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United Church in the Valley: March 5, 2017
Student Minister: Matthew Heesing
The Questions of Christ:
Part I: What Are You Looking For?
Scripture Readings:
Psalm 42: 1-2, 5-8, 11, 1-2
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Where can I go and be with my God?
“Why so dispirited?” I ask myself.
“Why so upset? Hope in God!”
I know I’ll praise God once again,
for you are my deliverance, you are my God.
My soul is downcast within me:
therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls:
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
Every day, God, you bring your love to me,
and during the night, you bring me your song….
“Why so dispirited?” I ask myself.
“Why so upset? Hope in God!”
I know I’ll praise God once again,
for you are my deliverance, you are my God….
As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
Where can I go and be with my God?
John 1: 35-39
One day, John the Baptist was by the side of the river Jordan,
and two of his disciples were with him. When John saw Jesus passing by, he said “Look, the Lamb of God!” When the two disciples heard him say this, they left John, and followed Jesus.
Turning around, Jesus saw the two disciples trailing behind,
and asked them: “What are you looking for?”
They said, “Teacher, where are you staying?”
Jesus replied by saying, “Come and see.”
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying, and spent the entire day with him.
Sermon:
In 1987, the Irish rock band U2
released one of their top songs of all time.
Rolling Stone magazine has even ranked it
as one of the greatest tracks in music history.
The title of the song was this:
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
Do you know it?
On top of talented vocals,
bass, guitar and percussion,
it’s the poetry, the lyrics,
that truly set this song apart.
Lead singer Bono once introduced it
as a “kind of Gospel song with a restless spirit.”
This “restless spirit”
can be found in the words:
words that tell a story
of somebody climbing the highest mountains,
running through the fields,
crawling, seeking, scaling the city walls,
trying to find someone,
trying to be with someone,
but as the chorus goes,
“I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
Have you ever felt this way?
Like whatever you were searching for
was always out of reach?
That no matter where you go,
or what you get, or what you have, or who you meet
there’s still something missing,
there’s a sense of longing and desire
deep inside, that never departs,
is never fully satisfied, never is finished?
Or, even more,
in our own racing,
inner wrestling,
and running around,
do we ever stop to actually wonder
what it is we’re looking for?
What are you looking for, Church?
What are you looking for?
During the season of Lent,
we’ll be exploring several questions
of the one we call the Christ:
questions that Jesus asked
over the course of his ministry,
from the very beginning,
all the way up to the cross—and beyond.
In fact,
throughout the four Gospels—
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—
Jesus asks 307 different questions.
And if that’s not enough,
Jesus is asked 183 questions,
and only directly answers 3. 3!
Clearly, Jesus is more interested
in asking questions than providing answers.
Which can seem problematic
to our twenty-first century perspective.
We like answers! And we want answers now!
So we talk to Siri on our cell-phones,
we type our questions into Google,
we go online for whatever we need.
And it can feel infuriating
when we can’t find an answer—
when we have to hold on a 1800-helpline,
when the instruction manual makes no sense,
when the website is confusing,
or when nobody—not even our parents,
or a mentor or a minister
can answer our most important questions
about the meaning of life,
or the mysteries of faith,
or the moments when we don’t know what to do
or where to turn or how to live.
We like answers. Wouldn’t you agree?
But when we read the Gospels,
when we get real close
to the man named Jesus,
the one we call the Christ, Messiah,
we don’t find many magic answers.
Instead, we find a teacher,
a preacher, a prophet
who preferred to provoke, inspire,
and empower people to push past the obvious
and ponder something more profound.
By posing difficult questions,
Jesus demands that we dig a little deeper,
that we be okay without black-and-white answers,
that we open ourselves to the ongoing work
of a God beyond, beside, and within.
To paraphrase Richard Rohr,
easy answers allow us to try to change others.
Hard questions allow God to change us.[1]
And so, this season of Lent,
we’re going to ask a lot of questions.
Questions of purpose, pain, and healing.
Questions that might comfort the afflicted.
Questions that might afflict the comfortable.
Questions that allow God to change us.
And we’re going to start
with the very first question
that Jesus asks in the Gospel of John:
“What are you looking for?”
