John 1:29-42<\/p>\n\n\n\n
January 16, 2005<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The last time I was with you was in 2004. It\u2019s been two Sundays that I haven\u2019t been here. Have you been looking for me? Is that why you are here today? I would love to think so but I know it\u2019s probably not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas is now over three weeks old. Are you still looking for that present that you wished you got? Maybe you are still looking for that warm glow of the manger with Baby Jesus? Christmas was the easy part of being a Christian. It\u2019s the Christmas carols, candles, cranberries, candies, chocolates, crib, and Christ Child. But now that we are three weeks from Christmas, the hard part begins. When we have put away the Christmas decorations and started our new 2005 calendars, what are we looking for today that we wish we had in 2004?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you came to church today, were you looking for something?\u201d There are some people who know without a shadow of a doubt that they have \u201cfound\u201d Jesus. I envy people who know that they are saved, that God is in charge, that all is right with their private spiritual world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my own life, there has been times when I wasn\u2019t sure about whether God was really in charge or that everything was all right. When I was in high school, our pastor was questioned by some church leaders for not being effective. The demographics of the neighborhood around the church have dramatically changed from families to college students. And we all know college students don\u2019t necessarily get up on Sundays to go to church. Our attendance was going down and the pastor was being blame for it. I spoke up at a membership meeting defending our pastor but eventually with so much anger and distrust in the church that poisoned its spirit, he resigned. My faith in the church felled apart when I expected it to be loving instead of hateful, forgiving instead of revengeful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the Civil Rights years, our assistant pastor went with other voters\u2019 registration advocates to Montgomery to register voters. He was arrested as an outside agitator from the north. When word came back to the church of what has happened, what disillusioned me the most was a debate on whether we should pay for his bail bond? The church leaders were ambivalent in taking a stand for justice and civil rights. I was ashamed of being a member of my church in Boston. I wasn\u2019t sure that God was in charge in the world when heads were cracked open and German shepherds attacked protesters. I doubted that God\u2019s was in charge in my home church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Suffice it to say that in my life of faith, there have been times when I have found Jesus. But honestly, when I have been out looking for him and wondering what he was up to, Jesus eventually found me even in the seasons of my life when I lost faith in the church and its leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Finding Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In our gospel lesson for today, we are fortunate to see that there are two kinds of faith. One is the \u201cI found it without a doubt\u201d kind of faith. The other is the meandering, probing \u201cWhat Are You Looking For?\u201d kind of faith. God seems to be equally a part of both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first part of this passage shows John the Baptist finding Jesus in one glorious, instantaneous moment. Granted, John has been preparing for this moment all his life. Granted, God has previously told him to look for a particular sign\u2014the descending of a dove. Nonetheless, when the dove finally does descend on Jesus during the moment of his baptism, John knows\u2014absolutely, without a doubt\u2014that this Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. In fact, John is so sure that he stakes his life on it. He fervently gave witness to this \u201cI found it without a doubt\u201d faith wherever he went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s great for John the Baptist! How wonderful it must have felt to be so sure. Without him Christianity would never have gotten off the ground. But I know I am no John the Baptist, and neither is most of us seated here today. Thank God, there is another model of faithfulness, another model of discerning our faith in God that is offered from the Scriptures to us today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the second half of our scripture lesson, we meet two of John\u2019s disciples. Idling away in their perfectly predictable lives, their ears perk up when John calls Jesus \u201cthe Lamb of God.\u201d They recognized this vivid image as the \u201csuffering servant\u201d in Isaiah and the \u201csacrificial lamb\u201d in Jeremiah\u2014language that has hinted at the coming of the Messiah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Out of curiosity these two men decided to follow Jesus. Not commitment. Not conviction. Just plain, old curiosity. Who is this man Jesus? What does he have to offer? And what, if anything, can he tell us about the purpose of life? You see, Jesus knew this when he turned and saw them following him. He said, \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus doesn\u2019t proselytize, push, manipulate, control, judge or punish. Instead he engages them, asking a question that gets to the heart of our human experience: \u201cWhat are you looking for?\u201d Encouraged by his approachability, his humanness, his openness, Andrew and his friend decide to follow Jesus a little bit farther. So they ask Jesus a question: \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d is not just an inquiry about lodging but it\u2019s about a bigger question: \u201cWho are you? Where is \u2018home,\u2019 the center of your life?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disciples began a give-and-take relationship with Jesus and he with them. Jesus responds to them again, \u201cCome and see.\u201d The new disciples do go and do see, and they end up staying with Jesus all day\u2014and then for the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Come and See<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus calls each of us in different ways and at different times to \u201cCome and see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a woman who began her journey of faith simply by joining the church choir because it provided an opportunity to perform solos. She loved to sing, especially in front of others. Between \u201cperformances\u201d the woman would sit in the choir loft and secretly read a paperback novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, the words of the solos and anthems, such as \u201cWorthy is the lamb who was slain,\u201d or \u201cMy God, how wonderful thou art,\u201d began to reach her. She gradually acquired the vocabulary of faith and a relationship with Christ. A newfound faith crept into her singing. She even experienced a name change, from \u201cperformer\u201d to \u201cwitness.