Reflections on "Where Are you Staying” John 1: 29-42

This is the first sermon of the series "Calling All Disciples," which invites the worshippers to consider God's call on their lives. The sermon did not reach the potential I imagined when I chose it to begin this preaching series.  I am not sure what happened, but the whole sermon felt a little flat.  It is a great story, so it should have preached easily.   Part of the problem was I tried to organize the sermon instead of letting the story flow.  My structure seemed to suffocate the story!  I also seemed to be a bit off all service, beginning with stumbling through the announcements at the beginning of the service.  

 “Where Are you Staying” John 1: 29-42; SAPC, Denton; January 15, 2023; Calling All Disciples series Richard B. Culp 

John 1: 29-42

²⁹The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! ³⁰This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ³¹I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” ³²And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. ³³I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ ³⁴And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.” ³⁵The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, ³⁶and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

³⁷The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. ³⁸When 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?” ³⁹He 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. ⁴⁰One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). ⁴²He 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).

Introduction: We begin our preaching series, “Calling all disciples” this morning. Over the next six weeks, you are invited to consider your own send of call.  

Each week, the texts we read will lift up various aspects of call, but they will not cover every aspect of call. so fill free to imagine other aspects of your own sense of call at this particular time. I hope that as you hear the texts and reflect on the sermons, you will discover God’s call for your life.

We begin this week with Gospel of John’s version of how Jesus calls the first disciples.  I am particularly interested in the conversation that takes place between Jesus and the two disciples.

move 1:  Jesus notices two people following him and ask them the question:  “What are you looking for?”

a.  This tells us at the outset that these two disciples were out looking. 

1.  A simple beginning to finding our calling - we have to be looking.

2.  And the very important reminder that when we look for our calling, Jesus notices and is willing to engage us.

b. When Jesus finds these two and recognizes they are looking for something, he asks them, “What are you looking for?”

1.  A  good question for each of us.

1. what are you looking for?

2. When you arrived at church today,  what were you looking for?

3.  When you sit around and dream your dreams, what are you looking for?

c.  In the context of our faith, we are looking for our calling, our purpose, our role as followers of Christ.

1.  In his novel Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry tells the story of Jayber, the town barber in Port Williams, KY.  jabber was born there, but at age ten both his parents died, so we was sent off to the The Good Shepherd orphanage. 

He describes it this way. “For as long as I could remember, I had been hearing preachers tell in sermons how  they had received “the call.” … Not one of those [preachers] had ever suggested that a person could be “called” to anything but “full-time Christian service,” by which they meant either the ministry or “the mission field.” The finest thing they could imagine was that an orphan boy, having been rescued by the charity of the church, should repay his debt by accepting “the call.”  (Wendell Berry. Jayber Crow, pp. 42–43)

1.  As we hear his description, we might recognize that we most often use the word call when describing our activities related to the church - we are called to be ministers, or deacons, or ruling elders.

2.  But I hope as you reflect on your sense of call, you will have a much more expansive sense of call.

3.  No doubt, you have heard Frederick Buechner’s description of one’s calling as, “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”  Frederick Buechner. Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC (1973), p. 95)

4.  Our call inhabits the places where each of live and and move.

5.  God sends us to those particular places to live our our discipleship.

d. When Jesus asks, “What are you looking for?” it is both a question about what the disciples want to do with their lives and an invitation consider following him.  

Move 2:  The disciples respond with their own question: “Where are you staying”

a.  Sort of a strange response, don’t you think.

1.  Maybe they meant the question literally.

1.  maybe they wanted to see the place where Jesus was living.

3.  Author Lillian Daniel notes that we quickly see Jesus go from being the Lamb of God to a guy having some others guys over to his place!(“Grand introductions: Isaiah 49:1-7; John 1:29-42” by Lillian Daniel, January 2, 2002; https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2002-01/grand-introductions)

  b.  I suspect that the disciples had more in mind then the actual place where Jesus stayed.

1.  they want to learn more about him.

2.  when I hear people talk about meeting people on dating apps, I find a similar pattern.

3. you see someone who seems interesting.  You text wiht them multiple time to learn a little about each other.

then, you meet in a  public place  for coffee or tea.  Maybe even do that a few times.

then, if everything seems ok and both parties are still interested, an invitation to come over to someone’s house.

