Invitation

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
January 15, 2023

2 Epiphany A 

          Last summer, my friend Anne and I made a pilgrimage of sorts to my mother’s hometown of Headland, Alabama.  While the destination itself is a story for another Sunday, on our way south we stopped in Louisville, Kentucky.  Anne is part of a women’s barbershop chorus that was singing at a festival in Louisville on the first night of our trip.  While Anne and I have much in common and we both love to sing great hymns, our shared taste in music ends there.  I do not have much of a taste for barbershop and I’m not sure she considers country music to be legitimate music.  But I went along with her to the women’s barbershop festival because Anne invited me and, well, I had nothing else to do that night. 

          As I listened to the various groups of varying abilities sing, what stood out for me was how very much fun the singers were having.  Anne’s chorus, which competes internationally, is not only very good, but they clearly love what they are doing.  Their joy in their music, their delight in working together, and their energy made their singing look effortless.   While I am not a convert to barbershop and still prefer my country music station, if Anne invited me back I would go in a heartbeat to experience that joy and that energy again.

          This morning, we see John point his disciples to Jesus.  John is not called John the Baptist in John’s gospel.  John’s primary role is not to baptize Jesus but to witness to Jesus as the Son of God.  When Jesus sees that John’s two disciples are following him, Jesus asks “What are you looking for?"  When the two ask Jesus “Where are you staying?” Jesus replies “Come and see,” which they do.

          “Come and see.”  In response to Jesus’ invitation, the two disciples of John spend the day with Jesus.  Then one, Andrew, finds his brother Simon, and tells him that they have found the Messiah, essentially saying to Simon “Come and see.”  Simon goes with Andrew to meet Jesus, and Jesus says to Simon “You are to be called Cephas” which is translated Peter.  While we do not hear a whole lot about Andrew as the story moves forward, we know that Peter becomes a great leader of the disciples and the emerging church after Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

“Come and see.”  These words form a simple invitation that changed the lives of Andrew and Simon, and countless numbers of others over the centuries.  In the reading from Isaiah, we hear God say “I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth,” which is exactly what Andrew and Peter do as they and others take the gospel message out into the world after Jesus’ resurrection. 

How are we to be a light to the nations?  Certainly we are called to use our lives to give the world an experience of the love of God.  But I wonder if the answer is also as simple as using the words “Come and see.”  That is how Anne got me to a women’s barbershop festival and trust me, there is no other way I would have gone. 

What would we like people to come and see in this place?  Perhaps we are inviting them to come and see the joy we find in our relationship with God and in the bread and wine of the Eucharist, or in the words of the psalmist “the new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many shall see and stand in awe, and put their trust in the Lord.”  Or perhaps we are inviting people to come and see the resurrection hope and comfort our connections with God and each other provide, or again in the words of the Psalm 40 how “God lifted me up out of the desolate pit, out of the mire and clay; he set me feet upon a high cliff and made my footing sure.”  Or perhaps we are inviting people to come and experience the renewed energy we leave with each Sunday as we follow Jesus out into the world to do the work God has called us to do.

          Before Jesus invited Simon and Andrew to come and see, he asked “What are you looking for?”  What would we hear if we asked people around us what they are looking for.  This weekend we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who in his famous “I have a Dream” speech in 1963 said “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”  When Robin Woodberry was here, she led us in looking for ways to live into our baptismal promise to work for justice and peace and respect the dignity of every human being as we worked to understand and combat racism.   Sometimes people are looking for a place that speaks a hard truth in love and sometimes the Church is called to invite people to come and see the places in the world and in our community where work for justice and peace is especially needed.  But even hard work can be done with joy, hope, and energy and we can show the world a place where difficult gospel work can be done with faith and love. 

          Will all of our invitations be successful?  Highly unlikely.  Neither Jesus nor his disciples had a 100% success rate.  But just like Jesus and the disciples, we do not give up.  We are eager to tell people about the great restaurant we went to, or the wonderful play or the good movie.  Some of us even go online and write reviews, we are so excited about what we ate or saw or did.  Today Jesus calls us to say “Come and see” and to live into the words of Psalm 40 “Your righteousness I have not hidden in my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your deliverance; I have not concealed your love and faithfulness.”  Perhaps the words that will change the world are “Come and see.”

                                                                             Amen.