Fr James Heard at St Paul's Cathedral, Sunday 19 January 2020
As we journey through this season of epiphany, it’s a time for considering the gradual revelation of who Jesus is. It’s a season which includes an invitation to consider what the revelation of the Christ child means for each us, for our lives, our families, friends and the world.
Today’s Gospel reading includes St John’s version of the baptism of Jesus. It follows this with a rather profound question by Jesus. We’re told that, seeing some disciples following him, Jesus asked them, ‘What are you looking for?’
It’s really a question for the ages. What are you looking for? I wonder, what is it that has brought you here to St Paul’s Cathedral today. What is in your heart that hungers for more, what is it that drives you forward in your walk of faith.
Or, when we come to church to pray and reflect on scripture, are we just going through the motions of our religious life inherited from our parents? Do we know what we want? And… are we willing to be surprised and challenged?
‘What are you looking for?’ The disciple’s response is interesting – they simply dodge the question. They don’t, perhaps like us, quite know how to respond to Jesus’s question.
Instead they ask Jesus their own question: where are you staying? In other words, what will it be like to follow you? Where will our destination be if we follow you? Tell us up front. They want the answers. They want the destiny of Jesus mapped out beforehand. Perhaps we are like that. We live in an age where can find directions and information about anything we want with our mobile phones – instant answers.
So, what’s it going to be like to follow in the path of Jesus? Jesus refuses to be drawn in by this question and simply says, come and see.
In short, following Jesus will only become clear as and when we decide to walk in his footsteps. Hence the question we must regularly ask ourselves. What are we looking for? Jesus? Or something else?
One of the things I love about the Eastern Orthodox tradition is its emphasis on faith as a lifelong journey. Bishop Kallistos Ware says, when someone asks me when did you become a Christian, I respond, I don’t express it like that. I have not become a Christian… rather, I am becoming a Christian.
In other words, the journey of faith is a lifelong journey. It will include moments of clarity, of epiphanies, when we experience the presence of God. And the journey of faith will also include time of questioning, doubt. And it’s a journey that continues beyond this life into the infinite mystery of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
That’s my first point – where are we going? We’ll not be told exactly where the path of faith will take us. Jesus tell us simply to come and see. Jesus encourages us, ‘Follow in my footsteps, don’t worry, trust me. Because I’ll be walking with you all the way.’
And this leads onto my second point. If we are going to follow Jesus, we need to be open to seeing what he shows us. “Seeing” is a concept that recurs throughout this Gospel passage - “I saw the Spirit,” John says after a dove descends on the newly baptized Jesus. “I myself have seen and have testified.” “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” he tells his disciples the next day. Jesus “turns and sees”.
The Christian faith includes an invitation to search, to see. Have we’ve grown so familiar with the Christian faith that we think we know what it’s all about?
If so, we need to look again. To be open to surprises. To cultivate a grace-filled willingness to recognise that perhaps we’ve been wrong about certain things, people, or even God.
c.15 German mystic Meister Eckhart put’s it provocatively: I pray to God, that he may rid me of God’. What he meant by that is that there is no concept of God that can contain God. As Augustine said, “If you comprehend it, it is not God.” We can only come to know God as we let go of our ideas about God, to allow what is not God to be stripped away. Let’s be open to the God of surprises.
What about allowing ourselves to be seen by God. There is something healing and holy that happens to us when we are deeply seen, known, named, and accepted.
I love the way Jesus sees the best in Simon. What does he see when he looks at him – does he see someone who is impetuous, and ready to deny Jesus so easily? No, Jesus see Simon as Peter, the Rock. And Jesus sees the best in us too. He looks at us and sees what lies beneath our brokenness, our fear, mixed motives, and doubts.
In other ways, each of us benefits from a second look. To offer that second look, that deeper, kinder, and more penetrating look, is called grace. It’s the gracious vision of Jesus, and it’s the vision we’re called to practice in a world that too often judges and condemns at first glance.
When we have been seen in the profoundly loving and healing way of Jesus, we start being able to also see others as God’s beloved children. It’s when we have been loved in the core of our being that we’ll find the capacity to embrace others as Jesus did – to embrace every disciple, every sinner, every doubter, and every believer who crossed his path. May we look as he looks. May we want what he wants. And may we ever seek the One who always and everywhere seeks us.
Reference: Debie Thomas
Revd Dr James Heard
Vicar, United Benefice of Holland Park