[Propertalk] Ideas - Epiphany 2, John 1:29-42 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

John Woolman, the colonial Quaker, traveled throughout the South urging the Society of Friends to free their slaves a century before emancipation, warning that a refusal to do so would result in a broken nation.  He was right.  
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Wasn't Rosa Parks acting prophetically when she refused to move to the back of the Cleveland Avenue bus in Montgomery, Alabama, on that December day over half century ago?  Her quiet, determined response to one of the great signs of American racism was a prophetic indictment of Jim Crow culture.  We're clearly not yet home yet where racism is concerned in America, but we are a long, long way from Montgomery, Alabama, 1955.  
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...John.  He seemed lean and mean, direct and outspoken, like most of the Texas evangelists I grew up hearing, a revival preacher in camel skin.  My grandmother told me we had to like John.  He was a Baptist, after all.  There is that great story of the two frontier preachers arguing over whose church was the most biblically correct.  The Baptist preacher, feeling himself bested, finally exclaimed: "Well, they didn't call him John the Presbyterian, did they?"

http://day1.org/2541-pursuing_the_prophetic

Bill J. Leonard, 2011
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In 1957 , he was elected president of the newly formed Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the vanguard of the nonviolent struggle for justice in the South.  This contemporary "lamb of God" was spit upon, ridiculed, jailed, fire-bombed, yet he kept on moving -- across the South, then on to Washington for his famous "I Have a Dream" in August of 1963, and then to Oslo, Norway, where he was hailed by the world as the Nobel Peace Prize recipient for 1964, somewhat as Jesus was hailed as he entered Jerusalem riding a donkey on that last fateful journey.  The more threatening Jesus became to those in power in Jerusalem, the more they plotted to end his life.  So too for Dr. King.  

http://www.ipj-ppj.org/Reflections%20-%20Advocacy%20Suggestions%20-%20Lesson%20Plans/A%20Call%20to%20Discipleship%20--%20MLK%20Liturgies.htm

Institute for Peace and Justice
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Could this story be telling us something the disciples don't know yet themselves? What people are looking for is not information, answers to questions such as "Who is Jesus?" or "Is this the one?" Or "Am I right about this church business?" Not even the answer to the question of why stories of meeting this man have captured the human heart for generations.

What we are all looking for without even knowing it is a place to stay, a place to remain always. Jesus is that place, a person who is himself a home, a place to belong, a whole way of life. Jesus knows that what the disciples really want is a place to belong.

http://day1.org/1078-what_are_you_looking_for

Catherine Taylor, 2008
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Jesus answered, "Come and see." And the word, "see," is meaningful. The Greek word is not "blepo" which means come and physically see. Bu the Greek word is "orapo" which is not physical sight but spiritual insight.

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_andrew.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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...when Jesus looks at Simon and says, "You are..." Jesus gets personal. It's almost as if he's saying, "I know you, I know you." What do you have when you have Jesus? You have a friend who confronts you with the reality of yourself today.
When Jesus says, "You are," he emphasizes the crucial need for self-knowledge.

http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/reaves_4209.htm

Benjamin Reaves
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Another thing about children's drawings is that they can be very powerful statements about a child's identity. I discovered just how powerful some years ago as a part of a team that worked with families in an alcoholism treatment center. A social worker asked a little boy  to draw a picture of his family. The boy's father was half way through a 30 day residential treatment program. In the lad's picture, it was raining.  Mom was taller than the house and dad was shorter than both mom and the house.  A sister was holding mom's hand.  There were no smiles on the faces.  And it seemed the boy was missing from the picture.
The social worker said, "This is a very nice picture Eric.  I see mom and dad and sister, but I don't see you.  Why isn't Eric in the picture?"
The boy pointed to a small black scribble in the corner of the drawing and said, "There I am!"
All of us (the social worker, the psychologist and myself) became misty eyed when Eric spoke those words. The issue of identity for this child will be a life long struggle. Can you imagine feeling like a small black scribble in the wider picture of your life?
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Wouldn't it be wonderful if young children like Eric could have a deep sense within that says, "I am a child of God."   Instead of, "I'm a little black scribble."  There is value and hope and comfort in knowing who I am in relationship to Christ.  When I see myself in light of my relationship of love with the One who made the universe, I gain courage to disregard the identity other people want to hang on me
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The only information we have about Andrew comes from John's gospel where all three instances that mention him have to do with Andrew bringing someone to Jesus. 

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/jan17ser99.html

John Jewell, 1999
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