Come and See to Go and Be - A Sermon for Sunday January 4, 2026

LESSON INTRODUCTION

On this 11th day of Christmas,

we do not have any pipers piping,

but we continue to celebrate Christmas,

the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

This is the year of John’s Gospel,

and John does not have a Christmas or nativity story

in the same way Matthew and Luke do.

No Shepherds, no magi, no stable,

Jesus is the Word of God,

who was with God and was God, in the beginning.

God speaks, the Word of God speaks

and creation happens.

This Jesus of Nazareth is the Word made flesh,

full of grace and truth,

in whom we receive grace upon grace.

We go a little out of order today.

normally the Narrative Lectionary is chronological.

Next week we celebrate the baptism of our Lord,

but for today’s lesson,

Jesus had just been baptized.

Now what? Come, and see.

Narrative Lectionary Gospel: John 1:35-51

The holy Gospel according to St. John the First chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.

  ³⁵ The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶ and as he watched Jesus walk by he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸ When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹ He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴² He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).
  ⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” ⁴⁴ Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” ⁴⁶ Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸ Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” ⁴⁹ Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ⁵⁰ Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹ And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

The gospel of the Lord

Praise to you O Christ

I’d like to share with you a story

about one particular congregation.

They were a rather vibrant community,

worship services were well attended,

there was spiritual and congregational growth,

finances weren’t a concern,

there were a couple well-functioning committees

on which people served.

One such committee was an outreach committee.

Anyone with passion or even interest for mission, 

outreach, evangelism, service

was welcome to join.

The purpose of this particular committee was,

as you can guess,

about outreach – evangelism, & mission –

serving the community, those in need,

sharing the good news of Jesus Christ

in the community.

One winter,

this particular committee was struggling to figure out

how to reach out

to their immediate surrounding community,

especially to the people in the apartments

that surround the church building.

It was either by pure luck or by the hand of God

that a new couple joined this committee

who happened to live in this apartment complex.

I believe it was the latter.

This couple was passionate about outreach,

and the committee finally had their ‘In’

with the apartment complex

and they started to plan a couple of community events for the upcoming summer.

There was excitement in the committee:

they were planning a community BBQ

with music and entertainment,

as well as a couple other

community focused activities.   

I was not told exactly what happened,

maybe it was pragmatism,

or maybe it was fear,

I suspect the latter,

but plans changed significantly

in the months that followed.

The direction for these events changed from

this simple yet exciting community outreach event

to a potluck lunch after worship.

I’ve wondered what caused this committee

to steer away from this outreach event.

Everyone loves potlucks,

but the neighbours never knew about it.

Perhaps it was fear of failure or rejection.

Perhaps it was a little outside their comfort zone.

Maybe there weren’t enough volunteers.

Maybe they doubted that God was at work

in their community.

Regardless of the exact reason,

this outreach-focused committee

quickly became inward focused.

They lost sight of their purpose –

their sole purpose was outreach!

All congregations can be like this from time to time.

Sometimes we forget our purpose,

sometimes we forget who we are,

and whose we are.   

Sometimes we lose sight of

what God is doing in our community,

Truth be told -

we all would rather stay in our comfort zone.

John the baptist was standing with two of his disciples, 

and he declares:

“There’s Jesus!  the Lamb of God.”

and his two disciples left John and followed Jesus.

John’s whole purpose was to point to Jesus,

to prepare the way of the Lord -

so when these two disciples left John to follow Jesus,

it was good news!

I could be wrong, but I suspect that these two disciples

had their doubts about Jesus.

After all, even John the baptist had his doubts

Yet Jesus offered these disciples these words:

“Come and See”

When we have our doubts,

sometimes we need to hear those words:

Come and See.

To remain faithful,

We all need to see signs of the kingdom of God -

and believe it or not, we see them here.

We see the kingdom of God at hand

when people are claimed by God in baptism

We see the kingdom of God at hand

when people are supported and comforted

when they are in need of healing.

We see the kingdom of God at hand

when we all gather at the communion table -

and we all receive Jesus’ gift of forgiveness.

