What are you looking for?
This question reminds me of a U2 song called “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”.  These are some of the lyrics from the song:

I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for

I believe in the Kingdom come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes, I’m still running

You broke the bonds
and you loosened chains
carried the cross of my shame, of my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for

It’s a song about searching for meaning or transcendence.  It is allusive and at the end of the song it still has not been found.  Maybe it is less about the finding and more about the searching, less about the knowing and more about the experience.

In our Gospel reading for today we hear that John the Baptiser has identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God” two days in a row.  On the second day John is standing with two of his disciples, when he sees Jesus walk by and says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” This inspires the disciples to follow Jesus.   Maybe they thought they were being discrete and that Jesus would not notice but he did and he asks them “”What are you looking for?”

We don’t get a straight answer to that question.  Instead the disciples answer with a question of their own:  “Where are you staying?”

It may be that they are trying to get enough information so they can stay nearby — just close enough to listen in and tag along behind — anonymously even: maybe at a safe distance.  Or maybe they really didn’t know what they were looking for.  Whatever the case may have been, Jesus doesn’t answer their question.  He simply invites them to “Come and see.”  And they do.  They ‘come and see’ not only  where Jesus was staying but they stuck around to see all that will follow.

The question “what are you looking for?” is still a good question for us to be asking today.  What are we looking for?  What is it people in the wider community are looking for and are we asking this question?  Maybe people are unable to articulate an answer either because they don’t know or it is too complicated to put into words.  Maybe the answer is not as important as the question.

Maybe we feel like we are giving the invitation to “come and see” and are disappointed that people are not taking us up on it because they are not coming to church.  How else can we invite people to “come and see”?  How do we build the relationships and make space for the invitation to share and experience life together?  These are questions that we will be exploring together as we begin journey together.

            Rev Tammy Hollands