Going to their place is a big step in revealing who you are and getting to know the other person.

b.  A key part of understanding our calling is knowing the one who calls us.

1.  the disciples go over to Jesus’ place.

2.  We cannot do that literally, but we can learn more about Jesus.

3. Discover what Jesus valued and how he handled himself with others.

3.  Work on our own relationship with him.

4. Listen and watch for the movement of the Holy Spirit.

c.  As we look and listen for our calling, we would be well-advised to go over to Jesus’ place.

1. Get connected with him.

2. interpret our sense of call through the ways in which jesus lived his life.

3. Our calling ought to be closely tied to what we see in Jesus.

Move 3: Jesus responds to the disciples question with a simple response:  “Come and see.”

a. Did you notice that the story begins with two unnamed disciples.

1. Those two disciples can be anyone.

2.  Those two disciples could be you.

3.  But you have to own your sense of call.

4. it is not enough to to just consider our callings or think about what our calling might be.

5. We have to lay claim to our call.

6. We have to go and see what it is about and then make the choice to follow Christ.

6.  when we read Paul’s letters, he often begins like he did in the letter to the Corinthians - “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,”

7.  Paul laying claim to his calling.

b.  As the story progresses, we learn that one of the unnamed disciples is Andrew.

1. Andrew - who will become one of the twelve disciples who work closely with Jesus.

3. Andrew, who goes and finds his brother

4.  Andrew, for whom this church is named.

4.  the unnamed disciple who finds his calling in Christ now has a name.

the point is made - when you discover your calling,  you find out who you really are.

the invitation is there for all of us - come and see, come and lay claim to your calling.

Conclusion:  One disciple remained unnamed.

We do not know what became of him.

maybe he walked away.

Or maybe he heard his call and raced back to wherever he was from to live it out.

We can only imagine.

imagine what God is calling you to be and do.

Reflections on “Surprising Paths” Luke 2: 8-16

A beautiful, crisp evening made it feel like Christmas and the gathered congregation brought excitement to the evening.  Preaching Christmas Eve is always a challenge because everyone already knows the story.  it also feels like a collision of moods - for some Christmas is exciting and an escape from the world, but for others it is a moment of melancholy or depression as they remember their brokenness or who is not sitting in worship with them.  I tried to bring to Bethlehem, so to speak, to meet the Christ-child and the truth of God's desire to be with us.

 “Surprising Paths”  Christmas Eve, 2022; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; Luke 2: 8-16; Richard B. Culp

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” ¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

Introduction:  My cousin has two young children. 

her daughter is about 6 yrs old and her son is about 3.

Recently, they were playing together.  My cousin did not know what they were playing, but it was great that they were talking to each other and getting along.

She finally realized that the journey to Christmas must have made an impression on her two children when she heard her daughter exclaim to her brother: 

"Quick! I am having a baby and the plane to Bethlehem is leaving soon!"

Lots of different paths to Bethlehem! 

people are following lots of different paths to get to Bethlehem, some of them surprising paths:   Mary and Joseph travel from their home in Nazareth; the shepherds travel from their fields; the wise men travel from some unknown place car away.  

All their different paths lead to the Christ-child.

What path have you traveled to get here tonight?

Move 1:  For a few minutes this evening, Let’s reflect on some of the paths people travel, some of the paths we travel to find the Christ-child.

a.  Mary and Joseph traveled the path of obligation to Bethlehem.

1.  they had to go and be counted for the census, which means Mary and Joseph were obligated to travel to Bethlehem because of Joseph’s family.

2. I won’t ask how many of you are here this evening because you have to be here out of family obligation.

your parent 

or your spouse 

or kids demanded you come to Christmas Eve worship tonight.

or you had to see your grandchild participate in the worship service.

2.  in a life full of obligations, maybe that’s just what you always do, 

so here you are, traveling the path of obligation to get to Bethlehem.

b.  Mary and Joseph’s also traveled their path carrying a burden.

1.  Mary shows her burden in the very late stages of her pregnancy.

2. Joseph probably feels the burden of trying to meet the needs of his very pregnant wife

And find a place for his pregnant wife to rest in Bethlehem.

