Invitation

The Church of St. Paul & Incarnation, Jersey City NJ

January 19, 2020

Year A: The Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Isaiah 49:1-7

Psalm 40:1-12

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

John 1:29-42

Invitation

            For many months now there has been a street preacher over at Journal Square.

            If you’ve been through there, you have certainly heard him.

            I think he’s out there most evenings, equipped with a pretty powerful sound system and a stark message of judgment: we are sinners and we are kidding ourselves if we think there won’t be a high price to pay for our wrongdoing.

            I don’t agree with much of the street preacher’s theology, but I admire his faithfulness and persistence – it’s no easy thing to stand out there day after day preaching a message that most people definitely do not want to hear. I’m sure most people try their best to ignore him, and there are probably at least a few who heckle him or make fun of him.

            His fire and brimstone preaching style is definitely not my way, but he’s in good company with lots of preachers both past and present.

And even Jesus himself, especially in the Gospel of Matthew, warns that unless we change our ways we will find ourselves in a fiery place where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

            Although like the street preacher, Jesus is willing and able to warn us about the consequences of our actions, that’s not his usual way of attracting followers and convincing people to change their ways.

            No.

            In fact, we heard Jesus’ usual way in today’s gospel lesson:

            Invitation.

            If you were here last week you may remember that we heard the story of Jesus’ baptism.

            And, in my sermon I mentioned that there is awkwardness to that story because we know that John the Baptist preached and practiced a baptism of repentance but we believe that Jesus the Son of God was without sin and therefore in no need of repentance.

            So, the four evangelists deal with this dilemma in different ways.

The Evangelist John, who we heard from today, tells the story as a memory – as a memory of John the Baptist who remembers seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and remembers God telling him that Jesus is the one who will baptize not with water but the Holy Spirit.

            So, actually, John manages to tell the story of Jesus’ baptism without actually telling the story of Jesus’ baptism.

            In the three other gospels, right after his baptism Jesus is driven into the wilderness for forty days and nights of temptation, but in John’s telling of the story, it’s now that Jesus begins to attract followers of his own.

            After hearing John the Baptist refer to Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” Andrew and another person are understandably curious and want to learn more.

            Jesus asks them, “What are you looking for?”

            And they reply, “Rabbi, where are you staying?”

            And, Jesus says, “Come and see.”

            Invitation.

            And, accepting that invitation from Jesus changed the lives of Andrew and the other disciples, and that invitation would soon transform the life of Simon Peter, and so many others, right down to us here today.

            Come and see.

            Invitation.

            And, I know that invitation works because it was an invitation just like that – an invitation I believe that was really from Jesus himself - that changed my life.

            Some of you have heard this story before – maybe more than once – (sorry!).

But more than twenty years ago now, Sue and I were living a few blocks away from here in a little house on Highland Avenue.

            Life was pretty good: I had my dream job of teaching at St. Peter’s Prep and Sue was working in Barnes and Noble’s corporate office, a job which, among other things provided us an employee discount on books!

            I still miss that.

            Anyway, at some point I realized that although I was part of a faith community through my work at Prep, church was something that Sue and I did not share together.

            So, one day I suggested to Sue that some Sunday we should try going to church together.

            She went along with this idea and that year on the First Sunday of Advent we went to a local church. I don’t want to get into details but let’s just say it was… a less than positive experience.

            Definitely not fire and brimstone, but definitely not so good.

            I remember feeling so disappointed that it hadn’t worked out and fairly sure that Sue was unlikely to say yes to church – or maybe any of my other ideas – ever again.

            Anyway, that week I told this sad but also a little bit funny story to some of my friends and colleagues in the Prep faculty room. After the shaking of heads and laughter at my probably somewhat exaggerated description, one of my colleagues, Patty Nickerson, looked at me and said with a serious tone that caught my attention, “You should come to my church sometime.”

            Come and see.

            Invitation.

            It turned out that Patty’s church was a little Episcopal church tucked away on Duncan Avenue. I think you know it.

            To my surprise, I convinced Sue to give church another shot, arguing that if nothing else we’d get to see what the inside of this interesting church looked like. And so, on the Second Sunday of Advent we showed up here and both of our lives were transformed in ways we could have hardly imagined.

            Without knowing it, like Andrew, I had been looking for where Jesus was staying.

And, I found him – and continue to find him – right here.

And, none of that would have happened if Patty Nickerson had not extended that long ago invitation.

Come and see.

I have no doubt that God can and will work with whatever we have to offer, including the street preacher’s fire and brimstone message for the rushing commuters of Journal Square.

But, in my case, and I think in our case, it’s a simple invitation that works best.

And, probably the absolute best is a one-on-one invitation like what Patty extended to me long ago.

In fact, there are quite a few of us here today because we received that kind of invitation.

Other times, that invitation comes from social media or our website or just being as welcoming as we can be when people work up the courage to step inside this beautiful old building for the first time.

We extend the invitation to see where Jesus is staying because just like Andrew and Peter and Sue and me, we know – we know – that accepting that invitation makes all the difference in the world.

Come and see.

Amen.