Jesus took one look at Simon and said to him, “You shall no longer be called Simon but your name from this time forth will be Rocky.” Cephas, Peter, Petrified, Rocky. And Simon Peter said to Jesus, “But I just got a stack of new business cards! Now I have to have them reprinted with my new name!”
In this year of reading Matthew's Gospel, we get some key readings from the Gospel of John which is really a very different Gospel. Today we're getting John's introduction to Jesus. John is the odd one in the 4 Gospels. Matthew makes the connection between Jesus and Moses. Luke often often tells stories from a man's perspective and then a matching story from a woman's perspective. Mark is the action-packed Gospel going immediate from one action scene to another. And then there's John. He's telling a cosmic story that begins in the beginning, like the Genesis beginning where God and the Word or Logos or Jesus create the heavens and the earth, a story in which God is drawing all creation to God's self, a story of connections and meaning and poetry. So here we are in John's introduction to Jesus. These are Jesus' first words in this Gospel.
We're getting the hand off of power between John the Baptist and Jesus. John reports that he saw the Spirit descend and remain on Jesus. John has been a charismatic leader. He is a prophet whose actions have prompted people to ask if he is the Messiah. He has drawn a following and has gathered disciples. And he's baptized most of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. Everyone has gone out to see him and many have found his message compelling: Repent, prepare the way, get ready! When John points to Jesus and says this is the guy you've been looking for, it really means a lot. It is a big deal that John would redirect the accolades and attention given to him and use it to point out Jesus. John is not tempted by fame or attention. He gives credit to Jesus and uses his own power and influence to name the Messiah, the anointed one that he is recognizing. This is John the Baptist's 5 star review, his 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, this is his letter of recommendation of Jesus as the one to follow and listen to. Because John isn't keeping the praise heaped on him for himself, he doesn't lose track of who he is. He is focused on his power as a prophet to speak the truth. He will soon be telling Herod the truth that Herod is doing wrong and that will lead to the consequence of John's death. John is an uncompromising guy and that raises his credibility that he pointed to Jesus as the Messiah.
John the Baptist is naming Jesus' particular kind of power. He is telling us what to expect from Jesus. “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The next day he says, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” What does it mean to have your Savior be a lamb? He isn't just a sheep, he's a lamb. A lamb would have meant a lot to the Israelites. They put lamb's blood on their doorways at the Passover and a lamb was eaten in celebrations of Passover, remembering God delivering them from slavery in Egypt. A lamb was a helpless animal, but also a precious animal, providing wool and meat and liberation.
This lamb image is so different from the team mascots and animals we most revere today. We might prefer to follow a wolf or a wildcat. In John's time, Christians and Jews were in conflict. There was pressure from the Roman Empire. Life was not peaceful or easy. People lived under oppression. Into this mix comes Jesus, the Lamb of God. He's gentle. He doesn't take up arms. He's peaceful. He doesn't defend himself. He doesn't even defend his disciples and followers. He advocates resistance, defiance, but it's peaceful resistance, loving resistance. It is resistance in community—this story is all about community: relationships rather than individuals.
There is power in relationships. Relationships bind us together, join our stories, give us encouragement and purpose. The relationships in this story include the relationship between the Lamb of God and the world, namely that he takes away the sin of the world. Here is another element of Jesus' peacefulness, he takes away sin. Many times we heap sins on people, blame them, shame them, require them to face consequences, revel in their humiliation. But the Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world--to remove it. As it says in John 3:17 God did not come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world would be saved through him. Jesus practices and advocates resisting the powers of violence with the power of forgiveness in relationships.
There is the relationship between John the baptist and Jesus. John says explicitly that Jesus is greater than him, and is part of the greater story. He was before him, as in there in the creation, the Logos or word moving over the waters. John knows him because he was revealed by God in the dove which descended and remained at Jesus' baptism. There is power in recognizing and sharing leadership in the community of God's followers.
There is power in the relationship between John and his disciples and Jesus receiving the transfer of John's disciples to him. John's credibility and power is transferred to Jesus. Jesus takes up this relationship by asking them what they are looking for, what are their expectations. This is a question that shapes the rest of the Gospel. A lot of times what we are looking for shapes what we see and find. Throughout the Gospel we find the disciples looking for a Messiah that is a military victor, someone very different from a lamb. We, too, have expectations of what a relationship with Jesus means. Some people think it means they will be rewarded with wealth or good health or good family relationships or ease in life. People tell me they come to church to be comforted, to feel the warmth of God's love and grace. The book of John is not a very comforting book--instead it challenges us. It challenges Nicodemus who comes looking for affirmation and is given direction by Jesus to be born again, have a whole changed. It challenges the rich young man who comes with the idea that he has followed all the commandments, so he should be comforted and affirmed, but he is told to sell everything and follow Jesus, that he lacks one thing. John's Gospel invites us to look at our expectations, to pay attention to what we are looking for. If all we want is comfort, then Jesus probably isn't the one we're seeking.
The disciples are starting to build a relationship with Jesus. They ask, "Where are you staying?" The word for staying is the same word for the dove remaining on him. The word remain shows up several times in this reading, which is always something to pay attention to. There is an intention to remain, to stay, to abide, and build this relationship. This the same kind of staying power that God is having with humankind in the person of Jesus. He is abiding. Later in the book of John, Jesus will give a farewell address about abiding, how he and God abide with each other, and how the Holy Spirit abides with the Disciples after Jesus ascends to the Father. Abiding and remaining indicate a long-term relationship, a commitment to work together.
Then Jesus invites them to come and see. Jesus doesn't make any promises about what the disciples will experience. He lets the experience unfold instead of trying to anticipate everything they will encounter. Jesus wants them to be open to all the experience of following him and abiding will bring. An attitude of openness, of curiosity is helpful for Jesus' disciples, which we are.
Then there is the relationship between the brothers Andrew and Simon, the power of sharing the good news. Andrew doesn't keep Jesus all for himself, but he tells his brother, who ends up becoming Jesus' right-hand man. The good news of Jesus is too good to keep to ourselves. How can our lives be ones of invitation, of sharing Jesus with others, of building community and relationship. In knowing Jesus, Simon gets a new name, a new identity, a new birth. So new things are possible with all of us in abiding, remaining relationship with Jesus and each other.
We live in troubled times. People's anxiety is rising week by week. Stress is high. Some people are turning on each other. Some people seem stuck about what to do. But many people are building relationships, getting to know their neighbors, showing up at city hall to speak the truth to the Gresham city counselors. Santa Cruz congregation has asked us at Trinity to meet with officials in Gresham to get a state of emergency declared in Gresham as the city in Oregon with the most per capita ICE arrests. Families are being separated and hard-working law-abiding members of our community have been taken to Tacoma. I hope you'll pray for me, I have a clergy meeting with the Gresham mayor on Thursday. Some of our community members have asked to join our disaster preparedness pods to know their neighbors and be able to respond in times of need--because we are already in a time of need, a time of emergency for many. In these times we are called to follow the lamb, Jesus who faced the violent powers of empire that tried to control him, that tried to take away the hope of the people. We are called to follow the lamb and respond not with violence but with relationship and solidarity. We are called to tell the truth even when it is unpopular and to resist power that attacks countries, states, and people who are defenseless. We are called to come and see, and to remain with Jesus the lamb and our fellow disciples receiving a new identity and new purpose in the power of relationship and love.
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