John 1:29-42

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

(read Webster the Preacher Duck)

What are you looking for? Good question.

What are you looking for? That’s what Jesus asks. That’s what he asks of you.

John said he was something special — the lamb of God —

so you were just following at a respectful distance to have a look.

Who is he? What is he on about? Where is he coming from?

“We’ll take a look,” you thought.

The lamb of God? What was John talking about?

The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What did he mean, calling someone that? Weird.

Normally talk of lambs and God is about us offering some kind of sacrifice to God.

But that would be our lamb for God. John said the lamb of God.

That’s God’s lamb. What’s John on about…

Does that mean God is offering a sacrifice? To the world? To us?

What’s going on? Better go and have a look at this Lamb of God.

So, there you are

Not exactly minding your own business, for sure, but not getting in his way either

A respectful distance. Just quietly watching, wondering, Trying to suss him out

Who is he?

Where is he coming from?

What’s he on about?

Just watching and wondering, trying to make some sense of it

Trying to make some sense of him, of this lamb of God.

But now the respectful distance has been broken

You didn’t mean to bother him. You didn’t mean to catch his attention

But now he has turned and looked you in the eye In the eye?

It feels like he’s looking right through you, into the hidden depths of your soul

It is not a hostile look, not aggressive

But strong, So strong, So unnerving

There’s nowhere to hide from a look like that

And now he’s speaking: What are you looking for?

It could be a casual question, those words— You look a little lost; can I help?

But somehow it’s not. Somehow the question seems a lot bigger than that.

In fact, maybe he is saying “You look a bit lost; can I help?”, but if he is, that’s a lot bigger too

Not just a chance casual encounter. A penetrating question. A question that goes deep

that cuts through until it divides soul from spirit,  joints from marrow

A question that can judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart

You look a bit lost. What are you looking for?

What are you looking for? Now there’s a question.

A surprisingly hard question to answer

What are you looking for? What is it you really want?

Beneath all the trivialities and the manufactured appetites,

what are you looking for? What is going to make the difference that you yearn for?

It can feel like the answer to that question is to find an answer to that question

What you’re looking for is to know what it is you are really looking for.

And yet somehow, here you are.

Somehow the search to answer that question has come to this

You are here looking at him, looking for an answer

And somehow you sense that he has the answer or that he is the answer

And yet here you are with the answer asking you the question

And you don’t begin to know how to answer it

What are you looking for?

It would take a lot of guts to answer that question, to really answer it.

First you’d have to look at yourself hard enough and honestly enough

to know the answer but then you’d have to have the guts to reveal it as well

to be known by it, to be unmasked by it.

And yet when he asks you, it seems like he’s probably got a better idea of the answer

than you do yourself

Perhaps he is the answer, and he knows it

Perhaps whatever it is any of us are looking for, it will be revealed in him

It sure feels that way when he asks the question

And yet, when the question cuts through like that, suddenly we are not so sure that we want an answer

Suddenly, not knowing feels safer

It might not always be so satisfying, it might often leave us restless, yearning,

a bit despondent even, but it’s home, it’s familiar

You know how to cope with it, how to survive in it

Whereas having an answer has implications that spin off in all directions.

If you find the answer to that question, all bets are off.

What are you looking for? You’ve got to say something

He’s standing there looking right at you Looking right through you, right into you.

What are you looking for? You. What are you looking for?

And so you stammer out a question of your own

Rabbi, where are you staying?

And though it starts out as an innocuous question, a time waster, a subject changer,

before it is out of your mouth you know that it has taken on a life of its own

It has revealed more than you intended

It has been a lot more closely related to his searching question than you ever intended.

You can see in his face that he has read the yearnings of your soul, into the nuances of your question.

Where are you staying? Where are you at? Where are you coming from? Where do you have your roots down?

Or in the language so favoured in John’s gospel, Where do you abide?

“I abide in the Father, and the Father abides in me, and I pray that you will abide in me, and we may be one.”

That question — where are you staying? — got out of control.

Where do you belong? And do I belong where you belong?

From where does your life come? And should my life be drawn from the same well?

And you know that Jesus is not going to fob you off with a simple literal answer

— the address of his motel or something — like you tried to deflect him with what you hoped was a safe question.

Your words are out and they’ve already been unmasked and Jesus has heard the yearning of your soul:

What am I looking for? Where is he coming from? And where do I belong?

And do all those questions have the same answer?

And am I ready to face the answer? to digest the answer? to live the answer?

He looks at you, into you, and his answer is even more unnerving that what you had feared,

even more unnerving than an incisive philosophical/theological answer that you had to work out the implications of.

He looks at you, into you, and says, Where am I coming from? Come and see.

That’s it. Come and see. Come and find out for yourself. Come along with me and all will be revealed.

So the crunch has come. The rubber hits the road

You either take up that invitation and follow or you refuse it, walk away, and keep wondering what you are looking for and where you belong.

You can stay on familiar ground, and try to stop the questions gnawing at you too much or you can follow up on the invitation and come and see.

You can take the risk of finding out whether where he is coming from and where you belong are one and the same.

You want to know where I’m staying, where I’m coming from?

Come and see. Come.

Come and see where I’m coming from

Where the questions are real, and deep calls to deep where the truth about life is written in acts of love and faithfulness and your sin, with the sin of the world, is taken away on the wings of mercy

Come and see where I’m coming from

Where the broken hearted find healing, where the poor and neglected discover good news, where blind eyes are opened, where legs long crippled dance for joy, where those who have lived so long in prisons of fear and despair see the doors burst open and hear a voice say:

“What are you looking for? There is freedom here. Come and see.”

Come and see where I’m coming from

where perfect love burns with a fire that never goes out, with a fire that burns bright

as the light of the world

Where the Father abides in the Son and the Son abides in the Father and the Spirit proceeds from them both and calls us to come and see that we might abide in them and they in us and the fire of love might burn in us and we might know where we belong and who we are and to whom we belong.

Come and see where I’m coming from

where perfect love breaks the power of hatred and fear, where perfect mercy breaks the power of sin and bitterness, where God, far from demanding a sacrifice, offers a sacrifice, the lamb of God, to sate humanity’s callous and voracious appetite for making and consuming victims.

Come and see where the lamb breaks free from the teeth of death and says to all his fellow victims, Come and See! Come and be free!

Come and see where I’m coming from, where I abide forever.

Come and find me abiding in the prayers of my people

As they abide in me and pray in me.

Come and find me abiding in Word and water, in wine and bread.

Come and find me as bread is broken and the sin of the world is taken away and the hungry are fed and the thirsty are filled.

Come and see

Come and see where I belong

Come and see where you belong

Come and see what you are looking for

Come and see who you are,

who you were created to be,

who you are destined to become.

Come and see.

Come!

Sisters and brothers, what are you looking for? Where is Jesus staying? Will you come and see? Amen.