EPIPHANY 2

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: EPIPHANY 2
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: January 20,2002

TEXT: John 1:29-41 – The next day John again was standing with two of hi disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.

Isaiah 49:1-7 “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

ISSUE: John identifies Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” It is an identity which has significant ramifications for those who here this. Jesus is sacrificial lamb and is also at the same time victorious as Lord. Jesus’ ministry now takes precedence over John, and the discipleship begins and also receives their identity. Simon will become Peter the rock. For all intents and purposes Christianity is forming as followers of the sacrificial and victorious Lord with a stable following of disciples.
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The Epiphany season is the season of the manifestation of Jesus as the Christ, the anointed one, and savior of the world. The Shepherds are sent to his manger by angels. The star leads Magi to him. Jesus is the light and living presence of God coming into the world. It is also a season in which John the Baptist identifies Jesus at his baptism with the title, “Lamb of God.” It is also the season when human lives are touched by his presence, and lives are significantly changed and discipleship with Christ begins.
Today’s Gospel from John tells of what happens to Jesus after his baptism by the Baptist in the Jordon River. In this account of the story, John the Baptist is bearing witness, or making a proclamation about Jesus. He is the one upon whom the Spirit of God rests and resides. He is the Lamb of God. Lamb of God is a mark of his identity to the world of this period. The title Lamb of God had significant meaning for the people of this time in different ways for Gentiles and Jews alike. Remember that John the Evangelist wrote that Jesus was the Word. For Gentiles who read John’s Gospel, the Word, “logos” in Greek, meant reason or rationale. Jesus is the rationale of God, the reasoning of God. For the Jews, the Word was what God had to say, and in Genesis simply says the word, and things come into being. Both interpretations were appealing to the people hearing about who Jesus is. A theology, or Christology is developing in the last of the Gospel accounts, which intends to reveal the identity of Jesus as Son of God. Here we have a similar situation, when John’s Gospel account refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
For the Jewish community, to say that Jesus is “The Lamb of God,” had rich very meaning. What immediately comes to mind is that when the Jerusalem Temple had existed a sacrificial lamb was slaughtered every day for the sins of the community, both in the morning and in the evening. Since the Temple had been destroyed, this no longer happened. For the early Christian Community, Jesus is the new sacrificial lamb whose death upon the cross becomes the sacrifice to bring an end to human alienation from God. In the sacrifice, people who will receive him, see the sacrifice of Jesus as God’s love for his creation, dying for his friends.
From still another point of view, many people would recall the great story of Abraham taking his only son up to the mountain to be sacrificed. When Issac sees the wood for the sacrificial fire, he asks his father Abraham, “Where is the lamb for the sacrifice?” And Abraham replies, “God himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice.” (Gen. 22) Once Abraham, a man of great faith is ready to offer his only son Issac, God calls off that sacrifice, and in the woods there is a ram, or lamb that God provides. The early church, and the Jewish community who would have known this story now understand that Jesus is the provided sacrifice of God. He provides his own son to be the sacrifice and savior of the world. We no longer have to do that! Jesus becomes in the absence of the daily offering in the Temple the sacrifice for the sins of the world once and for all.
The sacrifice of the lamb was also central to the early celebrations of the Passover by the Jews. Moses, instructed by God when the Jews were in bondage in Egypt and suffering tremendously at the hands of the evil Egyptians, has the Jews paint their door sills with the blood of a slaughtered lamb. On that night of the first Passover, the Angel of Death passes over the homes of the Jews, while the first born of the Egyptians die. The Jews are strengthened by the slaughtered lamb, for their journey to the Promised Land, and their escape from bondage, and the blood of the lamb saves them from the Angel of Death. What is the developing Christology or theology of Jesus but the Lamb of God who saves us from evil and from death, but the giving and sacrificing of this own life as the child or Son of God. He is the strength and to persevere.
For the Gentiles and ancients, there was another image of the lamb that is somewhat difficult for us to understand, but it wasn’t for the ancients. The male lamb or ram with horns was a symbol for a conquering champion of victory. The astrological sign and constellation of Aires is a ram-lamb that in ancient time was something of a sign of victory. According to the Barclay Biblical commentaries, Judas Maccabaeus in the Apocrapha, Saul, David, and Solomon were victorious figures seen as Lambs of God.
