Publications > Sermons

Come and See

Rev. Cindy Maddox
January 15, 2005

John 1:43-51

In my opinion, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech is one of the greatest in American History. It so clearly and beautifully articulated not only his dream, but the people's dreams, dreams that I hope we all share -- dreams of justice and equality and mutual respect; dreams of how the world can be, rather than how it sometimes is; dreams of letting freedom ring all across our land.

Reading the text does not do the speech justice. You need to hear his voice -- sometimes slow and drawling, sometimes quick and fast-hitting. You need to hear the way he used the phrase "I have a dream" not just to begin each sentence, but by moving quickly from one sentence into the next sentence and then pausing, makign it serve as both the end and the beginning of each idea. If you haven't heard it recently, I encourage you to go online and listen to it in its entirety.

The speech is filled with other powerful lines:

We have come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.

And

We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.

A beautiful, articulate, and powerful speech.

My preaching professor was one of the most respected preachers in our nation, and he taught me that a good sermon should have one function: to encourage the congregation to ___(blank)___, or to challenge the hearers to ___(such-and-such)___. or to teach the people that ___(fill in the blank)___.

Well, Dr. King did not follow Dr. Long's rules!

The "I Have A Dream" speech had way more than one function.

It encouraged the people to keep up the fight.

It assured the opposition that they would not give up.

It warned the people against violence and hatred and bitterness.

And most of all, it was a call. It called the people to a journey that would not be easy,
but a journey that would change their lives -- and the lives of those to come.

I chose to begin our worship today with a paraphrased line or two from this famous speech, plus what I hope was the articulation of some of the dreams we share as a church...dreams of safety and security, dreams of welcome and inclusion, dreams of community, commitment, and intimacy.

I chose to begin our worship this way because this is the weekend we honor Dr. King's legacy. But Dr. King's call to action also shares some similarities with our lectionary text for today, the call of two disciples.

In the passage of scripture immediately preceding our text for today, two disciples of John the Baptist were introduced to Jesus. Jesus asked them, "What are you looking for?"

That must have been a difficult question, for instead of answering they asked him,
"Where are you staying?"

A strange question, don't you think? Jesus asks them what they're looking for, and they respond, "Where are you staying?"??

But it was more than a question about his lodging. "Where are you staying" didn't mean sleeping -- it meant remaining, abiding. They were asking, Where is home?
Where is the center of your life? And will I be welcome there?

Jesus' answer was simple: Come and see. Come and see what I consider home. Come and see whom I consider family. Come and see what it means to follow me. Come and see for yourself.

In our text for today, Jesus meets Philip and says to him simply, "Follow me."

Philip immediately goes to his friend Nathanael and says to him, "We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus, son of Joseph from Nazareth."

Nathanael replies, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"

It sounds like the attitude of someone from a neighboring rival town, like us saying "Can anything that good come out of Bethel?" Or "Waterbury?" Like a Minnesotan saying, "Can anything good come out of North Dakota?" It sounds like the attitude of someone who told jokes that began with "Have you heard the one about the Nazarene who went into a bar...?"

Plus, Nazareth was "an obscure and insignificant backwater with nothing to offer anyone, a place where dreams die instead of being nurtured."¹

Nathanael is not interested in following just anyone claiming to have a new idea,
least of all one from Nazareth. He is wise to imposters. He doesn't want to be set up for later disappointment.

Nathanael, in short, is a skeptic...which means primarily one thing to me: I like him! I can relate to him. Blind faith has always been a mystery to me, but skepticism I can understand.

Philip doesn't argue with Nathanael. Perhaps he understands his friend well enough to know that arguing will get him nowhere. Instead, he response seems to echo the words Jesus spoke earlier. Philip says simply, "Come and see." Come and see for yourself. Come and see.

I think those are three of the most powerful words in the entire Gospels, right up there with the other important three-word sentences, "Jesus is born" and "Christ is risen."

Come and see.

Maybe we should write those three words above the doors to the sanctuary: Come and see.

Are you looking for a church where you might be welcomed as you are?

Come and see.

Are you curious about the exciting things you hear happening at that church on the corner?

Come and see.

Are you looking for meaning, for answers, for it all to make sense?

Come and see. Come and see for yourself.

We don't have all the answers -- in fact, we have lots of questions ourselves. But we'll add your questions to our questions and we'll all "Come and see" together.

Maybe we should write those three words on the front of our Bibles: Come and see.

Come and see what others saw when they went looking for God.

Come and see how others interpreted the events in their lives...They may have gotten it right, or they may have gotten it wrong, but come and see for yourself.

Come and see if there might be a different way of reading scripture than you were taught. Come and see if you might discover grace instead of condemnation. Come and see if you might find direction for your life, motivation for your ministry, rejuvenation for your work.

Come and see.

Maybe we should write those three words on the doors of our homes, inside and out,
so that every time we come home and every time we leave we will remember the invitation.

Come and see God at work in your own family. Or come and see God present with you in the quiet, empty rooms. Whether you are entering or leaving, come and see God in the faces you meet.

Maybe we should write those three words on the dashboards of our cars, on our bookbags or briefcases, on our office desks or work stations or tucked in the pocket of our uniform. Come and see. Come and see what God might do. Come and see what might happen when you're not afraid to declare, "I have a dream!"

Come and see, Jesus said to the newcomers, and they followed -- not with great faith and not even without fear. But the invitation was impossible to resist.

Come and see, Philip said to Nathanael. And Nathanael took his questions and his doubts and his skepticism, and Jesus welcome him with all his questions and his doubts and his skepticism. In fact, Jesus rewarded Nathanael's questions by revealing more about himself to Nathanael than he had to any of the previous disciples.

Come and see what happens when you bring your skepticism to Christ. Come and see what happens when you're not afraid of the questions. Come and see for yourself.

And the invitation was impossible to resist.

A man I know tells a story about a different kind of invitation. He had just checked into a hotel on one of his many trips, and as he stepped into the elevator he saw a handwritten note:

Party tonight! Room 210, 8:00. Everyone invited!

He imagined Room 210 at 8:00 "filled with an odd assortment of people: traveling salesmen looking for relief from the tedium, tourists bored with sightseeing, wary hotel employees checking out what was going on.

"It turns out the notice was a hoax. [I'm guessing it was a joke played on some newlyweds!] Nevertheless, for a brief moment there existed the tantalizing possibility
that there was a party going on somewhere to which all were invited, where it didn't make any difference who you were, where even if you came out of boredom or loneliness, you were welcome...A party where it didn't matter nearly as much what got us in the door, as what would happen to us after we arrived.^"2

The invitation was a hoax, but the idea is authentic: a party to which everybody is invited, where there's no dress code and no cover charge, and all are welcome and no one is turned away.

If there is to be such a party, the church is going to have to throw it. Nobody else can.
Nobody else will. It is up to us to extend the invitation...And to mean it.

Dr. King lamented that the church is often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It need not be that way. The sound can be strong and effective and sure:

Come and see.

Come and see, Jesus says.

Come and see for yourself.

Come and see love.

Come and see God.

Come as you are.

Just come.

¹Lectionary Homiletics, January 2000

² From a sermon by Thomas G. Long, reviewed in Lectionary Homiletics, January 2004