3.  I suspect some of us have traveled the path to tonight carrying our own heavy burdens.

4.  the burden of medical journeys;

5. Burdened by our concerns for the world.

6. Burdened by the challenges we face in our own lives.

c.  Now the shepherds,

the shepherds travel a path full of excitement and energy as they race from the fields after hearing the angels announce the news of Christ’s birth.

1. they cannot even wait until the morning, so they leave in the middle of the night (leaving behind their sheep in the fields).

2.  Overwhelmed by what they will find, and how their lives will be changed, their path is full of excitement.

3. Maybe your path to tonight has been an exciting one 

4.   someone told me the other day that last year at this time Christmas was a downer.  they’d had a very difficult 2021, and Christmas last year was just a reminder of all their difficulties.

But this year, this has been a great year so Christmas seems wonderful this year. 

4.  Maybe you are moving through an exciting time in your life with new opportunities waiting before you.

5. Tonight is one more exciting stop along your path.

d.  The wise men go on a long journey full of unknowns 

1. They do not know exactly what path to take to get to the place, and they don’t even know where it is (they have to stop and ask for directions).

2.  And they are going to an unknown place to see the baby born, the baby whom they do not exactly know who he is (they have to ask about that, too).

3. But they travel anyway.

4. Maybe you have been traveling the path of uncertainty.

5. Uncertainty imposed on you by a forced change in jobs or some change caused by circumstances beyond your control.

6.  Maybe your uncertainty arises because you are not sure what you are looking for in life at this moment, but you know you want something more.

e. Most of us have traveled paths that had a part of all those journeys - paths with some obligation, with some burdens, with some excitement, with some uncertainty.

1.  The path we have traveled to get here has been surprising.

2. I bet a year ago on this night if you had mapped out your year, planned the path you would take in detail, 

3. life is like that - full of surprises, challenges, opportunities

Move 2:  So hear the good news:

no matter the path you traveled, no matter what surprises you have discovered along the way, your path has led you to this place.

a.  To hear the story again;

to be reminded;

to lay claim;

to announce to the world 

that God has arrived in flesh 

b.  God has come to redeem the world

to save us

to give us hope in the face of the challenges we discover 

to call us to new life.

c.  How does God do this?

1.  By choosing to be with us.

2.  The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the child born in Bethlehem will be called  Emmanuel, “God with us.”

d. The christ-child arrives with no promises of wealth

or material possessions

or an easy life

or the winning lottery ticket

or no more medical issues

or no more war and violence in the world.

3. But he arrives to be with us.

To join with us in every challenge, in every joy.

4. WE cannot know with any certainty what surprising paths we will go down in the future, 

but we know with absolute certainty who will be with us.

The God who comes in Christ.

Move 3:  I love the story told by two Americans who were invited by the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics (based on biblical principles) in the public schools. 

They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses,  the fire and police departments, and a large orphanage, where about 100 boys and girls were under care. 

As Christmas approached, they read the Christmas story in their classes and taught how it had become the foundation for the Christian ethics that had developed. 

With the kids at the orphanage, they didn’t teach ethics, but instead had an art project.

They read the story, and then they gave the kids small pieces of cardboard to make a manger; strips of yellow napkins to make the hay for the manger;  small pieces of old flannel shirts to be cut up for blankets, and then tan felt to cut out a little baby Jesus.  

As the kids were assembling the mangers the two teachers were walking among them looking at the emerging manger sets.

They discovered one of the manger scenes had two babies in the manger, so they called the translator over and asked her to ask the child to tell them about his manger scene. manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously. For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately,  until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in he started telling the story.  he told it just like he heard it until, until the part where Jesus was born and laid in a manger.  

Then, the little boy began ad-libbing his own ending.

he said, "And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so  I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't because I didn't have a gift to give him like everybody else did.   But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus,  "If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift" And Jesus  told me, "If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody  ever gave me." "So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked  at me and he told me I could stay with him and he would stay with me — for always."    (https://www.epm.org/resources/1999/Dec/1/russian-christmas-story-always/)

Conclusion: you have traveled your path and found the Christ-child, 

the one who has come to be with us,

to be with you.  Always.