in our day, our response to the Lord will often go unnoticed in its unassuming style, simplicity and steadiness…..but we can still “flourish wherever we go”

Flourishing in our Anglican tradition is not very often involved with religious extravaganza with bone-shaking conversions to recognize God’s Grace at work. We live with the rich historical tradition, beautiful prose and extraordinary music of our s. Most of us are not involved with “spectacle”. We “flourish” without it, redeeming each other in the commonplace events that are built on the depths of what we really mean to each other. We must learn to see more than just with our eyes. We all seek a joyful life, but Joy is a small miracle from a thousand seemingly insignificant exchanges, or uncounted moments of small talk and events that save us from the need for spectacle.

As I have already said, Jesus invites us today, as He did the disciples to “come and see”, and to look at Him as our Blessed Example. In our flawed humanity, can we not seek to the best of our abilities to be Christ-like? Yes, to be sure, we also are invited to be “yeast” in today’s worldly culture. Remember that each of us is unique and irreplaceable. He has given each of us a purpose this Epiphany Season, and we have every opportunity and the capability and capability of coming and seeing and doing and flourishing wherever we go, responding wholeheartedly ……with excellence……to the Cause of Christ …….to the Light of Christ much as did His original disciples. Well………As God’s 21^st Century disciples, This is our calling too!!

In the Name of the Father and the Son
And the Holy Ghost

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