\u201d Out of a desire to sing, this woman came to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a typical Sunday morning, we probably have some husbands here dragged to church by their wives or it may be the other way around. There might be some people who came because their neighbor or friend invited them so many times that they just felt obligated to come. There may be a teenage girl here who is more interested in the whispers from a boyfriend than in the pastoral prayer. There may be some who are here more interested in listening to the music and flipping through the pages of the hymnal than listening to my sermon. We all come from various places for a variety of reasons. But in time, as we engage in a give-and-take relationship with Jesus, we follow like the disciples a little bit farther. We ask Jesus, \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joining the Church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the biggest changes in the past quarter of a century in the church has been the attitude toward church membership. Joining a church used to be a no-brainer, something Protestants just automatically did. You went to school. You brushed your teeth. You registered to vote. You joined the church. We never asked these existential questions about what it means to join a church; you just did it. But today it is a different matter. There is a distrust of institutions. Although there is an admirable wrestling with truthfulness, there is also a troubling resistance to making commitments. And on top of all of this is how our modern lifestyle is overstuffed with activities and stress that we have no time to many things and the last on the list is: to join the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if we want to know the answers to the questions: \u201cWhat are we looking for? And where is Jesus staying?\u201d we need to come to church. To know Jesus requires community. For it is within the church, the Body of Christ, that the story of Jesus is told, that Jesus\u2019 story gets up and walks around, and eventually makes its way out into the world where it really belongs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Jesus responded to the disciples\u2019 question of \u201cWhere are you staying?\u201d he said, \u201cCome and see.\u201d The Scriptures say that they came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have always found this reference about at what time the disciples came and saw where Jesus was staying interesting. It was about 4:00 o\u2019clock in the afternoon. You probably never noticed this minute detail before, did you? It suggests to me that when we want to hang out with Jesus, he\u2019s available to hang out with us. \u201cLet\u2019s meet at 4:00 PM down at the corner of Waverly and Sacramento.\u201d Jesus might have said. Jesus is no elusive heavenly being who has no form and shape. Jesus is real like you and me; someone whom the disciples wanted to stay with for awhile. Jesus is someone we want to stay with and remain with too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stay. Remain. These are crucial words in the Gospel of John. They have the same root as the word, \u201cabide.\u201d Abiding, resting, staying, remaining\u2014an intimate togetherness, over time, in the presence of one another\u2019s company. We allow experience and familiar language and trust to establish a relationship with Jesus that our rational minds cannot fathom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, my friends, is faith. But it begins with curiosity. It is rooted in companionship. It often leads to commitment and conviction, but it all begins with curiosity. Some of you are here because of Advent and Christmas. We are glad that you are still here. We pray that your curiosity will in time lead to commitment and conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of you are here because you made one of those New Year\u2019s resolutions that you would try coming back to church again. We are glad that you are here and we pray that your commitment will in time lead to making a personal decision for Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even after experiencing disappointing times at my home church, I didn\u2019t give up on the church and God didn\u2019t give up on me either. I stayed and remained active and in time, God helped me to see that those who appeared to be unforgiving and uncaring were also on their journeys of faith. It didn\u2019t matter how God may have been disappointed in them as much as how much more important it was for me to remain faithful to God. Trusting God with everything else and only seeking God\u2019s grace and mercy for me eventually led me to have faith in the church again. I may have been looking for fairness and justice to be on earth, but God helped me to see that what I was really looking for is faithfulness in his Word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting Our Answer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing Jesus is not about intellectual certainty. I still have my doubts at times. It is not about ethical perfection. It is not about somehow declaring that organized religion like our church is the best thing since sliced bread. On the contrary, to \u201cknow\u201d Jesus is to embark on a journey to ask ourselves the question, \u201cWhat am I looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n To know Jesus is to come and see, to remain with him, to abide with him, to simply hang out with him for awhile and see what happens. To hang out with him in worship, to hang out with him in Bible study, to hang out with him in a service project, to hang out with him at the Men\u2019s Retreat, to hang out with him in the ups and downs of a very real, very imperfect congregation. To hang out with Jesus for the entire day and simply see what happens. You never know\u2014 it may be 4:00 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps one day you will meet Jesus\u2014really meet him, as if it was for the first time. You may finally find the answer to the meaning of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To follow Jesus\u2014whether out of curiosity or conviction\u2014is to be a Christian. Christianity is not an idea; it is a lifestyle. Christianity is not a destination; it is a journey. Christianity is not a product; it is process. Christianity is not a routine; it is a relationship. It is not an individual thing; it is the life of a community. Like the way the first disciples decided to stay and remain for while, Jesus asks us to stay, abide, hang out with him for a while. God will do the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gracious Lord God, lead us to respond to your invitation for us to \u201cCome and see.\u201d Help us to see that what we are looking for at the inner most depth of our lives is to have a personal relationship with you in Christ Jesus. Bless this church as your kingdom on earth, a place where your humble servants are called to bear witness of our faith. In the name of Jesus Christ who engages in a relationship with us, we pray. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" John 1:29-42 January 16, 2005 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco. The last time I was with you was in 2004.