January 20, 2008
Edwards (Knox) United Church
Second After Epiphany
Isaiah 49:1-7
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
John 1:29-42
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
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The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson
U2 has a great song called “Still haven’t found what I am looking for.” It seems to me it sums up, and is a response to a Peggy Lee song, “Is that all there is?”. These songs reflect the perennial existential question of what makes humanity flourish? We come to the questions about what is worthy of us at different stages of our life. Context shapes our question of what is it that we want to define us.
[Note: If you have QuickTime installed as a plugin with your browser, you will see a control and be able to play these songs:
U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"
Peggy Lee - "Is That All There Is?"
Or you can download MP3 files here:
U2 - MP3 - Download U2 I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Peggle Lee - MP3 - Download Peggy Lee Is That All There Is?]
This question of what makes us flourish is very much behind the question in John. The disciples ask, “Where are you staying?” It is a question about where is your home that sustains and fills your heart. Geography defines our sense of who we are. And geography is about the places in our heart where we know we are flourishing.
One of our tensions in our modern society is how we are both an individual and a community. What are the defining characteristics of a community that supports the flourishing of all?
One of the dominate metaphors of our modern world is: What is it in it for me? Too often we live out of the commercial transaction vision of earning a reward. We use the exchange vision of transaction as a way of evaluating our relationships. Something is worthwhile if it is valuable to me.
This attitude of what can you do for me runs through all interactions. It is seen in our approach to the environment. The environment is instrumental, that is a benefit to us and to us only. There is no sense of the intrinsic value of the other - we judge on usefulness to us. We define the natural world in terms of economic value, and even when we resist this, we speak of how things like flowers make us feel good. The external world is judge by its usefulness to us - the attitude of self referencing determines the meaning of the other. The dominate ethos of our time is, "Is it good for me?"
This attitude is true even when we think we have arrived at shared goals, because the attitude of self referencing, what is good for me, slides into our consciousness, and what we thought was shared is actually not. For it has become what I want. The old line there is no "I" in team signifies our societal problem because we have to keep saying that. Our society has schooled us in looking after number one. In another time and age we would not have to keep reminding one another there is no "I" in team.
Of course there is some truth in taking care of oneself. In situations that are tribal in attitude, a situation where one has to fit into predetermined ideas of what is true, this can be oppressive. The needs of the individual are lost in the collective attitude, where you fit into predetermined ideas. This attitude can be found in families, in schools, in churches, and in a community. The sense of a valued me is lost.
When there is a dominate ethos trying to make us fit it, our resistance can be self defeating, creating a hostile reality. We need to find ways of overcoming the tribal without falling into extreme rejection of community as the solution. Thus an issue for our world is how to have both a sense of inclusion and a valuing of distinctiveness. A healthy society has shared values and a welcome of difference -honoring the strength and the gifts of the other, and to let there be a mutuality of influence.
Part of our struggle in identity formation is how to be part of a family, a group, a community, a church without it crushing ones identity. In the creation of our identity, within a shared reality, we need a strong sense of we and I.
To create this attitude we need to feel some beauty, goodness, love, truth which is symbolized in the image of the Lamb of God. This is a love poured out on us which is beyond our merit or deserving.
Our passage in John speaks to this issue. Notice how John witnesses to his disciples - “Here is the Lamb of God.” John has taken the tradition of John baptizing Jesus and makes it into a preparation story. John the baptizer saw his role as preparation for the continuous inbreaking of God into space and time. The gospel of John says that inbreaking is found in Jesus.
This encounter of the disciples of John the Baptist is a creative way of making the point John is making about the mission of Jesus. Follow the narrative, for we have John the Baptist say twice, to his disciples, here is the fulfillment of my mission. It takes a retelling because the listeners are comfortable where they are. Finally two make a tentative approach. They want to test - they apply the good old method of show me the money - what is called crude empiricism - meet my preconceived goals. Jesus rejects this approach, and offers another way of testing truth. He says “come and see.”
John’s narrative is suggesting to his community, which is at some distance from the events, that the way you test reality is not by some theory but by living. It takes time, it takes commitment. The narrative suggests that the witnesses to Jesus took time to come to faith and they did that by living in the faith.
The mission is living in the kingdom of heaven as a reality now, and the implication of that is to be worked out in everyday encounters. We learn what is needed by living in the situation.
Now this does not mean there is not a big vision, for there is. It is in the character of God - who offers abundant Grace. John has Jesus witness to this activity and nature of God - behold the Lamb of God. This is a God who offers forgiveness and hope to every second of life. The power of God is one of vulnerability, a standing with those in need.
Jesus was open to this sense of God. In doing so he offered sight to the blind. He healed and taught that the lost can find their way again. He taught in the come and see a hospitality for those who are alienated, they are reconciled with their community. Those who are shunned are welcomed.
God is the one who is in the redeeming business, working towards the common good, where life flourishes. Now the meaning of flourishing is both easy to understand and easy to live for it is about quality as the mission and it cannot be quantified. To quantify as a goal will miss the quality.
Quality is an emerging reality. We learn from how we have flourished in the past and seek to enhance that flourishing in the present and the future. We judge the outcome by how we participate in making room for the flourishing of all life. Each particular life form will have its own flourishing, and what we do is create open space where this happens. Come and see is a pragmatism of creating a better reality now and seeking to make sure that good will continue. It is to move from self referencing to see how flourishing for all enhances each. We are a better me when all of life experiences a better reality.
This come and see defines a way a community is formed and lives. It is one of honoring the gifts of each. It is one of welcome.
Come and see is an invitation to live the fact we belong one to the other. Andrew returns and invites his brother Peter. This is an invitation approach- he is saying I learned about flourishing, why don’t you come and see if this is for you? This is an invitation of try this, live this and if you find quality in this community for flourishing, then you too will see that come and see is how we grow. No fear, no you are wrong, no lists, only come and see.
George Hermanson
www.georgehermanson.com
