When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi…where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and see” (John 1:38-39a).
Did anybody see a great movie over the holidays? One of our family traditions is that over the holidays we go out and see two or three movies. One of the best we saw this year was Glass Onion, a modern-day whodunnit with a cast of stars, surprise twists, and dark humor. I’ve been telling everyone how good it is. Maybe you’re not a movie person, and instead of movies, your special thing is going out for dinner—did any of you find a new great restaurant? We had a birthday dinner at The Greek Islands, one of our long-time favorites, and when we go, we always tell people what a great restaurant it is…It’s so much fun, so exciting, to talk to people about things we’ve discovered that we love, the things that bring us together and bring us a few moments of shared joy. And it’s so easy…so easy to say, “I saw this cool movie,” “I found this fantastic restaurant…” It’s so easy to say, “Come and see!” when we’re passionate about something and have good news to share.
Today in our Gospel we heard the story of how St. Andrew, our namesake, became one of Jesus’ disciples—perhaps the first disciple. After Jesus’ baptism by John, Andrew heard John proclaim, “Here is the Lamb of God,” and he left to follow Jesus. When Jesus turned and asked, “What are you looking for?” Andrew replied, “Teacher, where are you staying?” and Jesus answered simply, “Come and see.” After staying with Jesus for that day, Andrew went to find his brother, Simon Peter, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah…Come and see!”
According to the latest Pew Research Center report, 29% of the US population now has no religious affiliation—that’s up 23 points from 6% in the 1970s. The point of my sermon today is not to encourage wailing and gnashing of teeth about the current state of affairs regarding our churches—it’s to say the great news for us is that the mission field is wide open!
No…seriously! We all know that the institutional Church—the wider Episcopal Church, all the mainline protestant churches, the Roman Catholic church, even now the Evangelical mega-churches—the centuries-old thing that we call “Christendom”—has seemingly lost its steam. And mostly what we mean by this, as Rev. Dr. Sam Wells puts it, is that, in general, we all lived under the script of an unquestioned cultural story, where to call oneself a Christian was to subscribe to a reasonable and beneficial structure of authority and propriety. That this is no longer true—that calling yourself a Christian is no longer something you have to do to succeed financially or get promoted or go into politics—is not necessarily a bad thing, I think. What I mean is that I think it is clear from reading Scripture that Christendom—as in the Holy Roman Empire, as in the Spanish Inquisition, as in the Salem Witch Trials, as in the justification for vanquishing anyone who is the “other”—Christendom, as the coercive infrastructure that ties what is called faith together with political power and worldly riches—Christendom is not what Jesus came to be with us to establish.
During Lent we’ll be doing a book study of Humbler Faith, Bigger God, by Rev. Dr. Samuel Wells. I’ve mentioned him before—he is the vicar in charge of St. Martin in the Fields in London, the author of more than forty books, and the driving force behind Heartedge, an international, ecumenical movement created to help to re-enliven and galvanize churches to be at the heart of their communities by focusing on what he calls the four “C’s”
I’m excited to study this book together, because I think it will re-enforce and energize what St. Andrew’s already does so well, and it will help us become better and more faithful disciples. Here are some specific reasons I’m excited:
Congregation In spite of the those Pew statistics I quoted before, our average attendance has grown nearly 20% in the past six months! The involvement of this faith community in Sunday School for both kids and adults is extraordinary. And I hope you all came to one of our Christmas Eve worship services, because the beauty and joy in those liturgies was something you could touch and feel. Daily morning prayer on Zoom has created a new, vibrant community of fellowship and prayer. In the pledge campaign we just completed we added 16 new pledges over last year. You can drive by here nearly any day or night and see this place buzzing with activity—sometimes, there are three different things going on at the same time. Imagine what 2023 will be like! Come and see!
Compassion Our Caring Community reaches out every month with cards, cookies, visits, and communion to those who cannot be here with us on Sundays. Our Outreach Committee coordinates efforts to support more than a dozen organizations. Our ECW supports just as many. Imagine what 2023 will be like, as we plan additional outreach like a team to work regularly at the Nebraska Diaper Bank, and determine how to best support a Ukrainian refugee family. Come and see!
Culture Our church doors are open to girl scouts, boy scouts, grief support groups, bagpipers, the Clarkson College of Nursing, AlAnon, and several other community non-profit and fellowship groups. And did you know the Omaha Friends Meeting (the Quakers) use our church for their weekly worship, too, meeting in Haviland Hall on Sunday mornings while we’re over here at worship? Our plans for 2023 include concerts, movies, and book studies that will provide easy ways that are neither “threatening” nor on Sunday mornings to invite people to experience community and God’s love for all in this place. “Come and see!”
Commerce Our Arts & Crafts Guild’s annual faire raised more than $7500 in sales, all in support of our outreach programs. Our Odds-n-Ends sale raises funds, too, and our Nearly New Shop raised $19,000 last year for our outreach missions. Sam Well’s vision for churches to “find income streams to achieve financial sustainability and to grow flourishing programs” is already underway here at St. Andrew’s. Come and see!
The age of Christendom may be drawing to its close—and perhaps for good reasons—but God’s work in the world will never cease, and in the end it will not fail. St Andrew asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?” My friends, I know one of the places Jesus is staying—right here at St. Andrew’s, in this place, and in your hearts. Our city and our world need to hear words of God’s comfort, words of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration and power of reconciliation and communion, words of Jesus’ gift of hope and forgiveness and salvation. Our city and our world need God’s loving presence more than ever—and we at St. Andrew’s know how to bring it to them, because we already have it. All we have to do is say to them, “Come and see!” And my prayer is that we will. Amen.
