January 19, 2003 - Second Sunday after Epiphany
1 Samuel 3: 1-10
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John 1: 43-51
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“Come and See”

Children often give us the best examples of how we are to approach life. Children get excited about what they are learning, what they have discovered, or what they have made. Their excitement isn’t containable, either. How many of you parents have been pulled away from what you have been doing by a “Come and see!” from a son or daughter? In that simple act of invitation, that willingness to share something that matters, I believe we see the essence of what it means to be church. You can’t hear a “Come and See” and remain isolated from what’s happening in that child’s life, can you? It’s the same with the church.

Church isn’t about isolation, about individuals who wander in to get their fill of spiritual meaning and then wander off again. Church is about “come and see.” When we’ve come to a new understanding of our self or our world, and that is what faith is supposed to accomplish, we don’t keep it to ourselves – we share it. Philip had such an encounter when he met Jesus and he didn’t keep it to himself. He invited Nathaniel – actually the Scripture seems to say that he went out looking for him – because he had found something that had made a difference in his life. Come and see.

The church is to be a “come and see” experience because it is a living, growing community of faith. We invite because we were invited. We welcome because we were welcomed. We reach out because others reached out to us and drew us in. “Follow me” – listening to and practicing the teachings of Jesus – leads to “come and see.” The best way to really follow Jesus is to “come and see,” to go and live with him through the lives of those who are part of his body: the church.

If Christianity has fallen short through the centuries, and God knows it has, I believe it has come about through neglecting the “follow me” and “come and see” that are its basic elements. When Christian faith becomes institutionalized it begins to lose its transformative element. Christian life has to be about far more than just the preservation of organizations or even of buildings. Philip didn’t introduce Nathanael to an institution or, for that matter, to an ideology. He introduced him to a person. When the church incarnates, enfleshes, and makes personal the encounter with the living Christ then and only then, is it fulfilling its mission and purpose.

God calls all different kinds of people and in as many different ways to follow. Samuel heard God’s persistent voice in the quiet of the temple. Philip met Jesus on the road. Nathanael was a guest. Peter went fishing and Paul got knocked off his horse. If I may speak personally for a moment, I can assure you eight years ago had you told me that God would call me to be a Congregational minister – and a married one in the bargain – I would have questioned not only your motive, but your sanity! God calls – “follow me” – and God’s people are then to invite others to share in the journey – “come and see.”

Now, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be times that we will have our doubts about the voices we’re hearing or the direction we’re taking. Nathanael, for example, was more than a little skeptical about Philip’s report and invitation, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But there was that line again, “come and see.” Don’t just take my word, experience it. Come and see what it’s like when people open themselves to the love of God and, in turn, love one another.  Given the experience of the last thousand or so years, not to mention the more recent past, folks may be justified in their skepticism. Nathanael’s question is a good one. We could ask, “Can anything good come out of First Church?” “Can anything good come out of the Congregational Way?” We could also ask, “Can anything good come out of our world?” “Can anything good come out of me?” There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there – “Come and see.”

God calls us to know God’s presence and power in our lives. We can experience the truth of the Psalm that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made,” and that we are only a “little lower than the angels.” It begins within us, but quickly extends to the community of which we are a part. There are no solitary Christians, no solo followers of the Way. We are a covenant PEOPLE and God’s call draws us out of our isolation, our self-centeredness, into a life, a hope, an experience far better and greater than we can even imagine – “such knowledge is too high for me.” We may stumble, yes, even fall, but there is more to us. Samuel’s story, Philip’s story, Nathanael’s story, Jesus’ story, and every story since is our story as well. What’s our country’s motto – e pluribus unum, out of many one? So it is with the church – we are one, but many, and there is more to us that what we see.

I came across an excerpt from a book that I’ll probably never buy for myself. However, it seems to make my point. Ursula Bacon tells this touching story about the Jewish community in the book Chocolate For A Woman’s Soul:

On Pearl Harbor Day, Japanese troops occupied Shanghai. . .[O]nce again Jewish lives were threatened. The Japanese ordered the entire Jewish refugee population to move into a designated area (the worst part of town, already occupied by thousands of locals), allowing little time to find nooks and crannies to call home.

The first thing I learned about being “incarcerated” was that men raged against their confinement and women made curtains. My mother cut up a useless evening gown to make flounces and panels for the one window in the nine-by-twelve cubicle that would house us for the next six years.

We lived on top of each other under the most difficult conditions and learned quickly to make the best of them. Some did better than others, and among those who made a difference in my eleven-year-old life was the round-faced, roly-poly, middle-aged Mrs. Rosa Goldberg. . .

Each morning as I was on my way to our makeshift warehouse classroom, she would stop me, reach out her hand to grasp mine, pull me to a stop at her side, look up into my face, and ask, “So! What does Mrs. Goldberg tell you every day, little girl?”

Knowing her game well, I shook my head, voiced a quiet I-don’t-know, and waited.

“Well, darlink, Mrs. Goldberg will have to tell you again. Now listen and remember what I’m telling you,” she instructed. “Go out and make a miracle today. God’s busy, he can’t do it all.”

Her face beamed up at me, her hand let go of mine. With a friendly parting pat on my backside, she sent me on my way, giving me a purpose for the day and meaning to my life that will be mine as long as I shall live. She handed me wings to fly; opened my eyes to a world that needed miracles, and gave me the assurance that I could do God’s work.

Mrs. Goldberg was, in her own way, an instrument of God’s call. She invited Ursula to “come and see.”

We are at an exciting point in the one hundred and sixty one year history of this church. I see people energized about the future of this church. I hear people talking about the potential for ministry, for making a difference, that we have as God’s people in this place. All of this is “come and see.” I also hear a bit of the “can anything good…” and that, too, is good because it calls us to examine ourselves thoroughly and challenges us to become what we say we are. Our church covenant holds us together and also holds us to a higher standard – it reminds us that we have accepted Jesus’ invitation to “follow me” and have now started on the path in specific ways. “Come and see.”

I want us to get excited – just like the children I talked about at the outset of the sermon. Be bold, like Philip, and invite others to “come and see” what is happening in this growing family of faith. The most effective advertisement this church will ever have is its members and the best outreach tool is your personal invitation to someone to come to church with you. I would also invite you to be bold like Nathanael, in whom there was no guile, and ask the hard questions we need to ask in order to become the transformed and transforming community we’re called to be.

So, go make a miracle! Begin today by attending the church’s annual meeting and taking an active part. Extend that miracle by living the love God has shared with you in this place and through this gathered people. That love is overwhelming because it shows how much God cares for us and how well God knows us – too wonderful and higher than we can imagine. It all begins when we “come and see.”