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John 1:29-42

John saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, `After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel." And John testified, "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I 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.’ And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God."

The next day John again was standing with two of his 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. 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?" 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. One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah" (which is translated Anointed). 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). 

"Rabbi, where are you staying?"

That strikes me as quite an odd question.

Is that really what they asked?

Where are you staying?

Who cares?!?

What difference could that possibly make?

Not just an odd question. 

A stupid one

I think of the SNL comedian who would interview people “remember when you did that? That was awesome!” Then, whacking himself for asking such a stupid question.

Can’t you just see these two disciples busting on each other later?

“Duh,” “where are you staying?” 

“We’re real interested in whether it’s a duplex or an apartment. Or do you have one of those fancy new adobe jobs down by the Sea of Galilee?” 

“How could we be so ridiculous?”

Isn’t the real question: “Who are you?” or “Are you the Messiah?” 

Isn’t the question: “Is John right, are you really the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world?”

Isn’t THAT the question?

But since they asked this question, what might we do with it?

There’s a few things.

Where is Jesus staying?

. . . or, is Jesus staying anywhere?

Could it be, that Jesus is restlessly travelling the world, out there, amidst those who are lost and alone? 

What are you looking for? 

ME? The same as everyone else - I don’t really know how to answer that.

Interesting isn’t it, that these disciples of John - who dedicated their lives to looking for the Messiah, they, like most of us, were tongue tied when it came time to talk about their hopes and dreams, when it came time to give voice to their faith. 

Perhaps, as Lose suggests in his “Dear Working Preacher” piece this week, we could ask questions.

We had a great conversation at our Council meeting last night. The youngest member of the Council - still in his 20’s - spoke of conversing with some co-workers as they drove along. A conversation that lasted a couple hours. I don’t think it was overly eloquent, or deep theology, but he was able to give voice to why he went to worship, and what our Church was about. 

For him, the compelling thing for us is that we do not demand that everyone believe the same thing. To the one questioning him, that was remarkably different from his experience, and that sounded very good - truer than his own experience. 

Interesting. 

What are you looking for?

Where are you staying?

Doh!