John 1:29-46
19 January 2014
Elizabeth M. Deibert
Do
you know why many churches are declining instead of growing? Because of the e-word. Yes, evangelism. The very word scares us, makes us
uncomfortable. We had an Evangelism
Team at Peace, but so few people had the nerve to join the team, we had to re-name
it Outreach – sad but true.
People
are often nervous about evangelism because they have been on the receiving end
of some type of coercive or insensitive evangelist. The overbearing co-worker who wants to know
if you are saved or the visitor at your front door who wants to hand you a
tract and enter your house to explain how you have to say all the right things
and join the right community of faith. People
are nervous about evangelism because something so personally significant can be
challenging to discuss. People are
nervous because they know that while they’ve had a meaningful encounter with
God, they know that they cannot make that happen for someone else, nor can they
answer all a skeptic’s doubts. So most
of us just avoid evangelism. We know we
have good news, but we are not going to share it or we are not sure how to
share it with gentle integrity and respect.
The
Baptism narrative from the Gospel of John might help us with our nervousness
about evangelism. This baptism story is
completely different from the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In this one, John the Baptist is looking
back on what happened. He reflects on
the Baptism of Jesus and shares his thoughts with those around him. They start following. Jesus invites them to come and see where he
is staying. One of those was
Andrew. He reflects and shares with his
brother Peter, who says yes to the invitation.
Then Jesus calls Philip and Philip shares with Nathaniel, who is not
sure anything good can come from Nazareth.
Philip doesn’t argue with him.
He simply invites: Come and see.
And now I invite you into the narrative to come and see. Come and see, the Agnus Dei. (David Lose, Dear Working Preacher, 2014.)
John
1:29-46
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 about whom I
said, 'He who comes after me is really greater than me because he existed
before me. 31 Even I didn't recognize him, but I came baptizing with
water so that he might be made known to Israel." 32 John
testified, "I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and it
rested on him. 33 Even I didn't recognize him, but the one who sent
me to baptize with water said to me, 'The one on whom you see the Spirit coming
down and resting is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. 34 I
have seen and testified that this one is God's Son." 35 The
next day John was standing again with two of his disciples. 36 When
he saw Jesus walking along he said, "Look! The Lamb of God!" 37
The two disciples heard what he said, and they followed Jesus. 38
When Jesus turned and saw them following, he asked, "What are you looking
for?" They said, "Rabbi (which is translated Teacher), where are you
staying?" 39 He replied, "Come and see." So
they went and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It
was about four o'clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two disciples
who heard what John said and followed Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Simon
Peter. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him,
"We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Christ). 42
He led him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon, son of
John. You will be called Cephas" (which is translated Peter). 43
The next day Jesus wanted to go into Galilee, and he found Philip. Jesus said
to him, "Follow me." 44 Philip was from Bethsaida, the
hometown of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to
him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law and the Prophets:
Jesus, Joseph's son, from Nazareth." 46 Nathanael responded,
"Can anything from Nazareth be good?" Philip said, "Come and
see." (Common English Bible)
At first it might seem strange that John says, “I didn’t
even recognize him.” How could he not
recognize his own cousin, Jesus? It is
likely that John is saying that he did not fully appreciate who his cousin
really was. I did not know he was the
Lamb of God, the Agnus Dei, that Latin translation of the Greek.
Imagine John’s surprise as he pulled his cousin up out of
the water and heard the voice from heaven.
This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” By now John has given this transforming
experience some thought. And here is his
conclusion: Jesus, his cousin, the Son of God, is the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world. He has
understood that while Jesus is his younger cousin by a few months, Jesus
existed long before he did. John is not
trying to recruit people to his group, but simply sharing what he has come to
appreciate about Jesus. He tells the
story of his experience. He makes
proclamations about the significance of that story and acknowledges the greatness
of Jesus, whom he says is God’s son.
So let’s think about what we learn about evangelism from this
story. Say what you’ve seen. Tell what you’ve heard. Share what you know. Point away from yourself to Christ. Just tell your story in a way that points to
Christ, not you. Naturally, not
artificially. You’ve probably heard
someone do it unnaturally. You know the
kind of person who inserts the name of Jesus into every other sentence or who
speaks of God as if he or she has God in the back pocket to pull out whenever
needed for a sense of importance or authority.
I wonder what would happen if I asked you to tell the person
beside you why you are at Peace, what you like about coming to worship
here. Could you do it? Can you say in a simple sentence what draws
you here? Could you say whether you
experience the presence of God most at the table, in the sermon, in the
prayers, in the music, in the friendships?