In the Book of Revelation there are repeated references to The Lamb. The Lamb of God is the victorious one who sits upon the throne of God. (Rev. 17:14; 2:01; etc) The Lamb of God is the victorious one that leads God’s people into the Kingdom of God.
This unique imagery may be interesting to us, but more importantly, it gives you an idea of why people began turning to Jesus Christ as their Messianic hope, and seeing him as God’s anointed. For the poor and the afflicted, the disenfranchised people of the time, Jesus as Lamb of God, became their hope for deliverance from bondage and slavery. It was their hope that God loved and cared through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It was the hope and the assurance that God would ultimately conquer what seem in those times the unconquerable. Simple folk began to turn to him in the desire to follow and abide with him.
In this account of the Gospel, Andrew and Simon want to know from Jesus where do you live, or abide. Jesus says to them, “Come and see,” which simply means come follow and abide with me. While John the Baptist, an authority figure of the time had given Jesus a great witness and an authoritative identity, Lamb of God, Jesus begins to give his disciples and followers their identities. To Simon he says, “Your name is Simon son of John, but you will be called Cephas.” (Aramaic) (This is the same as Perter and means ‘a rock.’ (Greek) Those who come and see find stability and strength and hope in following, identifying with, and abiding with The Lamb of God. They follow in hope with no delusions that the way of the Lamb, the way of God has its demands and risks. To follow or to abide with Jesus Christ is to acknowledge that the Christ sacrificed for us, and there is no greater gift than a person lay down their own life for their friends.
Bishops John Rabb and Robert Ihloff are calling upon us today to look at the life and ministry of Martin Luther King, Jr., a pastor and prophet of our own time who walked the way of Jesus Christ and did abide with him to bring justice through non-violence to our country and to the world. We’ve a long way to go to fully learn this non-violent way. However, King was a great witness of what it means to be a follower of The Lamb. He stood for justice for all people in this land, and his non-violent way touched the hearts and souls of black and white people in this country and around the world. We have a better country and a better world for it.
We are all called to look at our Lord, the Lamb, and resolve to be faithful disciples and resolve to bear our own witness that is resonant with the sacrificial servanthood of Jesus Christ. Christians today need to become more focused, I believe, on what our mission is. We need to be prayerful about discerning whatever it is that God may be calling us to be and do in the service of Christ and in the abiding with Christ. We surely need to do and can do our part to end racism and discrimination. Ending racial jokes and developing friendships with people of other races could be an enormous step in the right direction. Yet there are still other things that God may be calling us to do. What are they? What comes to your mind that using your abilities, personality, resources that would allow you to be able to say this is my specific mission.
This week is the week set aside as Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Tonight our choir and acolytes, some of our members, will join with other churches in the community to pray for the unity of Christians in the world. In some ways we are united in our love and faith in Jesus Christ. Banding together on this occasion in a special witness to the world that Christ sees the “Cephas, Petros, Peter, The Rock” of stability in us that calls for loving and respecting one another as Christians with a common cause in the world. A personal witness, a church with a mission and witness to the world, and a community of Christians can touch the world and make a difference, if we are focused, determined, and abiding specifically in Christ and in discerning what Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God would have us to do and be.
I now that many of you are committed people to the church of Christ and its mission efforts. Some of you are involved in diocesan work, some in the work of the food pantry, the life of the parish, other important charities and causes, and the volunteer fire company. We struggle to do our part and to be faithful to God and one another. May we never become complacent or too set in our ways that we forget who is our head, our Lord, our Lamb of God. And may we also keep up a continuing effort to discern what new things and directions that God may be calling us to offer our sacrificial way of life. From time to time we may well need to change our focus and our direction. Jesus was baptized and began his focused ministry, and there were others that wanted to abide with him. May God continue to call us in Christ to his Lordship, and to our ministries. “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel [that you should just take care of yourselves and your own families]; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:1-7)

ADD JOHN 1:42 TO THE READING:

He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (that is, Peter, ‘the Rock.’)