Epiphany 2B January 15, 2023
Epiphany 2-B
1/15/23
John 1:43-51
Do you remember when you me Jesus for the first time? If you grew up in the church chances are it was when you were very young. Where you thought wow, something spiritual going on. Maybe met him through parent or a grandparent or a Sunday school teacher. For me it was my dad, who used to pray with me when I was very young, then again actually when I heard Billy Graham preach on TV, then again when I first set foot in a Lutheran church at the age of 33 years old. I met not a different but a bigger Jesus yet when I went to seminary.
I believe that as we grow up in our lives of faith, there will continue to be times when, as the theologian Marcus Borg, we meet Jesus again for the first time through other people. We learn something more about Jesus through who they are, through their spirit, not necessarily even through religious language, but how they live their lives, introduce us again to Jesus. Helped us to learn something new about Jesus. To have an epiphany.
Since this is the Epiphany season – this is a good season to talk about epiphanies, or an insight or a spiritual surge, and enlightenment, to feel the presence of the Christ in the world and in our lives. To meet Jesus again for the first time and continue to grow in our lives of faith.
Well, today’s gospel reading, today’s gospel is about a couple people who literally do meet Jesus for the first time. And they are introduced by somebody who already knows Jesus. Jesus has been baptized, he has been tempted in the wilderness, filled with the Spirit, and now he’s ready to begin his ministry. And he is beginning to gather his disciples. And as our little preface says, in John begins a chain of testimony. Jesus meeting people causes these people introduce Jesus to other people and so on, or maybe re-introduce people. But right from the beginning in John’s gospel, to be a disciple is to help other people be disciples, to help others meet Jesus too. So think about that – that’s a call.
So John the Baptist met Jesus before he was born you might say, when their moms were both pregnant. Meets him again as though for the first time as an adult when Jesus appears at the Jordan where John is Baptizing, and he knows something more now about Jesus. So he says to help two of his own disciples look it’s the Lamb of God.” They’re curious, they follow Jesus, he invites them to his house, they spend the day with him.
Then Andrew runs to find his brother Simon and he says, “Have I got somebody for you to meet!” He takes him to Jesus – we see Peter meeting Jesus for the first time – pretty intimate little scene. Jesus gives him a new name – Peter the Rock. He spends the rest of his life sharing Jesus with others.
Philip who from the same village as Andrew and Peter, meets Jesus – Jesus found him John tells. Maybe he knew about Jesus through Andrew and they were neighbors after all. There’s nobody like your neighbors who can see what kind of relationship you might have with Jesus. Whether they see you getting up and going to church on Sunday or whether you bother to care about them when they are sick or help take out the trash or take an interest in their children. They could meet Jesus again through you.
When Philip meets Jesus, he doesn’t waste any time, he wants to show him to somebody else, so the first thing he does is to run to his friend Nathanael so he can meet Jesus too. Jesus already knows him – they had met under the fig tree, but Nathaniel didn’t realize it. So, you get my point here – John’s point I think – disciples usually meet Jesus through other disciples and they actively work at helping others meet him too. They share Christ with others.
And I do want to say, I don’t mean not necessarily through proselytizing. Using God language. I have relatives whose piety goes that way. I’m not saying that if that feels comfortable to you shouldn’t go for it. But people can meet the risen Christ in us, without us preaching to them.. And to paraphrase a famous quote that some people attribute to St. Francis, “Preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words.” So that is part of the job for us disciples, part of the job.
Tomorrow is an important day when we celebrate the birth of a disciple who introduced Jesus in a new way to a lot of people, Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King introduced us to a Jesus again many times as a savior who cares about justice and freedom for all people. In brother Martin met a Christ who cares about human dignity and the futility of violence is willing to die for it. About respect for the people on the fringes of society and very powerfully a Jesus who has hopeful vision for the future of humanity and wants us to help make that vision a reality. That’s who the Jesus of scripture is, who the historical Jesus was, and who the risen Christ who lives in every one of us still is. And Dr. King helped us to meet that Jesus. So we thank God for his witness, as part of that chain of witness that we talked about.
So maybe we should ask ourselves not only when we have met Jesus through others, is when others have met Jesus through us. How have we been, as Luther put it, little Christs for others to see and know and be blessed by. Maybe through us, maybe they’ll have an epiphany. Maybe through us they’ll meet Jesus again for the first time.