We heard in our reading
that one day, John the Baptist—
the person who would prepare the way
for the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah—
was sitting by the side of the river Jordan,
and two of his disciples were with him.
When John saw Jesus passing by,
he proclaimed, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
In other words, “People, pay attention!
This is the one I’ve been telling you about!
This is the one that God has promised!
The light of the world is walking by!”
And when John’s two disciples heard him say this,
they left John, and followed Jesus.
Now, that’s all the Scripture verse says:
that they left and “followed Jesus.”
Did they swiftly run after him, sweaty and desperate?
Or did they maintain a little distance,
not entirely sure what they were doing,
hoping Jesus wouldn’t notice?
We don’t know.
But turning around, Jesus saw the two disciples trailing behind
and asked them: “What are you looking for?”
Which, by the way, is not the question you’d expect.
Jesus doesn’t ask “Why are you following me?”
Or “What are you doing?”
or “Did you really think I wouldn’t see you there?”
but “What are you looking for?”
As you follow Jesus,
have you ever asked yourself that question?
When you came here this morning,
when you arrive at Sunday worship,
when you wake up, and when you go out,
when you say a prayer, have you stopped to ponder
“What am I looking for?”
The disciples respond by saying
“Teacher, where are you staying?”
And at first, it seems like they’re avoiding the question.
As Dalene Vasbinder writes,
“What am I looking for? Oh, I really don’t know,
haven’t thought about it much,
not sure I want to think about it
so instead, tell me Jesus, where are you staying?”[2]
But maybe there’s more to the disciple’s response.
Jesus asks them
“What are you looking for?”
and the disciples respond with
“Where are you staying?”
but the word for “staying,”
in the original Greek,
is “meno”:
a word which isn’t just
about location—
like staying at a certain motel,
or spending the night in one specific place,
but it also signifies
an “intimate, enduring relationship.”[3]
The word “meno”
can mean “stay,”
but also remain,
abide, dwell,
continue, endure,
be steadfast, or come in close.[4]
The disciples want to know:
where can we find you, Jesus?
Where will you abide?
Where can we go,
to linger in your presence,
to continue being close,
to stay by your side
and be in relationship?
We want to be where you are, Jesus.
That’s what we’re looking for:
we want to be with you.
And Jesus responds by saying,
“Come and see.”
It’s not a direct answer.
But it is an invitation.
It’s an invitation
to an ongoing journey.
If you’re looking to be with me,
then come and see.
If you’re looking to be close,
you can’t stay at a distance.
If you’re looking for a relationship,
with me, Jesus, the light of the world,
you’ll find it on the road, on the Way;
for as you live and follow,
you’ll find what you seek.
If you’re looking for me,
then simply come and see.
People of God,
if you are looking for a life without doubts,
a path without pain,
then you will be disappointed.
If you are looking for success,
prosperity, power and control,
then you’ll probably have to keep on searching.
If you are looking to coast along
without carrying a cross,
if you’re looking for a social club,
an easy commitment,
self-satisfaction, or personal gain,
you’ve missed the point
of what we do and why we gather
in the name of God.
If you are looking for easy answers,
then this might not be the place.
But if you’re looking to be with Jesus,
if you’re looking for everlasting light,
if you’re looking for love and wholeness,
help and salvation,
if you’re looking for beauty,
abundance, and fullness of life,
if you’re looking for grace and goodness,
forgiveness and joy,
meaning and purpose,
hope and perseverance,
if you’re looking for a better Way to follow,
if you’re looking for a better Way to be,
if you are looking to be with God,
for God embodies all of the above,
then Jesus—Jesus—calls you
to come and respond
to follow me
to come and see.
Where are you staying, Lord?
Come and see.
The disciples didn’t get an answer.
But they got something even greater:
an invitation to all that is good,
an encounter with the holy,
a relationship with God.
So, people of God,
what are you looking for?
Thanks be to God.
[1] Richard Rohr, forward to John Dear, The Questions of Jesus: Challenging Ourselves to Discover Life’s Great Answers (Image, 2004).
[2] Rev. Dalene Vasbinder, “What Are You Looking For?” Woodland Christian Church, Jan. 15, 2017
[3] David Ewart, “John 1:29-42,” January 19, 2014, holytextures.com
[4] Ibid.