Could you share why you keep coming?
I know this is an unusual thing to do in a sermon, to talk to each
other, but I’m willing to do unusual things if it helps you to grow. So please think now for a moment about your
experience of the Spirit of Christ here.
Think about why you come to Peace.
I mean you have to have a pretty good reason for coming to this church –
it’s not the architecture. It’s not
because the preacher is entertaining, not because five thousand other people
are here. What is it that draws
you? If this is your first or second
visit, you can just say that, but if you’ve been coming for a while, tell the person
beside you why you are at Peace.
To be like John and Jesus, to be like Andrew and Philip, all
you have to do is reflect on your experience genuinely, share it, and invite
people saying “come and see.” It’s
really not that difficult when you think about it this way. You tell people about other things that you
appreciate and care about.
So why not the church of Jesus Christ? Don’t let evangelism be defined by those who
do it poorly. Reclaim evangelism by
doing it well, doing it gently, authentically, with honest invitation and
enthusiasm, rather than coercion and manipulation. You
are just one person telling other people where they can enjoy life, build
trusted friendships, find meaningful experiences.
After all, you are sharing the best and most liberating news you can give someone who doesn’t know it – that Jesus, the Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world. Anything that separates us from God, anything that disappoints God, anything that willfully dehumanizes another person is sin. Christ bridges the chasms we create between one another and God. Christ heals the brokenness that makes it difficult to forgive one another. Christ restores to health that which is sick.
I feel certain that Jesus as the Lamb of God was much easier
for 1st century people, especially 1st century Jews to
understand. They had this practice of
sacrificing what was best, the best lamb, in order to make up for their
failings, to show God how sorry they were, how much they wanted to sacrifice to
restore the relationship.
Into that context comes God in human flesh, determined to
make things right in our relationship.
Sin has consequences. We can see
that. It is not difficult to see how
sin damages relationships. So God comes
and makes the ultimate sacrifice – God’s own self in the person of Jesus
Christ. God says, “I want this
relationship restored so much I will sacrifice my very own life, my freedom in
order to restore yours.” Christ leads us by example into the life-giving value
of sacrificial love. How else would we
be drawn to do anything other than preserve and protect ourselves at all cost
to others?
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi… Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
One of the most profound ironies of this narrative and of all the stories in the Gospels where Jesus is calling people to be his disciples is this: He says, “Come and see.” He says, “Follow me.” We think we have to see first, believe first. Then we’ll go, then we’ll join in. No, in the Gospel stories, they always follow first, then they begin to be amazed and believe, and they invite someone else.
Martin Luther King once said, “Faith is taking the first
step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” He also said, “Our lives begin to end the day
we become silent about things that matter.”
We cannot be silent about Christ’s sacrificial love. Nor can we silent about the dehumanization of
people whom Christ loves. King said,
“Every {person} must decide whether he or she will walk in the light of
creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Christ showed us perfect altruism –
selflessness for the benefit of others.
Evangelism and social justice are two sides of the same coin of
sacrificial love.
When poet Charlotte Elliott (1789-1871) was 46 years old, an
elderly man approached her at a dinner party and asked if she was a Christian.
She considered him rude and unkind, and that his question was inappropriate.
After the man walked away, Charlotte could not get his question out of her mind
so she went to find the man to talk to him again. That night she came to a new appreciation of
Jesus as Lord and Savior. Soon thereafter she wrote Just As I Am as a testimony
to her newfound faith, and as a tribute to the man who had told her that she
could come to Christ, 'just as she was'.
This hymn, written in 1835, did not become popular until the
mid-twentieth century, when it became the invitational hymn at many Billy
Graham crusades. Kids, if you’ve never
heard of the Baptist minister Billy Graham, he’s a ninety-something year old
man who lives in Montreat who was great at telling the story of Jesus in such a
way that the many people who filled auditoriums and football stadiums to hear
him in the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, could often appreciate for the first time or
in a new way, how much they were loved by God – just as they were, and how they
were called to respond to that love.
We will not have an altar call, but I will challenge to you
think about how Christ, the Lamb of God, loves you – just as you are. He lived and died and was raised to restore
all of your brokenness to wholeness, to invite you to a life of making others
whole by sharing your God stories, telling the good news of Christ’s love, and
living by the power and fruit of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is working in you to remind you
of the transcendent value of your humanity, to refresh you in the fountain of
baptismal life, to assure you that you belong to Christ, the Lamb of God, who
says “Come and see.”
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