We see it when children talk about

what they learned in Sunday school,

or when people receive much needed winter clothing, or when the hungry are fed by food bank donations

or blessed by blessing bags.

After all, this is the church’s purpose -

to be signs of the Kingdom of God.

As baptized sisters, brothers and siblings in Christ,

it is our purpose to be signs that

the kingdom of God has come near.

The church is the place for people

to come and see these signs.

It doesn’t end here.

The church does not end with “Come and See”.

As a congregation, we want to grow -

we want spiritual growth in our hearts and minds.

We may want our numbers to grow -

(and a faithful tangent,

we ought to be critical

about why we want to grow).

It is good to encourage people to “come and see”

what’s going on at church -

to come and see signs of the Kingdom of God.

but some folks just aren’t interested.

Not everyone is actively seeking God -

not everyone will heed that’ invitation,

Jesus’ invitation to “come and see”

And, frankly, attending church for the first time

can be scary, intimidating.

Not everyone is willing to come and see.

So then our invitation is to Go and Be.

It is quite likely that John’s disciples -

the two who left John and followed Jesus -

were prepared for that moment

that they would stop being John’s disciples,

and that they would Go and Be Jesus’ disciples.

It may not have been easy,

but they stepped out of their comfort zone

(strange as it might have been

following the locust eating

and camel-skin wearing John.).

To live into their purpose,

John’s disciples had to Go and be -

in order to extend Jesus’ invitation

to Come and See.

It is not unlike Israel when taken into exile.

The Israelites, God’s chosen people,

were long suffering in exile,

God’s people had been defeated,

their temple destroyed.

They were taken in chains to Babylon,

alienated from their land and their God.

They were experiencing a crisis of faith and identity.

They doubted if they were still God’s people

Their whole understanding of worship

and God’s presence was shattered.

Yet God called these people -

despised and abhorred by the nations,

amid cultural and religious uncertainty and suffering - to be the light to the nations,

to continue to serve God -

to restore their community to their purpose

of being God’s people,

And to show God’s salvation reaching

to the ends of the earth

God called Israel out of their suffering and exile

in order to Go and Be the people of God,

wherever they are.

The church isn’t always highly regarded in society.

Many people aren’t interested in the church these days

- and quite often it is the church’s fault.

Just think of all the hateful things that have been said

in the name of Christianity -

Christians have talked about racial privilege,

Some still talk about gender privilege -

and hold the right to discriminate

based on gender and sexuality,

blessing colonial conquest,

clergy abuse scandals.

Right now, the church is an unlikely tribe -

despised and abhorred by many -

yet we are the church that God calls to be faithful,

we are the church that God calls to

not only restore itself amid our issues,

but to also be a light to the nations,

a light that shows the world that

God’s salvation reaches to the ends of the earth.

We are the church to which God is saying “Go and Be”

Our invitation is to be signs of the kingdom of God

here in this place,

here in this community of faith -

and to also Go and be signs of the kingdom -

in our communities,

in our workplaces,

in our living rooms.

We are invited to Come and See.

We are invited to Go and Be.

We know that we are not fit for these tasks on our own.

We will fail time and time again.

Perhaps, by God’s grace we might start

doing something that is good for this community’s

spiritual growth,

and then get sidetracked

for one reason or another

instead of recognizing God’s work in our community.  Perhaps, as a congregation,

we will be given an opportunity to be

signs of the kingdom of God,

and we wont do it because it’s too risky,

or it’s outside our comfort zone,

or because that’s not how we’ve always done it.

Perhaps you will have an opportunity to

be the Good News in someone’s life,

a family member or friend,

someone in need,

and because of insecurity or anxiety or whatever,

we might let that opportunity slip.

You and I cannot be signs of the kingdom of God alone.

But we can trust that the God of our salvation,

the God who claims us in baptism,

the God who is present with us always -

will strengthen us

and enlighten us with the gifts of the Spirit.

With Jesus,

we lack nothing.

My dear Sisters, brothers and siblings in Christ -

may we be bold in inviting people to

Come and See Jesus Christ,

the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  And may we be bold to Go and Be

God’s baptized people in our world.

Thanks be to God. Amen.