As most of you know, our Donna is taking coursework and walking the journey toward ordination into the Priesthood. This is a long process and is at the point where she is now in the discernment period.
Corby and I were asked to join the Diocese Discernment Committee through the Commission on Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia as part of Donna’s journey.
Now why I mention this today, is that in our Gospel from John, we hear Jesus asking a very important question to two of John the Baptist’s disciples after they were told that the man who walked by was Jesus and they immediately started following him as he walked.
Jesus stops and he turned to these people and asks them, “ What are you looking for?”
What are you looking for?
The Discerners, as Donna is now called in the discernment process, are asked to spend a great deal of time, examining their own spirituality and their own belief system about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
So far, they’ve only had two months of assignments, but already, these assignments have been pretty intense.
For the Month of January, these discerners were asked to create a spiritual diary for one week.
They were also asked to answer 7 very personal and insightful questions to share during our 2 hour gathering as a group.
As a member of this committee, we have been asked to share our own spiritual journeys with the group and to hold our three individuals in daily prayer.
When I read the question that Jesus asked the disciples that day, it hit me deeply. What are you looking for? Discernment.
Personal Discernment.
What are you looking for?
So then, I asked myself, the questions that the discernment committee asked of the Discerners. And I invite you to ask yourself these questions as well.
How do I experience God in my daily life?
What role does God the Father play in my spirituality?
What role does Jesus Christ play in my spirituality?
What role does the Holy Spirit play in my spirituality?
And lastly, How do I know that I’m being faithful?
I’m not sure what I would do if I peered out the window, and saw a man who looks like the stereotypical Jesus picture that we’ve all seen walking down the road. But I know what the two disciples in our Gospel story did.
It seems to me that these two disciples who dropped what they were doing, and simply followed without question the man who they just found out was Jesus, the lamb of God whom John the Baptist prophesied about. They must have had tremendous faith in God. They simply followed the man who would bring us salvation by his great sacrifice. Without question, without pause.
I haven’t seen that Jesus figure portrayed in all those pictures, but I believe that I have Met Jesus many times over.
One of my favorite songs is Jesus my Lord
Have you seen Jesus my Lord?
He’s here in plain view.
Take a look, open your eyes,
He’ll show it to you.
There are many verses, but the last one is a doozy.
Have you ever stood in the family
With the Lord there in your midst,
Seen the face of Christ on each other….
Then I say….. You’ve seen Jesus my Lord
Jesus asks all of us, What are you looking for? It’s an invitation folks. He tells the men who followed him, Come and See….
He invites us to do the same. Come and See. Come and follow Me.
My guess is that each one of us here today have met Jesus in some way. Personally, in others, in the beauty of the outdoors, A rainbow, the birth of a child, sitting with someone who is making their journey home, someone who is angry, who is depressed, who is lost, who is hungry, who is cold, who is laughing, through singing and praising…
I believe we meet Jesus every day, in our ordinary lives. The question is, what do we do with that? Do we turn our backs or do we invite them in. Do we shun them or sit with them and talk. Do we turn them away or do we feed them. Do we let them freeze in the cold, or do we give them our coats.
Have You met Jesus?
What are You looking for?
Come and See
Amen